“Noah... Prepared an Ark to the Saving of His House”

MOSES 8:19-30; GENESIS 6-9; 11:1-9 

Whenever the Lord sees that his children make poor choices, he sends missionaries and prophets to warn them of the consequences of said choices, then gives them opportunities to make different choices with promises of better consequences.  He also ALWAYS gives them plenty of time and many chances to change.

After Enoch and the city of Zion were translated, Enoch's son Methuselah was left to hold the priesthood,  preach and warn.  The people were so wicked that the Lord first sent a famine to turn their hearts - no dice.  Finally, after many chances and generations of prophets the Lord had to set a time-line for destruction and to start over. Noah was the last of these prophets.

 17 And the Lord said unto Noah: My Spirit shall not always ^astrive with man, for he shall know that all ^bflesh^c shall die; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years; and if men do not repent, I will send in the ^dfloods upon them. (Moses 8:17)

Is there anything that could have saved these people? Is there anything that could have been done? Yep, all they had to do was what any of us need to do.

  23 And it came to pass that Noah continued his ^apreaching unto the people, saying: Hearken, and give heed unto my words; 24 ^aBelieve and repent of your sins and be ^bbaptized in the name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, even as our fathers, and ye shall receive the Holy Ghost, that ye may have all things made ^cmanifest; and if ye do not this, the floods will come in upon you; nevertheless they hearkened not.(Moses 8:23-24)

When we choose to hearken to the words of any prophets of any generation (because they ALL testify of the same thing), we choose to believe in Jesus Christ, repent of our sins, show that commitment by being baptized and receive the Holy Ghost, then weekly renewing that covenant by taking the sacrament each week. This, we are promised, will save us from all kinds of "floods".

Still, how bad does the world have to be? COMPLETE destruction seems a little harsh even for God. In Moses 8:22, 28-29 we learn,

 22 And God saw that the ^awickedness of men had become great in the earth; and every man was lifted up in the ^bimagination of the thoughts of his heart, being only evil continually. 28 The ^aearth was ^bcorrupt before God, and it was filled with violence.  29 And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ^away upon the earth. 

It seems the actual planet was corrupt (rotten, decayed) because it was FILLED with violent people.  Not just a few people - ALL flesh - EVERY man - being ONLY evil CONTINUALLY. It seems the arrogant and prideful attitude of these folks is what brought them to this state as explained by Neal A. Maxwell 

"...corruption and violence increase as people become more and more selfish."(Ensign, Nov.1990).

We decided the word imagination as used in vs. 22 did not mean creativity so much as the choice to believe ones own delusions and deception. Was destruction really too harsh? Was it absolutely necessary? What about the children, the innocents? Based on Mormon 2:13-15, Hugh Nibley teaches,

"There comes a time when the general defilement of a society becomes so great that the rising generation is put under undue pressure and cannot be said to have a fair choice between the way of light and the way of darkness. When such a point is reached the cup of iniquity is full, and the established order that has passed the point of no return and neither can nor will change its ways must be removed physically and forcibly if necessary from the earth, whether by war, plague, famine, or upheavals of nature." (Collected Works of Hugh Nibley, Vol.6, Part.5, Ch.11, p.140).

From that perspective, the great flood was the most merciful choice.

The Lord needed to act in order to save mankind and the earth. There were only 8 humans that weren't turned against God and each other - and even some of them were a little sketchy.

Noah, 120 years before it started raining, was commanded to build a huge boat and preach repentance to a generation that he knew would reject him, mock him, try to kill him and then be destroyed.  His faith was such however, that as far as we know he was not a shipbuilder or animal trainer, yet was able to construct a 5-story ark and fill it with the necessary animals. We thought that his faith probably grew with each board he nailed onto the frame.  His commitment was such that along with the animals and his family, he boarded that ark 7 days before it started raining. Spencer W. Kimball remarked,

“there was no evidence of rain and flood. … His warnings were considered irrational. … How foolish to build an ark on dry ground with the sun shining and life moving forward as usual! But time ran out. The ark was finished. The floods came. The disobedient and rebellious were drowned. The miracle of the ark followed the faith manifested in its building” (Faith Precedes the Miracle [1972], 5–6).

This quote made me think how many "recommendations" from the prophets have seemed irrational to me? How many principles have I blown off thinking they don't really apply to me? I could count more than I wanted to admit. I'm learning to "hearken" better however, and am being blessed for it.

After the rain stopped, The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, the ark stopped floating, and the earth was cleansed (or baptized according to Pres. J. F. Smith), 8 months in all, Noah sent out a dove to see if the waters were abated from off the ground (Moses 8:8). I love the symbolism of the dove (a symbol of the Holy Ghost) bringing back an olive branch (a symbol of Jesus Christ and his people) and then the dove landing somewhere on the earth and staying. The earth could receive the Holy Ghost and have peace on it again. The gospel of Jesus Christ could once again be taught and be a source of healing.

The Lord then makes a covenant with Noah and all of us that He will never destroy the whole earth again.  The rainbow is the token of that covenant.  A covenant is a two-way promise however, and though it doesn't state what our end of the bargain is, I imagine if we as a human race do what we can to keep peace on the earth and to keep the earth from being corrupted with violence by our small acts of kindness, we will continue to see rainbows.

We are spouses, parents, friends, teachers and leaders like Noah -without much, if any, training.  We, like Noah, need to build personal arks to keep us and those for whom we have stewardship from drowning. It seems a little overwhelming. We are not without resources however.  We have prophets, scriptures, "For the Strength of Youth", hymns, general conference and by keeping our covenants, our most important resource, the Holy Ghost. For every small act of obedience, we secure a board onto our arks. Every time we fast and pray, or exercise or go to the temple, we strengthen our personal arks.  Every time we bite our tongue and say something kind instead to our spouse or go on a date, we strengthen our marriage arks. Every time we turn off the TV and play a game with our kids, or read our scriptures together, we strengthen our family arks. We can make our arks "tight" with commitment and covenant.  In Ether 6:7 we read,

"And it came to pass that when they were buried in the deep there was no water that could hurt them, their vessels being tight like unto a dish, and also they were tight like unto the ark of Noah; therefore when they were encompassed about by many waters they did cry unto the Lord, and he did bring them forth again upon the top of the waters"

The storms will come, the temptations will remain, but our choices and attitudes will make our arks strong and tight like Noah's. They may get battered around a bit, but if "we cry unto the Lord", they will be "brought forth again upon the TOP of the waters" and can float safely upon a sea of faith.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUuexH-3dBo