Noah's Ark - Pre-Flood & Flood - Genesis 6:5 - 7:24

Teacher: Rusty Kennedy
​Series: Bible Stories

Rusty's notes

JUDGMENT DECREED
GENESIS 6
5 When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time,

• They were choosing themselves over God.
• Selfish - flesh

6 the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved.

• Moses is describing God with emotions – Anthro poppa-tism
• Never mentions the purpose of God’s regret:
  1) That he never should have
• 2) People were suffering because of their choices

7 Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.”

• The animals were an inevitable consequence of man’s sin.

8 Noah, however, found favor with the Lord.

• "Favor" equals grace.
• This is the first occurrence of the Hebrew word translated "grace" or "favor" in the Old Testament, though we have seen many examples of God's grace thus far.
• We can identify with Noah… because of grace.

 
GOD WARNS NOAH
Introduction: Noah's righteousness and Noah's sons (6:9-10).
 - Palistrophe – Paula’s trophy
A       God resolves to destroy the corrupt race (6:11-13).
B       Noah builds an ark according to God's instructions (6:14-22).
C       The LORD commands the remnant to enter the ark (7:1-9).
D       The flood begins (7:10-16).
E       The flood prevails 150 days and the water covers the mountains (7:17-24).
F       God remembers Noah (8:1a).
E'      The flood recedes 150 days and the mountains are visible (8:1b-5).
D'      The earth dries (8:6-14).
C'      God commands the remnant to leave the ark (8:15-19).
B'      Noah builds an altar (8:20).
A'      The LORD resolves not to destroy humankind (8:21-22).
9 These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.

• This is the first time the important words translated "righteous" and "blameless" appear in the Bible.

10 And Noah fathered three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth was, for every creature had corrupted its way on the earth.

• The earth and animals are suffering the consequence of the fall of man. (2 weeks ago)

13 Then God said to Noah, “I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth.

• Whereas God has blessed the human family with the power of procreation to fill the earth (1:28; 9:1), these culprits have 'filled the earth' by procreating 'violence'.

14 “Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.

• The term "gopher wood" is used in some translations, while others, like the NIV, translate it as "cypress wood."
• The exact identity of gopher wood is not definitively known, as the term does not appear elsewhere in the Bible and its precise meaning has been lost over time.
• Some scholars suggest it could refer to a type of wood known in the ancient world, possibly cypress, cedar, or another durable wood suitable for shipbuilding.[1]

Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside. 15 This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 16 You are to make a roof, finishing the sides of the ark to within eighteen inches of the roof. You are to put a door in the side of the ark. Make it with lower, middle, and upper decks.

• The ark was about 450 feet long (1 1/2 American football fields),
• 75 feet wide (7 standard parking spaces),
• and 45 feet high (a typical four-story building).
• It had three decks and over 100,000 square feet of deck space.
• There were over 1 million cubic feet of space in it.
• This is a volume capacity of approximately 860 railroad boxcars.
• It had a floating capacity (its buoyancy, the total weight that it could float) of almost 14,000 gross tons.[2]

17 “Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.

• Promise #1

18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives.

• Promise #2
• This is the first occurrence of the important word "covenant" (Heb. berith) in the Old Testament.
• "The Noahic covenant is closer to the royal grant known from the ancient Near East where a deity bestows a benefit or gift upon a king.
• It has its closest parallels to the Abrahamic and Davidic covenants (Gen 15; 17; 2 Sam 7), which are promissory charters made by God with the individuals and their offspring, characteristically forever.
• Unlike the Mosaic covenant, in the royal grant form of covenant God alone is under compulsion by oath to uphold his promise to the favored party."

19 You are also to bring into the ark two of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of everything—from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds—will come to you so that you can keep them alive. 21 Take with you every kind of food that is eaten; gather it as food for you and for them.” 22 And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.

• "The problem of providing food for so many creatures for somewhat more than a year is simplified by the very proper consideration that beasts are very shrewd about adapting their food supply to their needs.
• When they have no physical exercise, like brooding hens, they cut down promptly on the amount of food consumed.
• Likewise during the time of hibernating.
• A kind of winter sleep may providentially have taken possession of all inmates of the ark, materially cutting down their needs and reducing them to a very small minimum."
• "What a splendid figure this man makes, a picture of solitary goodness!
• He was the one saint of that day.
• It is possible, therefore, to be good even though we have to stand alone.
• It is possible to be right with God even amidst surrounding iniquity.
• God is the same today as He was to Noah, and we only have to choose to walk with God.
• God is already pleased with you."

 
ENTERING THE ARK
7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before me in this generation.

• "It is not that Noah's works of righteousness gains him salvation, for none is cited.
• Rather, his upright character is noted to condemn his generation, which merits death."

2 You are to take with you seven pairs, a male and its female, of all the clean animals, and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female, 3 and seven pairs, male and female, of the birds of the sky—in order to keep offspring alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will make it rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing I have made I will wipe off the face of the earth.” 5 And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.

• Again Moses drew attention to Noah's complete obedience to what God had told him to do (cf. v. 6:22).
• Obviously this was a point that Moses wanted his readers to be sure to get.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came and water covered the earth. 7 So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives entered the ark because of the floodwaters. 8 From the animals that are clean, and from the animals that are not clean, and from the birds and every creature that crawls on the ground, 9 two of each, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, just as God had commanded him. 10 Seven days later the floodwaters came on the earth.
 
THE FLOOD
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the sources of the vast watery depths burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened, 12 and the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

• Some interpreters have understood the opening of the "floodgates of the sky" as a breaking up of a water vapor canopy that, some theorize, covered the earth before the Flood.
• Advocates of this "canopy theory" believe it may account for longevity before the Flood.

13 On that same day Noah along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, entered the ark, along with Noah’s wife and his three sons’ wives. 14 They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, all the creatures that crawl on the earth according to their kinds, every flying creature—all the birds and every winged creature—according to their kinds. 15 Two of every creature that has the breath of life in it came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 Those that entered, male and female of every creature, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.
17 The flood continued for forty days on the earth; the water increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. 18 The water surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 Then the water surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. 20 The mountains were covered as the water surged above them more than twenty feet. 21 Every creature perished—those that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and those that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. 22 Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died. 23 He wiped out every living thing that was on the face of the earth, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24 And the water surged on the earth 150 days.

• "Water seeks its own level, so if 'all the high mountains' were covered (7:19), the whole earth was under water to that extent.

Moreover, the insistence on the use of 'all' ('all mountains,' 7:19; 'all flesh,' 7:21; 'all in whose nostrils,' 7:22); 'all that was on the dry land,' 7:22); and so forth) can lead to no other view than a universal deluge, modern scientific opinion notwithstanding."

[1] www.BibleQuestions.com, “What is gopher wood?”
[2] See "Noah's Flood: Washing Away Millions of Years" DVD featuring Dr. Terry Mortenson.