Chapter 7

THEME: Noah, his family, and the animals enter the ark; destruction of all flesh and the salvation of those in the ark

Noah, His Family, And The Animals Enter The Ark (7:1-9)

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. 7:1].

 

Why was Noah righteous? It was by faith, just as later on Abraham was counted righteous because of his faith: "And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness" (Gen. 15:6). Noah believed God, and it was counted to him for righteousness. "By faith Noah . . . prepared an ark . . ." the writer to the Hebrews said (Heb. 11:7). That is the reason God saved him.

 

Have you ever noticed how gracious God is to this man in all of this time of judgment? Here in verse 1 He says "Come thou. . . ." This is the same invitation that the Lord Jesus gives today to all mankind: "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will you rest" (Matt. 11:28). Then in verse 16 of this chapter, we read, "And the LORD shut him in." Isn't that lovely? And finally, chapter 8 opens, "And God remembered Noah." How wonderful! God could very easily have forgotten all about Noah. Years later He could have said, "Oh my, I forgot all about that fellow down there. I put him in an ark and forgot about him!" That would have been too bad, wouldn't it? But God did not forget. God remembered Noah. God never forgets. He remembers you. The only thing that He does not remember is your sin if you have come to Him for salvation. Your sins He remembers no more. What a beautiful thing this is!

 

Now Noah and his family enter into the ark. Did you know that this story of Noah, just like the story of creation, has wandered over the face of the earth? I wish that I could give you the Babylonian account. All you have to do is to compare them to see the differences. The other accounts are utterly preposterous and ridiculous. The very fact that most nations and peoples have an account of both creation and the Flood should tell you something, my friend. It ought to tell you that there is a basis of truth for them. All of these peoples would not come up with such a record if they had been making up stories. And if you want to know which one is accurate, just make a comparison. The Babylonian account, for example, is a perfectly ridiculous story of a sort of war going on among the gods, one against the other, and that is what brought the Flood. In contrast, the Bible tells us that the Flood was a judgment of God upon man for his sin -- that makes sense, by the way.

 

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.

 

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. 7:2-3].

 

This was the basis of a lawsuit years ago against Dr. Harry Rimmer who had offered a thousand dollars to anyone who could show a contradiction in the Bible. There were several liberal theologians who testified in a court of law that this was a contradiction. Why would it first say two of each kind and now seven of each kind? Of course Dr. Rimmer won the lawsuit. All you have to do is turn over to see that when Noah got out of the ark, he offered clean beasts as sacrifices. Where would he have gotten the clean beasts if he had not taken more than two? It was only of the clean beasts that he took seven, and now we know why. Those that were not clean went in by twos, a male and a female.

 

"Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female" -- that is for those that are clean.

 

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 [Gen. 7:4].

 

For seven days the world could have knocked at the door of the ark, and frankly, they could have come in -- God would have saved them. All they had to do was to believe God.

 

And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

 

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.

 

Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,

 

There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah [Gen. 7:6-9].

 

Nowhere does Scripture say that Noah went out and drove the animals in. It was not necessary -- they came to him.

Destruction Of All Flesh And The Salvation Of Those In The Ark (7:11-24)

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.

 

And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

 

And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

 

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. 7:11-12,16-17].

 

What is the scientific, historical evidence for the Flood? I am not going to enter into this subject other than to mention one of the finest books on this subject which I can highly recommend. It is The Genesis Flood by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb (Presbyterian and Reformed, 1960). Both of these men are thoroughly qualified to write on this subject. John Whitcomb, Th.D., professor of Old Testament at Grace Theological Seminary, and Henry M. Morris, Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota, professor of hydraulic engineering and chairman of the Department of Civil Engineering in the Virginia Polytechnic Institute, joined together and have written a book on the Genesis Flood. They show that the Flood was universal, it was a great catastrophe, and there is historical evidence for it. They also answer the uniformitarian argument (that existing processes acting in the same manner as at present are sufficient to account for all geological changes). This is one of the many different theories that have been advanced to discount the geological evidences of the universal Flood. I assume that there is an abundance of historical evidence for the Flood, and it is not necessary for me to go into it, as it has been answered in this very scholarly book.

 

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 [Gen. 7:23].

 

On the other hand, there have recently come from the press several books by men whom I consider to be pseudointellectuals and pseudotheologians. They take the position that the Flood was local; that is, that it was confined to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. In other words, it was sort of a big swimming pool and that is about all. The Genesis Flood absolutely demolishes that thought altogether, and I am sure that you realize that the Scriptures make it very clear that the Flood covered the whole earth. God said that the entire earth was going to be destroyed by the Flood. "And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth" (Gen. 6:13).

 

The human family had already gotten to North America, and the animals were certainly there -- nobody would argue that point for a moment. But if you say that the Flood was not universal, then you have someone besides Noah starting the human family over again -- and that is just not the way the Word of God tells it. You are on the horns of a dilemma, as I see it: you either have to accept the Word of God, or you have to reject what it says. To my judgment, to attempt to make a case for a local flood is actually, in the long run, to reject the Word of God. The Bible makes it very clear that it was a universal flood. "And every living substance was destroyed . . . and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark."

 

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

 

In other words, for a period of approximately half a year, for five months, the waters prevailed on the earth.

 

The Genesis Flood not only answers the question of its being a universal rather than a local flood, but it also answers this question of uniformitarianism. There are those who take the position that there was no such thing as a great convulsion or catastrophe like the Flood. I am not going into detail, except to point out that Peter makes it very clear that we should expect such scoffers. "Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation" (2Pet. 3:3-4). The scoffer has always been a uniformitarian, but you could not very well hold that position and accept the integrity of the Word of God at this particular point. This is very important to see.