THE FLOOD RECEDES
GENESIS 8
1 God remembered Noah,

• - When Moses wrote that "God remembered" someone, in this case Noah, he meant that God extended mercy to him or her by delivering that person from death or destruction.
• God's rescue of Noah foreshadows His deliverance of Israel in the Exodus.

as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside. 2 The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped. 3 The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the water had decreased significantly. 4 The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

• This verse does not specify a peak and refers generally to its location as the 'mountains of Ararat.
• The search for the ark's artifacts has been both a medieval and a modern occupation; but to the skeptic such evidence is not convincing, and to the believer, while not irrelevant, it is not necessary to faith.
• Modern Mt. Ararat lies on the border between Turkey and Armenia, near the center of the ancient world.
• From this general region Noah's descendants spread out over the earth.

5 The water continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible. 6 After forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made, 7 and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see whether the water on the earth’s surface had gone down, 9 but the dove found no resting place for its foot. It returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole earth. He reached out and brought it into the ark to himself.

• The raven in seeking food settles upon every carcass it sees, whereas the dove will only settle on what is dry and clean.
• The dove which is a light-colored, clean animal (Lev. 1:14; 12:6; et al.), in contrast to dark-colored, unclean animals (Lev. 11:15; Deut. 14:14), returns to its home when it finds no place to land.

10 So Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark again. 11 When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down.

• The olive tree will put out leaves even under water.

12 After he had waited another seven days, he sent out the dove, but it did not return to him again. 13 In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up. Then Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry.
 
THE LORD’S PROMISE
15 Then God spoke to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out all the living creatures that are with you—birds, livestock, those that crawl on the earth—and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”

• There are many interesting thematic parallels between God calling Noah out of the ark, and God later calling Abraham out of Ur (cf. 8:15 and 12:1; 8:16 and 12:1; 8:18 and 12:4; 8:20 and 12:7; 9:1 and 12:2; 9:9 and 12:7).
• Both Noah and Abraham represent new beginnings in the course of events recorded in Genesis.
• Both are marked by God's promise of blessing and his gift of the covenant.

18 So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out. 19 All the animals, all the creatures that crawl, and all the flying creatures—everything that moves on the earth—came out of the ark by their families.

• These verses may seem like needless repetition to the modern reader, but they underline Noah's obedience to God's words, which Moses stressed in the entire Flood narrative.

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.

• Noah's "altar" is the first altar mentioned in the Bible.
• His "burnt offerings" were for worship.
• Some of the burnt offerings in the Mosaic cultus (system of worship) were for the same purpose.
• Specifically, a burnt offering made atonement and expressed the offerer's complete personal devotion to God (cf. Lev. 1; Rom. 12:1-2).
• As the head of the new humanity, Noah, with his sacrifice, represented all humankind.
• To sacrifice seems as 'natural' to man as to pray; the one indicates what he feels about himself, the other what he feels about God.
• The one means a felt need of propitiation [a felt need to satisfy God]; the other a felt sense of dependence."

22 As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, and day and night
will not cease.”

• God's promise in this verse guarantees a certain degree of reliability in earth's climate system.
• There are good theological and scientific reasons to think Earth's climate is stable and global warming alarmism is unwarranted.
• Climate alarmism is distracting people—both Christians and non-Christians—from much weightier issues.
• Biblical religion explained that the seasonal cycle was the consequence of Yahweh's pronouncement and, moreover, evidence of a divine dominion that transcends the elements of the earth.
• There is no place for Mother-earth in biblical ideology.
• Earth owes its powers (not her powers!) to the divine command.

 
GOD’S COVENANT WITH NOAH
9 God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.

• At this new beginning of the human family God again commanded Noah and his sons to "fill the earth" with their descendants.
• God established human life anew on the earth, showing His high regard for it.

2 The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority.

• The phrases "The fear of you" and "the terror of you" express the same idea.
• Evidently at this point animals began to have a greater fear of human beings than they had previously.
• The exceeding sinfulness of mankind that resulted in the Flood did not wipe out God's original commands regarding human reproduction and dominion.

3 Every creature that lives and moves will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything.

• God gave Noah permission to eat animals.
• Until now evidently people had eaten only plants.
• Now humanity received the power of life and death over the animal kingdom ("I have given everything to you").
• Whether or not early man could eat meat by permission from the beginning, now it is stated formally in the Noahic covenant."
• Until the Mosaic Law, God made no distinction between clean and unclean animals with regard to human consumption.
• Under the Mosaic Law, the Israelites could not eat certain foods.
• Under the Law of Christ (Gal. 6:2), we may again eat any foods (Rom. 14:14; 1 Tim. 4:3).
• These changes illustrate the fact that God has changed some of the rules, for human conduct at various strategic times in history.
• These changes are significant features that help us identify the various dispensations (economies) by which God has ruled historically.

4 However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.

• As with Adam, He also gave them dominion over the animals and permission to eat any animal or "moving thing" for food, with only one prohibition: the animal's blood.
• God did prohibit the eating of animal "blood" in order to instill respect for the sacredness of life, since blood is a symbol of life, and it is the life-giving fluid (cf. Lev. 3:17; 7:2-27; 19:26; Deut. 12:1-24; 1 Sam. 14:32-34; Acts 15:20, 29).
• Visited with Sam’s grandparents on Monday Night and Frank said, “There is definitely life in the blood.”
• This was after his recent blood transfusion.
• "The implication [of New Testament references to eating blood] seems very clear that we are still to respect the sanctify of the blood, since God has appointed it to be a symbol of the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.
• Therefore it is not to be consumed by any believer who wishes to be obedient to Scripture."
• During my years of seminary teaching I had the privilege of ministering to many students from Africa.
• Some of them asked me about this prohibition against eating blood, because in their tribal cultures eating solidified blood was practiced.
• Since Jesus declared all foods clean (Mark 7:19), and Paul taught that all foods are acceptable for the Christian (Rom. 14:20; 1 Cor. 8:8; cf. Acts 10:13), I told them that I thought eating blood was all right, unless it was part of a pagan ceremony.
  In that case participation would probably imply approval of the paganism (cf. 1 Cor. 10:14-33).
• God not only reasserted the cultural mandate to reproduce, and subdue the earth, and modified the food law, but He also reasserted the sanctity of human life (cf. ch. 4).

5 And I will require a penalty for your lifeblood; I will require it from any animal and from any human; if someone murders a fellow human, I will require that person’s life.
6 Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans his blood will be shed,
for God made humans in his image.
7 But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.”

• The reason for capital punishment for murder is that God made man in His own image.
• This is one reason, therefore, that murder is so serious.
• A person extinguishes a revelation of God—which God takes very personally when he or she murders someone.
• Before the Flood, the lack of capital punishment led to bloody vendettas. – Genesis 4:23-24 - 23 Lamech said to his wives: Adah and Zillah, hear my voice; wives of Lamech, pay attention to my words. For I killed a man for wounding me, a young man for striking me. 24 If Cain is to be avenged seven times over, then for Lamech it will be seventy-seven times! [1]
• The Mosaic Law prescribed the death penalty for several other crimes, in addition to murder: working on the sabbath (Exod. 35:2), cursing father or mother (Lev. 20:9), adultery (Lev. 20:10), incest (Lev. 20:11-12), sodomy (Lev. 20:13, 15-16), false prophesying (Deut. 13:1-10), Idolatry (Deut. 17:2-7), incorrigible juvenile delinquency (Deut. 21:18-21), rape (Deut. 22:25), keeping an ox that had killed a human being (Exod. 21:29), kidnapping (Exod. 21:16), and intrusion of an alien into a sacred place or office (Num. 1:51; 3:10, 38; 17:7). These punishments ended with the end of the Mosaic Law, but the punishment for murder continued, since it antedated the Mosaic Law.
• This command laid the foundation for all civil government.
• The human government and the governors that existed previously—as in the city which Cain established (4:17), or in the case of the mighty men (6:4)—existed solely on human authority. Now, however, divine authority was conferred on human government to exercise oversight over those who lived under its jurisdiction.
• Sometimes those who argue against capital punishment, today, appeal to Jesus' statement in the Sermon on the Mount: "You have heard that it was said, 'Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.' But I say to you, do not show opposition against an evil person" (Matt. 5:38-39).
• Jesus was not cancelling God's command to execute murderers when He said this, but was teaching self-restraint and non-retaliation in interpersonal conflicts, as is clear from the context.
• These verses introduce the another dispensation, the dispensation of Human Government.
• When Noah and his family stepped out of the ark to begin life on earth anew, God laid down new rules for humanity, including a new test.
• Previously no one had the right to take another human life (cf. 4:10-11, 14-15, 23-24). Now, though man's direct moral responsibility to God continued, God delegated to man certain areas of His authority, including capital punishment (the death penalty for a crime).
• God now specified that human beings were to practice capital punishment in order to safeguard the sanctity of human life.

8 Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, 9 “Understand that I am establishing my covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. 11 I establish my covenant with you that never again will every creature be wiped out by floodwaters; there will never again be a flood to destroy the earth.”

• The Noahic Covenant was a treaty that God made with humankind through Noah.
• In it He promised to "never again" destroy all flesh with "the waters of a flood.

12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: 13 I have placed my bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all the living creatures: water will never again become a flood to destroy every creature. 16 The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the permanent covenant between God and all the living creatures on earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and every creature on earth.” [2]

• The sign that God appointed to remind people of this promise, and to guarantee it, was the rainbow.
• There may have been rainbows before this pronouncement, but now God attached significance to the rainbow.
• In later years God gave other signs in connection with other covenants: physical circumcision with the Abrahamic Covenant, Sabbath observance with the Mosaic Covenant, and the Lord's Supper with the New Covenant.
• The rainbow arcs like a battle bow hung against the clouds.
• The Hebrew word for rainbow, qeset, is also the word for a battle bow.
• The bow is now 'put away,' hung in place by the clouds, suggesting that the 'battle,' the storm, is over.
• Thus the rainbow speaks of peace.
• This covenant would remain for "all future generations”.
• People have no responsibility to guarantee the perpetuity of this covenant.
• God will do all that He promised (v. 9).
• Observe the recurrence of "I," "Myself," and "My" in these verses.
• God was making His promise—to all living creatures for all time going forward—very personal.
• Note that He said that the rainbow would remind Him of His promise; it was primarily a reminder to God and secondarily to human beings.
• Finally, this covenant is unconditional (v. 9), universal (v. 11), and everlasting (v. 12).
• The covenant with Noah [6:18; 9:9-16] is entirely unconditional rather than a conditional covenant, as in the situation in Eden.
• The certainty of the fulfillment of the covenant with Noah rested entirely with God and not with Noah.

God promised not to judge humanity again with a universal flood of water (8:21; 9:11-16).

[1] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 4:23–24.
[2] Christian Standard Bible (Nashville, TN: Holman Bible Publishers, 2020), Ge 8:1–9:17.

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.