Genesis 7.1-5-Noah Obeys the Lord's Command to Enter the Ark
Sunday September 18, 2005
Genesis: Genesis 7:1-5-Noah Obeys the Lord’s Command to Enter the Ark
Lesson # 29
Please turn in your Bibles to Genesis 7:1.
This morning we will study Genesis 7:1-5, which records Noah’s obedience to the Lord’s command to enter the ark.
Genesis 7:1, “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 time.’”
The term “Lord” is the covenant-keeping personal name of God used in connection with man’s salvation emphasizing the personal relationship that Noah had with the Lord and the personal attention that he was receiving from the Lord.
“For you (Noah) alone I have seen to be righteous before Me,” means that Noah trusted in Jesus Christ as His Savior and as a result God imputed His righteousness to Noah and it also means that Noah lived in that righteousness by being obedient to God’s Word by fulfilling his obligations to love God and his fellow man.
Noah was considered to be righteous before the Lord because he had faith in the Lord, which was expressed by his obedience to the Lord’s commands.
Hebrews 11:7, “By means of faith, Noah, after having received a divine warning concerning the things which at the time were not yet seen, and having responding reverentially built an ark for the deliverance of his household through which (faith) he rendered the wickedness of the world more evident and censurable and as a result he became a possessor of divine righteousness because of his faith.”
Genesis 7:1, “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 time.’”
“In this time”: Preposition be (B+) (beth) (2) Definite article ha (h) (3) Noun dor (rw{R) (dore) (4) Definite article ha (h) (5) Demonstrative pronoun zeh (hz#).
The noun dor refers to a “period of history, a dispensation of history” called the “Antediluvian (meaning prior to the Flood) period” and the preposition be is used in a temporal sense meaning, “during” whereas the demonstrative pronoun zeh is used to emphasize this particular period or dispensation of history.
A “dispensation” is a period of human history defined in terms of divine revelation and according to the Bible, history is a sequence of divine administrations and these consecutive eras reflect the unfolding of God’s plan for mankind.
Scofield Reference Bible states on page 5, “A dispensation is a period of time during which man is tested in respect of obedience to some specific revelation of the will of God.”
Ryrie, “A dispensation is a distinguishable economy in the outworking of God’s purpose.” (Dispensationalism Today, page 29).
Human history may be classified into six dispensations, which can be grouped into three categories: (1) Theocentric (2) Christocentric (3) Eschatological.
“Theocentric” dispensations are Old Testament dispensations extending from the creation of Adam to the virgin birth of Christ and are divided into two periods: (1) Gentiles (2) Israel.
The dispensation of the “Gentiles” extended from the creation of Adam to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt and is divided into four periods: (1) “Edenic”: Creation of Adam to his fall (2) “Antediluvian”: Fall of Adam to Flood of Noah (3) “Post-Diluvian”: Noah leaving the Ark to call of Abraham (4) “Patriarchal”: Call of Abraham to the Exodus of Israel from Egypt.
The dispensation of the “Jews” extended from the Exodus of Israel from Egypt to the birth of Christ.
Theocentric Dispensation Chart
Edenic Ante-Diluvian Post-Diluvian Patriarchal Israel
Gentiles Israel
The “Christocentric” dispensations are New Testament dispensations extending from the birth of Christ to the resurrection, or rapture of the church and are divided into two periods: (1) “Hypostatic Union”: Birth of Christ to His death, resurrection, ascension and session (2) “Church Age”: Pentecost to the Rapture.
Christocentric Dispensations
Precanon Postcanon
Hypostatic Union Church Age
The “Eschatological” dispensations are dispensations, which will follow the rapture of the church and are divided into two periods: (1) “Tribulation”: Rapture of the church to the 2nd Advent of Christ (2) “Millennium”: 2nd Advent of Christ to the release of Satan from prison and the execution of his sentence to Lake of Fire.
Eschatological Dispensations
Satan’s Fallen Utopia Great Tribulation The Kingdom
Tribulation Millennium
Therefore, Noah lived during the “Antediluvian” period of the dispensation of the Gentiles, which was a “Theocentric” dispensation.
In Genesis 7:1, the Lord is telling Noah that during the “Antediluvian” dispensation, he was the only one who was righteous in His judgment, which is a condemnation of the earth’s inhabitants in Noah’s day.
Genesis 7:2, “You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female.”
Genesis 7:3, “also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth.”
Genesis 7:2-3 gives us specific information regarding the command the Lord gave to Noah that is recorded in Genesis 6:19-20 and makes distinctions among the living creatures on the earth and the birds dividing them into two categories: (1) “Clean”: used for sacrificial purposes (2) “Unclean”: Not used for sacrificial purposes.
Leviticus 11 and Deuteronomy 14 give the criteria for what constitutes a “clean” and “unclean” animal but all such distinctions have been removed according to Mark 7:19, Acts 10:9-15 and 1 Timothy 4:4.
The “clean” animals that were taken aboard the ark were used for sacrifices after the Flood subsided and Noah and his family disembarked from the ark (Gen. 8:22-23).
The phrase “by sevens” is the Hebrew expression shiv`ah shiv`ah (hub+v! hub+v!), which literally means, “seven by seven,” indicating that “seven pairs” of “clean” animals and birds were brought onto the ark as confirmed by the phrase “a male and his female,” thus fourteen clean animals and birds were brought onto the ark.
These clean animals, which would be sacrificed, would “portray” the impeccable human nature of the Lord Jesus Christ and their being sacrificed would also “portray” our Lord’s substitutionary spiritual death on the Cross.
1 Peter 1:18, “knowing that you were not redeemed with perishable things like silver or gold from your futile way of life inherited from your forefathers.”
1 Peter 1:19, “but with precious blood, as of a lamb unblemished and spotless, the blood of Christ.”
The number seven is significant in the Bible since it is the number of “spiritual perfection,” therefore, the seven pairs of clean animals brought onto the ark, which portrayed the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross, speaks of the “spiritual perfection” of the Lord Jesus Christ and His death on the cross.
In Genesis 7:2-3, the Lord commanded Noah to bring seven pairs of each “clean” animal and bird and two of each kind of “unclean” animal in order to repopulate the earth when the Flood had subsided.
Genesis 7:4, “For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”
The phrase “for after seven more days” indicates that the command to enter the ark came one week before the Great Flood.
“Thing” is the noun yequm (sWqy+) (yek-oom), which means, “all existence” and is a “collective” noun meaning that even though it is in the singular, it designates a group and encompasses both humans and animals and birds and all vegetation.
The fact that the Lord was about to destroy the entire earth and kill every living creature and all vegetation on the earth as well as every human being indicates that the Flood was “universal” and not “local” as critics of the Bible contend.
In the Bible, forty is the number of trial and patience in both the Old Testament (Num. 14:33-34; Deut. 25:3) and New Testament (Matt. 4:2; Acts 1:3).
Therefore, in Genesis 7:4, “forty days and forty nights” speaks of the patience and faith of Noah throughout the great period of trial when this great flood destroyed the earth.
Genesis 7:5, “Noah did according to all that the LORD had commanded him.”
Noah’ obedience to the Lord’s command to build and enter the ark demonstrated not only his faith but also his love for the Lord and that he was experiencing fellowship with the Lord.
John 14:15, “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.”
Obedience is the supreme test of love for the Lord and characterizes faith in the Lord.
The Lord Jesus Christ was the perfect example of obedience to the Father’s will.
Philippians 2:8, “In fact, although He (the Lord Jesus Christ) was discovered in outward appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by having entered into obedience to the point of spiritual death even death on a Cross.”