Genesis Lesson 8 Genesis 6:14-8:22

Transcription

1 Genesis Lesson 8 Genesis 6:14-8:22 In the last lesson, we saw the genealogy of the line of Christ during the 1,656 years of human civilization between the fall of Adam and the Flood. We noted how long the life spans were, and how many lines of descendants would have come out of Adam and all his sons and daughters in that period of time. The population at the time of the flood must have been approaching 100 million. We saw how the human race had been corrupted by the fallen angels and the race of the Nephilim, and how almost all of them had turned to evil. God had set a time limit for them to repent. It was 120 years. However, he had found one family who still worshipped the LORD. The family of Noah. We ended the last lesson with the following verse. Genesis 6:13 "So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth." Jesus taught about this time on the earth: Matthew 24:37-39 "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away." 1 / 13

2 In this lesson, we will study the building of the Ark and the flood. Genesis 6:14-16 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches [a] of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. Literally, the Bible makes the measurements 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits. This is about the length of one and a third football fields. It was massive, and no wooden ship as large was built until the Chinese built a few that large in about 1400 AD. The British ship-of-the line (the largest class of wooden warship) was only about 185 feet long and carried 850 men. [b] Genesis 6:17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. [c] Everything on earth will perish. Although I believe in Genesis 6, the word "earth" means the whole earth, to be perfectly honest, I must remind you what I taught in Genesis 1. The Hebrew word for earth here is 6r<a&, {eh' rets} which is translated "earth," and as in English, can also be understood in many different ways. The Outline of Biblical Usage states that the word can often be understood to mean "land" or "earth." Included in those meanings are the following: 1) the whole earth (as opposed to a part), 2) the earth (as opposed to heaven), 3) inhabitants of the earth, 4 ) the land, 5 ) the surface of the earth, 6 ) 2 / 13

3 the soil. Genesis 6:18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark--you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. The word translated "Ark" here and the word translated "Ark" in Exodus 25 speaking about the Ark of the Covenant are two entirely different words. The word here is % "; {tay-baw'}, and the word in Exodus 25 is 0&9! {aw-rone'}. However, the Greek word used to translate both words in the Septuagint is the same word i4$tj@l {kib-o-tos'}. The Hebrew word 0&9! {aw-rone'} means chest and is derived from a Hebrew word meaning "to gather." The Hebrew word %"; {tay-baw'} is of unknown derivation and is only used in connection with Noah's Ark and the Ark of Bulrushes. In the New Testament the Greek word i4$tj@l {kib-o-tos'} is used to speak of both the Ark of Noah (Matthew 24:38, Luke 17:27, Hebrews 11:17, 1 Peter 3:20) and the Ark of the Covenant (Hebrews 9:4, Revelation 11:19). The point I am trying to make here is that all of the Arks (particularly Noah's Ark and the Ark of the Covenant) are figures of God's salvation through Jesus Christ. Peter also makes this point in 1 Peter: 1 Peter 3:18-22 For Christ died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, to bring you to God. He was put to death in the body but made alive by the Spirit, through whom also he went and preached to the spirits in prison [d] who disobeyed long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, [e] and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also-not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God's right hand-with angels, authorities and powers in 3 / 13

4 submission to him. Genesis 6:19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them." Noah did everything just as God commanded him. This is in contrast with the some presentations of this story showing Noah rounding up all the animals. Instead, God says that they would "come to him." Obviously God impelled the animals He selected to come to Noah. [f] This would mean that the parents of every genus living on earth now, were among those creatures that came to Noah However, they would not include every variety which has since descended from them. In other words, Noah probably took one pair of canines (dogs), not the 1000 varieties that descended from them (wolves, coyotes, dachshunds, terriers, etc.) Since the flood, there is no doubt that there has occurred what might be labeled "horizontal evolution." For example, we know that only eight human beings started the human race after the flood, and yet we can see how many body types, skin and hair colors, etc. have "evolved" from them. They vary all the way from the pygmies in Africa to the Vikings in Scandinavia. What the Biblical world view takes issue with is so called "vertical evolution," which claims that one "species" or "genus" evolved from another. There is absolutely no scientific evidence of this although the Darwinists have been looking for it frantically for the last 150 years. Genesis 7:1 The LORD then said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Out of the entire population of as many as a hundred million, only eight had believed in the LORD. Genesis 7:2-3 Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 / 13

5 This reference to "clean and unclean" animals is a further indication that, as I speculated in the account of Abel's accepted sacrifice and Cain's rejected sacrifice, God had revealed to Adam's descendants much more about what constituted acceptable worship than is recorded in the Genesis account. The existing Biblical record of what constituted "clean" and "unclean" animals was not recorded until Leviticus, about 1,500 years later in the time of Moses, yet here, Noah is supposed to know the difference. Genesis 7:4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made." This is the first use of the number forty associated with a period of time importantly connected to God's overall plan for time. Other examples: Moses was forty years old when he visited his brethren, was forty years in Midian, was on Mount Sinai for forty days, and prayed for Israel for forty days. The Israelites wandered forty years in the wilderness. Saul, David and Solomon each reigned forty years. Jonah called on Nineveh to repent within forty days. Elijah travelled 40 days to Mt. Horeb. Jesus fasted in the desert forty days and remained on earth forty days after His resurrection. Forty seems to be connected to a time of testing and evaluation. Genesis 7:5-6 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. We know from Genesis 5:32 that Noah did not become a father until he was 500 years old, and from Genesis 7:6 that the flood came when he was 600 years old. We know from Genesis 6:3 that the flood came 120 years after God gave this command to Noah. Thus he had no children for 20 years. We know from Genesis 11:10 that Shem was 98 years before the flood, and from Genesis 10:21 we also know that Japheth was Shem's older brother. Thus we can conclude that Japheth was born 100 years before the flood, Shem 98 years before the flood, and Ham, some time after that. Besides his three sons, Noah would have had the aid of at least two of his forebears who lived nearly until the flood, Lamech his father, and Methusaleh, his grandfather. Genesis 7:7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 5 / 13

6 We know there were eight people in all from 1 Peter 3:20. [g] Thus we know that God began the new age of the earth with just one woman for each man, just as He had at the creation of man. It is His design for all ages. [h] Genesis 7:8-10 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. Noah and his family entered the Ark before it even began to rain. They must have been able to hear the laughter of their neighbors outside the Ark. After seven days, however, the floodwaters came. Notice that the floodwaters came immediately, at the same time as first of the rain. Genesis 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month--on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. The Hebrew word translated "deep" here is.&%; {teh-home'} which usually speaks of the deep oceans. It seems clear that the waters of the oceans, by one of a number of possible means flowed out of their bounds and covered what had been till now dry land. At this point what ever had caused the seas to overflow their bounds ceased. The physical means by which God may have caused this, vary from the reversal of the earths polarity, to the close passage of large meteor or planet, [i] to the violent convulsion of the earth's surface. Of course God doesn't need to use normal physics to cause anything. The main thing is it happened. The following Biblical passages expand on that idea of the overflow of the seas: Ps 104:6-9 "You covered it with the deep as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth." 6 / 13

7 Proverbs 8:27-29 "I was there when he set the heavens in place, when he marked out the horizon on the face of the deep, when he established the clouds above and fixed securely the fountains of the deep, when he gave the sea its boundary so the waters would not overstep his command." Jeremiah 5:22 "Should you not fear me?" declares the LORD. "Should you not tremble in my presence? I made the sand a boundary for the sea, an everlasting barrier it cannot cross. The waves may roll, but they cannot prevail; they may roar, but they cannot cross it." Job 38:8-11 "Who shut up the sea behind doors when it burst forth from the womb, when I made the clouds its garment and wrapped it in thick darkness, when I fixed limits for it and set its doors and bars in place, when I said, This far you may come and no farther; here is where your proud waves halt'?" Psalms 33:7 "He gathers the waters of the sea into jars, he puts the deep into storehouses." Genesis 7:12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. Of course, any such violent upheaval would have created rain. Genesis 7:13-14 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, [j] entered the ark. They ark, they [ 7 / 13

8 k] had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. In other words, this is saying that when the Ark was ready to be closed up, all the animals had arrived and were inside. Genesis 7:15-16 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in. It would seem that the LORD was the one who shut the door of the Ark. Genesis 7:17-20 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. [l] Everything on the earth as it was configured at that time was covered with water. Whether Mt. Everest was 29,000 feet high above the sea at that time we don't know. It could have been raised up after the flood. Genesis 7:21 Every living thing that moved on the earth perished--birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in 8 / 13

9 the ark. Notice that this limits the life involved to those that lived on dry land and breathed through nostrils. It does not include life that lived in water or life that did not require breathing through nostrils. Fish and most insects would be among those life forms not included. Genesis 7:24-8:4 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days. But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, [m] and the waters receded. Now the springs of the deep [n] and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. There is a pretty clear indication from both the Bible and secular sources that when God restored the world in Genesis 1, He instituted a perfect chronological system whereby the earth circled the Sun every 360 days, and the Moon circled the Earth every 30 days. There were exactly twelve months to a year. Every month was exactly one cycle of the moon. That this system was in effect at the time of Noah's flood is shown by a logical examination of the following verses: Genesis 7:11 " In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month --on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened." Genesis 7:24 "The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days." Genesis 8:1 "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded." 9 / 13

10 Genesis 8:4 "and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat." We have to conclude that the Ark came to rest at Ararat the day the waters began to recede. The Ark couldn't have come to rest before that. [o] This was a period of 150 days. This period is also described as from "the seventeenth day of the second month" to "the seventeenth day of the seventh month." Logic forces us then to conclude that at that time five months was 150 days. At the present time five lunar months would be 147½ days. We therefore have to conclude that there has been a change in the cycles of the moon since Noah's time. If the end of the 150 day period did not coincide with the 17 th day of the 7 th month, then it could only have been later as the waters receded further. This would have made for an even longer month than 30 days. Of course, we also have the Babylonian scheme of mapping the circuit of the heavens in 360 degrees (which we still use) that testifies that in the second millennium before Christ, there were 360 days in the year. Mount Ararat is located along the North Eastern border of Turkey, just next to Armenia. At 16,854 feet, it is the tallest mountain in that part of the world. The following was written the first century AD: "The Armenians call this place, The Place of Descent;' for the ark being saved in that place, its remains are shown there by the inhabitants to this day." Flavius Josephus, Antiquities of the Jew, Book 1, Chapter 3, Paragraph / 13

11 Mount Genesis 8:5-7 the and judgment, we ]Noah [q] [r] There see tenth it opened kept is a Ararat raven a month and flying great The the we which waters the deal find back window tops is of floods and continued symbolism of unclean he forth of the had water mountains until made to bird here. recede the sent Of water rest the course, out became until of ark to had the bring and the Bible visible. dried tenth water good sent symbolizing up month, out of news. After from the a raven, forty flood It and the did Judgment. earth. days on was not the come God's first [s] back. day Hereof[p 11 / 13

12 Map Genesis Showing 8:8-11 all took seven more the olive! dove Let's 1) Then Ararat 2) Then the ground. evening, the spoke symbolized leaf days look surface Noah The dove at and of dove But knew there innocence and of again the symbols was the brought that ultimate dove its earth; a sent clean the as beak here, out could out in water it so innocent bird Matthew back a was which the it dove find returned which had dove a to freshly were no sacrifice, to himself receded 10:16 was see place from the to used plucked "be Noah dove, the in Jesus to from the set for ark. water in the ark. many Christ. its --- the When seven feet earth. had as He ark. offerings innocent waited because the receded days, He dove reached in and as there from returned doves." Tabernacle. out the olive was his surface to water leaf. hand him The over in of and 12 / 13

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