Genesis 7 - The Flood Comes
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Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation.
What do you notice about the first thing God says in Chapter 7:1?
Noah’s righteousness allowed for his family to be brought through the flood safely.
The Bible clearly states that Noah and his household are to enter the ark; however, only Noah is righteous. He is the only righteous one
That is not an insignificant observation
Noah is righteous and so the others are saved because of Noah’s righteousness. Sound familiar?
Look back in chapter 6, who is the first person who tells us that Noah is righteous?
It is the narrator, Moses. It is kind of like Moses writing from an outside perspective.
Then we read on and see how Noah meticulously follows God’s commands and builds the ark
Then in 7:1, God says to Noah, that he is righteous.
Noah is righteous for obeying God.
So this is a big deal, because a lot of times we are thinking about Jesus and how he was righteous and how somehow I am saved through that… but you are not really sure how it works.
What we see in the Bible is that a lot of times someone obeys God and God counts him righteous along with several others.
You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female; also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
Why in this verse, does it say to take seven pairs of every clean animal when in the previous chapter it said to only take two of every kind?
We don’t really know, it could be that the first passage is only speaking about the minimum amount and this passage is including the extra amount that will be needed in order to sacrifice.
Only clean animals are able to be sacrificed. The sacrificial system was not a thing yet, so either there was some kind of knowledge of which animals could be sacrificed during this time, or a later editor could have added this.
For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”
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 fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
What passage does “Fountains of the great deep” and “floodgates of the sky” remind you of?
It should remind us of the creation in Genesis 1. The author is intentionally using this language to make us think back to creation.
Are there any ideas as to why Moses is using the language of creation when talking about the flood?
I am going to say something that is slightly provocative; however, I think it is important to say.
Whenever, we talk about the flood, we like to talk about it as literally regional or a literally global flood.
However, we can clearly see that the cosmology and view of the world is completely different than the author and early Hebrew people.
They did not know what a globe was. When Moses talks about the earth, he is not talking about the globe, he is talking about dry land.
So, the question is not is this literally a global or regional flood, but rather what does it mean to take this passage literally when the cosmology they use and understood is completely different than our own cosmology today?
In verse 11, it talks about how the floodgates of the sky were opened and that rain fell on the earth.
One thing, that certain scholars believe is that the earth used to have a canopy of water outside of its atmosphere, and they get this from these early Genesis passages Gen 1 and Gen 7.
They believe that the flood was the emptying of the waters above.
The issue with this is that in the Psalms, the writer clearly believes that the waters are still above us.
Psalm 148:1–6 (NASB 2020)
Praise the Lord!
Praise the Lord from the heavens;
Praise Him in the heights!
Praise Him, all His angels;
Praise Him, all His heavenly armies!
Praise Him, sun and moon;
Praise Him, all stars of light!
Praise Him, highest heavens,
And the waters that are above the heavens!
They are to praise the name of the Lord,
For He commanded and they were created.
He has also established them forever and ever;
He has made a decree, and it will not pass away.