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Genesis
7:1–9 (ESV) —
- I think it is important to note that what saved Noah was not his works of righteousness. His character is noted to condemn his generation. What saved Noah was his faith, exemplified in a walk with God. Certainly his family is saved by grace physically
- How are the animals described?
- Seven pairs of clean animals (at this point, there is a distinction in the world between clean and unclean animals, but it is not told to the reader)
- One pair of unclean animals
- Seven pairs of birds
- I don't know how the fish are saved (although pockets of salt water could be floating in the oceans). Also, fish eggs could hibernate until God released them
- Incidentally, the clean and unclean designation may indicate that men were already eating meat despite never having received God's approval
- God allows meat for food in Gen 9:3. Also that verse implies that they had not been given permission for meat prior
- Apparently, how long did it take to load the ark?
- One week and that would make sense
- Cleary they are controlled and directed by God
- It appears the waters come after the loading
- Using the Jewish calendar, the middle of Iyar would be May-Jun timeframe
- The rain came from where?
- Above and below for 40 days
- There is some debate on whether it was a universal flood or a local flood
- By tradition, the church has believed in a local flood
- The canopy protecting the earth (and causing the longevity) would have had a lot of water
- God also opened up the earth, possibly a water barrier protecting the earth
- The large weight of water on the crust and the lack of a barrier between the crust and the mantle would have caused huge plates to form and shift around
- Ps 104 seems to suggest that the flood caused an increase in the size of mountains and creation of valleys (use text compare to show differences)
- Previously there was probably no temperature differences and a lack of vast winds caused by those differences
- Assuming the days are not inclusive, we have how many more days passing?
- An additional 150 days with the waters sitting on the crust
- We are now at 190 days, and 197 since the start of the loading
- The use of anthropomorphic terms with God should cause us to ask certain questions. What does it mean for God to say "he remembered" or better yet, what doesn't it mean?
- Certainly, he did not forget or slip his mind
- He did something that changed a circumstance
- There are 219 uses and 70 where God is the one who "remembers" or is asked to remember (the 'experiencer')
- Hamilton writes "When Moses wrote that God remembered someone (v. 1), he meant God extended mercy to him or her by delivering that person from death (here; 19:29) or from barrenness (30:22)." (Hamilton)
- You were never forgotten, but God chose to intervene, often based on prayer
- Sailhammer writes that "God’s rescue of Noah foreshadows His deliverance of Israel in the Exodus (cf. 8:13–14 and Exod. 2:24; 14:21)." (Sailhammer)
1 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. 2 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, 3 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. 4 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.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 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. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.
10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
11 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. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 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, 14 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. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
STOPPED
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17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
5 He set the earth on its foundations,
so that it should never be moved.
6 You covered it with the deep as with a garment;
the waters stood above the mountains.
7 At your rebuke they fled;
at the sound of your thunder they took to flight.
8 The mountains rose, the valleys sank down
to the place that you appointed for them.
9 You set a boundary that they may not pass,
so that they might not again cover the earth.
1 But God remembered Noah …
Genesis 19:29 (ESV) — So it was that, when God destroyed the cities of the
valley, God remembered Abraham and sent Lot out of the midst of the overthrow
when he overthrew the cities in which Lot had lived.
Genesis 30:22 (ESV) — Then God remembered Rachel, and God listened to her
and opened her womb.
