Sunday, November 11, 2018 Lesson: Genesis 7:1-10; Time of Action: Nobody knows; Place of Action: Nobody knows Golden Text: And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation (Genesis 7:1). I. INTRODUCTION. God is often seen in the Bible as a stern, Judge of unrepentant, rebellious sinners, whom He deals with both collectively and individually. It is possible for God s patience to come to an end even though He is merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty (see Exodus 34:6-7). This week s lesson shows destruction will come to those who turn away from God, but those who obey Him will dwell in safety. II. LESSON BACKGROUND. By the time of Noah, the earth s population had become so tremendously corrupted and wicked (see Genesis 6:5) that God was sorrowful and grieved that He had made man (see Genesis 6:6). As a result,
God determined to destroy everything that He had created on the earth both man and animals (see Genesis 6:7). In the midst of all the evil on earth, Noah is introduced as one who found grace in the eyes of the Lord (see Genesis 6:8). He is described as a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God (see Genesis 6:9). Having seen the corruption of all flesh upon the earth, God spoke to Noah and warned him that He was going to destroy mankind with the earth (see Genesis 6:12-13). Then the Lord commanded Noah to build an ark and gave him instructions on how it should be built (see Genesis 6:14-16). God said that He would destroy all flesh by bringing a flood of waters, but He would also make a covenant with Noah and his descendants (see Genesis 6:17-18). Then the Lord told Noah that once the ark was finished, he and his family along with a specific number of animals were to enter the ark to keep them alive (see Genesis 6:19-21). For the next 120 years (see Genesis 6:3), Noah served God by working on the ark and preaching righteousness (see I Peter 3:20; II Peter 2:5) to whoever would listen, but nobody would. Chapter 6 ends with the statement: Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. Our lesson begins with chapter 7 about 120 years after God commanded Noah to build the ark. III. GOD S PROVISION TO CONTINUE HUMAN AND ANIMAL LIFE (Genesis 7:1-4) A. God s invitation to enter the ark (Genesis 7:1).
Our first verse says And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Once the ark was finished, God s invitation to Noah was Come thou and all thy house into the ark. But notice that God does not tell Noah to go into the ark, but to come into it. This indicated that God was already waiting for him in the ark, and in due time would bring him safely out of it. This was further assurance that they all would be safe. But Noah did not go into the ark until God invited him to come in. Even though he knew it was designed as his place of refuge and safety (see Genesis 6:18), he waited for a renewed command from the Lord, and it came. It s always good to follow divine providence, and see God going before us in every step we take. Noah s house included his wife, their three sons, and their three wives. Because of Noah s faith, a total of eight humans entered the ark and survived the flood (see Genesis 7:13; I Peter 3:20). Multitudes of people outside scoffed at Noah s exhortations to live righteous lives and to trust God instead of obeying his warnings (see Matthew 24:37-38; Luke 17:26-27). God then gives His reason for saving Noah from the flood. God said it was because for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. In other words, God was saying among all the people on the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous. This means that God had been attentive to Noah s long history of ministry, and looked on him with favor. The word righteous means upright or just. Note: In Old Testament times, a person was seen as righteous because he was right before God; and he was right with God because he walked in all the commandments and
ordinances of the Lord (see Genesis 6:9; Luke 1:6). In the New Testament, a person is seen as righteous when he or she believes on the Lord Jesus Christ. We then become righteous not because we are sinless, but because God makes us righteous (see Romans 5:19; II Corinthians 5:21) through our faith in Jesus Christ. God takes notice and is pleased with those who are righteous before him. In a world of wicked people God saw one righteous person Noah. He is evidence that the Lord is pleased with those who live upright in bad times and in bad places. Noah was righteous because he lived right in his wicked and adulterous generation. Those who live upright in the midst of sin and iniquity can be assured that God will keep them safe in times of calamity. B. God s command concerning animals (Genesis 7:2-3). 1. (vs. 2). This verse says Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Earlier, God had told Noah that when the time came he was to take two of every kind of animal, male and female into the ark (see Genesis 6:19-20). Now for the first time, God specifies clean animals and not clean or unclean animals. At this point we are not told what the differences were between clean and unclean animals. However, the differences would be given to Israel in detail later in the Mosaic Law (see Leviticus 11:1-31; Deuteronomy 14:3-20). Although the origin of the
differences between clean animals and those that were not clean is not stated, Noah obviously understood the difference. God told Noah to take seven pairs of every clean beast both male and female of the species, and two each, or one pair of every species of not clean or unclean animals both male and female. We learn later in Genesis 8:20 that after the Flood, Noah was aware of the difference between the clean and unclean animals because we are told that he offered clean animals for sacrifice to God. In addition, man had not been allowed to eat meat before the Flood, but after the Flood some of the clean animals would be needed for both food and sacrifices. Therefore, more of the clean animals were taken on the ark. 2. (vs. 3). This verse says Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. We know that the fowls of the air were included among the clean animals because they were to be taken by sevens or seven pairs and also the male and the female of each species. All of these animals were to be taken on the ark to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth which meant that every kind of life would be reproduced again after the flood had ended. C. The time schedule for the flood (Genesis 7:4). This verse says For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. At this point, God gave Noah seven days or a week s notice that after that time
He would cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights. Prior to the Flood no rain had fallen on earth, but God watered the whole earth with a mist that went up from the earth (see Genesis 2:5-6). So when the Flood came no one would have known what rain was. This would have made rain an entirely new phenomenon to Noah and everyone else alive at that time. Whether or not God explained the concept of rain to Noah, He did declare that with the coming deluge every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. The word destroy means to wipe clean. God was going to use a Flood caused by forty days and forty nights of rain to wipe mankind from the earth. Note: We might wonder why after 120 years God gave Noah a seven day warning before the Flood began. It was probably to give Noah time for any last minute preparations including getting all the animals aboard in their stalls and feeding them. However, we cannot overlook the notion that maybe God was giving Noah s neighbors one last opportunity to repent and save themselves from destruction. But even if that was the case, no one repented. In fact if they did anything, they probably ridiculed and mocked Noah and his family not only for building an ark, but also for taking all those animals inside. IV. NOAH AND HIS FAMILY ARE READY FOR THE STORM (Genesis 7:5-10)
A. Noah s faith (Genesis 7:5-6). 1. (vs. 5). This verse says And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. Here we have Noah obeying God even though he most likely didn t quite understand it all. We must remember that Noah had never seen rain before, let alone a flood. But he obeyed God to the very last letter. He did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. This statement becomes even more wonderful when we consider that the idea of the destruction of every living thing on earth was almost unbelievable. In addition, Noah had spent over 100 years building an ark which probably made him a laughing stock to everyone around him. But he still did everything God told him to do without any objections that we aware of. Truly, Noah was a man of great faith (see Hebrews 11:7). 2. (vs. 6). This verse says And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. Before God spoke to Noah warning him about His decision to destroy all humanity along with the earth (see Genesis 6: 13), in the genealogy of Noah we are told that he was 500 years old at that time (see Genesis 5:32). Now over a year later when the flood of waters was upon the earth Noah was 600 years old when he and his family entered the ark (see Genesis 7:11). B. The boarding of the ark (Genesis 7:7). This verse says And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. After the seven days that God
gave Moses for final preparations for the Flood (see Genesis 7:4, 10), we are told that Noah and his family, a total of eight persons (see I Peter 3:20; II Peter 2:5) entered the ark because the rain had started. C. The procession of the animals (Genesis 7:8-9). 1. (vs. 8). This verse goes on to say Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth. Here we are reminded of the types of beasts or land animals that also went into the ark (see Genesis 7:2-3). Fowls refer to everything that has wings including insects. Every thing that creepeth upon the earth includes everything that moves or crawls upon the earth. The Lord restated that these animals would either be clean or not clean or unclean. 2. (vs. 9). This verse says There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. Just as God had commanded Noah concerning the animals, the unclean animals went into the ark two and two or in pairs (see Genesis 7:2) both male and female. As we previously noted, the ark was to provide safety not only for Noah and his family, but for the animals as well. It was not built for travel. It was built for flotation and protection. It may have taken Noah and his family the entire week before the rain came to get all the animals on board. But we should not think that this was a major problem, because God was in control and saw to it that these animals followed Noah s
directions. The unclean animals which Noah was to gather in pairs of sevens are not mentioned here, but we can rest assured that they entered the ark as God had commanded Noah. Note: Although the main point of this verse is that everything went into the ark just as God commanded, we can t overlook the fact that everything that went into the ark both humans and animals went in male and female. The same number of males and females entered the ark. God s creation has been only male and female from the beginning. Even though there are modern day attempts to use Scripture to validate same-sex marriage, it just won t work. God has always seen marriage as being between one man and one woman. The Old Testament declared that same-sex relationships are an abomination (see Leviticus 18:22; 20:13), and the New Testament follows suit declaring that For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use into that which is against nature: And likewise also the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompense of their error which was meet (see Romans 1:26-27). D. The coming of the flood (Genesis 7:10). Our final verse says And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. Just as God had said, seven days, or a week after He warned Noah of the coming rain (see Genesis 7:4), the waters of the flood were upon the earth. The rain had started to
fall on the earth and the Flood had now begun according to God s word. Noah, his family, and the animals were safe. The ark served its purpose. As believers, we too can find safety in times of storms. The psalmist declared: He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust (see Psalms 91:1-2). Note: The ark is clearly a type of Christ, our Savior, who is the refuge or place of safety for His people from judgment. Like Christ, the ark was to be a means of salvation for those who God chose to deliver in His mercy and grace. Just as the ark had only one door leading into it, likewise Jesus is the only way to salvation and guarantee of heaven. He said Himself I am the door; by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture (see (John 10:9). V. Conclusion. God cannot and will not tolerate sin. In Noah s time, man s growing wickedness prompted God to judge the world with a universal flood. But because Noah was obedient to the Lord, God chose to extend grace and deliverance to Noah, his family and representatives of the animal species. They all found safety in the ark. Even though God knows that we will sin because that is the nature of fallen mankind, He still provided for our safety and salvation by sending His Son Jesus to be punished for our sins and to die in our place on the cross. We will always be safe when we trust the God who has already prepared for our
safety and knows how much we need His protection in this sinful world we live in. Like Noah, we are called to be His holy people in our time. If we submit to God s indwelling Holy Spirit, we can fulfill that calling. ***The Bible Expositor and Illuminator, Union Gospel Press***