Does the Biblical account of Noah really matter?
Does it matter if we believe it to be true history?
It's so hard to even imagine a flood that covers the entire world, so doesn't it make more sense to just explain Noah's flood away in some way that makes sense to human "wisdom"?
These are all questions that haunt the Christian church today. Too many so-called Christians will tell you that it doesn't really matter what you believe about the Flood. The Bible says differently.
Many so-called Christians will tell you that the book of Genesis isn't true, literal history. The Bible doesn't give us that option
It is hard to imagine a flood that covers the entire world. Human wisdom and imagination are minuscule compared to the infinite power of the Lord God Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.
If this is the case, if the historical Biblical account of Noah and the Flood are true, then what is its significance? Is it only important for proving the idiocy of molecules-to-man evolution?
The account of Noah and the Flood is significant for a number of reasons:
- It shows us God's patience. He wants all people to repent and be saved.
Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.
The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.- Genesis 6:3,5-6
When God decided to judge the earth with the Flood, He gave the people 120 years to repent of their wickedness and turn back to Him. All of the people who perished in the Flood (the whole word -8) had no excuse. Over the course of these 120 years Noah was building the ark. Noah was a righteous man who walked with God, so it is reasonable to believe that he was preaching and warning the people about the coming judgment the entire time that he was building the ark.
God gave those people a "time of grace" of 120 years, and he gave them a preacher who warned them of the coming judgement. That is infinite patience and love. Even though these people were totally wicked, God was still willing, and desiring, to forgive them. God also displayed His final act of patience with these people by keeping the door to the ark open for seven days after Noah and his family had entered it. God wanted all of the people to be saved.
God is still that patient with us. The reason He doesn't bring the Final Judgment on our world is because He wants more people to hear about Jesus, to repent, and be saved. But just like in Noah's day, His patience will come to an end one day. And when His judgment begins it will be too late for last minute conversions and repentance. It will be just like in Noah's day when the rain began to fall. The ark was closed up and it was too late for people to change their mind.
2. The Flood symbolizes baptism which saves us.
For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also He went and preached to the spirits in prison who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also--not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand--with angels, authorities, and powers in submission to Him.- 1 Peter 3:18-22
An important thing to note here is that the water of the Flood is symbolic. Baptism is not. Baptism is real. It works every time. It saves by the Holy Spirit working through the water and God's Word to create saving faith in the person being baptized. EVERY TIME! Baptism saves!
3. God's covenant with Noah, and us, after the Flood was over.
The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in His heart, "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures as I have done.
"As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease"
-Genesis 8:21-22
Then God gave the rainbow as a sign of this covenant. It is a reminder to us and Him of this promise to never destroy the world again with water (Genesis 9:12-16). Because of this promise from God we don't have to be scared when natural disasters strike. We don't have to be scared of Satan's lies of Global Warming, or Global Cooling, or Global anything else. God is in control of His creation. We are not in danger of our world being destroyed at the hands of people, because people are not powerful enough to override God's covenant. He will sustain our world until the Final Day. The day of Final Judgment. On that day the world will not be judged with water, like in Noah's day, but with fire.
But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness.
-2 Peter 3:10-13
There are more lessons than this that you can pull out of the account of Noah and the Flood in Genesis 6-9. There is a lot in those four chapters of Scripture. I have focused here on what I believe to be the three most important lessons. All three of these points show how the Flood points to, and connects His people to Jesus.
So, after all of this, does it matter what you believe about Noah and the Flood?
Absolutely! If you reject the account of Noah as being true, literal history, you reject the entire Word of God. If God's Word isn't trustworthy in these four chapters of Genesis, then it isn't trustworthy anywhere else. To reject the authority of any of the Bible is to reject all of it. To reject the Bible is to reject the One who has given it to us- Jesus (John 1:1-5). To reject Jesus is to reject our Savior from sin.
If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left, but only a fearful expectation of judgment and of raging fire that will consume the enemies of God. Anyone who rejected the law of Moses died without mercy on the testimony of two or three witnesses. How much more severely do you think a man deserves to be punished who has trampled the Son of God under foot, who has treated as an unholy thing the blood of the covenant that sanctified him, and who has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him who said, "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," and again, "The Lord will judge his people." It is a dreadful thing to fall into the hands of the living God. -Hebrews 10:26-31
Jesus died for every sin of every single person. We are forgiven because of His death. We have eternal life through His resurrection. We know all of this because God has told us through His Word, the Bible. All of God's Word is important. All of God's Word is true. What you believe about the Bible matters. It matters a lot.
God bless
Jason Fredrick
