Text: Genesis 7 (NKJV)
1 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. 2 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; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 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.” 5 And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.
7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11 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. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 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— 14 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. 15 And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.
17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 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. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 23 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. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.
Devotional Thoughts and Commentary:
Here we see the story of the flood. If this is a subject that you are really interested in, I would highly recommend reading The Genesis Flood by Whitcomb and Morris. This is simply not the format to go all the way into depth for an adequate defense of a worldwide flood as recorded in the Bible; however, I will summarize them very briefly. The geologic strata are equally as well or better explained by a catastrophic flood than by millions of years of uniform processes. Many, if not most, of ancient societies had worldwide flood stories much like the one in the Bible, most notably The Epic of Gilgamesh from Babylon. The coherence of that many stories from societies geographically, culturally, chronologically, and linguistically separated (not Babylon and Israel...) lends great credence for the authenticity of the story. If an event more disconnected from Judeo-Christian religion (and thus more palatable to modern "scholars") had this level of coherence in such a breadth of evidence, it would be nearly undisputed as reality; however, in the post-modern attempt to reject anything of God, it is tossed aside as myth. The fossil record and fossil fuels equally well or better fit with a worldwide flood. Well, these are actually only a couple of the reasons and are not really explained, again because of space and time restraints.
Ok, on to the story itself. What does the Bible say? Almost all American children are exposed to the story at a young age. For some reason, it is widely incorporated into infant themes despite our secularized society, probably because it is considered as mythological as Mount Olympus and the Greek gods. Let's examine some of the details of this story.
First off, there are 7 of each clean animal and 2 of each unclean animal to be loaded onto the Ark. Why the differentiation? For that matter, since the Jewish law had not been given at this time, how did Noah know what the clean animals were? Obviously, Genesis 1-5 records only a smidgen of what went on during those thousands of years. Just because we don't have a record of God setting up a clean / unclean animal before Moses doesn't mean that it didn't happen. In fact, I would say that this is evidence that it did happen. It was probably far less structured than the Mosaic Law given on the matter in Leviticus 11:1-47 and Deuteronomy 14:3-21, but there was some valuation system in place for animals, likely in regard to sacrifice. The reason for such differentiation then, was that Noah would be sacrificing clean animals (8:20), and as such they would need more pairs to breed more and faster for the sacrifices and food than for the unused unclean animals. Likely, that 7th animal was sacrificed directly in 8:20, and then there were 3 pairs of clean animals and 1 pair of unclean animals left to breed.
Now, what animals got on the Ark? It was the land animals and birds, but every kind? Well, yes, every species. That is the 14th Century Hebrew word idea being imposed on modern scientific terms, but basically every species. So, for example, you would have had 1 species of dog from which all the subspecies resulted. It was through God's providence that all these animals came to Noah and got on the Ark, so it was also through His providence that they got along on the Ark and survived.
Notice that Noah was a very old man- 600 years old at the Flood. It is apparent from the genealogical records in Genesis that two events significantly impacted the human lifespan- sin in the Garden of Eden caused it to go from infinite to averaging roughly 800 years old and then the Flood which reduced the average lifespan to the low-100s. Most scholars think the reduced lifespan was from the increasing effects of the curse of sin and massive global climate change from the Flood. Of course, the human lifespan continued to taper off over time until modern medicine has caused it to head up slowly.
Most everyone knows that the Flood was 40 days long, right? Well, according to the Biblical evidence, the entire Flood experience from the start of the rain until they finished opening up the Ark was a total of 371 days!1 There were actually 40 days of rain, but there were another 274 days where the Ark floated on the flood waters without more rain. So, Noah's Flood lasted a total of 314 days.
Some people claim that the flood really happened, but it was localized in the Middle East. While a convenient theory to try and avoid scrutiny, this theory does not hold water (pun intended). Why would Noah need such a huge boat for a local flood? How would a local flood accomplish God's purpose of destroying all land-based life not on the Ark as judgment? Verse 20 tells us that the waters covered the highest mountains by at least 22' (probably the draught of the Ark), so that language is not consistent with a localized flood. These are just a few of the reasons, and again, more are explored in the Whitcomb and Morris book.
Ultimately, the Flood accomplished God's purpose of judgment on the Earth for humanity's sin. Only Noah and those with him on the Ark survived (verse 23).
- The Genesis Flood by Whitcomb and Morris, 3.
Application(s):
Our task here is to learn the truth from the Bible, believe it, and stand on it against the attacks of the world. Creationism and belief in a worldwide flood are not inconsistent with science, although much of the post-modern scientific world has deviated from its real science roots and takes sides between competing hypotheses that cannot be tested. Stand on what you believe!
Other Studies from Genesis
"Herme- what?" How to Understand the Bible
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