We’re Washed Clean

Genesis 6-9

There are some times in life where we just get filthy. Changing the oil on your car, changing the tires. If I’m doing it, I’m gonna be a mess. My hands are gonna be greasy and gunky. I’m probably gonna get grease and gunk all over my clothes. Maybe those clothes will be washable. Probably they’re gonna have to be ditched. And I’m gonna need at least a good hand scrubbing, if not a full-bore shower. How bad must the earth have been that God says this thing needs a total and complete washing? It must have been awful. Oh, sin was the problem from the time Adam and Eve grabbed that fruit off of the tree. Near the beginning of the flood account, there is a passage that says every inclination of the thoughts of a man’s heart is only evil all the time. But for whatever reason, sin at the time of the flood or just before the flood must have been particularly egregious. Violence of such a kind that the earth had never seen it before. Selfishness of such a kind that the earth had not seen it before. So that God came to Noah and said, I am going to wipe this earth out. A total washing, it’s going away, except for you and your family, and the animals who you are going to gather. Well, God actually did the gathering. Noah gathered the food, but God gives Noah the credit for gathering them. And they will be on the ark with him. And man, what a boat that was. More than a football field long, about the width of a football field, taller than our church building. Massive. Big enough so yes, it could have held every species of animals that the world has ever seen. Remember, Noah didn’t have to take every animal that there is. He just had to take two of every kind of species. So, for example, he didn’t have to take great Danes and poodles and wolves and foxes. He only had to take one pair of that whole species. And then God, through selective breeding, caused those things to breed out from that one species. What was it like for Noah and his family during the time when they were building the ark? Do you guess they might have been taken some serious ridicule? Oh man. Or do you think that they were so ridiculed that they had to just disengage from society and go off to some place where they were all by themselves and become completely self-sufficient? The Bible doesn’t tell us. Put it on your bucket list. But I’ve got to think it was not a fun, give or take 120 years of Noah’s life. Of all the heroes of faith, Noah’s got to be near the top. Noah’s got to be near the top. And then the day came when the flood burst loose. And we’re told that the fountains of the deep were unleashed. It seems as if when God created the world that there was a different water system that most of the water on this earth was not gathered in oceans like it is now; it was rather underground, under very high pressure. And that the flood, God busted loose that core of the earth so that high-pressure water would have gone shooting up into the air with geysers that must have been just flat out crazy strong. And it’s possible that that was the rain of the 40 days and 40 nights of rain, or at least added substantially to it. The turbulence of all of it must have been just absolutely spectacular. And the flood account did not last merely 40 days and 40 nights. Rather, the entire flood event lasted 10 days more than a year. So Noah and his family were on that ark for 370 days. Their year was about 360 days because they had a lunar calendar. So, they were on that arc for about 370 days. Just them and all their favorite animals. And when the earth was completely washed, God set the ark down in the mountains of Ararat. Yes, that’s a more careful reading of the text, not on top of Mount Ararat. But in the mountains of Ararat. Not exactly sure how it worked. I think what happened is that God set the ark down, kind of in a valley in the mountain range. That helps to explain how animals, which wouldn’t be able to get down a mountain, were able to not have to get down a mountain. And that the tops of the mountains became visible, not because they were under the water surface finally, but because the fog layer had lifted. There must have been just incredible fog at the time of the flood, and it’s going away. I’m speculating a little bit. I admit that. So put it on your bucket list again. Ask Noah, and we get to heaven if we even care at that point. And then God comes to Noah, and he makes this absolutely spectacular promise. I’ll never do it again. At the beginning of the flood account, he promised that he would wipe out the earth completely. At the end of the flood account, he promises, “I will never again wipe out completely the earth with a flood.” Exact same Hebrew verb. And as God kept the one promise that he did wipe out the earth completely through that flood. So God will keep the second promise that he will never again, with a flood, wipe out completely this earth. And so that we would have a visible, tangible sign of it. God puts the rainbow up in the sky. And then he makes this wonderful promise. “When I, God, see the rainbow up in the sky, I will be reminded of the promise, the covenant that I made between me and all mankind and all the creatures of the earth.” As if God needs the reminder, huh? But boy, we sure do. And notice the grace. God has obligated himself to humans, but not just to humans. He’s obligated himself also to the creatures of this earth, like the deer and the camels and the cows and the mosquitoes and the slugs. That he will never again wipe out the entire earth with a flood. Never again. And in wonderful grace, God has allowed that sign of the covenant to be seen all over the world. By all of humanity. By every race, creature, tribe, culture. Why? Because this gracious promise extends to every tribe, creature, culture, clan, race, throughout the world and throughout creation. And God wants all of the people of this world to be reminded. I am the God who sent the flood, and I’m the God who promised never to send a flood like that again. I will care for you. I love you dearly. And here’s the problem. The flood was this wonderful external washing. But it did nothing for the heart of mankind. And so at the beginning of the flood account, you have the passage that every inclination of the thoughts of a man’s heart are only evil all the time. At the end of the flood account, God says every inclination of a man’s heart is evil from his youth. It’s the same thing. Little different nuance. Humanity had not changed. And so what, oh so quickly returned? Violence, selfishness and greed and immorality and anger and strife and all the garbage that impacts cultures today. And in what I don’t know, I think we can accurately describe as demonic. The very sign of the covenant, the rainbow, has been hijacked by groups who now use it as a sign of pride in their rebellion against God. That’s demonic. That the sign of God’s wonderful promise is now used by the devil and the demons to show pride in their rebellion against the God who loves them so dearly. What a mess we are. And if you and I are to be honest and look into our hearts, what do we see there? Anger and selfishness and violence. Maybe we don’t carry it out, but the desire is there, isn’t it? So what do we need? We need a washing. We need a washing that’s way better than a flood. And in wonderful grace, God promised that washing in the work of Jesus the Christ. God made that promise already to Adam and Eve. God kept that promise alive through Noah, and that, by the way, is the most important aspect of the flood account. That God saved the promise of the Savior. Because if all humanity dies, the promise of the Savior dies with it. And then all of humanity to that point would have had to be sent to hell. And of course, there would have been no more humanity, so there would have been no you and me. But God was not okay with that, so he kept the promise of the Savior alive through Noah and his family. And then focused that account on, or that promise on Abraham and eventually David. And of course, you know what happened, how Jesus came and lived, died and rose for you. And his blood is the only thing that can wash you and me clean internally. Which is the cleansing that we really, really need. And then, in what can only be called amazing, spectacular grace, God gives us another washing. A tangible, visible, concrete work of God by which he promises that he is washing you and me clean. As Noah and his family were saved through the waters of the flood, first Peter says, so the water of baptism saves you. No, not the removal of dirt from the body. In other words, it’s not just an external washing, the way Noah’s flood was, but rather it’s the pledge of a good conscience towards God. It’s God’s down payment to you and to me that on the day we stand before him, that your conscience will be clean. Why? Because God has washed you clean. In the waters of baptism, you personally were connected to Jesus, that you were put up on the cross with Jesus, you went into the grave with Jesus, we were buried with him through baptism into death, and then you were raised to life with Jesus. So that in the eyes of God, you are new. I can’t imagine what it was like to be Noah and his family. I can’t imagine how bad the earth must have been that it needed a complete washing. But I can totally comprehend how much I need God to wash me. Well, maybe God comprehends even better how much God needs to wash me. But I know he needs to wash me. And can you imagine? In amazing grace, God has washed you clean. Oh, what a washing. That is. Amen? And Amen.