Old Testament # 6
“Noah …
Prepared an Ark to the Saving of His House”
Moses 8;
Genesis 6–9, 11
Introduction
I’m in 3rd Nephi right now—I just like reading through
the Book of Mormon cover to cover—I know Elder Bednar would have me do it
otherwise, but I have been doing that since President Benson asked me to. It’s
my OCD mind—I like consecutive. And this might be the last year that we get to
do things consecutively in Sunday School. I’m OK with that, obviously, since it
is what the Brethren want, and it will give us a broader understanding of our
Standard Works and how they relate to each other. Certainly the challenge we
undertook this time last year of reading all the references to Christ in all
four Standard Works helped illustrate the interconnectivity. That being said,
third Nephi is a time of great upheaval, both physical and spiritual for the people
of the Americas. And our lesson this week is a spiritual and physical upheaval
for the people of the Old World. Several times the Lord says, “The earth was
corrupt. . . . the earth is filled with violence,” (see Moses 8:28–30; Genesis
6:12–13). And we are experiencing it right now in our day and age. As the
French say, “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose,” nuttin
changes. But the promise is there that the Lord will not destroy the earth
again (see JST Genesis 9:6, 15).
1. The people reject Noah’s call to repentance; Noah
builds an ark. Moses 8:19–30; Genesis
6:5–22; 7:1–10.
Who is Noah? When I first joined the Church, I was a
little perplexed with how Noah could be Gabriel when Moroni was Moroni, both as
a man and as an angel. But here is Joseph Smith
“The Lord revealed to the Prophet
Joseph Smith many things in relation to the ancient prophets and the keys which
they held. In a discourse on the Priesthood July 2, 1839, the Prophet made
known what the Lord had revealed to him in relation to the missions of the
ancient prophets and seers. In the course of his remarks he said this: “Noah,
who is Gabriel; he stands next in authority to Adam in the Priesthood; he was
called of God to this office, and was the father of all living in his day, and
to him was given the dominion. These men held keys first on earth, and then in
heaven.” [Smith, Teachings, pp. 157–58.]
“Luke reveals the coming of the angel
Gabriel to Zacharias to inform him that his wife would bear a son. He also
appeared to Mary and announced the birth of our Lord and Savior. Gabriel then
is Noah according to this revelation.” (Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions,
3:138–41.)
I’m just going to leave that there for you!
As with all prophets their calling includes calling the
people to repentance. And just like Cain they do not want to hear—“I’m fine the
way I am—in my eyes I am doing everything right and that is all that matters.” However,
as we discussed in Sunday School, a call to repentance is a loving course
correction—one degree off ends in a huge diversion[1]
How do we build our own ark? Here are some insights from
the manual:
President Ezra Taft Benson said, “The
revelation to produce and store food may be as essential to our temporal
welfare today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah” (in
Conference Report, Oct. 1987, 61; or Ensign, Nov. 1987, 49).
Elder W. Don Ladd taught: “When
it starts raining, it is too late to begin building the ark. … We … need to
listen to the Lord’s spokesmen. We need to calmly continue to move ahead and
prepare for what will surely come. We need not panic or fear, for if we are
prepared, spiritually and temporally, we and our families will survive any
flood. Our arks will float on a sea of faith if our works have been steadily
and surely preparing for the future” (in Conference Report, Oct. 1994, 37; or Ensign,
Nov. 1994, 29).
It is hard to store food when you know you will only be
in your apartment for a few months. But maybe this is a time to learn how to
use stored food—experiment with recipes, so that if the time comes that you
need to use it for a length of time, you are equipped to do so. There are many
helps for this on the Provident Living website: https://providentliving.lds.org/?lang=eng
2. The Lord cleanses the earth with a flood. Genesis
7:11–24; 8; 9:8–17.
Enoch saw this would happen to his posterity. Noah was
his great grandson (Enoch-Methuselah-Lamech-Noah), and it was Enoch who had the
promise from the Lord that the earth would never again be destroyed by flood (Moses
7:50–52). But because the earth was corrupt and filled with violence, it had to
be done. Although not explicitly stated, can we infer that Noah had the sealing
power and, as Nephi son of Helaman replaced war with famine in Helaman 11:3–5,
since the JST and Moses say that the Lord sent the flood because Noah
repented that God had created man (Moses 8:25–26), that it was Noah’s faith and
sealing power that brought about the flood? Obviously in both cases the Lord
created the famine and the flood. I’m going to leave that one with you also.
Except to say that I can find no General Conference commentary on these verses.
But: President John Taylor taught: “God destroyed the wicked of that generation
with a flood. Why did He destroy them? He destroyed them for their benefit, if
you can comprehend it” (in Journal of Discourses, 24:291).
We all know the story of the dove and the raven, and we
know, don’t we, that far more than two of each kind went into the Ark. They had
to eat after all. It is critical that we follow the JST of Genesis 9. But the
earth is renewed, almost as it was when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden,
and Noah, like Adam, builds an altar and offers thanks.
3. The people build the tower of Babel. Genesis
11:1–9
Renewal didn’t last long, did it? All we have between
Noah and his sons and Abraham is this short account of the Tower of Babel. The
tower was an attempt to “reach Heaven.” Basically to put them on a par with
God. Or at least to go visit. But His physical presence is not necessary for
us, only His spiritual presence. The resulting confounding of language is a
little hard to understand, but if we look at it through the Book of Ether, we
know that it might not have been instantaneous, and it wasn’t irreversible.
With God nothing is impossible.
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