Or, The Floods Came Up
Scripture: Genesis 7:1-16
Date: November 1, 2015
Speaker: Sean Higgins
The kids sing:
The wise man built his house upon the rock…
And the rain came tumbling down
Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up…
And the wise man’s house stood firm.
The foolish man built his house upon the sand…
And the rain came tumbling down
Oh, the rain came down
And the floods came up…
And the foolish man’s house went “Splat!”
It’s catchy, and it keeps fresh Jesus’ final parable in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 7:24-27). “The rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house” times two. One house stood, and great was the collapse of the other.
Jesus may or may not have been working with the story of Noah in mind when He told His illustration, but Noah certainly embodies the point of the parable on a grand scale. In Noah’s day the rain came down for forty days and forty nights while the fountains of the great deep burst forth. But he was ready because he built an ark, and he did that because he heard the words of God and obeyed them all (Genesis 6:22; see also Matthew 7:24).
We knew that things were bad at the end of Generations Book 2, “the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth” (Genesis 6:5). He said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land” (6:7). But at the start of Book 3 we’re told about the righteous man with a good reputation named Noah, a man who had learned to walk with God like his great-grandfather Enoch. Though “the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (6:11), God makes a covenant with Noah to spare him and provides Noah with instructions to build a large box to hold the future of the planet.
Now it is time to get in the boat. In Genesis 7:1-16 we learn a few more details and God shuts Noah in as the rain comes down and the floods come up.
About 100 years have passed. Noah was 500 when the LORD revealed that He was “determined to make an end of all flesh” (6:13) and the “flood of waters” started when Noah was 600 (7:6). All we know for sure from the Genesis story itself is that Noah did all that God commanded him (6:22), repeated again and again in chapter 7.
Apparently the ark itself was mostly finished according to the divine specs. The food also was grown, harvested, and stowed on board.
Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. (verses 1-3)
It’s time: Go into the ark . This is not a drill; the raindrops are live. Though Noah obviously trusted God’s Word, as evidenced by his obedience in building, the LORD reaffirmed His commitment to him: for I have seen that you are righteous before me . Perhaps it had been a century since hearing God’s commandment. This also might have been the first time Noah heard God’s personal endorsement since the previous comment about his righteousness was given by the narrator to the readers and not by God to Noah (Genesis 6:9).
Verses 2 and 3 make more specific the instructions about male and female given in 6:19. The “two of every sort” still stands, now with seven pairs—two of every clean sort. This is for the sake of sacrifice after the flood, an implicit sign that there would be an end. These clean creatures would not be made extinct due to offering worship to God.
The reason to embark is the LORD’s readiness to fulfill His intention (6:7, 11-12)
For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” (verse 4)
The LORD is explicit on the when ( seven days ), the how ( rain ), the how long ( forty days and forty nights ), and the why ( to blot out every living thing ) of the flood.
Rain falls for the first time in forever. The Hebrew word (matar) is the regular word for rain contrasted with a different word in verse 12 (gesem) describing a heavy rain. But the fact that it would last forty days and forty nights is extraordinary. Every living thing expands “all flesh in which is the breath of life.” Even plants and trees will be uprooted and destroyed. In one week God will break asunder what He joined together in one week according to Genesis 1.
With only one change from the previous report in 6:22, Noah’s obedience is reported.
And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. (verse 5)
This time, he did all that the LORD (Yahweh) commanded compared to all that God commanded. Of course, God is the LORD. Moses will write the refrain regarding Noah’s submission to God’s Word again in verse 16.
These next two paragraphs say the same basic thing, once from a broad perspective and another that is more thorough. It’s the sort of repetition that scholars love to trip over, claiming that Moses (or the “editor”) was smart enough to find and use two sources but too foolish to “fix” the unnecessary repetition. The better alternative is to appreciate the rising gravity of the storm.
The cataclysm was coming.
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth. (verses 6-10)
It took a long time to build such a big, sea-worthy box, about one hundred years. Noah is six hundred now and the time has come to put his body where his belief was.
Moses provides the ship’s manifest, a record of cargo and crew. All hoofs are on deck.
Verse 7 fulfills the command in verse 1. Verses 8 and 9 fulfill the command in verses 2 and 3. It took seven days to get everyone and all the pairs on board, but it all happened as God had commanded Noah .
The incident report is filled out in greater detail.
Moses records the exact date the flood started, exactly how long the rain lasted, and exactly how long the waters continued to rise (verse 24b).
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Events rarely receive such precise dating details as does the flood. This is the second paragraph in a row that begins with Noah’s age; certainly the survivors never forgot. Rather than force us to conclude that a later editor ineptly forced two accounts together, the repetition reminds us what sort of epoch-making event this was.
We know that Noah is 600 years old, but now we learn that the flood begins in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month . More than likely, the calendar in use at the time saw the new year start in late September. The flood rains came probably in the first week of November (for us) in the year 1656.
In addition to the great deep burst(ing) forth , the never-before-seen rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights . The water level didn’t even start to decrease for another 110 days after the rain stopped, since verse 24 states that “the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.”
It wasn’t until the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month that “the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat” (8:4). That means no land whatsoever was visible for the greater part of five months. The rain itself only lasted 40 days, but by the time the waters abated and the earth dried out, Noah and his family had been in the ark for 370 days (see 8:13-16).
Two sources contributed the water for the flood, subterranean and celestial.
all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth
The first source described (mentioned for the first time in Genesis) were all the fountains of the great deep . These were great subterranean waters (that is, water below the earth’s surface), and they burst forth , they were “broken open” (KJV), they gushed out in a sudden rush of waters that must have caused something similar to a tidal wave.
The second source is what we expected based on God’s revelation in 7:4, rain . The duration of rain is sensational, but the window metaphor is also saturated, the windows of the heavens were opened . It isn’t as if a few drops were falling on their heads. This was no light sprinkle. The rain fell out of heavenly holes in a downpour. It dumped buckets as though a window hatch on hinges fell open. God let out His heavenly storehouses laden with rain.
The flood came from waters above (rain) and from waters below (the great deep). In the beginning, “the earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep. And there Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters” (1:2). On the second day of creation, “God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse” (1:7). Now God was dropping that huge canopy of water vapor He previously lifted. On day two He was still forming creation, now He was un-forming His planet.
With the canopy in place, storms would have been unknown because the temperature would have been uniform, heated as a global greenhouse. With the canopy in place, certain types of harmful radiation would have been blocked, perhaps one reason that men lived so long. With the canopy fallen, temperatures would change causing weather fronts and wind and storms and limited UV protection.
Who knows what havoc the great deep bursting forth wrought. We can imagine earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and perhaps even entire continents shifting and crashing before settling into place. Think of the noise as the earth’s crust cracked open. Imagine the sounds of the storm beating on the ark.
The next paragraph repeats the depth of the water but, suffice it to say, this was the greatest “act of God” or so-called “natural disaster” ever.
The repetition serves at least three things: it heightens the intensity of the story, it reminds us how humanity was preserved, and it haunts us with how many rejected the only way of salvation.
On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.
The week was no doubt full of work as God brought animals to the ark and as those animals, along with all the necessary supplies, were loaded onto the ark. According to verse 13, the Noah family entered on the seventh day, on the very same day the flood began, a phrase that signals a memorable occasion.
Only Noah and his sons are named, their wives merely mentioned. Then the animals that boarded were listed in terms that consciously echo the categories of created beings. There were beasts, livestock, creeping things, birds, other flying creatures (“everything with feathers and wings,” Leopold, 299), each according to its kind , all (sorts of) flesh in which there was the breath of life , male and female for the sake of the survival of the species.
The final phrase of verse 16 is similar to the final page of a chapter. And the LORD shut him in . Up to this point in chapter seven, “God” has been the actor. The name used was Elohim, the majestic, transcendent, authoritative, sovereign creator God. Now the name Yahweh is used, the covenant keeping, personal, immanent, gracious and faithful LORD. No doubt the door into the ark was substantial, big enough to allow the gigantic animals to board. But the stress seems to be the personal care of Yahweh more than Noah’s inability. Presumably Noah must have had some plan for shutting the door, but Yahweh affirms His attention and assures Noah of His protection.
Noah said goodbye to the life he’d known for 600 years on the day the LORD shut he and his family in the ark. There wasn’t an option to keep it like it was. He could either believe God and His Word embarking into the unknown or he could reject the truth to his peril. He couldn’t stay where he had been. Happy are those who trust God and follow what He says.
Blessed are those who keep his testimonies,
who seek him with their whole heart,
who also do no wrong,
but walk in his ways!
Oh that my ways may be steadfast
in keeping your statutes!
Then I shall not be put to shame,
having my eyes fixed on all your commandments.
(Psalm 119:2-3, 5-6)