The
Book of Genesis
Lesson Verse: Gen 7:12
I.
Lesson Introduction
A. In our last Bible study God commanded Noah to build an ark. God was about to destroy the inhabitants of the earth. He could not destroy Noah for he had found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
B. In this week’s study of Gen.7 we cover about 120 years plus 40 days. We see the ark loaded and the earth flooded just as God said. 2 Pet 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
C. Now it is very important to note what Peter said about Noah. He said he was the eight person from Adam. This does not mean he was the eighth person born. It means he was the eighth person saved. There is probably a reason why Peter took efforts to point out that Noah was the eighth person. One reason could be because the number eight signifies a new beginning. For example there are seven days in a week, and the eighth day is a new week. There are seven notes and the eighth note is an octave. A male child was circumcised on the eighth day.
D. I believe the reason why Peter points out that Noah was the eighth person is because when he disembarks from the ark, he walked out on a new world. The old world that Noah knew is gone. And remember also, Noah was a preacher of righteousness.
E. In the story of Noah we find one of the most frequent tales of science fiction writers. These weavers of yarns come up with different ways and mean of how the earth is destroyed and mankind rebuilds itself into a better society.
F. However, there is nothing fictional about this great story for the earth bears the scars of the universal flood. Hollywood has made millions of dollars using the theme of the world going through a disaster and only a handful of people living to pass on the story. Have you ever wondered why few people believe it the way God told it, but believe it could actually happen in the future according to Hollywood and fiction authors?
II.
Lesson – The Flood (Genesis 7)
A. The Ark, Gen. 7:1-10.
1. According to the physical design of the ark, it was nothing but a big wooden box. Spiritually it was much more.
a. It is a type of Christ offering shelter.
b. It is was a divine provision. Noah would not have thought of constructing and ark. Neither does man think of salvation until prompted by the Holy Spirit.
2. Come Thou!
a. The LORD requests Noah to get his family on board the Ark. Here we find the Lord inviting Noah to enter into the safety that the ark provides. Even today God still offers the safety of salvation to all that will accept the invitation.
3. Noah’s testimony, 2 Jn 1:6.
a. Noah and his family were spared because he was found righteous. His earthly walk was noticed not only by his peers, but most importantly by the LORD. One very important thing we should notice about Noah is found in Gen. 6:22 were we read, Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. That is quite a testimony.
b. Here we can say much for the family structure. Noah must have raised his sons well. These three son honoured their father a long time before the Lord spoke to Noah about the flood and building the ark. If they thought their father a bit on the crazy side for building a big boat on dry land, they would not have helped him, nor gotten in it.
c. Another distinction about Noah is how he is a type of the Jewish nation that brought forth the Messiah and he is also a type of the Jewish nation living under the protection of God during the great tribulation. He is also a type of the Christian preaching about an event that is hard to believe. It was just as difficult for people to accept the prophecy about rain in the days of Noah as it is for people to accept the preaching of the rapture in our day. In all these types Noah’s testimony corresponded with his walk.
d. What testimony do you have in heaven?
4. Our testimony, Col. 1:10.
a. As Christians we need to walk worthy of the LORD just as did Noah. Each of us must ask and answer if we have done all that the Lord commanded us to do? We ought to continually show our love for the Lord by following his will privately and publicly. Noah did so by building an ark. Each of us must examine self and see if we actually live as though we believe the rapture will take place in the wink of an eye, 1 Cor 15:52 In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed..
b. Each day we listen to the weather report. Will Rogers once said: “Everyone talks about the weather, but no one does a thing about it.” Before the storm there is usually thunder and lightning. We spend much time looking at the sky. People 2,000 years ago had this same problem, Mat 16:3 And in the morning, It will be foul weather to day: for the sky is red and lowering. O ye hypocrites, ye can discern the face of the sky; but can ye not discern the signs of the times?
c. Our Christian testimony must be one that testifies that we live as if we expect the rapture today. Noah had 120 years to build the ark. He had no time to kill; neither do we. Noah probably worked every day but the Sabbath. No holidays! No vacations!
d. We do not know the day nor the hour when the Lord will come. We can discern from the signs of the time that the end is nigh and live accordingly. Sad it is that many of us base going to church on what the weather is going to do.
5. The Clean And The Unclean (7:2).
a. Noah was told to bring two of every kind of living flesh aboard the ark, Gen. 6:19. Now God gives more revelation and informs him to bring seven of the clean beast and two of the unclean. It is not until the time of Moses that we find out what animals are clean and which are unclean. However, we can be sure that as our God changes not, even so the clean beasts in the days of Noah were the same clean beast in the days of Moses.
6. The Countdown.
a. The LORD told Noah that in seven days He will cause it to rain upon the earth.
7. Forty days of nights of bad weather.
a. The rain falls for forty days. Weathermen say that if all the moisture that is currently in the atmosphere turned into rain, it would fall for less than 9 hours.
b. There are many theories why it rained so long. One of the main theories is because it is believed that God had originally place a huge layer of ice above the atmosphere of the earth that protected it from the harmful rays of the sun and created a green-house effect in our atmosphere. This is one reason that people lived so long before the flood. This canopy, along with the great fountains of the deep opening up, is what crashed down and gushed up for forty days destroying all life on the face of the earth.
c. Again here also the number forty is significant. The Lord fasted 40 days, Israel wondered in the desert 40 years, Moses’ life was in stages of 40’s.
8. God closed the door, v. 16.
a. When God shut him in, there was no way judgment would enter. Here we find that Noah is a type of the born again child of God hidden in God, Col 3:3. This is absolute security. We are in Christ, John 10:29-30.
9. Destruction.
a. Every living thing that the LORD made was destroyed. Have you ever wondered why God went to so much time and trouble to kill all those folks, when He could have done it just as well with a simple snap of the fingers? The reason is that the story of the flood is one of the greatest stories of God's mercy and grace in all of the Old Testament. God waited until nearly every saved person on the planet had died out to give those lost folks every chance possible to be saved. He sends prophets and miracles to get man's attention. Then finally He sent the flood itself and really got their attention!
b. Even after the door of the ark was shut, God gave those folks 40 days to run, hide, and think about God. If Noah had been right about the flood, maybe he was right about God too! As the waters rose, men forgot all other matters and thought about God.
c. However, let us face facts! It is possible that some cried out for mercy but not probable. If one on those living did not cry out to God with the first clap of thunder and flash of lightning, it is highly unlikely they cried out when the water reached their knees.
d. It ought to be God’s love that draws us to Him instead His judgment. Compare the history of the nation of Israel to these people living in the days of Noah and one can get a similar view. Even with mothers eating their own children, the nation would not repent. Thus it is if we are not working for Him in a land of freedom, how many of us will take our stand with the threat of death?
e. There was also countless children at that time that would never grow up to become lost, because the flood took them before they became accountable. All those people physically died in the flood, but only eternity will reveal just how many of them turned to God in those last days after God closed the door of the ark.
10. How high the water?
a. The Bible says the water rose about twenty feet over the top of the highest mouton at that time. A cubit is about 18 inches in length. Thus the waters rose about twenty feet above the top of the highest mountains. Why so high? Remember there were giants in those days. God was going to be sure it covered them, even if they made it to the mountain tops.
11. Noah Did As Commanded.
a. He was 600 years old when the flood came. God's way of measuring time in the Old Testament is extremely accurate. By adding up the years from the creation until the time that Noah is 600 years old, there is a total of 1,656 years. By subtracting this figure from 4000 BC, the year of the creation, you arrive at the year of the flood, which is 2344 BC. God even gives us the name of the second month.
b. We are never too old to serve the Lord. We should do the will of God. Each of us should know what He would have us to do. The Bible tells us God’s will.
c. It contains: commands to be obeyed, principles to follow, things to avoid, and living examples that we should imitate, and those to be shunned as well. Also to be in God’s will we must be in fellowship with Him, Ps 40:8 I delight to do thy will, O my God: yea, thy law is within my heart.
B. The Great Flood GEN 7:11-24
1. Considering the best time reckoning we have, we can say the flood began on Zif 17, 2344 BC that is about 1,656 years, 1 month, and 16 days after the beginning of the creation. An interesting side note here is that over the past few decades, scientists have been studying what is called continental drift. It seems that all of the continents are drifting apart, and were once all part of one huge land mass. This original super-continent is called Pangea. An entirely new branch of science called plate tectonics has been built up around this theory. It was during the great flood that this single land mass broke up as we have just read in Genesis. Good scientific research will catch up with the Bible sooner or later!
2. There is a term CATASTROPHISM. This term implies that the past was quite different than today, and was marked by a great worldwide flood. This flood laid down all of the geologic deposits of the earth in rapid succession, virtually non-stop. There are also Planetary Catastrophists who believe that the geology of the earth reflects a series of periodic collisions from planets, comets, and the space debris. However, the evidence points to a flood.
3. Note how the water PREVAILED (7:18-24)
a. Against the land – covered it
b. Against human intelligence – they tried to get above it, or run into the caves, etc, but the water won!
III.
Conclusion and Applications
A. Other Traditions of the Flood
1. The Bible is not the only historical record we have regarding the flood. Just prior to the Bolshevik Revolution some aviators claimed to have seen the bulk of a large ship in an inaccessible glacier on Mt. Ararat. However this was not ever proven.
2. Furthermore we have the following ancient traditions:
3. Archives of the Temple of Marduk, in Babylon as related by Berosus, 300 B. C., contained the story of Xisuthros, a king, warned by the gods to build a boat to survive a flood.
4. Egyptians had a legend that the gods purified the earth with a flood.
5. Greek tradition says Deucalion built an ark after he was warned by the gods.
6. Hindu tradition says Manu was warned to build a ship.
7. Chinese tradition says Fa-He, founder of Chinese civilization is represented as having escaped death in a boat.
8. The list goes on with English Druids, Polynesians, Mexicans, Peruvians, American Indians, and legends from Greenland relate of a great flood with only a few survivors. “Halley’s Bible Handbook.”
B. Noah, The Ark, And Types. The following information is from “Gleanings in Genesis” by Auther W. Pink
1. The ark was divine protection thought out by the mind of God years before the flood. Even so our salvation was not an after thought of God reactive to the sin of Satan and the fall of mankind, Rev. 13:8.
2. God revealed His plan to Noah. God reveals things to us through His word and will.
3. The ark was made of wood, the same material the cross was made from.
4. The ark was refuge from divine judgment. There are three arks in Bible. Moses was found in an ark, and there is the ark of the covenant. All three offered protection.
5. God invited Noah to come into the ark. Jesus invited all to come to Him, Mat 11:28.
6. The ark was absolute security for Noah. Those that are in Christ possess absolute safety and security.
7. The ark had only one door set in the side. Jesus said He was the door John 10:7, 9, and His side was opened up and out poured blood and water as He hung on the wooden cross.
8. The ark had three stories. Even so our salvation is a three-fold event. We are saved from past sins, sins dominion over us, and the penalty of sin.
9. The ark had one window in the roof. Noah was not to look at the judgment but keep his eyes on the Lord. Peter could not walk on water because he looked down at his feet. Christians can not keep their eyes on the Lord and walk by faith if we are looking down, Psa 121:1.