Gen. 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.

Gen. 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.

Gen. 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.

Gen. 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.

I keep thinking that our world is so awful, but there must have been no comparison for Noah to be the only ÒrighteousÓ person living. 

 

God tells Noah to get in the ark with his family and the animals—7 pairs of the clean beasts and birds and one pair each of the unclean.  Noah is told that in seven days the rain will start.  (9/06) How did Noah know which animals were clean and unclean?  Obviously, this has already been defined for him—long before the details are recorded in Leviticus.

 

Noah was told that it would rain for forty days and forty nights.  Every living creature on the face of the earth would be destroyed—except those in the ark.

 

Gen. 7:5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.

Again, God feels it is important to note that Noah did ALL that the Lord commanded him.  Obedience is important to Him; itÕs a sign of our trust in and love for and fear of Him.

 

Gen. 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

ItÕs hard to imagine living that long, let alone starting all over again in life. 

 

Gen. 7:7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sonsÕ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

Based on the genealogy above, it would appear that his sons were just under 100 years old.  (Makes me think of Isaiah 65:20)  Still they were obedient to their father. 

Is. 65:20 There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.  

 

Gen. 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,

Gen. 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

Again, I think it is significant that God is making the point that they went in two by two, male and female.  I think it is also interesting that God makes no record of the actions of the people around him.  That is not important.  What is important is that Noah and his family were obedient to God—no matter what others might have been thinking or saying.  There had to be divine intervention for the animals to have cooperated and enter the ark.

 

Gen. 7:10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

Gen. 7:11 In the six hundredth year of NoahÕs 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.

Gen. 7:12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

Gen. 7:13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and NoahÕs wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

Gen. 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.

Gen. 7:15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

Gen. 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.

Observations: 

-       God allowed 7 days for Noah to load the ark.

-       Noah was 600 years old at the time of the flood.

-       This was the first rain; it rained 40 days and 40 nights.  (Again God is specific about days and nights.  Cf chapter 1 regarding evening and morning.  Are we going to try to add gaps here too?)

-       Not only did it rain, Òthe fountains of the great deep were broken up.Ó  This would appear to reference great storehouses of water even below the seas that forced the seas up and over the land masses.

-       All human passengers on the ark entered on the same day.  The passengers included Noah, his wife, his 3 sons (Shem, Ham, & Japheth), the wives of each of his 3 sons—8 people.

-       2 and 2 (male and female) of all flesh that had the breath of life entered the ark (beasts, cattle, creeping things, fowl, birds).  What is the difference between fowl and birds?  In checking the Hebrew it seems to be making a difference between big and small birds.

-       Noah and his family acted in obedience to God.

-       The Lord shut the door; they were securely sealed inside.

 

Noah and his family are a type of Israel preserved through the tribulation.

 

Gen. 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.

Gen. 7:18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.

Gen. 7:19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

Gen. 7:20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

Observations:

-       The flood waters rose for 40 days and lifted the ark above the ground.

-       The waters prevailed exceedingly—it wasnÕt a little flood.  It was deep enough to cover all the high hills under the heaven.  The mountains were covered.  (The Hebrew for the word hills and mountains is the same.)

-       The cubit = 20-21 inches

-       The waters were about 20 feet higher than the mountains they covered.

 

Gen. 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:

Gen. 7:22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

Gen. 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.

God emphasizes that every living thing that moved on the earth died—literally, physically.  This included birds, cattle, beasts, creeping things and mankind.  Only those in the ark survived.

 

(7/09) In a conversation with my hubby we were discussing why God chose to destroy all the creatures as well as man.  I thought Deuteronomy 7:22 gave a clue.

Deut. 7:22 And the LORD thy God will put out those nations before thee by little and little: thou mayest not consume them at once, lest the beasts of the field increase upon thee.

If he hadnÕt, man would have been way outnumbered and his chances of survival threatened by the imbalance.

 

Gen. 7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

 

(3/05) I listened to a message by Adrian Rogers from which I made quite a few notes.  It was a wonderful comparison of the story of Noah with Jesus as our ark of salvation (cf 1Peter 3).

 

Eph. 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:

Eph. 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.

Eph. 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Salvation comes by grace (cf Gen 6:8); through faith (Noah had to enter the ark, Gen 7:16); unto good works (Noah and his family were to replenish the earth, Gen 9:1).