REPETITION OF NOTES AT CHAPTER SIX (PLUS "C.1." AND "E."):
A.Four entire Chapters (6-9) are now devoted to The Flood; so it must be important for us to study!
B.Also it is referred to many times by other Bible writers.
C.Satan has always tried to discount The Flood.
D.We need to get some grasp of the vastness of it, with its awfulness, and draw the lessons God intended us to learn.
E.Henry Morris, in BIBLICAL COSMOLOGY AND MODERN SCIENCE, p. 78, shows that assuming current population growth figures, there could have been over three billion people on the earth by now.
7:1 AND THE LORD SAID UNTO NOAH, COME THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE INTO THE ARK; FOR THEE HAVE I SEEN RIGHTEOUS BEFORE ME IN THIS GENERATION.
7:2 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.
7:3 OF FOWLS ALSO OF THE AIR BY SEVENS, THE MALE AND THE FEMALE; TO KEEP SEED ALIVE UPON THE FACE OF ALL THE EARTH.
7:4 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.
7:5 AND NOAH DID ACCORDING UNTO ALL THAT THE LORD COMMANDED HIM.
7:6 AND NOAH [WAS] SIX HUNDRED YEARS OLD WHEN THE FLOOD OF WATERS WAS UPON THE EARTH.
A.COME THOU AND ALL THY HOUSE...FOR YET SEVEN DAYS: It was one week now before the Flood.
B.OF EVERY CLEAN BEAST THOU SHALT TAKE TO THEE BY SEVENS: This is not a contradiction of 6:19-20 where twice God told Noah to bring TWO OF EVERY KIND of animals into the ark; rather, it is just further instruction.
C.EVERY CLEAN BEAST...BEASTS THAT [ARE] NOT CLEAN: It is not yet spelled out in the written record which animals could be eaten, but Noah may have known, or at least soon learned. Later in the Law, CLEAN BEASTS are defined as: 1. having a hoof; 2. a split hoof; 3. chewing a cud - Lev 11:3 (see that entire Chapter for a complete list of clean and unclean animals, birds, and fish).
7:7 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.
A.The flood had not yet come, but Noah believed - Heb 11:7.
B.Noah had preached to the other people (cf 2Pe 2:5), but no one outside Noah's family believed.
7:8 OF CLEAN BEASTS, AND OF BEASTS THAT [ARE] NOT CLEAN, AND OF FOWLS, AND OF EVERY THING THAT CREEPETH UPON THE EARTH,
7:9 THERE WENT IN TWO AND TWO UNTO NOAH INTO THE ARK, THE MALE AND THE FEMALE, AS GOD HAD COMMANDED NOAH.
7:10 AND IT CAME TO PASS AFTER SEVEN DAYS, THAT THE WATERS OF THE FLOOD WERE UPON THE EARTH.
7:11 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.
7:12 AND THE RAIN WAS UPON THE EARTH FORTY DAYS AND FORTY NIGHTS.
A.FOUNTAINS...WINDOWS: Waters which had been separated in the beginning now came together again in what was not just an ordinary rain, but a deluge (see 1:6-7; cf 8:2).
B.Underground reservoirs were broken open, ocean basins were fractured and uplifted; what a convulsion it must have been.
C.The "poet's version of Genesis" indicates the waters of the Flood caused great upheavals - Psa 104:1-10,30-32.
D.Leupold, GENESIS, Vol. 1, p. 296: "At this point note should be taken of the tremendous geological possibilities that lie behind the breaking open of the fountains of the great deep. The vastness of these eruptions must be in proportion to the actual depth of the flood. For as the Flood was of astound-ing power and magnitude, so must have been each of the causes mentioned, the upper and the lower waters. Such eruptions from subterranean sources must have caused a rush of waters upon the earth comparable to the highest tidal wave. Such waves in turn must have been capable of producing effects of almost incalculable magnitude. So, then, the effects caused by the waters of the great deep (1:2), as they surged about on the earth in process of formation, together with the effects brought about by this great Flood, seem to us an entirely adequate explanation for geological formations of every kind, as they are now to be observed."
7:13 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;
7:14 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.
7:15 AND THEY WENT IN UNTO NOAH INTO THE ARK, TWO AND TWO OF ALL FLESH, WHEREIN [IS] THE BREATH OF LIFE.
7:16 AND THEY THAT WENT IN, WENT IN MALE AND FEMALE OF ALL FLESH, AS GOD HAD COMMANDED HIM: AND THE LORD SHUT HIM IN.
A.The animals WENT IN: Noah did not have to round them up.
B.THE LORD SHUT HIM IN:
C.Remember there was only one ark, and only one door; this was the only avenue of salvation.
D."How could only eight people take care of such a cargo?"
7:17 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.
7:18 AND THE WATERS PREVAILED, AND WERE INCREASED GREATLY UPON THE EARTH; AND THE ARK WENT UPON THE FACE OF THE WATERS.
7:19 AND THE WATERS PREVAILED EXCEEDINGLY UPON THE EARTH; AND ALL THE HIGH HILLS, THAT [WERE] UNDER THE WHOLE HEAVEN, WERE COVERED.
7:20 FIFTEEN CUBITS UPWARD DID THE WATERS PREVAIL; AND THE MOUNTAINS WERE COVERED.
A.HIGH HILLS...MOUNTAINS: If they were all COVERED by FIFTEEN CUBITS (about 22 feet) of water, it does not take a scientist to see this was a universal Flood. This apparently was needed for the ark to be able to float - cf v17 (that is, if half of it was under water; remember it was 30 cubits high).
B.No one could escape, no matter how high they climbed -- here compare the warning to the Edomites - Jer 49:16; Oba 3-4.
7:21 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:
7:22 ALL IN WHOSE NOSTRILS [WAS] THE BREATH OF LIFE, OF ALL THAT [WAS] IN THE DRY [LAND], DIED.
7:23 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.
7:24 AND THE WATERS PREVAILED UPON THE EARTH AN HUNDRED AND FIFTY DAYS.
A.EVERY LIVING SUBSTANCE WAS DESTROYED: God demands death as the payment for sin.
B.THE WATERS PREVAILED: Boiled, rolled, stormed, pounded.
C.Every earth-bound creature (millions of people and millions of animals) would seek higher and higher ground.
D.Imagine the violence of these people (cf 6:5,11-13) as the highest ground became crowded!
E.This Chapter has shown us God's hatred of sin, His patience with sinners as He desires all to be saved, His swift and sure judgment according to His Word, and His gracious care and salvation for all who come to Him by faith - Eze 33:11.
F.Keep in mind that this account in Genesis is mentioned many times through the Bible, and it is always presented as his-torical fact, not as a myth.