Parsha Noach (Noah / Rest) Gen. 6:9–11:32; Isa. 66:1–24; Lk 1:5–80
In this parasha we see how within just a few generations from Adam, things plummeted to a point where we encounter one of the saddest statements in the Bible as God observed the wickedness of humanity and said, “…I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” Gen. 6:7-8 There are different levels of evil but here we see how things became so totally bad and widespread on a scale unprecedented since creation – “all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.”
It is amazing that only one person stood between God and humanity’s annihilation who was Noah, “…a just man, perfect in his generations, who walked with God in a world filled with evil.” (Gen. 6:9).
Noah was a tzadik (צַדִּיק righteous) and tamim ( תָּמִים pure, innocent, complete and faultless) the only person in a world filled with every manner of evil and corruption.“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.”
Noah was saved because of his faith and obedience. The Book of James puts things well: “Faith without works is dead.” We as evangelicals rightly say that no-one is saved through a works-oriented life alone without a living faith in Yeshua, but we are often silent about the necessity to lead a life of obedience that is pleasing unto God. It defines what Yeshua said to His disciples that , “By their fruits you shall know them,” referring to true believers.
What has all this to do with Noah? The fact is that although Noah was described as righteous, he still had the choice whether to obey God’s instructions to build an ark, a command that defied any sense of meaning. Had he decided to ignore or convince himself that these instructions were too crazy to be taken seriously, it would have posed a big problem for God and an even greater problem for himself!Scripture urges us to follow God’s word unconditionally even when it flies in the face of logic or rational thinking. Obedience is a critical factor that we ignore at our peril. Better to receive one word of commendation from God than to receive a life time of tributes from the world. Infinitely more preferable to experience a lifetime of continuous abject misery than to spend an eternity in Hell. As Paul wrote, “Yet every advantage that I had gained I considered lost for Yeshua’s sake. Yes, and I look upon everything as loss compared with the overwhelming gain of knowing Messiah Yeshua my Lord. For his sake I did in actual fact suffer the loss of everything, but I considered it useless rubbish compared with being able to win Christ. ” Such it was with Noah.
His righteous life was something lived before the people unhidden. The pressure to compromise his faith against the evil that surrounded him was enormous. It would have been so easy to have compromised his walk with God. Satan loves to lull believers into an “easy” life but we must never forget that he is a harsh task master whose ways may appear enticing yet always end in death.
At the time of Noah, evil was at its peak: “all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth” a statement that resonates in these days we live in. (Gen. 6:11–12)
We live in a time of mass deception propagated by social media and many other devices that originate from the pit of Hell and inspires the world in their evil imaginations eagerly embraced within an agenda based upon half truths, misinformation and outright lies. Scripture resonates with the signs of the times described in (Isa.5:20): “20 Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
And sadly, unregenerate man readily buys into Satan’s counterfeit truth which fosters a hatred towards God and a pathological anti-Semitic spirit. Rom.1:21 describes this terrible situation: “Although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” These people who Paul refers to were not all atheists or agnostic – many knew about God yet still chose to rebel against Him.
Yeshua compared His return to the days of Noah, but before this He provided a time scale with His disciples through His parable of a fig tree. He stated that simply by observing the growth of the fig tree we can determine that summer is near (Matt. 24:32) in other words when that time arrives, His coming will be very close (Matt.24:33). The generation of people who are alive at that time will be the generation who will see His return (Matt.24:34). It is against this backdrop that Yeshua speaks about the coming of the Son of Man that would be “as the days of Noah” (Matt.24:37). First, Yeshua identified Himself as the “Son of Man,” (quoting from Dan.7:13–14) who is given an eternal kingdom: “I saw another spectacle in the night visions: I looked and saw someone like a son of man coming with the clouds of heaven. He approached the Ancient of Days and was ushered into His presence. To Him was given authority, honour, and a kingdom so that all people of every heritage, nationality, and language might serve Him. His dominion will last forever, His throne will never pass away, and His kingdom will never be destroyed.”
Yeshua claims to be the rightful King—the Son of Man— and when He returns it will be as in the days of Noah where people are going about their lives, eating, drinking, and marrying. (Matt.24:38) And then it will be too late (Matt.24:39).
The fact that so many people are unaware of God’s impending judgment is startling. (Matt.24:37) Yeshua stated that people would have their heads in the clouds— living their lives without any inkling of the Lord’s imminent return (Lk.17:26-27). This highlights the level of desensitisation that will cloud humanities judgment of reality.
God grieved at the state of affairs throughout the entire world. His grieving was not because He had made a mistake because God doesn’t make mistakes. God grieved to see how far humanity had fallen from what He originally had intended. It was His prerogative that in righteous judgment He would destroy the world during the days of Noah and allow it to serve as a warning for humanity.
The Bible speaks of Noah being “a righteous man, perfect (complete) in his generation” who “walked with God” (Gen.6:9). Out of a total population of 8 billion people world-wide, Noah alone was considered righteous in the eyes of God.
Following the flood, God reduced the lifespan of humanity from several hundred years to 120 years and said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years” (Gen.6:3). The change came quickly and Aaron was the last of the patriarchs to live beyond the limit.
The 120-year period was the length of time that God’s long-suffering would continue with that generation that was filled with evil when as recorded in Gen.6 demon angels came down and created a hybrid people defiling humanity’s DNA. Their offspring became known as ‘Nephalim’ (giants) described as “mighty men” who were incredibly large and physically strong.
Long story short, Satan sought to jeopardise God’s eternal plan of salvation by producing a hybrid people as explained in the Book of Enoch. Satan sought to prevent God from fulfilling his plan of salvation which failed miserably yet almost succeeded. Only Noah the ‘tzedek’ remained uncontaminated.
God’s judgment upon humanity was severe, but so too for the fallen angels. 1Pet.3:18-20 states that “18 The Anointed One suffered for sins once for all time—the righteous suffering for the unrighteous—so that He might bring us to God. Though He died in the flesh, He was made alive again through the Spirit. 19 And in the Spirit, He went and preached to those spirits held captive. 20 It was these who long ago lived in disobedience while God waited patiently as Noah was building the ark.” For God did not spare the heavenly beings who sinned, but He cast them into the dark pits (chains of darkness) of hell (tartarus – mentioned only once in the NT and taken from Gk mythology) to be kept until the time of judgment;” In this text we see a reference to the Nephalim who Peter refers to in his second letter (ch. 2:4).
As a result of the extent of evil permeating the world God told Noah, “…I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence [hamas] because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” Gen.6:13,
The apostle Paul compares the end times to the days of Noah characterised as being “perilous” times filled with violence on an unprecedented scale (2Tim.3:1-5). For example, even the Nazi terror machine would have cringed at the audacious criminality of the massacre of 1200 innocent Israeli citizens on October 7th, a year ago initiated by Hamas who sought to publicise and celebrate their evil instead of hiding it from the rest of the world like Nazi Germany had sought to do only 80 years earlier.
To quote some statistics: “Wars in the past 90 years killed more people than during the previous 500 years combined (“War and Conflict”). An estimated 203 million people were killed by wars just in the 20th century (Matthew White, Historical Atlas of the Twentieth Century, 2010, “Deaths by War”).
Between 170 and 360 million people were killed by governments in the 20th century, apart from war. Recently, more civilians have been dying in armed conflicts than combatants themselves, accounting for 90 percent of casualties since 1945. Just in the last decade, war has claimed the lives of an estimated 2 million children and has disabled another 4 to 5 million children.
A silent form of violence is perpetrated around the world by deliberate abortions of innocents. Each year about 44 million abortions are performed globally (“Global Abortion Rates, 2008”). https://lifehopeandtruth.com/prophecy/end-times/as-in-the-days-of-noah/ And so we could continue…
Human history is filled with a catalogue of evils too many to enumerate, many which were committed under the banner of the Cross. But nothing can compare to the violence of these end times – and Scripture states that things will not improve but deteriorate further until God finally outpours His wrath upon the earth.
Noah and his family were saved in an ark that God had instructed Noah to build with specific measurements which took him 120 years to complete. He obeyed God amid all the ridicule and contempt from all those he was surrounded by. Scripture promises us there will be a high price to be paid for every believer who stands for righteousness. But no-one can walk in the high calling of God in Yeshua unless we afford Him unconditionally first place in our lives. Rev.12:11“…they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.”
God does not always shield us from suffering but He promises to be with us in it. When we place ourselves under the covering of God, no storm however great can overcome us, no weapon formed against us can prosper but instead we experience His love and peace that passes all understanding in every circumstance. This is our victory that Satan has no answer to! Though we might be tossed by the waves and buffeted in the sea of affliction, God remains ever faithful and will never fail us!
The ark foreshadows the protection of the Israelites through the blood of the lamb on the doorpost in Egypt. Like the ark, that blood only guaranteed their physical safety and deliverance from the final plague in Egypt. (Ex12:12) As with Noah’s family, it did not guarantee that those who survived would make it to the Promised Land since each person determined their own entry into that Land by choice. Tragically, the vast majority of the children of Israel also died in the wilderness due to unbelief even as most people perished in the flood.
God instructed Noah to cover the ark inside and out with pitch. The Hebrew word for this is ‘ka-phar’ meaning ‘covering’ and it comes from the root word ‘kippur’ from the word, ‘Yom Kippur’ or the ‘Day of Atonement’ literally the ‘Day of Covering.’ And when the moment came for God to pour out His wrath upon unredeemed humanity, He Himself closed the door of the ark from the outside.
Trusting God may appear absurd when all external circumstances seem to dictate otherwise, but there are times in our lives when we need to take a leap of faith even as Noah did: “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” (Heb.11:7)
Every time we trust God against the flow of conventional wisdom or political correctness, we too become a hero of faith in God’s sight! God is urging us in this end-time season above all things to be well prepared for His return. (vs 42;44;45) In the Haftarah portion for this week we read about these things in stereo as Scripture describes the restoration of Israel in Isa.66:8 as a sovereign state fulfilled on May 14th 1948, “Can a nation born in a day?” It was an impossibility that became a reality and out of the ashes of the Holocaust was born a nation, just 3 years later: an event compared to a woman in childbirth whose birth was so sudden it occurred even before the labour pains started. (Ezek..11:17-21: 34:13; 37: 15-22)
The physical restoration of Israel is linked to its spiritual restoration as a shadow of the reality to come. It was a suddenly event because our God is a ‘suddenly’ God! Yeshua referred to this momentous prophetic event in Matt.21;18-20 when He cursed the fig tree causing it to wither: This was the only miracle where Yeshua used his power to destroy something. It also is the only miracle which did not specifically benefit anyone but served as an object lesson for the disciples.
The fig tree is a messianic symbol, and when it bears fruit it signifies the promise of the coming of Yeshua:
“Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door.” (Matt. 24:32-33)
When the fig tree starts to bear leaves, tiny green figs appear at the same time. Although this process commences at the beginning of spring, the figs are not ready to harvest until around 70 to 80 days later. This fact is very significant, for it confirms the time span defined as a generation as mentioned by Yeshua.
Although we cannot place the exact date of Yeshua’s return we do know that we are in the very end of the season. We may be in the midst of a world that’s comparable to the “Days of Noah,” but we are not dismayed because we, “Know who we have believed and are persuaded to belief that He is able to keep that which we have committed to Him unto that day!”
Most people who call themselves ‘christians’ are completely unaware of the precarious things that are happening around us in these end times which Yeshua warns about. The sin of the Laodicean Church in Rev 3, was the sin of spiritual apathy. Yeshua told them, “15 I know your deeds, that you are neither cold nor hot. Oh, that you were either cold or hot! So because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I am about to spew you out of My mouth. For you say, ‘I am rich, I have made myself wealthy, and I need nothing.’ But you do not know that you are miserable and pitiable and poor and blind and naked. I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may be rich, and white clothes so that you may dress yourself and so the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed, and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. ”
Such people are totally unprepared for what humanity is about to face as we rapidly approach the final countdown before the return of Yeshua. Scripture is clear that there will come a time far worse than ever experienced before and because of this the Lord will shorten these days for the sake of believers. This is something we need to be prepared before we are taken to be with the Lord in His perfect timing.
Yeshua said that the great hallmark of faith in Him — of having the Torah written inside our hearts and minds has not changed. Deut 6:5 commands us to love Him with all our heart, mind and strength. When the Divine presence of God resides in our lives, everything else falls into place. His shalom fills us to overflowing despite all the evil that eagerly seeks to destroy us. So, we have the capacity to rejoice and be glad in these perilous times as we seek to serve Him wholeheartedly in the fullness of our calling.
Moses and Abraham are heroes of faith and so too is Noach. And yet each one of us without exception can become heroes of faith in God’s sight when we choose to walk in the unique calling He has placed upon our lives.
There is a supernatural element which can otherwise not be explained, that despite suffering in a unique way as a particular people and nation, yet the Jewish people continue to persevere with a knowledge that they will prosper due to the goodness and grace of God as defined in His covenant made to them through Abram.
Things are moving quickly wherein God is working all things towards that grand finale when every knee will bow, and every tongue confess that Messiah Yeshua is LORD! (Zech.12:10)
