“Genesis 7:6-16”

Wednesday, October 30, 2019

“Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. It came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark, they and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, all sorts of birds. So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which was the breath of life. Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.”

---End of Scripture verses---

“Noah was six hundred years old when the flood” came. (verse 7). Genesis 5:32 tells us that “Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” This may appear to state that Noah’s three sons were triplets, but upon further investigation this cannot be the case. Genesis 11:10 says that “Shem was one hundred years old, and became the father of Arpachshad two years after the flood.” This means that he must have been 98 (100 minus 2) years old when he entered the ark with his 600 year old father. Since at least one of Noah’s sons must have been born in his 500th year, it had to have been Japheth because Genesis 9:24 states that Ham was his youngest son. Japheth would have been 100, Shem 98 and Ham somewhat younger still when they boarded the great ark of salvation.

“There went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female…” (verse 9) This likely suggests that God brought the animals unto Noah without him having to constrain them and compel them by force to enter the ark. This does not imply, however, that no effort was required on Noah’s part in leading them into the vessel and positioning them in their stations. Just that Noah oversaw the mass influx while God controlled the beasts by supernatural measures. This whole endeavor was one of the most amazing, physical undertakings recorded in all the Bible, and involved many miraculous measures to pull it off.

“In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” (verse 11) This could have taken place in the spring or the fall, depending on when exactly the new year was measured from at the time. “The fountains” and “the floodgates” could simply refer to the oceans and the rainclouds, but I think there is much more involved than merely the rising of the seas and the pouring down of precipitation. Nahum Sarna suggests the following meaning: “The ‘great deep’ is the cosmic abyssal water… The ‘floodgates of the sky’ are openings in the expanse of the heavens through which water from the celestial part of the cosmic ocean can escape onto the earth. In other words, creation is being undone, and the world returned to chaos… Human wickedness inevitably undermines the very foundations of society, so that the pillars upon which rest the permanence of all earthly relationships totter and collapse, bringing ruin and disaster to mankind.”

“The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.” (verse 12) There is no natural phenomenon that could account for rain pouring continuously for forty straight days in a single location, let alone over the entire face of the globe. In verse 7 the Lord told Noah, “I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights.” The Lord Yahweh reigns supreme over all laws of nature and can choose to control them directly at any time and in any place when He so chooses. Of course the Lord Jesus shares this absolute supremacy with the Father in heaven. “And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being covered with the waves; but Jesus Himself was asleep. And they came to Him and woke Him, saying, ‘Save us, Lord; we are perishing!’ He said to them, ‘Why are you afraid, you men of little faith?’ Then He got up and rebuked the winds and the sea, and it became perfectly calm. The men were amazed, and said, ‘What kind of a man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey Him?’” (Matthew 8:24-27)

“On the very same day Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark.” (verse 13) I believe the Lord specified that the three sons of Noah collectively had “three wives” to emphasize that they were not polygamists. Each son had one single wife, the way God designed the marriage covenant to be from before the very beginning. One man and one wife until death separates that one-flesh relationship. From eight people the entire world would be repopulated after the gargantuan flood that wiped out the totality of all terrestrial lifeforms outside of the safety of the ark.

“And the Lord closed it behind him.” (verse 16) “Schaeffer described this as a hard verse, and so it is. There may have been some of those souls to whom he preached so long and so faithfully for whom Noah still had hope that they would enter and be spared; and he would have found it difficult indeed to close the door of hope; but God spared him that act of sorrow by himself sealing the gate of life. The day of grace was then over. The long deserved destruction of rebellious mankind would appear at once. So it is today. Man can neither open nor close the way of salvation, either for themselves or for others. Behold, I have set before thee a door opened, which no man can shut (Revelation 3:24). Our Lord Jesus Christ is described as, He that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and none shall shut, and shutteth and none openeth (Rev. 3:7b).” (James Burton Coffman)

Please read Genesis 7:17-24 for tomorrow.

Have a blessed day!

- Louie Taylor

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