Setting

After Noah prepared the ark according to God’s command, the Lord commanded Noah to come into the ark, bringing along his family and the animals. Then the passage concentrates on how the Lord brought the great floodwaters on the earth, destroying all living things. This particular narrative shows us how the Lord executes His judgment and its gravity to the ungodly.

Key Verse

(7:23)

Did You Know...?

  1. Clean animals (7:2) in the book of Leviticus are described as animals with divided hoof which chew the cud, water animals with fins and scales, birds not mentioned as unclean, locust, destroying locust, cricket and grasshopper (Lev 11:3, 9, 13, 21-22)
  2. Unclean animals (7:2): The book of Leviticus gives examples of these animals, such as: camel, rock hyrax, hare, swine, water animals without fins and scales, eagle, vulture, buzzard, kite, falcon, raven, ostrich, certain kinds of owl, sea-gull, hawk, jackdaw, carrion vulture, stork, heron, hoopoe, bat, all flying insects that creep on all four of their feet, mole, mouse, large lizard, monitor lizard, sand reptile, sand lizard, and chameleon (Lev 11:4-7, 10, 13-20, 29-30).

Outline

  • God’s Command to Noah
    (7:1-6)
  • Noah Went into The Ark
    (7:7-16)
  • Waters Prevailed on The Earth
    (7:17-24)

Segment Analysis

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  • 7:1-6

    1.

    List the commands of the Lord given to Noah before the floodwaters came.

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    First, the Lord commanded Noah and all his household to come into the ark. Second, Noah should also take with him the animals with these requirements: seven each of every clean animal, two each of every unclean animal, seven each of birds of the air, and male and his female of every animal mentioned (Gen 7:1, 2).

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  • 2a.

    What was the purpose of taking the animals into the ark?

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    The animals should be taken into the ark in order to keep “the species alive on the face of all the earth” (Gen 7:3). When God created the animals, He blessed them to be fruitful and multiply on the earth (Gen 1:22). The Lord told Noah to bring the animals, so that they could be kept alive and continue on God’s blessing, to be fruitful and multiply after the floodwaters.

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  • 2b.

    What steps did God command Noah to take to preserve the animals from the floodwaters?

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    The LORD preserved the animals from the floodwaters through several ways:

    1) God told Noah to make rooms and decks in the ark where the animals would be staying (Gen 6:14, 16),

    2) God commanded Noah to gather all food that was to be eaten by the animals (Gen 6:21),

    3) God said to Noah to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth (Gen 7:3) which most likely included Noah paying attention to the animals’ sanitary needs.

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  • 3.

    What was the purpose of distinguishing between the clean and unclean animals?

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    The Scriptures explain that the purpose of distinguishing between the clean and unclean animals is to differentiate between which animals can be eaten and which cannot be eaten (Lev 11:4-7; Deut 14:7-11, 20). The book of Leviticus also adds that only the clean animals can be offered as sacrifice, burnt offerings and cleansing ceremony (Gen 8:20; Lev 14:4, 27:11).

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  • 4.

    Why did the LORD choose to preserve Noah?

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    The LORD chose to preserve Noah because he was righteous before the LORD in his generation (Gen 7:1).

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  • 5.

    After the Lord spoke to Noah the second time, how long did Noah have to wait before the floodwaters came? And how long was the duration of the rain?

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    Noah waited for seven more days. The rain lasted forty days and forty nights (Gen 7:4).

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  • 7:7-16

    6a.

    How old was Noah when the floodwaters came upon the earth?

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    Noah was six hundred years old (Gen 7:6).

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  • 6b.

    How did the floodwaters come upon the earth?

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    In the seventeenth day of the second month of the six-hundredth year of Noah’s life, “all the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of the heaven were opened.” It rained non-stop for forty days and forty nights (Gen 7:11, 12).

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  • 7.

    What were the miraculous events that happened after Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives entered the ark?

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    Several miraculous events happened after Noah and his family entered the ark:

    1) Every beast, cattle, creeping thing, bird after their kind went into the ark to Noah two by two, male and female according to God’s command (Gen 7:13-16),

    2) The LORD Himself shut the door of the ark (Gen 7:16).

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  • 7:17-24

    8.

    What were the results of the prevailing waters?

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    The results of the prevailing waters were:

    1) The waters lifted up the ark, raising it high above the earth and moving it about on the surface of the waters (Gen 7:17, 18),

    2) The waters covered all the high hills under the whole heaven and the mountains (Gen 7:19, 20),

    3) The waters destroyed all flesh that moved on the earth, from birds, cattle, beasts, creeping things that creep on the earth to men (Gen 7:21-23).

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  • 9.

    How long did the waters prevail on the earth?

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    The waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days (Gen 7:24).

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  • 10a.

    What are the similarities between the coming of the floodwaters in Noah’s time and the coming of the Lord in the end time?

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    The people in Noah’s time were eating, drinking, marrying, and giving in marriage, but they did not realize the impending doom that was about to take them all away. Similarly, people of the end of the age will be in their field, at their grinding mill, at their house, on their bed, but they do not expect the hour of the coming of the Son of Man (Mt 24:36-44; Lk 17:31, 34).

    The people in Noah’s time knew the floodwaters were coming from the warnings that Noah had been preaching about and from his building of the ark. Yet they ignored the warnings. Today, the people of the end of the age have also been warned by the Lord Jesus regarding the sign of the end time–the hour of the coming of the Son of Man (Mt 24:36-39; Lk 17:26-27). Yet, according to the apostle Peter, the scoffers in the last days who walk according to their lusts, question the promise of His coming and willfully forget the power and the warning of the words of God (2 Pet 3:1-18).

    Moreover, just as the floodwaters in Noah’s time destroyed all flesh and the world of the ungodly, the coming of the Lord in our time will bring fire and fervent heat to burn up the earth and to destroy the ungodly men (2 Pet 3:1-18).

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  • 10b.

    According to the Lord Jesus, what is the teaching from the floodwaters in the days of Noah?

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    The Lord Jesus admonished us that as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man (Lk 17:26). The event of the floodwaters teaches us to be watchful and to be ready for the coming of the Son of Man (Mt 24:42, 44). The Lord Jesus gave an illustration that if the master of the house had known what hour the thief would come, he would have watched and not allowed his house to be broken into (Mt 24:43). Likewise, we ought to be watchful in our spirituality and not fixating our lives only on worldly matters and concerns.

    Furthermore, the Scriptures give us several reasons why as followers of Jesus Christ we need to be watchful. First, we need to be vigilant in our faith so that we will not fall into temptation (Mk 14:38). Second, we ought to stand fast and be sober so that we will not be devoured by our adversary, the devil who walks about like a roaring lion (1 Pet 5:8). And finally, we have to be watchful and to keep our garments so that we won’t walk naked and our shame be seen (Rev 16:15). The book of Revelation and the epistle of Jude explain that we need to keep the white garments and not let it be defiled by the flesh (Rev 3:4; Jude 23).

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  • 11.

    According to Hebrews 11:7, how did “Noah condemn the world” in his generation?

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    The book of Hebrews explains that Noah believed the divine warning of the unseen thing that was about to come. He was moved with godly fear and did what he was told as a deed accompanying his faith (Heb 11:1, 7; Jas 2:17). But the ungodly in Noah’s generation were wicked, and while they were completely unaware, the flood came and destroyed them (Mt 24:37-39). Though the LORD waited with divine longsuffering while the ark was being prepared (1 Pet 3:20), the people in Noah’s time still did not believe the message of the impending doom. Therefore, in the end they were destroyed along with all living things of the earth (Gen 7:21, 22). Noah’s faith and obedience stood out in the midst of the unbelief and disobedience of the ungodly, thereby pronouncing judgment on the world.

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