Genesis 6:22 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 6:22

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Calvin makes a wonderful point in his commentary on Genesis 6. You think of the faith of Noah, he says, and then you think of the size of the task, the magnitude of the task – from tree felling to sawing to joining. And there is only him and his little family, eight of them all together, and it is an enormous vessel. But faith does not recoil. And it does not attempt, feebly, to improve on the calling that God has given them. There is food to be gathered, there is so much to do. Then you think of the time of the project. Well, not necessarily 120 years, although it would have taken some years. These years were going to be very testing, not only because of the difficulty of the project, but because of the scorn of the people, and if the people were violent, and they would have been, as the narrative says, then there might well have been (but this is speculation) theft and interference with Noah’s gathering of supplies, and materials. So it would have been a very testing period with hatred and opposition, insults and scorn, persecution of every kind. So there is the size of the task, the length of time, the intense opposition of the people. Then the nature of the project. And Noah could have thrown up his hands, and said, Yes but I am expected to crowd into this vessel all kinds of creatures, predators, and their vulnerable prey. This is an unmanageable project. It is an impossible project. But faith did not recoil.At no point, did Noah say, my instructions for this vessel are too simple, I need to elaborate on what God has told me in this way, and in that. I need to take account of this eventuality, and that eventuality. He stuck to the blueprint that God gave him. He was obedient to God. He did not doubt him. He did not believe that God has left out certain essential things out. He does not try to improve on him. So we see here the mercy of God, the witness of Noah, his representative, and the disaster coming to the world. Noah will have instrumentality. He will be carried through the flood. He will be the father of a new order. He will secure promises. He will be the one who is given ultimately the godly line. He will see miracles. He will be used of God, and he will enter the hall of fame of the heroes of faith.

Application

That is what many Bible believers try to do today. They scornfully say, ‘You just follow the Scripture? You cannot not possibly survive. You have to innovate, and add, and elaborate.’ They do not believe in the Reformed doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture. The Scripture tells us all that we need to know. We talk about the doctrine of the sufficiency of Scripture, which includes the authority of Scripture. It is sufficient not just for salvation, as some Bible believers say. That is wrong; the Scripture is sufficient for far more than just salvation. It is sufficient for our daily walk. It and it alone is sufficient for sanctification. We do not need the insights of psychology; they are contrary to Scripture. Scripture tells you all you need to know to be sanctified. You do not need Christian counselling centres – all that is adding to Scripture, and usually involves the deployment of the theories of people who were anti-Christian and anti-biblical. Scripture is sufficient for how you order the church and govern it, for your worship, for how you conduct evangelism. It is sufficient for everything.

Our task to witness to a community which is increasingly godless. Our task could not possibly be a tiny fraction as hard as Noah’s, and we have the example of faith. No wonder he ranks in the hall of fame of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. This is a picture of faith when everything seems to be against it. Only eight souls in the church. The church which had seemed to be so big in the great days of the pre-flood patriarchs, is reduced to eight souls. And yet they obey the Lord. We are far more than eight souls, and there are countless other churches in this country and around the world. We have no excuse to be fainthearted.

Why was the church brought down to eight souls? Because it mixed with the world. The world is our enemy and this is going to be the story of the Bible – whenever the church mixes with the world, it loses its power, the Spirit is withdrawn, and it begins to collapse. In these early chapters of Genesis, and through the book, you will see the rise of the people of God, their collapse into the arms of the world, their diminution, and God taking out a remnant all over again. That is why we have to warn today when we see Christian people who have found salvation and love the Lord, and yet the churches are mingling and mixing with the world. You have got, they say, to be culturally relevant, culturally progressive. It is the story of the pre-Noah generation all over again – the church mixes with the world. We are here to reach the world, but not to mix with it. It is our enemy. It will do its utmost under Satan’s direction to amalgamate with us, to infiltrate us, to poison the heart of the church and individual Christians.

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Genesis 6:22 Commentary and Bible Study