In The Begining, God (Message 8)

Key Thoughts for This Series:

God is the SUBJECT of Genesis 1-11 even though He is often forgotten as we talk about the FOUR incredible events of this section of Scripture.

These four events are given as NARRATIVE, and according to other portions of the Bible, they happened just as they are TOLD. We need to determine HOW to respond.
The Story of Day 6

Was the Flood Truly Worldwide?

EVERY passage about the flood and later Scriptures referring to the flood indicate that it covered the WHOLE earth.

It would make NO SENSE to have Noah build an ark instead of leaving the area if the flood were only REGIONAL.

There would be no reason to GATHER animals if the flood were not GLOBAL.

There would be no reason to explain how people were SCATTERED from three family lines if there were OTHER people remaining on the planet.

Nearly 200 cultures recount a flood STORY that left only one FAMILY on the earth.

The Digits

Gen. 7:1 The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 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. 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.

ONE - “found you righteous” — the word YOU is singular.

SEVEN more people — Noah’s family followed his LEAD.

Seven PAIRS (14) — CLEAN (טָהוֹר, tahowr) animals — How did Noah know clean animals? Later, these animals will be clarified FURTHER. (Sacrifices, Sabbath, Calendar)
Lev. 11:47 You must distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.’ ”
Acts 10:13 Then a voice told him, “Get up, Peter. Kill and eat.” 14 “Surely not, Lord!” Peter replied. “I have never eaten anything impure or unclean.”15 The voice spoke to him a second time, “Do not call anything impure that God has made clean.”

ONE pair — two of each UNCLEAN animal.

Seven DAYS — God’s number; like creation; it takes this long for animals to BOARD the ark.

Forty days and forty nights — 40 is the number of COMPLETION and usually indicates that a “new AGE” begins.

600 years old — Noah’s age when the flood BEGAN.

The Detail (Style of writing)

Gen. 7:11 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.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.

The DATE — 17th day of the SECOND month. — “On that day,” “On that very day.”

The WATER — three SOURCES of water created the flood
— The SPRINGS — “all the springs”

— FLOODGATES — אֲרֻבֹּת הַשָּׁמַיִם (arubbah shamayim)
Gen. 1:6   And God said, “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate water from water.” 7 So God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. And it was so.
Mal. 3:10 Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this,” says the LORD Almighty, “and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that there will not be room enough to store it.

— The RAIN — (גֶּשֶׁם geshem)
Gen.2:5 Now no shrub had yet appeared on the earth and no plant had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no one to work the ground, 6 but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.

The SURVIVORS — EIGHT people, wild animals, domesticated animals, creatures, and birds.

The PARADE — the animals CAME to Noah.
Gen. 7:15 Pairs of all creatures . . . came to Noah and entered the ark.

The Door — Noah and his family were “LOCKED inside.”

The Destruction

Gen. 7:17 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 — the ark LIFTED and floated, and the mountains were covered by at least 22.5 FEET of water.

The COMPLETENESS of destruction — Every, all, all, Everything, Every (verses 21-23).

ONLY — righteousness saved 8 people! (Matt. 24:36-39)

The Timeframe — 150 days of a total of 377 days on the ark.

Walk the Talk

What are your thoughts on a global versus a regional flood?

Why are numbers and dates so important to the story? Why does Moses include them?

What did you learn about the water?

What parts of the story are different from what you have