6-20-21 Grace-Tucson Sermon

Genesis 7:6-24 God’s Zoo #3

Pastor Ron Koehler

Grace—Tucson, AZ

June 20, 2021

ALL KINDS OF ANIMALS The Flood: God’s Judgment and Rescue Dear Friends in Christ, It is pretty well known that we are able to rescue lost and abandoned dogs and cats from animal shelters, taking them into our homes to love them and care for them. You might be aware that there are also local wildlife rescue organizations that will care for animals like orphaned baby bobcats or injured owls in order to return them to the wild.

There are even exotic animal rescue organizations in our country for animals not normally found here, yet people had as pets and they either got loose or they couldn’t care for them—animals like elephants, tigers, and apes.

If we think back to the first Sunday of our God’s Zoo series, when we considered how God created all the animals, we heard that Adam and Eve were to manage God’s Creation, including the animals. How great it is to see individuals, families, and organizations that care for and rescue animals today.

This morning we remember the Great Flood and Noah’s Ark—God’s judgment on sin and his rescue of, not only animals, but the crown of his creation—people, the few who were faithful to him in a world of wickedness and rebellion against God. Truthfully, God had every right to scrap the whole world and everything in it and start completely over. After all, Noah and his family were righteous and faithful to God, but they weren’t perfect. Last Sunday we reviewed Adam and Eve’s fall into sin and noted that sin was then passed down to every person. So Noah’s family was sinful too. Yet they did love God when this massive rebellion against God was going on. This is how God describes the situation prior to our lesson: 5

The LORD saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that all the thoughts and plans they formed in their hearts were only evil every day.

The LORD said, “I will wipe out mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth, along with the animals, the creeping things, and the birds of the sky, because I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. Noah was a righteous man, a man of integrity in that generation. Noah walked with God. 7

11

In the sight of God the earth was morally corrupt, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 God looked at the earth and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh was corrupt in all their ways on the earth. 13 So God said to Noah, “I have decreed the end of all flesh, because the earth is filled with violence because of them. Now I am going to destroy them along with the earth. (Genesis 6:5,7-8,11-13)

God chose to “reset” the world he had created, and as he did so, he rescued not only his faithful people, but ANIMALS OF ALL KINDS. This, of course, is how this account ends up in our GOD’S ZOO series. As you can tell, there are a number of important things besides the animals, but let’s start there.

Two weeks ago, God made quite an impression on us, as we heard him repeat many times the phrase “according to their own kind.” God created all different kinds of animals, and we still see many of the “kinds” today—minus those which have become extinct. We considered that the variety among the types of animals has grown within their own kinds—not evolution, but differences caused by either natural or purposeful breeding within each kind. We used a dog like the labradoodle as one example.

Today too, God has recorded this phrase “according to their kinds” as he described how the animals boarded the ark Noah built. While Noah was commanded to build the ark and take with him all the kinds of animals, it was the LORD who brought the animals to him and caused them to go into the ark. So we don’t have to be concerned with how Noah corralled or enticed them onto what would be a floating zoo. This was a miracle. That all of them fit? I don’t know if that was a miracle. God knew how many animals this would be and told Noah to build the ark to certain specifications so that they would fit. But we might consider one thing to be a most profound miracle—that God would save anyone at all!

God chose to save and use ALL THE KINDS OF ANIMALS from the creatures he had made instead of wiping them all out and creating new ones. All of creation was affected by the judgment God brought upon wicked human beings. He brought judgment down on his creation because of the wickedness of people. But there was also rescue as God preserved ALL KINDS OF ANIMALS with which to start over after the floodwaters receded. God did the same thing with people.

God brought judgment down on what was the crown of his creation. Along with the animals, people were struck down by the just God. Listen to how God explains what happened: All living creatures that moved on the earth perished, including birds, livestock, wild animals, every creeping thing that crawls on the earth, and all mankind. Everything that breathed the breath of life through its nostrils, that is, everything that was on the dry land, died. Every living thing that was on the face of the earth was wiped out, including mankind, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They all were wiped off the earth.

Perished…died…wiped out…wiped off the earth. There is no doubt about the devastation caused by The Flood. There is no doubt that this was a universal flood—it covered the tops of the highest mountains. And there is no doubt that a flood like this would wipe out all life on earth.

We are struck by the people’s unwillingness to listen to the preacher God had sent (that’s what Noah is called in 2 Peter) and the severity of God’s punishment for sin.

Are we not in awe of God’s power to unleash earth’s subterranean waters and open the windows of the sky—and in quantities that would raise the water over the top of every mountain? Try to imagine water over the top of Mount Lemmon and what that would mean for everyone and everything living down here in Tucson. And imagine this happening in every place all over the planet.

While it may seem harsh on God’s part to send this flood of judgment, we must admit that God had every right. We don’t like injustice, right? We don’t want people carrying on in ways that hurt people—theft and rape and destruction of property and possession, fraud, abuse and neglect, and so many other things. We demand justice!

And our sense of what is just is warped by sin. But God’s justice is perfect! When he sees sin, it cannot be tolerated; it brings punishment and death—as this account of The Flood clearly demonstrates. The perfectly just, but also perfectly loving God, even gave people the opportunity to listen to Noah during maybe 75 years of ark-building, to turn from their wickedness, and to follow him in faithfulness to the LORD. God gave them a chance to repent. But the wickedness was so widespread and deep-seated in people that judgment would come to all but Noah and his family.

Widespread wickedness…a few faithful people…animals tucked safely away in an ark…a worldwide flood—this was a dramatic scene. But do you think that God is any less serious about sin today? He’s not! The sign of the rainbow would not mean for Noah and God’s people who followed him what it means in our society today. It was for him and it is for us, a reminder of God’s promise not to send a devastating worldwide flood again. But that didn’t mean there would be no judgment for sin. God says that the wages of sin is death. Sin brings physical death and eternal death and separation from the Holy God. You and I are deserving of that too. Our lives contain some of the same sins as those people. Some things we do are just as wicked in God’s eyes because, even though he has told us what to do and not to do, we mess it up on both ends because we listen to what we want instead. We may even ignore the faithful words of the preachers God sends to us, like they did to Noah. That is wickedness. Your and my lifestyles exhibit disrespect for God and his will. I’m sure moments of self-reflection will reveal the ways that happens. We are evil too. The just God has every right to cause us to perish…to die…to be wiped out…to be wiped off the face of the earth and sent to hell.

Just as God showed grace and mercy by giving a warning and some time to reflect on their wickedness, and to see God through Noah, God extended grace and mercy to us.

He sent his Son Jesus to live a life with no wickedness, no rebellion, no sin—nothing but trust in his Father, nothing but obedience, a perfect life. His perfect life would be offered on the cross to pay for our wickedness. He would suffer God’s judgment in our place. There would be no rescuing his Son from that judgment either. You might

remember those at the foot of Jesus’ cross saying, “He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now, if he wants him, because he said, ‘I am the Son of God.” Well, God didn’t rescue him. Jesus suffered, endured separation from his Father, and he died. You want to talk about devastation? This was it.

It all happened so that there would be rescue. God would rescue us just as he rescued Noah and his family. Jesus rescued us from God’s wrath as he paid for our sins and took judgment on himself for us.

God has rescued us from eternal annihilation. In the Bible, he even calls it a rescue. In Galatians, he says: (Jesus) gave himself for our sins to rescue us from this present evil age (v. 4a). In Colossians: The Father rescued us from the domain of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of the Son he loves (v. 13).

When we think of Noah’s Ark and the Flood, we might be like children, not getting too far past the fact that all kinds of animals were on there. When our sons, Tyler and Danny, were babies, their room was decorated in a Noah’s Ark theme—and we thought it was cute as long as we didn’t think about the judgment that caused the need for the ark.

We might think we are smarter than the Bible-writers and become consumed with and doubtful about the logistics of how all the animals fit, and what they ate, and whether eight people could care for so many animals, and on and on.

We may even entirely ignore the miracles of God, as we focus primarily on proving to everyone that all of this was doable because of the “kinds” of animals…and the size of the ark…and the possible ways that the family could have taken care of things.

What we really ought to take away from this bit of world history is that God sent The Flood both in JUDGMENT and for RESCUE. Let it remind us that God judges sin and punishes it.

Let it remind us that Jesus took the punishment for our sin, and in so doing, we have been rescued from eternal destruction and have eternal life ahead of us.

Let it remind us to have the kind of trust Noah had as he listened to God, knowing that the LORD would save him.

Perhaps these words from 2 Timothy capture this trust based in our God and Savior: The Lord will rescue me from every evil work and will bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen (4:18).

Now the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus. Amen.