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God Could Have Just Got a Dog
1
Genesis 6.5-14
(chapter 6, 7, 8 and 9)
God Could Have Just Got a Dog
Week #1
 09.14.2014 – First UMC St. Cloud
Note from Pastor Mike: I want to encourage our church family to look
deeper into what God speaks to us through the Message.
Here at First United Methodist Church of Saint Cloud we believe that
God speaks to us through the Message. One way for all of us to hear
from God more clearly is to read the Scripture verses and the
Message again during the week.
I would really like to hear your comments and how God is challenging
you through the worship service and the Message. It would be great
to hear your discussion ideas. Please feel free to send me your
discussion points.
Your friend on the journey,
Pastor Mike
Contact Pastor Mike at:
 [email protected]
OR
 First UMC St. Cloud 1000 Ohio Avenue Saint Cloud, FL 34769
(NIV) Genesis 6.5-14 − 5 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. 6 The LORD regretted that he had made
human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the LORD
said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and
with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—
for I regret that I have made them.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the
LORD.
9 This
is the account of Noah and his family.
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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.
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.
Introduction: Deeply Committed
1. Now, I love my dog, Zoe. Zoe loves me.
2. When you read the first chapter in The Story, at least for me, I can't help
wondering how much easier it would have been for God if God just got a
dog.
3. Humans have made a mess of the creation. Humans have resorted to
violence against each other. Humans have rejected God.
The “Big Idea” – God is deeply committed to humanity.
A. Inclination Towards Evil
We begin with God's stewards, with God's participants, in cultivating and
reigning over God's good creation having turned from loving God towards
violence.
1. This is a rather difficult story to hear and it should be. The narrator does not
ease into the depths to which humanity has descended since the Creation.
We continue in (NIV) Genesis 6.5 [page 8, top] − 5 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. The
contrast is surely intended with the Creation of humanity in (NIV) Genesis 1.27
[page 3, top] − 27 So God created mankind [humankind] in his [God's] own
image, in the image of God [God] he created them; male and female he
[God] created them. This beginning, this creation, if you recall in (NIV)
Genesis 1.31 [page 3, center] − God saw all that he [God] had made, and it
was very good. God saw "all" that God had created, including humans, and
proclaimed it "good" and now in the human heart, the very depth of our
being, is only evil "all" the time. The Hebrew word translated "wickedness"
indicates sinful actions and the consequences. The text does not point out
some specific set of sins (as we might like, especially if they are not the ones
we are currently engaged in). We are not to understand this as simply the act
God Could Have Just Got a Dog
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of sinning but as a deeper, more pervasive (all-encompassing) rejection of
God and the life-of-God.
a. The Hebrew word translated "inclination" denotes the conceiving of
possibilities for thoughts, words and actions. The word "every" denotes the
depth and breadth and width of this rejection of God and disregard
through violence of other human being. Every possible thought, word and
action is towards violence.
2. God then reveals God's own heart (NIV) Genesis 6.6 − 6 The LORD regretted
that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply
troubled. God, the Creator, is deeply troubled. You might even translate this
as God's "heart was filled with pain." The vision for what the world might have
been has been dashed away by the self-centered human vision - a constant
tendency toward violence.
3. (NIV) Genesis 6.7 − 7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth
the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and
the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made
them.” God is not an arbitrary and spiteful deity, smiting people with smirking
abandon. The Creation, humanity, has descended to a depth of violence
from which there is no return; the Creation is in danger. God is not indifferent
but personally enters into the broken Creation to bring hope where there is
no possibility of hope.
4. God finds a reason for hope in (NIV) Genesis 6.8 − 8 But Noah found favor in
the eyes of the LORD.
B. Judgment and Reconciliation
Hard as it might be for us, this is a story of judgement.
1. A Short Side Trip-"We interrupt this message to bring you some important
news": So, we can very easily get caught up in the details of the story. How
big was the flood? Could the flood really have been worldwide. Many
people are more concerned about this than with what God is seeking to tell
us through this part of the Bible; through this text. A rather conservative
commentator writes on the Book of Genesis, "Any solution must take the text
seriously, but be willing to see the text in ways the original author and
audience may have seen it. It likewise needs to take logistics seriously." For
example, one possible explanation for the flood is that the word "all" in this
ancient world does not always mean "absolute" as in our modern
understanding.
a. If the original audience understood the earth to extend to the farthest
mountain ranges and no farther because those mountain ranges held up
the heavens, then a flood coving "all" the earth could well have been a
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devastating but local flood. There is evidence of such ancient floods in
areas around the world. You see, the text and God speaking to us through
the text, does not ask us to accept a worldwide flood just a flood of such
magnitude that all humanity in this region, the only known world to Noah,
was covered in such a way that all human and animal life was destroyed.
2. "Now, back to our message already in progress." The text wants us to see two
things: judgment and reconciliation. This is a story of judgment. Somehow this
does not fit our image of God. We ask how could a God whose overarching
character is that of love could also be a God of judgment? Or, we are
convinced that God is a God of judgment against all those who are not like
us or do not believe in a certain way. We want this account to either be a
Disney like cruise for Noah and a bunch of furry animals where everyone has
fun. Or, we want to be Noah on the ark and all our enemies get washed
away.
3. The text, the account, though, wants us to see that God is in control even as
humanity, of which we are still a part, has descended into chaos. 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. There is a repetition of the word "corrupt" which
carries the idea of ruin, decadence or decay, the end result of a culture that
thrives on the use of violence. The word we have translated as "going to
destroy" is from the same Hebrew root that is used for "corrupt". Humanity's
corruption of the "good" Creation of God leads to God allowing the
"corruption", the utter destruction, of the creation.
4. We would want nothing less out of God. Think about it. We want judgment to
be passed on sin and evil. The story of Noah reminds us that God loves
humanity so much that God will not tolerate evil to go unchecked and
eventually unconquered. Here, evil and its main force, violence, is overcome
with the flood waters; evil is wiped away.
5. Then, recalling the original creation where (NIV) Genesis 1.2 [page 1, top] −
2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of
the deep, and the Spirit [in Hebrew, the wind or breadth] of God was
hovering over the waters. Then, in (NIV) Genesis 8.1 [page 10, upper middle]
− 1But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that
were with him in the ark, and he [God] sent a wind over the earth, and the
waters receded. With our God there is no arbitrary judgment, for which none
of us could with stand.
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C. Wrath of Love
Now, hard as this might be to grasps, God's wrath against sin is God's wrath of
love, for us, the surest sign that God deeply loves you.
1. Like judgment, we often have a difficult time with God's "wrath". Some have
tried to make it less than personal so as to protect God's good name. Yet,
the reconciliation we as humans so desperately need presupposes, that is
presumes or assumes, God's wrath. Listen to (NIV) Ephesians 2.1-10 [page __,
___] − 1As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, 2 in which
you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of
the kingdom of the air [that is Satan or the Devil, a force or a real entity with
real power to opposes God], the spirit who is now at work in those who are
disobedient. 3 All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the
cravings of our flesh [that is our human nature apart from God's Spirit] and
following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature deserving
of wrath.
2. Reconciliation and justification do not issue from some mushy sentiment
that, in the face of evil, shrugs the shoulders and turns a blind eye.
Reconciliation is not "inclusion" of the enemy, the enemy being evil itself;
justification is not "acceptance" of injustice and of the unjust. Essential for
reconciliation and justification is the twin belief that (1) restoration of
communion with the evildoer does not rest (cannot rest!) simply on the
justice done (more violence) but that (2) evil must be condemned and
overcome. For Paul, God's unconditional grace toward sinners is
unthinkable without judgment.
3. A God of most radical grace must be a God of wrath - not the kind of
wrath that burns against evildoers until they prove worthy of being loved,
but the kind that resists evildoers because they are unconditionally loved.
(See Volf, ) (NIV) Ephesians 2.4-5 − 4 But because of his [God's] great love for
us, God, who is rich in mercy, 5 made us alive with Christ even when we were
dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.
4. And this is where God's wrath comes in. For God's wrath is nothing but
God's stance of active opposition to evil. The God who would not
oppose evil would be an indifferent demon who would condemn men
and women to the power of evil's destructiveness. In Jesus the Christ, God
enters our world and faces the forces of evil. Jesus faces our violence.
Jesus leans into the evil which humanity has chosen over the good. On
the cross, Jesus faces its fury with his life. Jesus allows it to kills him as the
only means to defeat evil, not temporarily but for good.
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5. God does not save Noah because Noah deserves it. Oh, Noah is a
righteous man, he lives in a right stance toward God but that is not what
gets him a ticket on the ark. Noah and his family and the animals are
saved because God sees humanity and the Creation and God still sees it
as good - humanity is worth saving. (NIV) Ephesians 2.8-9 − 8 For it is by
grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it
is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast.
D. Yes, to a Reconciled Relationship
Finally, the flood waters have receded and not much has changed, so God
comes even deeper into the mess to tell you and me, "Yes," to a reconciled
relationship.
1. Now, when the waters receded and Noah and his family and all the animals
disembark for the ark, (NIV) Genesis 8.20-21 [page 10, upper middle] −
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean
animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The LORD
smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse
the ground because of humans, and here is the part that is maybe the most
troubling, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from
childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
2. God knows that even this judgment of the flood will not change the heart of
the matter - the human heart, which as John Wesley said, is "bent" toward
sinning. Yet, God remains passionately committed to humanity and to the
creation. The account of Noah and the ark and the flood is a story of
judgment which is God saying "no" to human sin and evil. But, more
importantly, this is a story of God's "yes" to a reconciled relationship with
humanity that is bigger and more powerful than sin and death.
3. Like the flood cleansed the earth from evil and violence, Jesus shedding his
blood on the cross cleanses us form sin and evil. God knows full well the
condition of the human heart, of your heart. God also knows that because of
Jesus and in a relationship with Jesus there is something new in your life that
was not there before, before when you lived your life on your own power
and direction.
4. The story of the flood reveals God's commitment to reconciliation with
humanity, with you! God creates humanity, then recreates humanity after
the flood even through nothing has really changed, Noah and his family will
carry on the legacy of sin. Yet, yet, the new creation of the flood looked
forward to the new creation that you are because of Jesus, the new creation
you are in a relationship with Jesus. And in this new creation, (NIV) Ephesians
2.10 − 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.
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5. On the cross God gets God's hands dirty, God enters God's creation,
becoming like God's prized creation - humans - so that God could get at the
root of the problem, the human heart. God in Jesus knows your life, the sin
and evil, and finds it valuable, immensely valuable. God recreates your life
because you were created to be a participant with Jesus in God's work in
our world. God in Jesus, Jesus on the cross, Jesus walking out of the tomb is
God saying "Yes" to a reconciled relationship. You are saved from the
consequences of your sin, which is death, for ministry and service.