By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith (Hebrews 11:7)." "So the Lord said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.' But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God (Genesis 6:7-9)."

IDEA: God keeps faith with those who place their faith in Him.

PURPOSE: To help listeners appreciate that God sees people and events in a way very different from how we do.

Do you think it's easy for us to read the Bible in a way different from the way God intended us to read it?

• For example, when we read the story of the Prodigal Son and his brother, where do we usually put the emphasis, that is, who is the central character?

How important in the parable is the "far country" to which the boy went?

I. When we read the story of Noah and the flood, we may focus on the water and miss what is actually being said. If we focus on the water, we raise some trivial questions.

We can put the catastrophic flood at the center of the story and then wonder how big it really was: was it regional or did it cover the entire earth?

Is the story about the flood? Is the story of the Prodigal Son about the far country?

We can put people at the center of the Noah story and then come up with questions about why would allow the flood to happen to people.

It's like asking why a good God would allow AIDS to destroy millions of people in Africa.

Would God ever allow a hydrogen bomb to explode in our country and destroy us as he did the people in the ancient world?

II. Whenever we read a passage of Scripture, we have to ask, "What is the vision of God in this passage?"

What do we mean by "the vision of God" in a passage? The Bible is not a book about us; it's a book about God.

For example, In Genesis 1 we can be so taken up with the question of evolution that we really do miss the central thrust of that passage.

In 1 Samuel 17, we can be so taken up with David and the slingshot that we miss the fact that David was relying on the promise of God when he went up against the giant.

In the story of the Prodigal Son (Luke 15), we may miss that the story is about the waiting father. That with the seeking woman and searching shepherd as images of the seeking God.

Unless we ask about the vision of God in Genesis 5-9 and elsewhere, we end up with a very human book.