The 300 Cubits Ark

Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it: the length of the ark 300 cubits, its breadth 50 cubits, and its height 30 cubits. Make a roof for the ark, and finish it to a cubit above, and set the door of the ark in its side. Make it with lower, second, and third decks. For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female. Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive. Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten, and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. 

Genesis 6:11-22 

 So God decided to do something about the horrible things that are going on on the earth after The Fall. The obscenity and the perversion of men are such unbearable sight. But out of the muddy water grew a lily too hard to miss. Noah was considered righteous among the unrighteous. Out of the uncountable people on the earth, God decided to reveal a terrible decision to him alone.

In this terrible news, comes with good news and sweet promise of salvation for the righteous. It has to come in 300 cubits long (about 135m), 50 cubits wide (about 22.5m) and 30 cubits high (about 13.5m). It has to have a roof, about one cubit higher. The great door must be build in the side of the body. It must come with 3-leveled decks with rooms in it. Get this done with gopher wood and cover it with pitch inside out. 

The method to salvation given to Noah was very specific. It was a precisely-engineered and ingeniously-designed gigantic ark. This has to be done to the dot with extreme care and precision, otherwise when the big water comes, it will end up in wreckage.

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God's requirement for salvation has always been specific. It must specifically come from Him and Him alone. It must be done according to what He wants. No other way around, no cutting corners, no shortcut. He will not pleased with anything less than what He requires.

Consider Cain and Abel:

Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, and Cain a worker of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground, and Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat portions. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Cain and his offering he had no regard. So Cain was very angry, and his face fell. The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your face fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. Its desire is for you, but you must rule over it.” 

Genesis 4:2-7

Here in this portion of the Scripture we see a contrasting picture of what God choose to be acceptable and unacceptable. Now, there are basically 3 arguments available to explain why God did not favour Cain's offering. Some says that God required animal sacrifice and Cain offered fruits instead; some says that Cain's offering was prepared carelessly and poor in quality; while some says that Cain and Abel's offerings were both acceptable but it was Cain's attitude and heart while offering that makes the difference.

Regardless of the arguments, I do not think this is what is important here. The Bible does not give a specific and clear answer as to why Cain's offering was rejected. All these arguments are made based on circumstantial evidences found all over the Bible and are all speculations and extrapolations.

I think the important message here is this: God is sovereign over His creation. God, as Creator, has the ultimate say as to what is "right" and what is "wrong". It is His "right" that makes it right, and His "wrong" that makes it wrong. It was His to determine which offering is acceptable and which is not.

Internet author, Peter Galling wrote on AnswersInGenesis.org:

We must come to grips with one thing: God, as Creator, is sovereign over His creation. While there are proximate reasons for God’s decrees, what ultimately makes “right” right and “wrong” wrong? God’s sovereign choice. This does not mean God is capricious or arbitrary; God is always reasonable because He is the creator of reason. If God’s actions seem to conflict with or transcend man’s sense of “reason,” that doesn’t mean God is wrong; it means His thoughts are not our thoughts, and His ways are not our ways (Isaiah 55:8). He respects one offering and rejects another, ultimately, for His own reasons and pleasure—and isn’t that the Creator’s prerogative? Again, this isn’t to say He is arbitrary; His Word gives us all the knowledge of Him and the reasoning we need to understand and obey.  

https://answersingenesis.org/bible-characters/cain/why-didnt-god-respect-cains-offering/

 God is sovereign, and so is His standard of right and wrong decides what is morally right and wrong. Just as we recite the Rukunegara (Malay for "National Principles") declaring the Supremacy of the Constitution and the Rule of Law, the Constitution and Law decide what is legal and illegal in the behaviour of all Malaysians.

God's sovereignty requires us to rely on Him and His way to settle justice with Him. Salvation is specifically His and only fulfilling what He requires will be acceptable as atonement for our sins. But somehow, we have a tendency to work our ways to Him. We think to ourselves that if we offer up in good intention and hard labor, we may please Him and earns His favor for salvation. Well, I believe Cain offered the fruits of the ground in good intention too; he may ever worked hard for it (he was a farmer.), yet what does not meet what God requires will remain unacceptable to Him.

We deceive ourselves that there are many ways to salvation and eternal life. The Bible tells us that the door to salvation is narrow (Matthew 7:14, Luke 13:24). It is narrow because there's only one way that works: God's Way, the way that God specifically spoke of in the beginning of the banishment of Adam and Eve, as if the plan was already there just in case they sin (Oh well, it's true that God already had the plan before they even fall.)
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Just before we start thinking God as a grumpy old man who constantly makes noise until his last penny is paid, I must remind you behind every judgement, there is a even great grace and mercy. God wouldn't leave us just as we are. He can't, He just loves us too much to do that. When we fall, there is always a way that leads us back to Him. He didn't need to, but still He did. He didn't need to keep Noah, He could have just wipe Noah off along with it and restart everything, but still He did.

God's justice and grace always work hand-in-hand. You cannot see God demanding justice without offering us a way to be forgiven. Look at Cain. When his offering was not accepted, he did not just drop dead and die. God gave him a chance to right his wrong. He had a choice to heed God and make change to his offering, but instead he gave into his sins.

When God decided to wipe all flesh off, still Noah was given time to persuade their repentance. If the people would turn away, surely they too will be saved, but of course, they did not.
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I do not want to keep you focus too much on God's wrath until it distort your view of this loving God. He's beyond all that. Instead, I want to keep you focus on the salvation that He offered to all mankind. The only method in which His requirement for atonement can be paid in full. The animal sacrifice given by the Law of Moses was a foreshadow of the complete one. The animal sacrifice simply cannot satisfy His justice, because all creations are corrupted and no perfect corruption can fulfil the holy wrath of God. While all hope may seems lost, God offered the incorruptible, perfect Lamb for all mankind, that the Lamb may be sacrificed and satisfy His requirement once and for all.

You do not need to pay for this sacrifice, because money simply can't buy. It is given freely and graciously because God loves us unconditionally.

Jesus said: "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. (John 14:6)" Jesus is the only way that can satisfy what God requires of us. No other way. Regardless whether it was a good deed done with good intention. It simply will not work. You simply can't offer to clean up the house of the Judge when the Law requires you to pay $5000 for theft. You can't pay for your crime with something the Law does not require. You cannot save yourself from the terrifying flood with anything else but the ark God instructed Noah to build. In the same way, God requires a flawless sacrifice as payment for our sins, and only Jesus can pay that: with His own, perfect life.

No other way but Jesus.