Genesis Chapter Seven
Read Genesis 7:1-6 – God’s Invitation to Noah
v.1 “And the LORD
said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the
Noah and his family is called by God into a place of safety, just as we as
Christians are called into a place of spiritual safety today. As we studied in the prior chapter, this
occurred because:
“…Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” Genesis
6:8
We have an assurance of the fact of the grace of God presented by the
Psalmist:
Psalms 33:18-19 “BEHOLD, THE EYE
OF THE LORD is UPON THEM THAT FEAR HIM, UPON THEM THAT HOPE IN HIS MERCY,
TO DELIVER THEIR SOUL FROM DEATH, AND TO KEEP THEM ALIVE IN FAMINE.”
So because of God’s grace and Noah’s faith; God warned Noah, gave him
instruction regarding his physical salvation from destruction and after 120
years of preaching and building invited him to enter the ark that he had
prepared.
Hebrews 11:7 “7By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved
with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he
condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
v.2-3 “Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee
by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 3Of
fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive
upon the face of all the earth.”
Noah is given
instruction regarding the saving of those creatures God had made to populate
the earth along with mankind. Those
beasts that were clean and to be used as service to man and sacrifice to God
were taken by sevens, three pair plus one.
Those beasts that were unclean were taken by pairs in order to preserve
then. Fowls of the air were taken by
sevens, apparently even those that were considered unclean under the Mosaic
Law. We read in the Mosaic Covenant:
Leviticus
But apparently God had declared certain animals clean or unclean well
before the Mosaic Covenant.
v.4 “For yet
seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty
nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the
face of the earth.”
God gives them another
7 days in which to complete their preparation and perhaps even those of the
world another 7 days to repent and turn to him, then the end will come.
v.5 “And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.”
The inspired writer
records simply that “NOAH DID ACCORDING TO” what God had commanded. Oh, but that we could rightly claim the same
at the time of our judgment!
v.6 “And Noah was six hundred years
old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.”
Read Genesis 7:7-16 – Noah
Accepts
v.7 “And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife,
and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.”
Even seven days before
the rains started Noah’s faith caused him to enter the ark with his family and
continue his preparation. The rest of
God’s commandments were kept just as they were given.
v.8-9 “Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the
earth, 9There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male
and the female, as God had commanded Noah.”
God through the
inspired writer repeats these occurrences three time,
first in His instructions to Noah, second as a summary in these verses and then
finally in describing what happened in more detail in later verses. There is no conflict in the numbers; there
were at least two of each creature. We
will look at the details in later verses.
v.10 “And it came to pass after seven days, that the
waters of the flood were upon the earth.”
Just as God had
promised, after seven days it began to rain.
v.11-12 “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in
the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the
fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12And
the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.”
So about 1650 years,
some sources say 1655, my calculations, based on the ages given by scripture,
was 1664 years; God destroys that creation that He saw in Genesis 1:31 as “VERY GOOD.”
Why? Because of sin; should we
need anything else than this to ingrain in our minds the results of unbridled
sin?
The heaven were opened
up, the fountains of the deep were broken up.
We have no knowledge of the surface of the earth or its appearance before
the flood. Was all of the dry land
collected in one great continent? That
would make the plate theory put forth by modern science logical. In fact in the January, 2006 edition of
“Reason and Revelation” by Apologetics Press it is stated that the evolutionists:
“…most likely would not endorse the biblical Flood model, their findings
fit perfectly with the idea that the geological activity during the Flood could
have greatly accelerated the rate at which the continents spread.”
But we can determine from the language of the inspired writer that God
did in fact reshape, destroy and remake the earth. The tremendous power unleashed upon this
planet is what gave us the mountain ranges, ocean trenches and all of the
physical attributes of this ball of mud upon which we live today.
v.13 “In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem,
and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of
his sons with them, into the ark;”
So how many times did
Noah and his family enter the ark? Many,
during the time of preparation but this verse designates
the final entering prior to the actual flooding of the earth.
v.14-15 “They, and every beast after his kind, and all
the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the
earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. 15And
they went in unto Noah into the
Those that would deny
the miracle that God performed to save this remnant of his creation have always
tried to discredit Noah by claiming that Noah could not have gathered up all of
the wild animals of the world and brought them to one place. He could not have caused those that live from
the flesh of other animals to co-exist with their prey without trouble. But Noah isn’t in control of this situation,
God is. The animals, as God directed,
came “IN UNTO NOAH”, he didn’t need to round them up
as we might herd cattle. Noah didn’t
need to keep the wolves from eating the deer, the lions from having a feast of
zebra, God was in control and the animals came to him and he put them in their
proper places for their journey.
Literally everything that breaths air, goes
upon the earth or flies in its skies were included and saved along with Noah
and his family.
v.16. “And
they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as
God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.”
They all went into the
vessel prepared to carry them during this great flood and God shut the door,
sealed the vessel, made sure that it could not be opened, that it would not
leak or that mankind in his desperation could break in after the flood started.
Read Genesis
v.17 “And the flood was forty days upon the earth;
and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the
earth.”
For forty days the rain
and the fountains of the deep poured forth their water. The covering of the earth became such that
the ark floated of its own accord. We
don’t know the elevation of the land where the ark was built, but if it was in
the area where the garden of Eden was created that
area isn’t very high above current sea level.
v.18-20 “And the waters prevailed, and were increased
greatly upon the earth; and the
In time of war, in time
of flood, men have always sought refuge from devastation in the mountains of
the earth:
Isaiah
Revelation 6:15-16
“And the kings of the earth, and the great men,
and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every
bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the
mountains; 16And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and
hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of
the Lamb:”
But just as
Jeremiah
v.21-22 “And all flesh died that moved upon the earth,
both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that
creepeth upon the earth, and every man: 22All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.”
All flesh that breathed
air that lived on the face of the earth died, was destroyed by God. Jesus tells us that we will see something
very similar to this destruction if we’re living on the last day of earth
existence.
Matthew 24:38-39 “For as in the days that were before the flood
they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day
that Noe entered into the ark, 39And knew not until the flood came,
and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
v.23 “And every living substance was destroyed which
was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things,
and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah
only remained alive, and they that were with him in the
ark.”
To emphasize the total
destruction God repeats his description of the devastation created by the
flood. Then He contrasts it with the
welfare of those who were obedient to Him.
An illustration that we use today to prove to men that baptism is
necessary for the salvation of their souls:
I Peter 3:20-21 “Which
sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the
days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls
were saved by water. The like figure
whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the
putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience
toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:”
Peter continues in
latter chapters to emphasize the punishment of the ungodly using the flood, a occurrence known to the entire world as the guarantee that
God will indeed carry out his promise.
2 Peter 2:5 “And spared not the old world, but saved Noah
the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the
flood upon the world of the ungodly;”
In the great flood only the living on the earth and the earth itself was
destroyed and remade or allowed to replenish itself. The universe and all of the rest of God’s
creation is reserved, was saved for destruction at the end of time.
2 Peter 3:6-7 “Whereby
the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7But
the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store,
reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
v.24 “And
the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.”
One hundred and fifty
days, five months, God allowed the water to remain on the earth.