We have finally come to the time when the flood begins on the earth. There’s a lot of scientific fascination with the flood and some major questions about it. As we dive into Genesis 7 and see what happens right before the flood, and as the flood begins, you will see a lot of repetition.
We’ll talk about this repetition and several other features of the text. If you missed the reason God had to bring the great flood upon the earth, you should read the last issue on Genesis 6 and the wickedness that was happening.
The Lord Tells Noah His Plans before the Flood Begins
Genesis 7:1-5: Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go, yourself and your whole household, into the ark for only you have I seen as righteous before Me in this lifetime. From every clean animal you shall take with you by sevens male and female and from the animals which are not clean two: a male and his female, also, everything that flies in the sky by sevens the male and female to keep alive offspring on the face of the earth, for after seven days I Myself will let rain fall upon the earth forty days and forty nights and wipe out every living thing that I have made from on the face of the earth.” And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.
This first paragraph describes God’s conversation with Noah before the flood begins. Noah has completed the construction of the ark. These are God’s instructions before He begins to bring floodwaters. Every time Genesis references the Lord instead of the general word from God, I wonder if it is because Noah knew God by His name, Yahweh.
This conversation happened right before the flood begins. Noah has a week to get into the ark with his family, the food they need, and all the animals. God reminds Noah of the reason for God’s judgment of the flood on the earth. Noah is the only righteous person in his lifetime. The word for lifetime refers to a cycle of time, a generation, or a life.
Out of the millions of people living on the earth at this time, God only finds one man and his family to be righteous, to do what is right for everyone in every situation. Noah and his family escape God’s judgment because he is in right standing with God. Everyone else on the entire earth is wicked and corrupt.
I believe we are living in the end of the last days because we see rampant wickedness and evil all around us. Christians are the remnant Jesus will be looking for when He returns. He will be looking for people who are like Him, who resemble Him. Noah was that person in his time.
But Noah and his family are not the only passengers on the ark. God commands them to take animals that are clean and not clean. Basically, that’s all the animals of the earth. Why does God make a difference between clean and not clean animals?
It seems from later in the narrative after Noah and his family leave the ark the clean animals were for the purpose of a sacrifice to the Lord. We will see that when we come to it in the storyline. Even before the Law of Moses, Noah must have understood what clean and not clean animals were because God gives him no further instruction on that matter.
God commands Noah to take in animals, seven pairs of which are clean animals and two pairs of which are not clean animals. This is not the same as the ceremonial “unclean” animals in the rest of the Pentateuch. There is another Hebrew word for that that is not used here.
There are different ways to understand the seven pairs and the two pairs but that is the best I can understand it from the original language. There are both male and female animals so that they can reproduce on the earth when it is cleansed and made new.
God also commands Noah before the flood begins to take not only land animals but birds and things that fly in the sky, and creeping things like insects (I’m sure some would have rather He not have spared certain insects). This will ensure that the earth will be repopulated and replenished after the flood.
God gives these instructions seven days before He will shut up the ark. Whatever does not make it into the ark will perish by floodwaters when the flood begins. The Lord says He will shut up the ark, which must have been incredible! Of course, He is the only one outside the ark that could shut it without trying to get in to save Himself from the flood.
God also gives Noah the timetable for how long it will rain on the earth. Forty is a biblical number we find throughout the biblical text. There seemed to be multiple numbers for completion, and forty seems to be a number of completion as well. There is a completeness to God’s judgment through the flood.
Surely, God was still sad about what He had to do. It had to be done. The earth was corrupt and wicked. It had to be cleansed. Water can have a destructive effect, but also a cleansing effect. It would cleanse the earth but destroy the wicked life on it. God is still using emphatic language like, “I Myself” to talk about how He must now destroy the life He created.
The word used for “wipe clean, wipeout, annihilate, blot out” occurs three times in the chapter (Genesis 7:4; 7:23 [2]). It’s interesting that it’s range of meaning includes wipeout and wipe clean. It seems that is exactly what the water will do, serve two purposes of destruction and cleansing.
Genesis 7:5 tells us once again that Noah was obedient to follow every command of the Lord. He did everything precisely the way God wanted it to be done before the flood begins. We must be obedient servants of the Lord also. Noah is a wonderful example of that to us.
Embarking on the Ark before the Flood Begins
Genesis 7:6-16: Now Noah was 600 years old and the flood of waters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the waters of the flood. From clean animals, and from animals that are not clean, and from everything that flies, and everything that crawls on the land, by twos into the ark to Noah, male and female, just as God commanded Noah. So it happened after the 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 on the seventeenth day of the month, on this day, all the headwaters of the great deep burst forth and the windows of heaven were opened and rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day, Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons entered the ark, they and every living after its kind and every animal after its kind and every creeping thing that crawls on the ground after its kind and everything that flies after its kind, and every bird and every winged creature. And they came to Noah on the ark by twos from all flesh that had the breath of life in it. And male and female from all flesh entered, they entered just as God commanded him and the Lord shut it behind him.
It is time for Noah, his family, and the animals to get on the ark before the flood begins. He has seven days from the time God gave His final instructions to Noah until He begins to bring floodwaters upon the earth.
Seven days must have been just enough time. There was no laziness or lollygagging to be done if everything was going to happen the way it should. God had a specific time to bring the flood, just as He has a specific time to bring His end time judgment.
Twice the text tells us Noah’s age when the flood begins (Genesis 7:6, 11). He was 600 years old. It took him 100 years to build the ark and preach righteousness to the people and God’s impending judgment. Obviously, no one listened to him because no one else joined him and his family on the ark. It’s most likely they laughed and mocked him.
Noah was righteous all the days in his generation and lifetime, but imagine how righteous and faithful he had to be for 100 years to make sure the way of escape from God’s judgment was ready. Could we be faithful for that long? Most of us don’t even live that long.
The Bible tells us that Noah didn’t waste any time getting on the ark. No one knew what floods were like up to this point, but I’m sure he didn’t want to find out the hard way. The animals also got on the ark with him. How did they know to get on the ark?
Why didn’t every animal get on the ark? I imagine God Sent the animals He wanted to be on the ark to Noah. After all, He warned Noah of the impending judgment. Why couldn’t he warn the animals?
The Bible goes into extreme detail several times in Genesis 7 to tell us that land animals, birds, flying creatures, and creeping creatures were all part of God’s salvation plan. We don’t often think about how much God loves the earth and universe as His creation too. But He does. Indeed, after the end times, God will make a new heaven and new earth.
Many scientists have a problem with the description of the animals and the size of the ark. They don’t think there was enough space to store all the animals. Remember that I told you the animals were probably very young when they went into the ark. We don’t always understand God’s plans, but He is never wrong and never plans wrongly.
It continues to repeat that there were animals both male and female. There were humans both male and female also. God was not done with the earth. He made a way for humans and animals alike to flourish after the floodwaters receded. God always has a plan of salvation. It is perfect, good, and just right.
Genesis 7:10 tells us that after the seven days, the flood begins. We couldn’t get a more exact time then Noah’s 600th year on the second month and the 17th day. No doubt some people want the our, minute, and second. But that kind of detail is unusual in ancient literature.
The water didn’t just come from the rain from the clouds and sky. Genesis 7:11 tells us that the “headwaters of the great deep” burst forth. It rained for forty days and forty nights. I just heard on the news and from my mentor living in Florida this week that it rained 10 inches in Sarasota, Florida in one day. That’s more rain than they get in a month!
Just imagine how much flooding happened with forty days of rain. Not only the rain, but the great deep refers to what’s under the earth. Imagine what it would be like for all the water under the earth and all of its caverns and underground wells just burst forth upon the land, gushing to the surface.
In that amount of time with those sources giving up water to the surface of the earth, no one could dispute this was quite the flood. Nothing like it was ever seen before on the earth and nothing like it will ever be seen again as per God’s promise to Noah at the end of the flood.
Scientists also dispute that this was a worldwide flood. I’m reading an interesting book about the Giants we talked about in Genesis 6. Did you know that the skeletons of giants can be found all over the world? If there are evil giants around the world, God would have to destroy them all in a worldwide flood.
I have also seen videos from a geologist named Randall Carlson on the Joe Rogan podcast who has pictures from planes and helicopters of places even here in North America were the rocks and land look like they have had waves cut into them by water. He’s not talking about glaciers. It looks like the sand of the shore when the waters hit low tide. This is from the sky. You cannot see it on the ground level.
I am saying that even scientists have found evidence for a worldwide flood. They are just catching up to what the Bible tells us has happened. When we read in Genesis 7:14 all the animals “after their kind” entered the ark with Noah and his family, it should remind us of the creation account in Genesis 1-2. It’s very similar to that, and scholars have seen echoes of creation in Genesis 7-9.
The phrase, “breath of life” only occurs three times in the Old Testament (Genesis 6:17; 7:15, 23). In two of the three instances, the breath of life is contained in the flesh on the earth (Genesis 6:17; 7:15). This makes me think that anytime flesh is referred to in these early chapters of Genesis, it refers to everything that was destroyed in the flood.
The humans and animals needed air to breathe. When the flood begins, all these animals and people could not breathe underwater. Even if they were excellent swimmers, they would not have been able to keep above the flood waters without exhaustion or getting behind the increasingly rapid flooding all around them.
The Flood Begins and Prevails
Genesis 7:17-24: Now the flood was on the earth forty days and forty nights, and water increased and lifted the ark and it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and greatly increased on the earth and the ark moved on the surface of the waters. And the water prevailed so much on the earth and it covered all the high mountains which were under the whole sky. The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher and covered the mountains. All flesh that crawled on the earth perished, everything that flies and cattle and all kinds of animals and everything that swarms on the earth and all humanity, and everything that had the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils, everything on dry land, died. So He wiped out every living thing that was on the land from humanity to the animal, to the creeping thing to everything that flies in the sky, and they were wiped out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him on the ark remained. And the water prevailed on the earth 150 days.
The flood begins and there is nothing to stop it until God’s judgment has been completed. A restatement of the flood being on the earth for forty days and forty nights tells us that as this is happening the waters are taking over.
The water increased so much that it began to lift the ark off the place Noah built it. It floated on the waters and drifted where it willed. It rose above the earth and rested on the waters. Moses uses the word “prevail” three times to describe how the waters reacted on the earth (Genesis 18, 19, 20).
It is used 25 times in the Old Testament. It can mean anything from “increase” to be strong or overpower. Here, it means to increase or prevail. It seems to be the kind of word you use to describe someone who is too strong to be overcome. Using it here means that the floodwaters overpowered the earth. It almost has the flavor of a military term.
The water prevailed so much that it covered the earth and was 15 cubits (21-26 feet) above the mountaintops. Nothing could survive such heights of the waters. Even the Giants standing on mountaintops had little possibility of survival.
Moses would not have realized the significance of the statement of Genesis 7:19 that the mountaintops were under the “whole sky.” He may have been thinking locally, where I see the words used in Hebrew to refer to the sky around the whole earth, suggesting this flood was worldwide.
God achieved His goal in drowning every living thing that was on the earth so that everything under the waters perished. The phrase, “breath of the spirit of life” in Genesis 7:22 is only used here in the whole Bible. It seems to be that this refers to a total loss of life. I see also references going back to when God placed the breath of life in the nostrils of Adam (Genesis 2:7).
In Genesis 7:23, we have the verb “wiped out” twice signifying God’s complete and total judgment carried out. As I said earlier, this verb could have the dual meaning in this chapter of wiping out the wickedness and wicked creatures and at the same time wiping clean the earth. In one judgment of the flood, God wiped out wickedness and cleansed the earth.
The one exception to God’s judgment was Noah and everyone with him on the ark. In Genesis 7:24, Moses gives us new information. The word “prevail” again refers to the waters of the flood over the earth is information we already know.
But then he tells us that the waters of the flood were on the earth for 150 days. That’s quite a long time but the waters would have to recede before Noah and everything on the ark could back into the pristine and cleansed earth.
As the flood begins and cleanses the earth from the wickedness of the creatures on it before who were corrupting it, we can see God’s total judgment and cleansing at the same time. There is much we can learn from what God did in Noah’s day. We serve a powerful God who does not let things get bad. He acts at just the right time in just the right ways.
The Saga Continues…
We are in the middle of the account of Noah and the flood. In our next issue, we will see how God made the flood go away so that Noah and his family along with the animals could begin again in the new world.
