"MOUNTAINTOP EXPERIENCES: NOAH ON ARARAT"
Midweek Lenten Worship I
March 8, 2017
Bethel Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glenshaw, Pennsylvania
TEXT:
God remembered Noah and all the beasts and the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth and the waters subsided. . . . and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the water had abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Genesis 8:1; 3, 4 (ESV)
At one time or another in our lives (usually around this time of the year), we've all experienced what we sometimes call "cabin fever." You know what I'm talking about: that "cooped up" feeling that you get when things finally start looking and feeling a little nicer outside after a long time of being secluded and not being able to do much of anything. You're just itching to get out and do something, and that "itching" feeling grows more intense the longer that you're "cooped up," so to speak. When finally you are released from the constraints that are confining you, it can be a very exhilarating feeling--something that we might even describe as a "mountaintop experience."
If you've ever been through anything like what I just described, you probably have at least a slight appreciation as to how Noah and his family must have felt when "the ark [finally] came to rest on the mountains of Ararat." Imagine being locked up in a boat for the better part of a year with no people to interact with other than your family and having to share your living quarters with a pair of every animal in existence--and having to feed and clean up after all of those animals as well!. It's bound to be more than just nerve-wracking; it's got to be downright depressing. Under those kinds of circumstances you might begin to wonder whether or not anyone knows or cares about your plight or if there will ever be an end to it. Two things that are mentioned in the passage before us no doubt brought hope and comfort to Noah and his family during their ordeal, and they can bring hope and comfort to us as well as we live our lives in this world. The two things that I'm talking about are: (1) "God remembered Noah" and (2) "the ark came to rest."
Noah's predicament was that he found himself and his family in the midst of God's judgment against human sin. That was what the flood was all about. No doubt it had to be a frightening experience, ark or not. Never before or since has the earth witnessed such devastation. It had to be a frightening thing for Noah to hear the loud thunder and the driving rain and to feel the waves beneath him as the ark tossed and turned. It had to be frightening to be floating about aimlessly, not knowing when or where the ark would finally come to rest. But, frightened as they were, Noah and his family also took comfort in the knowledge that, no matter how difficult it may have been for them, they were being spared from this unleashing of judgment because of the grace of God. God Himself had provided for them a means of escape. The same God whose justice could not tolerate sin was also a God of mercy and grace. He didn't compromise His justice in the least, but He did reveal His redeeming grace in the midst of it. He had warned Noah beforehand about what was going to happen and gave him the instructions that he needed to be spared from it. Throughout the frightening experience of the flood, Noah knew deep down inside that he and his family would come through it all okay. After all, God Himself had told him so.
We today find ourselves in a predicament not unlike that of Noah. We too are tossing and turning aimlessly in the world under God's judgment because of human sin. We see the evidence of that all around us--every day--just as, in the days of Noah, "the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5). All around us we see injustice and hatred and devastation and injury and sickness and death. We may be fortunate enough to avoid some of it most of the time, but death, "the last enemy" (1 Corinthians 15:) of man and the most obvious consequence of sin, will get us all in the end. But despite all of this, we do not lose heart, even as we live in this messed up world. We can't lose heart because, like Noah, we know that we will get through it all okay. That is God's promise--the promise He that made to us when His Son died on the cross to make atonement for our sin--the promise that He guaranteed for us when His Son was raised from the grave again in glory.
The other thing that brought hope to Noah and his family was that "the ark came to rest." This signified that the end of their tribulation was near. It gave them great reason to rejoice, because it meant that the Lord had delivered them from His judgment and was bringing them to safety. Surely they must have rejoiced in knowing that now they could see "the light at the end of the tunnel," so to speak--that their long and trying ordeal was finally drawing to a close--that before very long the earth would be dry and they would be free to walk upon it again--that they would have a fresh new start--a new lease on life--as they made a new beginning with the Lord's blessing.
We await a similar experience, even though we don't always welcome it. Like Noah and his family, we are waiting to come to rest--not on Mount Ararat, but in heaven--God's kingdom of glory, which He has promised to give to all who live and die trusting in His Son Jesus Christ. We don't seem to get as excited about it as we should, and the reason why we don't is because we have to pass through death to get there. It would be an understatement to say that everybody wants to go to heaven, but nobody wants to die. That's the way that it's always been, and I suppose that's the way that it always will be. We not only try to avoid dying; we avoid talking about it or even thinking about it. But we really have no reason to avoid it or to fear it, because through the life, death, and resurrection of His Son Jesus Christ God has taken this terrible consequence of sin and transformed it into the gateway to glory for those who are His.
The experience of Noah and his family teaches us a lot about a couple of the certainties of life. One certainty that all of us will have to deal with sooner or later is the judgment of God. God's judgment against sin is not a maybe or a vague possibility; it is an absolute certainty. Because God is perfectly just, He cannot and will not tolerate sin or let it go unchecked. But the other certainty is the redeeming grace of God. God always deals with His children according to His grace. Some may think that these two characteristics of God--justice and grace--contradict each other. But it all comes together in a perfect harmony at the cross of Jesus Christ. Here, at the cross, the justice of God is fully satisfied and here, at the cross, the grace of God is fully manifested. We give thanks daily that our Savior has endured God's judgment for us and has revealed God's grace towards us on the cross, giving us every reason to be joyful in the Lord as we go forward boldly in His name.
Amen.
May the One who loved us and washed us from our sins in His own blood, making us kings and priests before His God and Father, lead you to a life of repentance and trust. May He also be glorified in the lives of you, His people. He who calls you is faithful, and He will do it. Amen.