Genesis 6:14 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 6:14

Comments

The ark was shaped like an Egyptian grain ship, the experts tell us, a square cornered vessel resembling a giant chest. It is a symbol as well as an historical reality. It is a symbol of the church, and a symbol according to the apostle Peter of conversion and baptism. Noah, and his sons, and his son’s wives, eight people altogether, and his own wife, are going to be shut into it, and it is going to carry them through the destruction, the devastation of the flood. It is a symbol and a picture of Christ. In him and trusting in him and in his salvation, we will be kept, and delivered from the judgment that destroys the rest of mankind. We will be kept through the final judgment of death.‘Make thee an ark of gopher wood.’ We do not really have any idea which wood that was. Some people seem fairly certain, but it is impossible to say. ‘Rooms shalt thou make in the ark.’ We will not go into practical details, but, if you can imagine, so many species of animal, all crowded into a vast vessel without being contained in cells or rooms. As it tips about, everybody slithers and slides from one side to another, and the whole craft will overturn. So of course there are going to be rooms, and it had to be made strong enough too, to withstand the battering of the flood waters.

Application

‘And shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.’ There is no indication that Noah is to hire anybody from the world around him to help him with the construction. We do not see here that there is to be any co-operation, and enlisting of technology or craftsman, or anything from outside. How different to these seeker-sensitive churches. Remember, this is a type of the building of Christ’s church. You know how they all started: we will put a questionnaire around the neighbourhood. I am going back 30 years now when the movement started. We will ask people what they want church to be like. We will ask people what they would like, and the creators of the seeker-sensitive churches looked at the replies to their questionnaires, and said, right, we will fashion church to be just as the worldling would like it to be – no challenge, no bite, no reproof, no repentance, no mention of sin. Yet such people call themselves Bible-believers and evangelicals. The so-called seeker-sensitive church movement grew so large, in the USA and in this country and around the world. But Noah is to proceed alone. The world is under judgment . Yes, he can spread his hands, he can appeal to them to be saved; he has got a message of repentance. He has got a message of turning from the world to God, but there is no compromise.

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Genesis 6:14 Commentary and Bible Study