Noah’s Ark & The Flood
Genesis 7:1 – 24
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.
Let us think of the Word of God in verse 1: “because I have found you righteous in this generation”
Noah was distinguished from the generation in ‘righteousness’.
We see this world distinguishes people based on ‘achievement’ & ‘performance’ in academia, business or sports and ‘righteousness’ is not counted in highest priority.
They don’t look at ‘morality’ of the person but see his/her ‘wealth’, ‘qualification’, and ‘appearance’.
The top priority of the education should be making a person to live before God.
Proverbs 9:10 says
10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
God’s will was clearly taught through the Son of God, Jesus, which is summarized in Matthew 22:37 – 39:
37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”
Now we know that
- Noah had the fear of the LORD.
- Noah loved the Lord his God.
- Noah loved his neighbour as himself.
All crimes and sins are due to the lack of the items listed above.
2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.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.”
5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.
Verse 5 is similar to Genesis 6:22. Here we see that this repetition in the Bible emphasizes Noah’s ‘obedience’.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
As God foretold, the day of the flood finally came on the earth (6). The Noah’s Ark, that is, the result of the obedience, became the vessel of the salvation on the day of the judgement.
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. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
More precise date of the Flood is written in verse 11. The rain continued for 40 days & nights.
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They 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. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.
“as God had commanded Noah” in verse 16 tells me that God’s working power & Noah’s obedience worked together to make the salvation happen. During our obedience, God is with us to empower & help us. When you do God’s will, you are not alone. God is there with you (Matthew 28:20).
17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
The waters rose to more than 6.8 m above the mountain top (20). Every living thing that moved on land perished (21a). The total length of the Flood was 150 days (24).
Yes, people perished by the Flood – the Judgement of God.
Let us read John 3:16:
16 For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
Jesus is one and only Son of God, who is our Savour. Without Jesus, Yes, people will perish on the day of Judgement – this Judgement will be by the Fire (2 Peter 3:10, 12).
And the Judgement will not finish only by physical death. The Bible warns the 2nd death (suffering in the pond of fire) (Revelation 21:8). Moreover, the judgement will be eternal (Matthew 25:46).
20 Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with that person, and they with me. (Revelation 3:20)
Jesus is knocking the door of your heart. Open your door and accept Jesus into your life today.
