7 By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.

Hebrews 11:7(NIV)

Now we’ve seen the cute little Noah’s ark themed nurseries with the happy animals and cute little rainbows.  That doesn’t really tell the story very well. I don’t think there was a whole lot of smiling going on while the ark was being built or the few months on the ark with all those stinky animals and and minimal ventilation.  Hebrews doesn’t give me much to go on either; lets check out what Genesis has to say.

The LORD saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. Genesis 6:5

Only evil all the time. Sound like it couldn’t get much worse. I’m not sure what it mean exactly, however the New Testament says the end time will also be as the days of Noah, something to look up.  Also in verse 4 it mentions creatures called Nephilim. There is quite a bit of controversy surrounding these creatures, I’ve looked into it some, I’ll let you look it up and draw your own conclusions.

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.

9 This is the account of Noah and his family.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Genesis 6:8-10

There is an exception to this “Only evil all the time”, Noah.  He found favor in God’s eyes, we all know that’s saying something.  He was also “a righteous man, blameless among the people at this time, and he walked with God.”  have you ever noticed how much harder it is to follow God when everyone around behaving in a very self gratifying way.  It’s easy for me to justify my little compromises by saying to myself “at least I’m not as bad as….”  Not Noah apparently; he had integrity.

What does he get for his integrity?  Now we get to the crazy part.  God tells Noah he is going to destroy the earth with water.  Until now, it has never rained on the earth, but God is going to bring enough water to destroy the earth.  If I were Noah, I’d be a little skeptical.  Thankfully I’m not Noah, cause Noah did believe God, and that’s not the crazy part.

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

Genesis 6:11-21


God tells Noah in order for him and his family to be saved he needs to build a 450 foot floating zoo.  I don’t know about you, but I’d have a hard time swallowing this.

22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him. Genesis 6:22

There is that obedience thing again.  Because he obeyed Noah and his family were spared from the flood and consequently so was humanity.

Chuck Missler discusses the days of Noah and Nephilim in more detail.  Acts 17:11(NIV) This is just one thought on the subject, but if you have time it is at least worth some consideration.

For a lighter look at this story Bill Cosby’s interpretation