GOD’S WORD FOR YOU
GENESIS 6:14
14 So make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and coat it inside and out with pitch.
There were two reasons that God sent the Flood. The first was to punish sin. All of mankind, with the exception of Noah’s family, had turned to unrepentant sin and unbelief. The second reason for the Flood was to save the faithful.
God was about to tell Noah what this punishment was going to be, but here he begins by telling Noah to get building. The object? An ark. The word tebah only occurs in the Bible in the writings of Moses, and the other instance is in the basket that his mother used to place him in the Nile as a baby (Exodus 2:3). A tebah appears to be a simple chest, box, or basket that can either sit in the corner like a sewing basket or float in water.
The Hebrew term for the wood is gopher, not the pest from our yards, but an unknown variety of wood, perhaps cypress wood or pine. The ancient Phoenicians used cypress wood for ship building. In more recent times, oak was preferred for the hulls of ships (15th-19th centuries). For his famous voyage, Columbus’ ships had oak keels and frames with pine decking and planking. Cypress (a pine found in Galilee) is identified as a wood used in building ships in Ezekiel 27:6, along with oak. Luther comments that translators in his time also thought of varieties of pine, fir or cedar, but we can’t be certain about what tree this was. There are many varieties that would have been suitable; “gopher” was probably an excellent local tree when Noah lived.
The word the Lord used for “rooms” is qenim, “nests.” This does not imply birds’ nesst, but appropriate quarters for animals of every kind. “Bears, sheep, deer, and horses did occupy one area, but each kind had its own special quarters” (Luther). There will be more about the internal arrangement of the ark in verses 15-16.
Noah was told to waterproof the hull (or walls) both inside and outside with pitch. This substance is a natural tar (asphalt) that bubbles up in pools here and there in the ancient Middle East, especially today in the southern region of the Dead Sea, southern Turkey (near Ararat), the borders of Iran and Iraq, and in western Syria as well. Those who suggest “bitumen” must understand that ancient applications of bitumen, either hot or cold, could erupt into flames or dissolve in water causing the waterproofing to be lost completely. “Pitch” (some kind of tar) seems like a better translation choice here.
If we return to the beginning of the verse, we hear God tell Noah, “Make for yourself an ark.” There is comfort in these words. The preposition “for yourself” has a pronoun attached, telling Noah that this was not only something he was building for his children, but for himself. He was going to be rescued from the coming destruction, and since the object was a boat, it was clear that the disaster was going to be a flood. This would be such an immense flood that all life that lived out of water would be destroyed.
By saying these things, we are taking the words of the text at face value. This is no fairy tale, nor allegory, nor a myth. It is the account of what happened to Noah and to all of mankind. Professor Siegbert Becker has something to say about this:
“We are often told that if we insist on reading the Bible in this way, taking the words at face value, we will only make ourselves and our message ridiculous in the eyes of modern educated people, and that if we want to win them for the church, we shall have to adjust our teaching to conform to the cultural patterns of the day and to the assured results of modern science. But such arguments always assume that if there is a conflict between the opinions of men and the teachings of the Bible, it is the teaching of the Bible that stands in need of revision, whereas we ought to remember that it is the evil, unbelieving heart of man that needs to be renewed and the corrupt and blinded reason of man that needs to be enlightened. To unconverted man ‘the things of the Spirit’ have always been, and will always be, ‘foolishness’ (1 Corinthians 2:14). Therefore let us continue to teach the Word in all its simplicity and purity.”
Consider the grace God that pours out on us, wave after wave of grace and blessing out of the fullness of God (John 1:16). If he had told us that we should build a new house, and that this act would rescue us from sin and from death and all temptations, wouldn’t we spend every cent we had to construct a house for ourselves and for the people we love, and with every spare moment wouldn’t we go around telling everyone else to do the same, until the hardware store ran out of nails and the lumber yard ran out of boards? But he has not done this. He hasn’t even told us to build a boat to save our physical lives from an approaching flood. In his mercy and concern for us, he tells us to trust in his Son, Jesus Christ, who was crucified with nails to some boards long ago, and by doing so, he atoned for all our sins, paying the terrible price for our transgression and failure, and that he has lifted all shame and guilt from us forever. There is nothing to do but believe it, trust it, and let our natural thanks escape from our lips and fingertips into songs of praise and deeds of gratitude.
“Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved– you and your household” (Acts 16:31).
We pray: “Deliver us from all evils, present and eternal, from sin, death, the tyranny of the devil, public and private misfortunes; and give us eternal life and joy. Amen.”
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
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Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, New Ulm, Minnesota
God’s Word for You – Genesis 6:14 make yourself an ark