God was very specific here, and again, God is instructing Noah to build a floating box or chest, providing him the length, width, and height; to build a window, to build a door. But what is missing from these instructions that was given to Noah? There is no rudder and there are no means of propulsion. Boats and ships are built to navigate the waters, to transport people or something from Point A to Point B. The ark did not have the ability to do this because it had no way to determine where it would go. Why? Because the ark was not designed to go anywhere. In fact, once the earth was flooded there was no place for it to go. Its only purpose was to stay afloat and keep its occupants alive. God was the navigator of the ark. Noah did not know what was happening on the outside of the ark at all. They could not see outside.
It is clear that Noah was made motivated by a deep and abiding respect for God and took the warning of God of this impending crisis very seriously. We know that Noah walked with God. And it is interesting to me that in these scriptures about Noah, Noah does not talk to God like Abraham and Moses did. If you will notice, Noah is only listening to what God has to say and he obeyed. He obeyed everything that God told him to do no matter how difficult it would be. There is no evidence at all that his faith in God ever wavered; and he accomplished a significant undertaking which consumed approximately 120 years. There is no implication of any hesitation of obedience to God on Noah's part.
After God's first set of instructions He gave him, Genesis 6:22 says, "Noah did everything just as God commanded him." And then in Genesis 7:5, it also says, "And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him." And he did not do just that. In II Peter 2:5, it says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. So during that 120 years, as he was building this enormous construction, he was preaching, he was warning people, and I am sure that Noah became very famous as they watched this huge vessel being constructed. And for what reason? And so I am sure that he had, probably, every day an opportunity to warn the people that they need to repent because there was an approaching doom.
Now, these were two very special men and I do not think it is a coincidence that they are linked here, and I want to just go over just a few parallels between these two men. Both Moses and Noah were saved by an ark. Noah, along with his family and the animals, were saved in this huge, massive vessel and Moses in this miniature basket of a vessel. Noah and his sons carefully coated the massive structure with pitch so no water could seep in and Moses' mother covered the little ark with the pitch and what it calls sludge.
What is interesting about the subject of pitch is that it is covered under the Day of Pentecost. It was a covering. The blood of Jesus Christ's sacrifice is our only means of truly having our sins covered and our hope for eternal life. Noah's only hope was the covering of pitch on the inside and outside to be saved. When our sins are covered, they are completely hidden. It may not be pretty, but since we do sin, we can have a continued life without guilt, which leads into my next point. Both arks were under divine protection. Noah and Moses, their only purpose in these arks was to stay afloat. These vessels, again, had no means of navigation or able to steer. How could a three month old baby steer anyway? And when Noah and his family entered the ark, it says the Lord shut them in. What would you think inside as those waters were rising not knowing what was going on on the outside.
Now when God was talking to Abraham, He said, "Walk before Me." Enoch and Noah walked with God. "Before Me" means "in front of Me." "With" gives the implication of beside Me. Remember, Abraham is "the father of the faithful." He is in this sense "our father in the faith." Abraham was to understand, and thus we too, his children, are also to understand that our conduct as God's children is ever within the gaze of the Great Almighty God. We are to understand that He is watching, and that everything we do is naked and open before the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.
Now there is something very interesting here, and that is that we are to understand that there is no threat in this. It is in reality an assurance.
You might recall the Night to be Much Observed. The reason we are commanded to observe it is because God was watching. He was watching over Israel as they left Egypt. They were before Him, and His observation of them was so careful, so precise, that not even a dog barked as the two and one-half or three million people walked out of Egypt.
This word "perfect" in verse 13 is the same word as the word there in Genesis 17:1, but it is in a different setting. This setting clarifies by showing that "being blameless" is a moral issue. It has to do with breaking the Ten Commandments.
This too is the same word as appears in Genesis 17:1 and Deuteronomy 18:13. My study Bible that I am using today as I give this sermon says that the word "just" means "conformity to an ethical or moral standard." Noah was an ethical man. Noah was a moral man, and that is the picture that is given to the word "perfect." It means perfect, blameless, complete. Add that word to your synonyms, because that is what it says in the margin as well. It means complete, whole, finished. It can be drawn that far, and so when God says, "Walk before Me and be blameless," He means "Don't be breaking My Ten Commandments." "Be moral." "Be ethical." "And if you will do that, Abraham, then I will fulfill My part, because you have met the condition."
Now remember, we are the children of faithful Abraham, and the same condition applies to you and me. What God is looking for in His children is faithfulness to what has been given to them. It is loyalty to what has been given to them.
The Abrahamic Covenant upon which the New Covenant is based has blamelessly walking before God as a central tenet. It is a central principle of the covenant that we are supposed to be blameless. Noah is blameless in Genesis 6:9. Job is said to be blameless in Job 1:1. And there it is coupled with the words upright, feared God, and shunned evil. These all basically are talking about the same sort of thing. The Old Testament word, which is tam, is Strong's Hebrew 8535 suggests spiritual maturity and integrity of the inner being. That is, these firstfruits, if you want to boil it down to one very easily recognizable phrase, these firstfruits have high moral character. Such people have honed their character so like their Savior, they do not sin. They do not transgress the law and the covenant. But because they are human, they do on occasion do that—and never deliberately. They rarely, if ever, succumb to weakness but always conform to the will of God.
I wonder if you ever noticed this. Noah is not pronounced to be a just man, perfect in his generations and that he walked with God,until after God describes the wickedness of the times leading up to the Flood, and that Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord before he ever was pronounced a just man.
A conclusion is inescapable: In order to be consistent with the rest of the Bible, Noah was not chosen by God because he was a righteous man, because he was not. He too was blindly involved in the pre-Flood wickedness. To what degree, I have no idea, and until God opened his eyes, until God took action, until God sent forth His Spirit, then Noah responded, and the rest, they say, is history.
Please consider how God looked at Noah with favor because he did what he had been prepared to do in faith, as we read in a correct translation of Genesis 6:8-9 from the Amplified Bible. Many have said this sets Noah apart perfect in his generations, but I think the Amplified has a pretty good here:
By faithfully living and learning God's way of life in whatever way God gives, we too become part of God's living witness of faith in the hope that is before us through the merciful and complete work of Jesus Christ.
