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Noah:  Trees and New Beginnings
Selections from Genesis 6-9

Picture
​     The Scripture recounts how God looked over the earth and grieved, as only a loving parent can.  God had been watching His precious people and saw the terribly wicked things being done. Violence was rampant - evil plans were hatched and carried out all day and every night.  There was always chaos and destruction... no one thought of God.  
     Except Noah. He was full of faith, devoted to God; he wasn’t perfect, but the Bible says he was righteous, not contaminated by sin.  He was a husband, and a father of three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.  He raised his sons to know, worship and obey God.  They were the faithful remnant.
     God spoke to Noah one day, revealing sorrow and profound regret that He had created people who chose to live so destructively. God declared He was going to put an end to the senseless, never-ending wickedness.  
     So it was that God gave Noah a detailed blueprint, asking him to follow it precisely and build an ark.  Mind you, he was 500 miles away from the nearest ocean.  The vessel would be 450 feet long, 1 and ½ times the size of a football field  and 75 feet across.  It was 45 feet tall, the equivalent of a 4-story building today.  There was just one very, large door, big enough for an elephant to get on board!  There was a rectangular covering over the length of the ship, with an 18 inch opening under it for air and sunlight to come in, and the ripe smell from the animals to hopefully waft out.   It took large forests full of gopherwood to build this massive boat, a wood that no longer seems to be in existence.  Notice how God chose trees in his plan to save Noah and his family.  The final task was to put tar on the boards to seal them, all around the outside and then the inside of the vessel.  Noah and his three sons did all these things without modern power tools or a Home Depot.  They went out and worked on that ark 6 days a week for 120 years!  
     I wonder if you’ve ever heard that Noah’s family was mocked during those 12 decades, called fools as they built the ark?  While they might have been ridiculed, the Bible is absolutely silent on that.  What we are told in Matthew by Jesus is that in the days before the flood people were eating and drinking, getting married and doing whatever pleased them – completely unaware until the flood waters rose and  swept them all away.  What that points to is a massive amount of apathy and self-indulgence, along with their violence and cruelty. 
     When the construction of the ark was finally finished, Noah was over 600 years old.  God spoke to him again telling him and his family to get on board.  Do you know that Adam was 7 generations before Noah, and since he lived to be 930, he didn’t miss knowing Noah by much!  And his great grandfather Enoch walked closely with God - this so pleased God that he “did not see death” but was taken to heaven by God.  And Noah’s grandfather Methuselah had the greatest longevity ever recorded, dying at age 969.   He likely died not long before the flood.  God decided that the lifespan for his people would be much briefer after the flood, at a mere 120 years.    
     I hope you noticed in today’s Scriptures that after Noah’s family moved in and got settled, all of the animals came in pairs on their own to the ark.  God directed them to that location, assembling them in an orderly fashion, so they could be guided to their pens.  I love to imagine that delightful and miraculous parade that God organized!   Imagine seeing that for yourself!    
     Here is another mysterious element: the tall and wide side door remained open for 7 days as everyone waited.  Some suggest Grandpa Methuselah may have recently died and they were given that week to grieve. Others wonder whether it was a last chance offered to all those living violent, carousing, wicked lives.  Some had to have seen them go in, and it was a huge door to leave open.  I also wonder if Noah and his family felt anguish and grief, much as God felt, as they looked over their native country and its people one last time.  That poignant “open door” image has stayed with me this week.  I was thinking that if King Solomon were there, maybe some of them would have listened to his urgent message and plea:  “If my people will humble themselves, seek me and pray – if they will only turn away from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and forgive their sins.”  (2 Chronicles 7:14)
     No one came, so on the 7th day God shut the door.  The rains came down for 40 days and nights; crevices in the earth also split open with gushing water and the sturdy ark rose.   It had no rudder and floated upon the open seas for 7 months.   Do you realize God never told Noah how long he and his family would be on that ark?  That’s a good reminder that we’d all prefer to know how long we’ll be in a hard situation, but God doesn’t reveal that to us.   We are required to wait and trust.  I find that what can wear a person down is the not-knowing; there can be weeks and months when we have no change in our circumstances and  grow so tired of it.  It is like a monotonous malaise.  This very much reminds us of what many felt in the early months of COVID.    
     Many of us have gone, or will go, through stretches of time when things in our life will be uncertain,  unresolved, undiagnosed, or our load just feels unmanageable.  What does not help us when we’re in a long time of waiting is self-pity, spending too much time feeling sorry for ourselves and forgetting there’s still a lot of good left in our life.  Anger isn’t a good long-term response either.  Some initial venting can be helpful, but once we release that, isn’t it better to get active, even a little?  And also start to pray, ask God for patience, peace and hope.  God loves to answer our prayers. 0
     Now, if you think 7 months of confinement with your immediate family and a zoo menagerie is long, consider a whole year.  Once the winds began blowing and evaporating the water, the ark landed on the mountains of Ararat.  The day and month of the year is recorded and that is very significant.  It is the same day and month of the Jewish year that there was another fresh beginning.  It is the day Jesus Christ rose from the dead!  Isn’t that astounding?  The Bible has many similar, wonderful discoveries – all waiting for us to find and appreciate. 
     It took 5 months after landing on the mountain for the rest of the water to recede - that made their journey 371 days long, for a total of 53 weeks.  What gave them proof they could leave the ark was a dove returning with an olive twig with green leaves on it.  The birds never ate that kind of leaf because it was bitter and had no nutritional value, but a branch with leaves on it was just right for building a nest.  A nest is prepared by doves to welcome new life!  There was much rejoicing when the dove returned with that olive branch!  When they sent it back out a week later, it never returned.
      Doves and olive branches remain a powerful symbol not just in the Bible, but in our world today.  A dove descended at Jesus’ baptism; that was an occasion marking a new beginning.  Olive oil was commonly used to anoint kings as their reign began.  Olive trees are mentioned in the Bible three times more often than any other fruit tree.  Israel to this day continues to cultivate the trees, selling the fruit and oil; the wood is often used for carving Christian ornaments.  Some who are senior citizens may recall that in 1949 Pablo Picasso drew a simple line image of a dove with an olive branch for a poster for the World Peace Congress.  It was a symbol of hope for a new beginning after more than 60 million people died during World War 2.    
     Noah and his family had their new beginning in what is modern-day Turkey, some distance away from where they began.  I wonder if you caught the part about them all staying put until God spoke to Noah?  They and all the animals waited for God to guide them.  Once out on dry ground, each one no doubt wanted to do any number of things on their first day of freedom.  But we see again the holiness of Noah, who made it his first priority to worship God.  He piled up stones as a holy altar, roasted animals as a sacrifice of thanksgiving and they all took a knee, so to speak.  When the aroma reached God, it was pleasing.  God told Noah that never again would all the earth be destroyed by a flood, no matter how evil humans might one day become.  
     As a sign of that special covenant promise, a rainbow would appear after a time of rain.  It’s a reminder for us today, after a downpour, that God has assured us we are secure.  Do you know that with the human eye we can only see 7 colors?  But scientists say there are actually more than a 1,000 unique color hues!  We will see rainbows when the sun is behind us; that is what shines through raindrops, which act like a prism and refract light! 
      The Hebrew word for rainbow is actually “bow”, the curved instrument that needs an arrow, if you want to hunt or use it as a weapon in war.  What we see is only the bow, which does no one any harm.  It looks like a protective arch and reminds us that under God’s love and watch care we are safe, and we are saved.  I encourage you to share with a child or someone else you know the story of God’s rainbow this week.   And if you spot any after a storm, take a picture and send it to the church - we’ll pass it along. 
      In the early days of the church, when they began to build houses of worship, they often looked like an ark, long and narrow and quite tall.  Exposed wooden beams  were visible above, to look like a ship’s keel (or bottom side).  The architecture was intentional; it was symbolic of God’s people being inside,  safe from sin and judgment.  The center section where a congregation sits is called the nave, which comes from “navis” in Latin, meaning “ship”!  
     In the New Testament Jesus called several fishermen; he was often by or on boats.  Remember when the Master was in a boat sleeping during a great storm?  The professional fishermen on board believed the fierce tempest would be their death.   Jesus only needed to speak the words, “Be still,” and immediately the wind and waves obeyed Him.  Jesus prevailed, and no storm will ever prevail against God in any age.  
      We who are today within the safety of these walls, this church with exposed wooden beams with a nave, may we offer the sacrifice of thanks-giving.  We know that Jesus said “I am the Door”, like the single door on the ark.  He said “I am the way, the truth and the life, all who come to me will be saved, they shall not perish but have a new life, a new beginning."
      Let’s leave the security and joy of this wooden, ark-like place of salvation and consider in the coming week:  Who can we invite inside here with us?  What man, woman or child might join us and discover from us what it is to know and follow God?  I think a whole lot of people would like a new beginning, a real and lasting change in the life they are living.  Reach out this week to three people. Noah had three sons and they helped repopulate the land; let’s do our part to expand God’s kingdom right here!  May it be so, amen!

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