Biblical Characters - Noah (WMS COG Christ Ahnsahnghong)

★ Introduction
Noah was a righteous man who believed in God truly in a corrupt age. When everyone was destroyed in the flood, Noah and his family were saved.
The story of Noah and his ark is so famous that everybody has heard of it. When we had a childlike faith, we didn't think much of Noah's story; but very important lessons lie in the history of Noah. Noah obeyed God's will absolutely, did what pleased , and was saved. He walked with God. His faith delivers a great teaching to us who live in the last days.

★ Warning of Judgment
After God created the earth, people increased in number and sins overflew among them.

God was grieved and His heart was filled with pain, seeing from heaven the men full of wicked mind and sins. Finally He decided to bring a fearful judgment on mankind.

Ge 6:5-7 『The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth―men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air―for I am grieved that I have made them."』

Ge 6:11-13 『Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence.

God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 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.』

The end of the world was appointed because of its sins. All creatures, both men and animals, on the earth or in the air, were to be wiped with water. A terrible disaster, which no one could escape with his own power, was coming and Noah was chosen by God's grace.

Ge 6:8-10 『But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.』
★ Noah's ark
To save Noah and his family God ordered Noah to make an ark.

Ge 6:14-17 『So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 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.』

The ark was to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high, which was a huge ship. It was to save every kind of animals with flesh and blood as well as Noah's family that God ordered Noah to make such a giant ship.

Ge 6:18-19 『 … you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you.

You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you.』

Ge 7:2-3 『Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.』
There are many scientists who prove that the historical stories in the Bible are true. "Korean Industrial Standard" had lots of experiments on the movement and safety of Noah's ark with the standard of ship technology and made a conclusion that it is safer than any other modern ships.
The size of Noah's ark was big enough for couples of 17,600 kinds of animals. If Noah's ark had been 2/3 long of how long it actually was, it wouldn't have been big enough for every kind of animals.
Therefore, Noah's ark is not a fictional thing which exists in a myth, but a ship which was designed very scientifically in its size and safety.
★ Noah's faith and obedience
Long time ago when Noah lived, the technology or science was not developed that people had to make ships without any machine. In such a difficult condition Noah made an ark as God had ordered him.

How long would it have taken him to make a ship of 450 feet long? Today, the scholars who study the Bible estimate that it would have taken Noah to build the ark at least 40 years or even up to 120 years.
No one helped Noah. People who didn't believe God's warning ridiculed and blamed him. However Noah depended on only God and kept making the giant ship with his own family.

If Noah wanted only his family to be saved, he wouldn't have made that big ship, but only a small one.

God's will was to save every kind of creatures as well, so he didn't act selfishly but made a big ship according to His order.

According to the Bible, Noah's ark didn't have a mast nor rudder which are essential for a ship. Noah didn't ask God for an answer. He didn't have a humanly fixed idea, but made a ship, following God's order only; because the ark was not going to be controlled by a man, but by God. If Noah had made a mast or a rudder for the ark, he wouldn't have depended on God for his salvation, but tried to control the ark by himself.

That is why the ark which God directed to make didn't have these things. From this, we come to understand that our salvation depends on God only.

Ge 6:22 (7:5) 『Noah did everything just as God commanded him.』

Heb 11:7 『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 comes by faith.』
★ Noah who preached righteousness
Noah heard God's warning to judge the world with water. If he hadn't informed the world the warning and the way of salvation, he wouldn't have been saved because of his selfishness, and he wouldn't have been called the heir of the righteousness, which is such a glorious title, and he wouldn't have been recorded as someone who has good faith that many people respect.

Noah was faithful and righteous. He preached the news of salvation to other people as well as his own family, and endured for a long time, making a giant ark, without complaints to save every kind of creatures.

2 Pe 2:5 『if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;』

Noah had to make a big ship to save many animals as well as his own family. He needed a work force and money to make it. He preached the warning of judgment and the way of salvation to people. He could have never done such things without faith and sacrifice.
★ The grace of God who is patient
Seeing the world full of sins, God decided to judge it with water. If judgment was God's only purpose, He could have judged the world right away. The sinful world didn't respect God, but opposed Him!
How much God was distressed when He waited with patience even though He wanted to judge the wicked sinners with wrath!

Among the sinners there was Noah whom God loved. God was slow to anger and judge the world because He wanted to save the righteousness man Noah and wanted many people to repent and be saved, leaving their sins.
God is truly merciful and kind, that He didn't judge the sinners right away, but waited patiently; He wanted the sinners to repent and God's people to be saved.

1 Pe 3:20 『who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water』

If God hadn't waited patiently, Noah wouldn't have been saved either. To save Noah God waited for a long time until Noah completed the ark, watching the sins of people.

How good it would have been if many people had repented when God waited patiently for the long time while Noah was making the ark! No one except the eight members of Noah's family believed in God or repented, so they were judged by water at last.

★ Proclamation of the appointed time
While God was waiting patiently for a long time, the world didn't repent, but sinned all the more. However Noah obeyed God's word with a righteous mind and completed the ark of salvation. The time of God's grace passed and the world came to face the judgment.

God waited for a long, long time. Now only 7 days were left before God poured out His wrath and judged the sinful world.

Ge 7:1-4 『The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. … Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made."』

Ge 7:10-12 『And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month-on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.』

Ge 7:23 『Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.』
The judgment day was proclaimed 7 days before. What could the people do to get salvation for such a short time?
Even if they made a plan, could they make an ark which took Noah over forty years to make?

On the last day, the seventh day, the door of the ark was closed. What would the people think outside the ark when rain began to pour down from the sky? How miserably would they die, eagerly calling God and Noah toward the closed door of the ark while the rain of judgment poured down for forty days?

★ Days of Noah and the last days
It is written, "For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us" (Ro 15:4). The history of Noah is a prophecy of what will happen in the last days.

Mt 24:37-39 『As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.』

As the world was full of sins at the time of Noah, so is it today. Terrible and cruel sins and crimes are being committed and morality has lost its hold on the people. Most people do not hesitate to say that we are in the last days.

2 Ti 3:1-5 『But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God-having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.』

From the story of Noah, we think of what will happen to this world in these last days.

2 Pe 3:6-7 『By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.』
God said that as He judged the world with water at the time of Noah, He will judge the world with fire in the last days.

Just as God told Noah the day of judgment which only God knew and the secret of salvation, and let him do the work for salvation, in the last days God shows the secret of God to the chosen people, and make them do the work of Zion for salvation.

Just as in the time of Noah, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, not knowing what would happen until the flood came and took them all away, people in the last days ignore God's warning, eating and drinking.

★ Teaching for us
First, we should learn Noah's absolute faith and obedience. If Noah had decided that it is impossible to make a giant ship which is 450 feet long, he wouldn't have received God's grace nor been saved.
If he had made the ship small only for his family, how could the ship have been safe in the great wind and waves? However Noah was humble and obeyed God. He made the ark, following exactly what God said to him and saved himself and his family.

Ge 6:22 『Noah did everything just as God commanded him.』

Today God calls us by grace and wants us to do faithful acts, so that we may be saved. Just as Noah made a ship with woods, God orders us to make an ark of salvation through a faithful act of keeping His commands.

Jas 2:14 『What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save him?』

Jas 2:22 『You see that his faith and his actions were working together, and his faith was made complete by what he did.』

The Holy Spirit and the Bride taught us, "The ark Noah made with all his heart according to God's will was not for God. God told him to make an ark to save him out of the world which was destined to be destroyed. Because Noah obeyed God's word, he could be blessed with salvation." To observe God's commands, to preach the gospel, to love brothers and sisters, to serve others, to do the work of Zion … these are all precious works for making the ark of salvation.

Noah didn't stop preaching even though he was very busy making the ark; to save every kind of animals Noah made a big ark, sparing no effort nor his property, and preached the righteousness (2 Pe 2:5). We, too, should preach diligently in this age, imitating him.

Above all, we should remember the love of God who waited for us patiently for a long time. God waited until Noah was ready to be saved, and gave people a chance to leave their sins and repent. God Ahnsahnghong is waiting for our faith to be reborn and to resemble His divine nature. He has been waiting patiently for a long time, giving a chance to this sinful world to repent.

2 Pe 3:9 『The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.』

We should do our best right now. God proclaimed the appointed time 7 days before the judgment by flood. He waited patiently for a long time while Noah was making the ark, but after the time of grace passed, no more chance was given to people.
Think what we can do for 7 days after the proclamation of the appointed time! We should do our best to find our heavenly brothers and sisters during this period of grace when we can do God's works.

Jn 9:4 『As long as it is day, we must do the work of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.』
 

♡ Christ Ahnsahnghong & Jerusalem Mother ♡

World Mission Society Church of God(WMS COG)

Christ Ahnsahnghong came to Korea, at the ends of the earth in the east, and restored the new covenant.

The truth of the new covenant has been spreading rapidly throughout the country. As a result, over 400 branch Churches have been established nationwide in the past half century.

All the Churches celebrate the feasts of God including the Passover of the new covenant, and speedily carry out the gospel work according to the prophecy of the Bible.