The World Under Judgment, Pt. 1
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It’s easy to say we believe in a God of love, but most people don’t like to talk about a God who judges sins. Pastor Nick Gatzke is taking us back to a sobering moment, a day described in Genesis when God looked at his own creation and said, “enough”.
There are a few days in human history in which we would say on that day the entire world was affected. Some of us might think back to some of the days near the end of World War II. We might say the day that the Nazis surrendered the European theater of the war or the days that the Japanese gave their unconditional surrender after dropping the atomic bombs. Yes, the world, the world at large changed. Some of us might look to empires of ancient history, the ones that were thousands of years ago in the Middle East, in Asia, in North Africa. And we might say, well, surely sometime in the midst of those wars, the world as we knew it changed. But even then, truly, there were implications for the whole world, but to have the direct effect along the whole world was not known or felt. Of course, as Christians, we would point to the three days of the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus. Those were the days that the entire world were affected, but the world would not yet know it for some time to come.
But there was one day. There was one day when every person on earth was changed. It was a day when people came to realize that God was not to be taken lightly and his clear commandments not to be ignored. This was a day when sorrow and grief rained down from heaven as a consistent cleansing agent. A day when scoffing moved to concern and concern moved to fear and fear moved to cries for salvation. But those cries were not heard. God had already made up his mind and judgment was falling upon creation. Of course, I’m talking about the day that we’ve been reading about, the day that it started raining and that God allowed the flood on the earth.
We’ve entitled this series Beyond Repair and we’ve seen in this progression from Genesis 1 now through Genesis 9 on our way to Genesis 11 that there is this recurring theme, there is this degradation of creation and the title of the series is posed in a question because we have to wonder, is this whole cosmic divine project beyond repair? And in some ways we see today, in some ways the answer is yes. God says it is beyond repair and I’m gonna flood the whole place and kill all the people. And in some ways the answer is no, as he preserves a select few for himself and even preserves an aspect of his creation.
We’ve been reading through Genesis 6 through 9, four full chapters of the Bible, this account of the Flood, and as we’ve been reading it, as we recall to memory those of us maybe who grew up in the church and have heard this story before, what is the thing or what are the things that our mind immediately is drawn to as we think about this story of the Flood, the ark and the animals, right? I mean, we even call it in summary, the story of Noah and the Ark.
We think about the fact that somehow Noah made this massive boat. It was 510 feet long. It’s believed to be one of if not the largest wooden boat in the history of humankind. 510 feet long is approximately the length of 1.5 football fields — that’s what it usually feels like when the Browns are on offense. And the height of that ark was the equivalent of about 50 feet from the ground, taller than most modern four-story houses. The ark had the storage capacity of 450 semi trailers. For your frame of reference, a standard livestock trailer holds about 250 sheep. So if the ark only was carrying sheep, it would have been able to house a hundred and twenty three thousand of them.
When we read this story, our mind naturally goes to the boat, or our mind naturally goes to the animals. I mean, man, Noah must have been some kind of snake charmer, right? I mean, think about it. To get all those animals up two by two, up the ramp, into their given stalls, I mean, that is crazy to think about. And what was happening on the inside of that ark? I mean, really, how did that all go down? Lions in one stall on their natural food source, gazelles in the stall right down the way? I mean, or maybe they were on a different level. It said there was three levels. How was all of that arranged? These were the things that we think about. These are the things that we enjoy thinking about. I mean, this story is miraculous in nature. How do we answer some of these questions? We simply say that is a miracle of God. It couldn’t be anything else but that.
But don’t let our musings about the mechanics of this story take us off track. Because when we simply focus on the ark or the animals in the story of the flood, the story of the flood itself becomes watered down. There are many important features of this story, four chapters of the Bible, but this morning I want to focus on just key moments in this story of the flood. And I see some key implications for us. And so here’s the first key moment we want to focus on. And that is the divine judgment of sin.
Key moment number one is the divine judgment of sin. Far from a feel-good story about a big boat or animals and some creative corralling, this was a story of terror and judgment. Sin and corruption reigned on the earth. In Genesis 6, look with me in your Bible, Genesis 6:11-13 contains a pronouncement of the judgment of God and the reason for it. This is what he says. “Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth and behold, it was corrupt for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh. For the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” A pronouncement of judgment. And to understand that dynamic more fully, how did we get to this place? We need to remind ourselves of just where we’ve come from. We saw very early on, I mean, we are only six to nine chapters in this huge, massive story of God, and already we’ve reached this place. How did we get here so quickly? We saw in the Garden of Eden, Adam and Eve sinned, they rebelled against God, and as such, they not only questioned God’s goodness, but they also questioned his godness. And this sin only became more profound in its consequences as they continued to procreate.
Chapter four, why was chapter four of Genesis in the Bible? Well, it shows us that a half-hearted approach to God leads to a half-hearted approach to sin. But when you have a half-hearted approach to sin, you don’t fully grasp just how devastating the effects of sin really are in your life. It’s more destructive than we can possibly imagine. When we embrace sin, it sets us on this path of a downward spiral away from God. It’s got the power to change us personally. It has the power to change our families. And it even has the power of changing an entire culture, which we saw in that chapter. The point of chapter four was just simply this. Sin is powerfully destructive.
Chapter five showed us that the curse that God attached to sin was now enacted and that the consequences of sin was death. We saw this remarkable account of this lineage of Adam, early human history of these people that lived hundreds of years, but all had one common thread, one common thing that they shared. Every single one of them died. Death reigned in God’s creation. They all died except for one man who sets up the contrast. Enoch was spared and serves as an example of righteousness in his time. But the point of chapter five was that sin leads to death.
When you saw it being in chapter six, now we’re right on the front end of the flood and we see that both the spiritual realm and the physical realm were in complete and utter rebellion against God, so much so that every intention of the thoughts of the heart of men were only evil, it says. But Noah, Noah found favor in God’s sight. So we see this lead up to the flood as this ongoing degradation of society in which sin is taking over, it’s powerful in its effect. And that’s really why we chose to preach on Genesis chapter one through 11 in this life, this season of our church. Not because we love talking about sin, but because it is so important, it’s foundational to our understanding of ourselves and of God. When you don’t understand just how powerful sin is in your life, you don’t have motivation to shed it. You don’t have motivation to go to a savior to take care of it. You don’t have a desire for the holy, just, loving, righteous God who offers infinitely more than these sinful temptations that we have in our lives. We live in a day right now when we’ve lost a sense of the profound nature of sin. We don’t often grieve the effects that it has in our life. We dabble, we play, we excuse, and in the midst, we go deeper.
And God exercises patience. God shows repeated opportunities for us to turn back to him. And God makes his desires known again and again and again. But what is his ultimate response to sin? Judgment. Did you know that unless you are forgiven, sin leads to judgment? And that is why Genesis 6 through 9 is positioned so early in the Bible for people to understand.
Think about the logical nature of this with me. Judgment is the appropriate and a logical response of a holy God to a sinful people. Because justice is one of God’s attributes and because it’s one of his attributes there needs to be a standard by which that justice is examined or compared. The standard is the holiness of God himself. And if justice is one of God’s attributes, there needs to be an application of justice. And what is the application of justice? For a holy God to sinful people, the application of justice is judgment. And nobody wants to talk about that part of God, particularly in our time, but the Bible makes it abundantly clear.
November of 2015, the Pew Research Center did a series of religious questionnaires in which one of the questions was asking about Americans’ belief about a literal heaven and a literal hell. And according to the survey, 74% of Americans said that they believed in a literal heaven, but only 58% said they believed in a literal hell. And that’s important to note because it just highlights something that’s going on in our culture right now. It’s easy for us to believe in the God who would bless us, but it’s hard for us to believe in the God who would have judgment as a consequence for our choices and for our sin in this life.
But here we see, very early on in the Bible, in Genesis, that God judges sin. And when you try to imagine the parts of the story that aren’t expressly described, this judgment is really horrifying in its effect. The water’s rising, says the rain came down, and the flood came up. And people must have been terrified, running through the streets, looking for a place to find dry land. And before you know it, houses were swept away and other structures were completely covered. And the screams, and the screams, and the screams, and then all of the sudden it was silent, eerie silence.
This judgment was devastating. Listen to some of the ways and some of the force in which God describes it. In Genesis 6:7, “So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I’ve made them.” Genesis 6:13, “And God said to Noah, I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence, through them. Behold, I will destroy them on the earth.” Genesis 6:17, “I will bring the flood waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die.”
Genesis 7:4, “For in seven days I will send rain on the earth, forty days and forty nights, and every living creature that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” In Genesis chapter 7, verses 20 to 24, we see that the pronouncement of judgment is now enacted. This is what it says. It says that “the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep, that’s twenty two and a half feet, above the top of the mountains, and all flesh that died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarmed the earth and all of mankind.
“Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground. Man and animals and creeping things and the birds of heaven, they were blotted out on the earth. Only Noah was left and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.” The first key moment that we see in this story is the divine judgment on sin.
The second key moment we see is found in chapter eight, verse one, and the mood of the story drastically changes. Look at it with me, chapter eight, verse one, the tone shifts, the trajectory changes, and it says, in the lowest of low moments, “But God remembered Noah, and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark, and God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided.” That’s a fascinating way to express it, isn’t it? God remembered Noah. I mean, it’s not like he would have forgotten him, is it? Why does he say it that way? God remembered Noah, I mean, how could he possibly forget? After all, Noah was the only unique one on earth. Noah was the one who was described unlike any other living person on the earth. Listen to just a few of the ways he was described in chapter six, verse eight. “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” 6:9, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.” So it’s not like this unique righteous person and his family who were saved basically because of his righteousness have now all of a sudden slipped out of view, is it? So why would the text say that God remembered Noah?
I don’t think it’s too far of a stretch to say that it’s expressed this way because, despite the fact that God would never forget him, we would be very tempted to think that he would forget him. And Noah might even be very tempted to think that he had been forgotten. Think about it. We see the screams had stopped, the rain had now subsided, and all Noah could see out of the windows of the ark was sky and water as far as the eye could see. That’s it. If you’ve ever been out in the middle of the ocean in a little boat or a big boat and all you see is sky and water, that is an incredibly isolating feeling.
And now he is there for a long period of time, locked in this boat with his kids. I mean, can you imagine 24 hours a day, 150 days locked in the boat with your kids, and the wives of your kids? I mean, I’m a firm believer in the old saying, what do fish, family, and friends all have in common? After three days, they all stink. Speaking of stink, we’re talking about 150 days. And what about the animals, and the sounds that they’re making, and the smells that are now coming in the midst of this ark? Do you think he might have been tempted to say, it’s been a long time, God. Everything looks pretty clean to me. Maybe he has forgotten us, but God remembered Noah.
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** This transcript was generated using AI transcription technology and reviewed for accuracy, but may contain errors. Please refer to the original audio for precise wording.
