Our Scripture Of The Week Is:

2 Peter 1:3 KJVS
[3] According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:

Some Christians struggle with sin, spiritual weakness, and apathy.

Are such people missing something?

Have they been left unequipped by God?

What have we not been given in order to lead the life God calls us to?

Peter's answer is simple: We're not missing anything. We are fully equipped. But we have a choice about whether or not we'll really use those spiritual tools. This requires effort on our part.

How are we equipped?

It didn't happen naturally. We weren't born with it. We didn't earn it through hard work or good behavior. For those in Christ, God's divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness.

Like salvation, all of this was ours when we came to know God (through faith in Christ of course). As Peter will make clear, knowing God, the source of all life, is the only path to being fully equipped to live as GOD calls us to do.

And how does He call us?

By His own glory and goodness, meaning "moral excellence." Jesus sets the standard for what is good and glorious, calls for us to follow, and fully equips us to make the journey.

Our topic today is:

Passengers In The Ark – All That GOD Commanded Discussion

In verse 16, God has told Noah that He would put an end to all the people on the earth. This is due to their violence and evil (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 6:13).

After making this grave announcement, God gives Noah instructions about how to build an ark (Genesis 6:14–16).

Those directions included the materials Noah should use, the dimensions of the ark, and the features it needed to have. This verse, now, is actually the first time that God reveals how He will destroy all life.

God will bring a killing flood to wipe out everything that breathes. All land-dwelling life will die. In some sense, this is God taking His creation back to a very literal "reset."

In the beginning, God transformed the earth by bringing land and animals out of the water. In the flood, He will send the earth, at least symbolically, back into the state it was in prior to man's creation.

This must have been overwhelming for Noah to hear. God is going to judge mankind by destroying almost all people. That judgment will wreak havoc on the animals and the land, as well. Beyond that, only Noah and his family will survive, and only by constructing a massive ark.

Indeed, it's overwhelming for us to consider, all of these millennia later. God is planning to exercise His authority as Creator and Lord of all the universe by delivering justice against human sinfulness and violence.

As the following verses will reveal, God will also demonstrate His grace by saving one human family and two of every animal so that created life will continue.

Verse 17 summarized God's plan to wipe out all land-dwelling life on earth with a flood.
Before that, God had given Noah instructions on building the huge ark which would carry man and animals to be spared.

Here, God specifically tells Noah that he and his family alone would be saved from the flood. In doing so, God uses a word which will become important for God's people forever: covenant. This term implies more than just a simple contract, or agreement. It carries the idea of a pledge and a promise.

God says that He will establish His covenant with Noah. In this case, God wants Noah to understand that the Lord is obligating Himself to save Noah and his family from the coming destruction. The purpose of God using this language is trust.

A covenant is a very solemn, serious obligation. Its worth is only as good as the person making it.
At the same time, it implies that the one making the covenant is staking their entire reputation on upholding their end of the bargain.

So, when God tells Noah He is making a covenant with him, it implies the most absolutely binding, serious kind of commitment. If Noah cannot place his trust in a covenant from God, he can't place his trust in anything.

God's covenant with Noah—and through Noah with humanity to follow—will be further developed in the coming chapters.

God has revealed to Noah that He will wipe out all land-dwelling life on earth with a great flood. The reason for this is the pervasive wickedness of mankind (Genesis 6:5; Genesis 6:11–12). He has given Noah instructions about building an ark, a huge structure meant to float while carrying men and animals.

Most importantly, God told Noah that he and his family would be saved from the flood by entering the ark. In doing so, God says he will make a covenant with Noah. This implies the most serious, solemn kind of promise. Here, God gives Noah a truly remarkable command: Bring a pair of each kind of animal with you in the ark.

For those in the modern era, particularly those in the west, we may be so familiar with the story that the enormity of this command doesn't affect us. And yet, it must have sounded daunting to Noah.
Not only is he being tasked with building an enormous box, but he has to put an enormous number of animals into it!

Fortunately, God will later suggest that the animals will come on their own (Genesis 6:20). As we will see in the next verse, though, God's command was motivated by God's desire to preserve the good creation that He had made for future generations. This, again, shows God's plan to preserve humanity.

Rather than simply obliterate life, and the human race, God graciously provides to help heal from this catastrophe. This command is universal: Noah will bring two of every kind. Just a few verses from now, God will provide more specific instructions regarding "clean" animals, which will require seven pairs each (Genesis 7:2).

In verse 19, God commanded Noah to bring into the ark with him and his family a male/female pair of every kind of animal. Now God expands and clarifies the command.

First, the animals will include birds, insects, and every other kind of land-dwelling animal.

Second, all of these animals would come to Noah to be kept alive. These creatures would have been necessary to re-populate and replenish the land ravaged by the upcoming flood. With the addition of the detail that the animals would come to him, Noah's impossible task of building the ark and collecting the animals becomes a little less impossible.

God would exercise His supernatural authority over the animals to direct specific pairs to come to the ark to be saved from the flood. Noah isn't being asked to scour the earth capturing unwilling animals. He's being asked to prepare an ark for the ones which come to him. That's still daunting, but much more within the abilities of one man.

We see in this command that God's response to the great wickedness of humanity is not simply to destroy all life, but to preserve life, as well, for a new beginning. The flood is not an act of revenge, but of drastic healing.

God's last instruction to Noah in this extended passage has to do with the practical matter of food. In addition to building the ark and planning for all the animals that will come to the ark to be saved, Noah must consider what food will be necessary for the journey. He and his family will need to acquire and store every kind of food that the animals, birds, and insects will need to eat, and they will need to stockpile enough of it to last for the duration of the trip.

As with other parts of the story, specific details are not given. We don't know what specific kinds of foods were to be brought. All we know is that God's covenant promise to save Noah and his family would require Noah to accept certain responsibilities. Among these are the need to build, plan, store, schedule, and do all the work necessary to be prepared when the floodwaters came.

In this passage, God has given Noah a colossal set of tasks. He is to build a container longer than a football field and taller than a four-story building. He is to make room inside for pairs of every kind of insect and animal. He is to prepare food for his family and these animals. And, the reason for this is so that those inside the ark can survive God's upcoming judgment on a wicked human race: a catastrophic flood of water.

Given all of that, this verse is remarkable in and of itself. Noah demonstrates his faith in and submission to God by simply obeying. He did everything God had commanded, and he did it "just as" God commanded it. We are given very few details in this passage. Surely, Noah was told more in person than we are in this passage.

And yet, there is no doubt that Noah would have had many, many questions and concerns. But, despite these, he acts according to the commands of God. We were told in the beginning of this section (Genesis 6:9) that Noah was a righteous, blameless man who walked faithfully with God.
This verse is evidence of that profound faithfulness.