“Genesis 6:17-22”

Monday, October 28, 2019

“'Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.' Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.”

---End of Scripture verses---

“Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood...” (verse 17). The Lord had just instructed and commanded Noah to build an ark according to very rigid specifications. This would undoubtedly be an arduous task on the part of Noah, with, I am assuming, the assistance of his family. No power tools. No electric lights. No construction vehicles. Just a lot of hard, intensive, prolonged manual labor. God is now in effect saying: “Noah, you do your part, and I (even I) will do My part.” Noah builds the ark. God brings the flood to save him from that perverse and evil generation (not to mention the flood itself).

This is ever the way of the Lord in His dealings with His faithful children. He always requires some “work” on our part in the unfolding of our salvation (Philippians 2:12). As Noah was required to build the vessel that would provide salvation from the flood for him and his family, so the Lord demands that certain requirements be fulfilled by us for our eternal salvation. Among those requirements is baptism for the forgiveness of sins (Acts 2:38). This in no way suggests that we are “earning” our salvation, or that it is a "works based" salvation, because we could never “do” enough work to produce it. God saves us by His awesome power and amazing grace. But we still must obey the conditional commandments that God places upon reception of that saving grace. 1 Peter 3:20-21 even compares the salvation that Noah experienced through the waters of the flood with the waters of “baptism” that also "now saves” us.

“The flood of water upon the earth...” (verse 17). The wording here suggests that the flood of water that God would bring “upon the earth” may have existed somewhere else prior to that devastating terrestrial deluge. This could possibly be the “the waters which were above the expanse” spoken of in Genesis 1:7. Nahum Sarna commented on this observation in his JPS Commentary: “The extraordinary term mabbul indicates the unparalleled cataclysmic nature of the event. The definite article implies some well-known entity. The closer definition here and in 7:6, 'waters upon the earth,' points to a celestial origin. This suggests that mabbul was a technical term denoting the heavenly or upper part of the original cosmic ocean that is now allowed to fall upon the earth.”

“To destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life...” (verse 17) Obviously this would exclude any animal that Noah would bring into the ark for safekeeping, and any sea-dwelling creatures that did not require “breath” to survive under the surface of the water. “Everything that is” left “on” the surface of “the earth shall perish.” This positively speaks to the world-wide nature of the cataclysm that was about to befall all air-breathing creatures that walked upon the face of the earth, and all carbon dioxide “breathing” plant life as well. It is chilling to contemplate the sheer horror that must have engulfed the entirety of the earth's population save the relatively few protected souls on the ark, but it clearly speaks to the utter moral corruption of man and the breakneck reckless abandon by which they pursued their daily affairs.

“But I will establish My covenant with you...” (verse 18) This is the first time we see the word “covenant” used in the Bible. It is the Hebrew word “berit” and it means an “alliance” or “pledge”. Of course this “agreement” was not entered into by parties of equal stature. The All-Powerful Creator made it, “pledged” it, initiated it and placed all the stipulations within it, and it was up to Noah, the completely dependent creation, to obediently enter into this “alliance” and faithfully abide by all of God's specifications.

But what was the nature of this covenant? Was it just a reiteration of the “blessing” that God gave to Adam and Eve to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28; 9:1)? Some believe God made this promise in anticipation of the rainbow He would set in the sky after the flood. But that was just “the sign of the covenant”. (Genesis 9:12-13) This is what James Burton Coffman had to say about God's covenant with Noah: “It is remarkable how little attention is paid to God's covenant with Noah, which is by far the most important thing in the chapter, in that the redemption of the entire human race afterward is most surely involved it... The necessity for this covenant derived from the fact that the promise of deliverance God had made to Eve (Genesis 3:15) was apparently about to be abrogated and canceled through the death of all mankind, as God had just announced. What about the Seed (singular) who would crush the head of the Serpent? This covenant was God's arrangement with Noah, whereby the Seed would be delivered through him and his posterity.”

“And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.” (verse 19) Concerning the nature of the “kind” of each animal that Noah was commanded to bring into the ark, Trevor Major wrote in the Apologetics Press article, “Origins and the 'Created Kind' Concept” the following: “In 1941, Frank Marsh coined the term “baramin”—a compound of the Hebrew words bara (“created”) and min (“kind”). He suggested that the nearest equivalent to the created kind would vary, depending on the greatest taxonomic level at which two organisms could interbreed (1976, p. 34). For example, while there are several species of cattle and bison, they probably belong to the same kind because they all can interbreed (Marsh, 1976, p. 31).”

Noah was also commanded to take enough food for himself and his family and all the animals on the ark to sustain them for a whole year! What a massive undertaking this must have been! Gathering the materials, transporting the materials, building the ark, populating the ark, gathering and storing enough food for hundreds of animals! The most amazing thing of all and the most telling revelation about the faith of this great man is this: “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” (verse 22) Friends, we must make it our primary ambition in life to do all that the Lord has commanded of us if we want to be seated safely within Christ Jesus when all the world is torched at His Second Coming!

Please read Genesis 7:1-5 for tomorrow.

Have a great day!

- Louie Taylor

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