Genesis Chapter 7
A. The final preparations of Noah for the flood.
The Flood The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. Genesis 6:11-12
Many speculate that the entire earth was not flooded, however there are land animal fossils found in the deepest canyons and sea life fossils found at the highest altitudes all over the world, not just in one region. Noah Noah is mentioned as one of three righteous men (with Job and Daniel; Ezek 14:14, 20).
He is included in the genealogies of Abraham and Jesus (1 Chron 1:4; Luke 3:36). There are specific New Testament references by Christ (Matt 24:37-39; Luke 17:26), Peter (1 Pet 3:20; 2 Pet 2:5) and Paul (Heb 11:7).
And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. Genesis 6:13-14
The English word ark came down through the Latin word arca, which means “a chest or coffer.” (The word for the “ark” of the covenant is a different word—aron.) The ark, today would be more similar to a barge than a ship and was a non-powered vessel. The word “pitch” or kaphar(רַפָּכ (means “to cover,” purge or make an atonement for (translated “atonement” in 70 other places in scripture). “Pitch it within and without.” Why? One possibility would be for preservation of the ruins for a prophetic role.
And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. Genesis 6:15-16
A cubit is approximately 18 - 25 inches. The Hebrew word sohar can best be translated “light” or “window.” The window was approximately eighteen inches in height and probably extended completely around the ark to admitted light and air. Naval architects have studied the renderings and measurements and these proportions are ideal. The ark had only one door, and that is important because Christ said, “I am the way” and “I am the door to the sheepfold,” and He is the door of the Ark, and gate of Tabernacle. No alternative arrangements available. All theological arguments ended at the door to the ark.
And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee. Genesis 6:17-18
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. Genesis 6:19-20
And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Genesis 6:21-22
1. (1) God invites Noah into the ark.
Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.
The phrase “Come thou” is the same invitation the Lord Jesus gives today to all mankind. “Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matt 11:28; in Hebrew Noah means “rest”). (This also was the call to John in Rev 4:1.)
a. Come into the ark: The idea is that God was in the ark and would be with Noah in the ark, so He called Noah to come into the ark with Him.
i. “Notice that the Lord did not say to Noah, ‘Go into the ark,’ but ‘Come,’ plainly implying that God was himself in the ark, waiting to receive Noah and his family into the big ship that was to be their place of refuge while all the other people on the face of the earth were drowned.” (Spurgeon)
b. I have seen that you are righteous: Noah spent the years before the flood in active obedience. He not only believed God would send the flood; he obeyed what God told him to do in preparation for it.
2. (2-9) Noah gathers all the animals and his family.
“You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
The key question will emerge: How did Noah know which were “clean” and “unclean”? These were ceremonial distinctions! (“By sevens” in Hebrew means “seven, seven” probably meaning seven of each, male and female totalling fourteen of each “clean” kind.)
They were in the ark for seven days before anything happened, yet they still obeyed God’s commandments. “…destroy: Heb. “blot out.”
“…after…”: or, on the seventh day. “…windows”: or, “floodgates.
a. You shall take with you: Some wonder how the animals came to Noah or how Noah got them. In Genesis 6:20 God said the animals would come to Noah by migration. In some animals, God has created a migratory instinct (which can operate in an amazing manner). It is no difficulty for Him to miraculously place an urge to migrate to the ark in each pair of animals He planned to be preserved in the ark.
i. “This largest and most complete menagerie that was ever gathered together was not collected by human skill; divine power alone could have accomplished such a task as that.” (Spurgeon)
b. Two by two they went into the ark to Noah: God never has a problem getting the animals to do what He wants. Only man is more stupid than the animals. The ox knows its owner and the donkey its master’s crib; but Israel does not know, My people do not consider (Isaiah 1:3).
3. (10-12) God brings the waters upon the earth.
And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
a. After seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth: Noah, the animals, and his family had to wait in the ark seven days for the rain to come. They had never seen rain up to this time. This was a real test of faith – to wait a week after more than 100 years of preparation.
b. The windows of heaven were opened: This is when the heavens containing the great waters that were above the firmament (Genesis 1:7) opened up. These waters formed the huge so-called blanket of water in the upper part of the earth’s atmosphere since creation.
c. The fountains of the great deep that were broken up: Waters came up from under the earth also, no doubt accompanied by great geological catastrophe.
d. Forty days and forty nights: The number 40 becomes associated with testing and purification, especially before entering into something new and significant. This is seen in:
· Moses’ time on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18, Deuteronomy 9:25).
· The spies’ trip to Canaan (Numbers 13:25).
· Israel’s time in the wilderness (Numbers 14:33, 32:13).
· Elijah’s miraculous journey to Sinai (1 Kings 19:8).
· Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Mark 1:13).
4. (13-16) All enter the ark and the door is shut.
On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark—they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.
The “shutting him in” intimated that Noah had become the special object of divine care and protection, and that to those without the season of grace was over (Matt 25:10). Only one door. God shut it. Perfect security: not one person or animal was lost (v.23, et al.).
a. Went in as God had commanded him: This summary statement describes how everything was fulfilled exactly as the LORD had spoken. All things were ready for the flood God would bring upon the earth.
b. And the LORD shut him in: Noah did not have to shut the door on anyone’s salvation; God did it. After the same pattern, it is never our job to disqualify people from salvation. If the door is to be shut, let God shut the door.
i. God kept the door open until the last possible minute, but there came a time when the door had to shut. When the door is open, it is open, but when it is shut, it is shut. Jesus is He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens (Revelation 3:7).
ii. The ark was salvation for Noah, but condemnation for the world. There were no second chances for those left out. “Yea, when the one hundred and twenty years were over, and God’s Spirit would no longer strive with men, there stood the great ark with its vast door wide open, and still Noah continued to preach and to declare that all who would pass within that open portal into the ark of safety should be preserved from the coming destruction. Outside that door death would reign universally, but all would be peace within” (Spurgeon).
B. Noah in the ark during the flood.
1. (17-23) The flood described.
Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.
The language is not consistent with the theory of a partial deluge.
“the breath…”: Heb. “the breath of the spirit of life.”
a. The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth: The description of the flood in this passage is so complete and specific that it is impossible to reconcile a local flood with the Biblical record. Despite the claims of some, this is the description of a global deluge.
i. If this were not a global flood, then the ark itself would be unnecessary. If this were only a local flood, then God’s promise to never again bring such a flood is false. If this were only a local flood, the Bible is wrong when it traces all of humanity back to Noah’s sons and other passages that speak of a universal flood (such as Psalm 104:5-9 and 2 Peter 3:5-6).
ii. Literally, hundreds of people groups have their own accounts and legends of the flood. One of the most remarkable is the Babylonian account, which is similar to the Genesis account in many ways and is clearly drawn from it. Since all mankind came from Noah’s sons, all mankind remembers the flood.
iii. Boice specifically cites the legends of the Samo-Kubo tribe of New Guinea, the Athapascan Indians of America, the Papago Indians of Arizona, Brazilian tribes, Peruvian Indians, African Hottentots, natives of Greenland, native Hawaiian islanders, Hindus, Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Australian natives, the Welsh, Celts, Druids, Siberians, and Lithuanians.
iv. Of the more than 200 cultures that have their own account of the flood the following aspects of the story are common:
· 88% describe a favored family.
· 70% attribute survival to a boat.
· 95% say the sole cause of the catastrophe is a flood.
· 66% say that the disaster is due to man’s wickedness.
· 67% record that animals are also saved.
· 57% describe that the survivors end up on a mountain.
· Many of the accounts also specifically mention birds being sent out, a rainbow, and eight persons being saved.
b. And the mountains were covered: This took a lot of water, but there is plenty of water on the earth today to do this – but because of the topography of the earth, the water is collected into oceans. If the earth were a perfect sphere, the oceans would cover the land to a depth of two-and-a-half to three miles. Before the cataclysmic flood, the earth may have been much nearer to a perfect sphere.
i. “If Moses had meant to describe a partial deluge upon only a small part of the earth, he used very misleading language; but if he meant to teach was that the deluge was universal, he used the very word which we might have expected that he would use.” (Spurgeon)
c. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died: In the Scopes Monkey Trial (in America, 1925), Clarence Darrow humiliated William Jennings Bryan by asking him if he believed every word in the Bible. When Bryan said he did, Darrow asked him how the fish drowned in the flood. Bryan didn’t know the answer, gave a long and confused speech, and died the next day. If only he would have known the Bible better, he would have known it says this about the breath of the spirit of life. The fish did not die in the flood; only animals with the breath of life in them died, the animals on dry land.
i. God did just as He said. Virtually all of Noah’s contemporaries did not believe God would do just as He said. Though it took 120 years, God demonstrated that He keeps His promises and is totally faithful.
2. (24) The flood lasted 150 days without receding.
Other Flood Traditions
Egyptian Druids
Babylonian Polynesian
Persian Mexicans
Greek Peruvians
Hindu American Indians
Chinese Greenland
Universal or Local Flood?
• In Genesis 7:4, 23, it says, “every living thing destroyed.” This assumes that man and animal life had spread far beyond the Mesopotamian Plain in the centuries or the millennia since the Fall.
• All high mountains under the entire heavens were covered (Gen 7:19). The text states clearly that “all the high mountains under the entire heaven were covered” to a depth of at least 23 feet (15 cubits).
• The Ark rested on the mountains of Ararat (Gen 8:4). Finally the ark is said to have come to rest “on the mountains of Ararat,” a range that reaches over 16,000 feet in height (Gen 8:4). A local flood might have brought them to the foothills. But it says “on” the mountains.
• God’s Promise: “never again” will there be a universal flood (Gen 9:11, 15).
And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.
a. One hundred and fifty days: Some suggest that God put some or many of these animals into a period of hibernation for this period, meaning that less food, space, and supervision was be needed.
i. God provides many animals today with an amazing instinct for hibernation. It would be no difficulty for Him to miraculously impart a unique instinct for these particular animals.
b. One hundred and fifty days: Safe in the ark, God sustained Noah and his family through this time of catastrophe and judgment. Shut in and sheltered from the storm and flood, they were safe.
i. “Noah underwent burial to all the old things that he might come out into a new world, and even so we die in Christ that we may live with him.” (Spurgeon)
Why?
• Dinosaurs quickly drowned and buried? If something dies, it will usually rot and disintegrate, but a fossil implies suddenness and pressure. Dinosaurs died suddenly.
• Mammoths that drowned have been found in Alaska and quick-frozen in Siberia? In studying the fossils, there is evidence of food in their mouths and speculation of something happening “suddenly.”
Also, the animals had sub-tropical vegetation in their mouths. It speaks to a time when planet earth had a universal climate.
• Admiral Byrd found petrified forests 100 miles from the South Pole?
• Land animals found fossilized in locations below sea level? • Sea animals found fossilized at high elevations?
Fossils
• Fossils are dead. Thus, after Adam
• Fossils only form if there is a sudden, quick, change, no decay (dies on its own, it will decay)
• Dating the fossil depends upon circular reasoning
• Why are there no fossils today?
Canopy Theory
The “Canopy Theory” is one view about the mysteries of the flood.
This idea believes the following:
• There was a atmospheric water shield of high water vapor that protected the earth from cosmic radiation; hence, longer lifetimes prior to the flood.
• Water falls, complementing the subterranean waters unleashed (Gen 7:11).
• Continental drift occurred from fractured land masses (Gen 10:25; The Genesis Record, Henry Morris and John C. Whitcomb, 1961). They do show that the Flood was universal, it was a great catastrophe, and there is ample historical evidence for it.
Geological Mysteries
• Where did the Grand Canyon come from? What is its origin?
• How do you explain the mid-oceanic mountain ranges?
• Submarine canyons
• Magnetic variations on ocean floor?
• Coal and oil formations (surprising amounts of coal in Antarctica?)
• Frozen mammoths
• Metamorphic rock (upheaval through horizontal compression?)
• Fossil graveyards
• Jigsaw fit of continents (many attempts at this but does not really work. However mountain ranges in the ocean are interesting when you look at their location).
Major land masses are unexplained by simple erosion. Why are there surprising amounts of coal in Antarctica? Mammoths, with food still in their mouths, quick-frozen in place, dying from suffocation? Tectonic plates move about an inch per year (the same rate that your fingernails grow). Much of the upheavals are the result of horizontal compression, buckling the sedimentary layers.
Hydroplate Theory
There is another theory about the flood called the “Hydroplate Theory.”
• Interconnected continents
• Subterranean water in substantial amounts
• Increasing pressure(s) from these waters
• Horizontal buckling and eruptions (Walt Brown, Center for Scientific Creation, Phoenix, Arizona)
The Flood
• It rained for 40 days
• Not just rain, but the “fountains of the deep” opened up
• Waters prevailed 150 days after the rain
• They were in the Ark 377 days (5 months floating; 7½ months on themountain)
Spiritual Perspectives
• There was only one Ark (and only one door)
• No births nor death (all in the ark were saved)
• Alternative theological speculations ended when the door was shut
• Only three groups of people: those that perished in the Flood; those that were preserved through the Flood; those that were removed prior to the Flood (Notice that Enoch was not “postflood” nor “mid-flood” but he was “pre-flood”).
