The Head of the House - Genesis 7
There’s an interesting statement in the OT book of Proverbs, chapter 21. It says, “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.” “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory (or deliverance, belongs to the LORD.”
What does that mean?
It speaks to the relationship between human responsibility and divine sovereignty. What we do matters; we have duties and responsibilities ordained by the living God. But in the end, the outcome of things is up to God, not us. Results depend on His plans.
But isn’t it true that we are so naturally convinced that outcomes depend on us? And so we react to life as if our preservation and security are in our hands.
Our hands are important. In Psalm 90, Moses prays for God to establish the work of his hands. But our hands cannot handle the enormity and the full weight of our lives. Our hands cannot contain the unpredictability and control the madness.
But the hands of God can handle those things. God can handle not only your life, but the lives of all of His people, all who are part of what the Scriptures call God’s “household.” In Ephesians 2, the apostle Paul calls the church “the household of God.” In Galatians 6, he calls the church “the household of faith.”
And repeatedly, Jesus Christ is recognized as the head of the household. By grace through faith, believers are brought into union with Christ the Head of the church, into a relationship that the apostles call being “in Christ.” And those who are in union with Him have assurance, both in this life and the life to come, that He will preserve, secure, and guide us in every part of our lives, even in the turmoil and the confusion of our lives, even in the face of certain destruction; even in death.
We must entrust our lives to God’s hands, walking by faith and obeying Him. But how do we receive this assurance from the head of the house,the assurance we need to trust and obey God?
Genesis 7 speaks to that question, because Noah was a type of Christ. His life foreshadowed or pointed to our Lord and Savior in ways that were planned by God. The life and calling of Noah teaches us two things. You can see them listed for you on page 6 and 7 in the worship guide. We receive the assurance we need to trust and obey as the head of the household leads us in the worship God requires, and to the deliverance God provides.
This is the role of the God-ordained head of the house. And yes, It also speaks to the role of headship in the home and in the church.
Notice verse 1, “Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household.” Noah was the God-appointed head of his family. His sons were married, but for this purpose, they were included in his house.
“Household” is a term we see repeatedly in the Scriptures. In Acts 16 in the NT, when the Philippian jailer says to Paul and Silas, “What must I do to be saved?” they reply, “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.” It then says, “And they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house…and he was baptized at once, he and all his family…And he rejoiced along with his entire household that he had believed in God.”
Notice that we don’t learn about the faith of his wife or his sons or their wives. God showed grace to Noah, and His household benefitted from God’s grace toward the head of their household. This resulted in their inclusion on the ark. Verse 1 is further evidence of a common theme in Scripture: the male headship of the home.
Now look at verse 2. God says, “Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate. Chapter 6 states that Noah took at least two pairs of animals; this is a more detailed description. The clean/unclean terminology becomes clear later in the book of Exodus, when God gives the Law to the Israelites through Moses.
For God’s people at that time there were certain animals which God prohibited them to eat. To do so made them ceremonially unfit to approach God in worship. The main point of this was that man is sinful, and sinners cannot approach God without help. There must be atonement for our sins. God commanded Noah to take these “additional” clean animals for sacrificial worship.
And as the head of his house, Noah was to lead his family, this reboot of humanity, in worship.
Now the coming storm would last, verse 4 says, “forty days and forty nights.” The number “40” comes up throughout Scripture. The Israelites were in the wilderness 40 years, Jesus fasted in the wilderness 40 days. Both were seasons of testing. Noah, and his family, and the boat he built would be tested for a total of 150 days, 40 of which were non-stop rain. During that time, God would destroy every living thing on “the face of the ground,” verse 4 says. Those in the sea would survive. And “Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.”
He had a responsibility not only to God, but to his household, to lead them in trusting God. As I said earlier, male headship in the home is stressed throughout the Bible. The husband is to be the spiritual leader, and to hand this role over to the wife is sinful. Fulfilling the role as head of the home was and still is a moral issue. God required this of Noah, and He requires it of every husband and father.
Verses 6-10 restate some facts we already heard, as the biblical writers so often do. It’s worth noting that especially early on, the Scriptures were primarily read aloud to people. Repetition would help comprehension. But the repetition is also for the purpose of emphasis.
The point is clear: God requires worship according to His commands, and the head of the house leads the way.
And notice verse 11 again: Noah’s age is stated, even the exact day the flood began! There’s a historical aspect to this of course, but also, it tells us that Noah lived a life. 600 years is not “normal” for us, but that was normal in his time. Noah grew up; he had a family. He got older. He went through things. Certain things happened to him at each age, just like you and me.
I presume he was pretty mature and wise by age 600! He was also in pretty good shape to build an ark longer than a football field!
And by grace, he fulfilled his God-given role as the spiritual leader through a terrifying event, see the end of verse 11, “all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.” There is a tremendous amount of water under the earth. God’s judgment came from above and beneath. Total destruction.
But through the head of this household, the human race would continue, the seed of the woman would survive, this family would be preserved, and God would be glorified. And Noah led not simply from destruction, but most importantly, to God.
Male headship in the home is simply God’s designated order. 1 Corinthians 11 says, “the head of every man is Christ, the head of a wife is her husband.” This does not diminish the value or role of the woman in any way. The woman supports worship and spiritual health in the home, but the man leads the way.
This is the order in the church as well. God appoints officers to care for His household, shepherds and servants of Christ. In 1 Timothy 3, Paul gives the qualifications for elders and deacons. An elder, who 1 Peter 5 calls a shepherd of the church, “must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God’s church?” Deacons as well, Paul says, must manage “their children and their own households well.”
The officer qualifications of the NT address only men. The apostles were all male. All the books in the canon of Scripture have male authors. The role of headship in the church matches what God requires in the home.
Men, are you making every effort to spiritually lead as the head of your families? If you feel unequipped, that’s understandable, but are you seeking to become equipped? Public worship on the Lord’s Day, along with private worship (just you and God) should fuel your spiritual leadership of your family. It is God’s plan for worship amid the world’s chaos, and also, for deliverance from the world’s danger.
Look at how essential Noah’s pursuit of holiness turned out for his family. Verse 13, “On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark.”
Understand this: Noah’s walk with God played a part in their deliverance. “The horse is made ready for the day of battle, but the victory belongs to the LORD.” It is God who spares and saves them. It was ultimately God who provided the ark. The glory belongs to God.
In these next verses Moses again states the animals that entered the ark, but then notice the end of verse 16, “And the LORD shut him in.” God commanded him, God shut him in. God deals with the head of the house. In many ways, Noah is a second Adam, Adam was the first head of humanity, Noah the second.
Now in verse 17 the flood begins, but recall from Genesis 6 that Noah was to cover the inside and out of the ark with pitch: some kind of tar-like material. He must have double and tripled-checked every crack, every inch of that vessel! After all, it wasn’t going to hold only animals, but his dear family. Noah played a role in their deliverance, it was all in God’s hands.
Verse [17], “The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. [18] The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters.” God provided deliverance by grace, and notice something about this ark: verse 18 says it simply “floated.” One scholar I read insightfully pointed out that the ark had no steering wheel; it had no rudder.
The hands of the head of the house built the ark and led them inside it, but when the storm began, what was true all along became crystal clear: deliverance always was and would always be in God’s hands. God judges the sin of the world, but the head of the household leads his family to the deliverance God provides.
Men, I expect that you recognize the dangers in the world that await your children. I expect that you understand the attempts to undermine and even dismantle the truth. Surely you understand the challenges of life. You know the world is filled with evil today.
How can you lead your home toward the deliverance God provides? The gospel of Jesus teaches us how.
Because you see, Jesus is that perfect head of the household to whom we must all look. For you to lead your family, you must seek to be led by Christ. And for you to be led by Christ, you must place your trust in Him daily. For all the church: men, women, children, married, single, younger, older – Christ is the perfect head of the house who leads us in the worship God requires.
He is our perfect priest. Hebrews 4 says, [14] Since…we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession.” R.C. Sproul summarizes. He writes, “If it weren't for Christ, our worship would not be acceptable to God at all. It's Christ who makes our worship acceptable and pleasing to God.”
And Jesus is the perfect head who leads us to the deliverance God provides. 1 Thessalonians 1, it is “Jesus who delivers us from the wrath to come.”
In Him we find assurance; in Him we are made confident. We place ourselves in His hands. We all look for preservation and security in something: in a group of friends, in a family, in a church, in a certain school or neighborhood or industry or field. In a certain role, in some club. In certain clothes, in a certain car to drive around in. We go to the places we love the most to find peace and comfort: in the country, in the city, in the mountains or the beach.
Those can all be good things to be “in,” but to know the real security, real hope, and real salvation, you must “in Jesus Christ,” trusting Him by repentance and faith, and looking each moment to Him, the living Head of the house of God.
Let’s bow in prayer.