Genesis 9:24-29

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24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” 26 And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant.” 28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died. ~ Genesis 9:24-29

Today, we close out our study of Genesis 9 where we have considered the survival of Noah in v.1-17 and the sin of Noah in v.18-23. Today, we will consider v.24-29 which highlights the sons of Noah in v.24-29. 

Adam and Eve and Noah all sinned in the area of food and drink. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit while Noah got drunk on wine. The very thing God gave to bless became a curse. It was used in a way outside the definition that God had given for it. This is when we sin, when we go outside the boundaries God has given to a certain subject. And, as a result of Ham seeing his dad's nakedness and then telling his brothers about it, Ham's son was subsequently cursed by Noah. Ham did more than just speak in an irreverent way about his father. This caused Noah to be severely displeased with Ham because of his actions.

In v.24-27 of today's passage we read, "24 So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. 25 Then he said: "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants he shall be to his brethren.” 26 And he said: "Blessed be the Lord, the God of Shem, and may Canaan be his servant. 27 May God enlarge Japheth, and may he dwell in the tents of Shem; and may Canaan be his servant."

Canaan was the father of the Canaanites. He settled in the very place that God told Abraham his descendants would posses forever. In Joshua 9 we learn that when Joshua entered the land of Canaan, there was a group of Canaanites called Gibeonites. They put on tattered clothes and they got old, moldy bread and stale wine and they went a couple miles over the hill to the encampment of Israel making the Israelites believe that they had been traveling for months. So Joshua makes a covenant with the Gibeonites, not knowing that the Gibeonites were Canaanites. God had told Israel to kill every Canaanite when they entered the land. Joshua subsequently made a covenant with the Gibeonites, and later found out that the Gibeonites lied to him. Then Joshua told the lying Gideonites that God had told him not to make a covenant with them but they had deceived him. It was at that point that Joshua pronounced a curse on the Gibeonites. They were now to be their slaves from generation to generation. Even into the New Testament the remnants of the Canaanite population became the servants of Israel.

The reason Canaan was cursed by Noah and Ham wasn’t goes back to Genesis 9:1 which reads, "So God blessed Noah and his sons." When God blessed Noah and his three sons, it included a blessing in their physical person and possibly even in a spiritual sense too. But that blessing didn’t transfer beyond them. God had blessed Ham and therefore Noah could not curse him. Since Ham had received God’s blessing, it would have been an act of defiance against God for Noah to turn and curse him. Instead he cursed Canaan. Ham was the youngest son of Noah and Canaan was the youngest son of Ham. And so in order to demonstrate justice in the matter and ensure he didn’t curse the one God had blessed, he turned his curse towards Canaan. This curse of Noah upon Canaan and the blessing of Shem and Japheth by Noah is the first explicit prophetic utterance by man in the Bible. 

After the cursing of Canaan, Noah directed his first blessing to the second son Shem. In like manner, Abel had been put ahead of Cain. When Abel was killed, Seth replaced him as the chosen and adopted son of God. Now, for the second time we see a second son placed above the first. This pattern continues throughout the Old Testament and points us directly to the work of the Lord Jesus Christ who replaced fallen Adam. The second replacing the first. When we get to the story of Abraham, we’ll see him receive the blessing even though he was the second son of his father.

In his blessing, Noah mentions Japheth, his firstborn. He says, “May God enlarge Japheth.” In saying this, Noah made a pun on Japheth's name whose name means to enlarge or to widely extend. Noah blessed his son with the very name he gave him.

In all, the prophecy mentions the servanthood of Canaan 3 times and he was placed directly as a servant to both Shem and Japheth.

In v.28-29 of today's passage we read, "28 And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29 So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died."

Noah was 600 years old at the time of the flood and he lasted another 350 years after it. This means that Noah died in the year 2006 BC. In the Bible, there are blessings and curses that fall on various people and, yes, these transfer through to the descendants of those people. The problem many people have then is that if they are outside of the favored line, they may feel like they are still living under the curse of their fathers. However, through the Lord Jesus Christ, all are granted the same privileges and the same salvation. The account of Noah lists his sons in this order: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. In the book of Acts, this is the same order in which salvation through Christ came to the people of the world. The sons of Shem include Israel, and they received the Lord Jesus and the gift of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2.

The sons of Ham came next when the Ethiopian eunuch received Christ and was baptized in Acts 8. And finally, the sons of Japheth were represented in Acts 10 when Cornelius, an Italian, received Christ together with his family. In other words, God worked out His plan which would restore all of the people of the world, represented by these three men. In Christ, every curse is lifted and every heart is positioned to be made new. All who call on Him are elevated to the same level and none rises above another.

Abraham was of the favored line of Noah’s son Shem, but we are all included in the same spiritual blessing through the ultimate Seed of Abraham, the Lord Jesus Christ. No matter where we descend from and no matter what our past may have been like, in the Lord Jesus Christ there is a grand and glorious future for us as cherished and blessed children of God. Of course, this blessing is only accessed through our faith in the finished work of the Lord Jesus on the cross ensuring us eternal life.

Genesis 9:18-23

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18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated. 20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness. ~ Genesis 9:18-23

Today, we continue our study of Genesis where we have seen the survival of Noah in v.1-17. Today, we transition into the section which highlights the sin of Noah. At this point in the narrative, all God-rejecting sinners had been drowned in the Flood. They had been swept up into eternal judgment, and now there was a new beginning for the eight people who made up the entire human race at that time. Fresh on their minds and certainly visible around them was the knowledge of the devastating impact of sin. 

In v.18-19 of today's passage we read, "18 Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. 19 These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated."

After the Flood, Noah and his sons were given by God the responsibility to repopulate the planet. All three of Noah's sons were born after Noah was 500. And, when Noah and his family exited the ark, they came into a whole new world. They must have had a certain amount of hope and eagerness that perhaps they could make a paradise with the absence of all of those God-rejecters. Maybe they thought they could recover Eden. Only if they could have lived without sinning. But, this was not the outcome because the one thing that didn’t drown in the Flood was the sinful condition of man. Sin was riding in the ark, in Noah, his wife, Shem, Ham, and Japheth and their three wives. And sin survived the Flood with them. It was a new earth, but it was the same old wicked humanity. And when they walked off the ark, sin walked off the ark with them.

In v.20-23 of today's passage we read, "20 And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21 Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness."

Noah was a farmer, like Adam. They both understood curses and blessings. They both knew the disastrous effects of sin. They both knew that sin was far-reaching. Noah was identified by God as a righteous man. He was THE righteous man of the old world before the Flood. After the Flood was over, Noah was the father of sin in the new world. 

Today's narrative started when Noah planted a vineyard. This vineyard had the potential of blessing but it also had the capacity to deliver a curse. This is the case with anything in our lives. There was so much danger in drinking the fruit of the vine that it was forbidden for those who were in leadership in the nation of Israel. It was also forbidden for those who took the highest vow of devotion called the Nazarite vow. If one wanted to live at the highest level as a Jew and take the highest position of devotion to God, one was prohibited from drinking wine.

Noah, at age 600, sinned by drinking too much wine and then he exposed himself. This clearly means age is no guarantee against sin. We might think that when we are 60 years old we will be able to avoid sin; not possible. And so, we have an old righteous man, Noah, who chose to drink too much wine. So, even with all the non-believers gone from the face of the earth, sin remained to be the sovereign of human life. 

While Noah was in his inebriated condition, his son Ham "saw the nakedness of his father and told his two bothers." Ham made light of the matter and treated Noah with either contempt or levity. But his brothers treated their father with a reverential respect. Instead of joining Ham in his contempt or levity, they took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered their father's nakedness. And while they did this, they had their faces turned away.

All of this highlights the fact that no sin is minor, no matter how insignificant it may seem. The sin of Noah wasn’t minor, and the sin of Ham wasn’t minor because no sin is minor. God highlights one of, I am sure, many sins in the life of Noah, but the point of it all was that sin had survived the Flood. God picked what appears to us to be somewhat of a minor sin to demonstrate to us that it doesn’t have to be murder for it to be defined as serious. All sin is destructive and brings with it various forms of death.

So, Noah lost his sense of shame, his sense of dignity and his sense of decency. This is what drunkenness does to us. In that condition, immodesty took over. And I’m sure Noah was a modest man as a righteous man. But sin had floated over the waters of the Flood and landed in the new world, and it was still very alive. Noah got intoxicated and he disgraced himself by taking off his clothes. 

In Leviticus 18, there is a long list of sins of the sexual nature that are identified by the phrase "uncover their nakedness." It may have been that there was some act on the part of Noah in his drunken state, but we don’t know. What we do know is that Noah lost control of his normal inhibitions so that he passed out stark naked in his tent. He didn’t become naked after he passed out. It was when he was still conscious enough to take off his clothes that he took them off for no good purpose other than exposure. Drunkenness disgraced him. Drunkenness defined him poorly.

In Exodus 20, the Lord, after telling the Israelites to build an altar, told them not to make steps that enabled them to go up to the altar. He said this so that "their nakedness would not be exposed." In Exodus 28:42 God said, "And you shall make for them linen trousers to cover their nakedness; they shall reach from the waist to the thighs." Covering our nakedness is important because nakedness elicits thoughts from our imaginations which can result in impurity in our hearts. That’s why pornography exploits nakedness because that’s how sexual sin is stimulated.

All of this underscores the utter importance of being defined by God on a daily basis. And, we know that we are being defined by God when we are obedient to His word. This will never this side of heaven mean that we will be perfect or sinless. It does mean that we will be wise and effective with regard to God's calling on our lives to know Him and to make Him known.

Genesis 9:12-17

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"12 And God said: 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.' 17 And God said to Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.'" ~ Genesis 9:12-17

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 9 where we see the survival of Noah in v.1-17, the sin of Noah in v.18-23, and, the sons of Noah in v.24-29. In this study, we will close out our study of the survival of Noah who was a real man who really lived through the flood. All of the stories in the Bible are true and they are all about on great thing: God's great unfolding plan for lost humanity to possibly come to faith in His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In v.12-13 of today's passage we read, "12 And God said: 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13 I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth.'"

God determined to establish this promise on His own, without consulting any man. There are no conditions in man that makes us deserve God's covenants. There are no conditions in us that make us sustain any covenant with God that He has given us. At the same time, there are no conditions in us that causes God to turn away from His faithfulness to us. Most people are clueless about what a covenant looks like because we live in a world where most people have thrown away their vows and covenants. This explains our difficulty appreciating God's commitment to us.

Throughout this passage we read, "between me and you." Such is the nature of God's promises. The promises of God are trustworthy because they are founded upon His character and power, and He cannot present any greater collateral than Himself. The rainbow was given by God to remind us of His faithfulness. The durability of something is what determines whether we are willing to stand on it. The soundness of its structure ensures its durability and reliability. This enables us to rely and trust that the platform will not collapse when we stand on it. God gave the rainbow to be a reminder of His faithfulness and His trustworthiness. We can therefore trust Him with every detail of our lives.

It was Isaac Newton who demonstrated that using a prism the white light of the sun contains all the colors of the visible spectrum. It was Lord Rayleigh who showed us how the interaction of atmospheric particles scatters the light waves into short wavelengths which appear more blue and violet. God made our eyes and brains to interpret certain combinations of wavelengths as a single, discrete color. Our visual sense interprets the blue-violet light of the sky as a mixture of blue and white light. This is why we see the sky as light blue.

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Man perpetuated on the earth due to the obedience of one man, Noah. It was through his faith in the goodness of God that Noah was able to access God's promises. God established His covenant with man and He used the rainbow as an object lesson that the earth will never again be flooded as it was in Noah's day. Before the flood there were no rainbows because there was no rain. God put the rainbow in the clouds as a statement of peace between Himself and sinful man. His goal was to show us that we can trust Him.

Covenants provide the needed solid foundation of any healthy relationship and society. When we establish covenants, we bind ourselves to that promise and to the one with whom it is established. Our character and integrity are all bound up in our loyalty to that covenant. Throughout the Old Testament, one of the attributes of God is He is faithful. And, when we give Him enough time, He will be faithful to show us His faithfulness and thus our trust in Him will grow. If we lack patience with God, we may never recognize His trustworthiness and His faithfulness.

In v.14-17 of today's passage we read, "'14 It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15 and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.' 17 And God said to Noah, 'This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.'"

The word translated "rainbow" here is the same word for a battle bow, a weapon of death and destruction. In ancient Near Eastern literature there are often deities depicted with a bow, wielding destruction. In Exodus 15:3 we read "The Lord is a warrior." In Habakkuk 3:9 we read, "His bow is made bare." In Zechariah 9:14 we read, "His arrows are lightning." Throughout the Old Testament, God is depicted as a warrior with a bow fighting on the behalf of His people. In the Flood, God the Warrior shot His lightning arrows, pierced the earth, the earth broke open, exploded and then the sky fell. He bent His bow in wrath. But from now on God has hung up His bow and He hung it in the sky where everybody can see this is not the time of judgment, this is the time of peace. 

Every time we see a rainbow, we must be reminded that it represents the victory of grace over judgment. Everyone deserves God's judgment, but His grace is possible because this is the age when God has hung up His bow. The whole flood story is a revelation of God’s holy wrath. But the rainbow is a sign that God is also a God of mercy and a God of grace and a God of patience and a God of peace. There will be a final wrath for those who are unwilling to believe in the goodness of God as shown in the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ. For 4500 plus years God has been faithful to the Noahic promise and the colors in the rainbow magnificently radiate the manifold glories of God's grace. As does every promise God made to Israel in the Old Testament. These promises point us to God's ultimate promise through His Son, the Lord Jesus. Through Him we are promised eternal life, only if we believe.

Genesis 9:6-11

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"6 Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it." 8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 "And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth." ~ Genesis 9:6-11

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 9 where the outline is: The survival of Noah in v.1-17, The sin of Noah in v.18-23, and, the sons of Noah in v.24-29. In today's passage we see that God is reestablishing the post flood earth. Although the flood wiped out everything on the earth, there was one thing that it didn't wipe out; the sinfulness of man. But, given the fact that God remade the world after the flood with all of its original elements and rhythms and blessings still in place, despite the persisting sinfulness of man, is a sign of God’s grace.

In v.6 of today's passage we read, "Whoever sheds man’s blood, by man his blood shall be shed; for in the image of God He made man."

As God put the fear of man in the animals, He had to put the fear of God into man. Here, we see the beginning of human government. God, in this passage, gave to man the mandate and the authority to oversee the culture and the society with power and with authority. Here, we are given by God the foundation for capital punishment. Since man was created in God’s image, the man who takes another man's life, his life will be required of him. Capital punishment was established by God after man's rebellion and it has always been in order to deter man from such violence.

In Numbers 35:33 we learn that atonement can’t be made for the land which is polluted by bloodshed except by the blood of him who shed it. This also is applicable to the unborn. Those who herald abortion actively work against God in order to terminate the life in the womb created in His image. If someone commits murder, the Bible doesn’t ask us to look at his childhood and determine what made him do it. It doesn’t ask us to look at his social standing or whether he was drunk or on pain medicines. God is clear that a murderer is to be put to death.

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth and multiply in it."

Abortion would be the very thing that goes against being fruitful and multiplying and filling the earth. I find it most interesting that those who say "no" to capital punishment are the very same ones who say "yes" to abortion. God says children are a blessing from Him. Here, God repeats His mandate to Noah to "be fruitful and multiply."  How pleased He must be when His creation returns that love to Him in praise, worship, and adoration. Children are a blessing and a heritage from the Lord and we bring Him honor when we get married, have children, and bring them up in the nurture and the knowledge of the Lord.

In v.8-11 of today's passage we read, "8 Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9 'And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11 Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.'"

God established a covenant which is the basis of any relationship. It is only on the basis of a covenant where God makes promises that the infinite and holy God can have a relationship with finite and yet wicked man. In the Bible, there are two kinds of covenants; a conditional covenant and an unconditional covenant. An unconditional is where God makes a promise or gives a declaration, saying, "I'm going to do this, period." A conditional covenant is when God has His part and man has his part. God says, "You keep these conditions and if you keep them, then I will do this or that." To Adam and Eve God gave the Edenic covenant. This was a conditional covenant. Man occupying the Garden of Eden, the Edenic covenant which was a conditional covenant. God told Adam and Eve to manage the Garden but they broke their side of the condition.

The Noahic covenant was an unconditional covenant whereby God promised that He would never again destroy the earth by a flood. By promising to never flood the earth again, God was pledging that humans will be preserved on the earth until the end of history. Earthquakes, hurricanes, climate change, pandemics, wars, fires, or freezes won’t destroy the earth. The earth will be preserved against all cataclysmic events until the end. This covenant doesn’t guarantee universal salvation, but it does guarantee universal preservation of the earth until the end.

God has kept this promise. There have been many local floods since that time but never a universal one, never again a universal destructive flood. The reason for this promise was to show man that God had changed his method of judgment. It is not that there will not come a judgment of humanity again, God is clear in 2 Peter 3 that the next time the destruction will come by fire. And, with that word through the Apostle Peter, God promised that His judgment will come. 

The judgement of God upon sin has already been mitigated on the behalf of all who are willing enough to believe in the goodness and the promises of God. In John 3:16-18, the Lord Jesus told Nicodemus, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Genesis 9:1-5

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1 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. ~ Genesis 9:1-5 

Today, we transition into Genesis 9 where the Flood is now in the distant past. In the opening chapters of Genesis, we have seen God create the world and we have seen man ruin it with his sin. Since God is holy and man is totally corrupt, man's sinfulness had to be judged. In response, God decided to destroy unrepentant sinful man with the Flood. In the context of all of this, we must not lose sight of the fact that God offered corrupt man a way out of the destruction and all but one family rejected God's kind offer of grace.

In today's chapter Moses fills out more of what God was doing with Noah, his family and the earth during the post-flood period. Here, we see that the God who recreated the earth and promised to preserve it until He redeems it from sin and death.  The main takeaway for us from this text is that God’s grace is the only reason any of us are still alive and the world is still running. In this text, we will consider in the next few studies the survival of Noah in v.1-19, the sin of Noah in v.21-22, and then, the sons of Noah in v.23-29.

In v.1 of today's passage we read, "So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.'"

Before God required anything of man, He blessed Him; With Noah God was no different. We are woefully unaware each day of all of God's blessings. In Matthew 5:45, the Lord Jesus said this about our Heavenly Father: "He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust." Rain has always symbolized "God's blessing" throughout the Scriptures. The only time rain has been seen as a bad thing was during the Great Flood due to the evil state of humanity. A close analysis of the covenant God offered man before the Flood was an offer of His blessing, unrepentant man was not willing enough to see it. This was why God had to destroy sinful man in the Flood.

The good news is we serve a supernatural God. When He commands blessing upon us, there is nothing that the forces of darkness can do to stop it. With God's commanded blessings, we will go places we never thought possible. Doors will open that we could not have imagined would open to us. Of course, all of this is predicated upon God's will, not ours. We must be very careful that our faith is being placed in the promises of God rather than in our preferences of the way we think our lives should be. Our Heavenly Father always knows what is best for us.

The command "to be fruitful and multiply" in this verse is a repetition of the original command given by God to Adam back in Genesis 1. The Lord tells us that the fruit of the womb is His reward. Today there are 7.7 billion people on earth. It took from Noah's day to the year 1804 to produce 1 billion people on earth. The modern concept of cutting back on population growth isn’t just unbiblical, it’s anti-biblical. God has ordained that man and animals multiply, not abort. And we are instructed to fill the earth, not to worship the earth. 

In v.2 of today's passage we read, "And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand."

Back in Genesis 1 when everything on the earth was perfect, man was given dominion over the creatures of the earth. Man's dominion continued after the flood but with sin and death reigning on the earth. And, after the Flood, a new aspect of man's relationship with the animals came about; the animals had come to fear man. With this new paradigm, we now see that we are not as we once were. Where once we were the keepers of a creation that was in far more harmony with us, now we find the animals fearing us and hiding from us. 

In v.3 of today's passage we read, "Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs."

At this point in history the animals became food of man. With this change, man now would be reminded that every meal should remind us that life is made possible only by the death of another. We are alive only because other creatures have died on our behalf. We do not live in and of ourselves, we live by virtue of feeding upon other life. This is a reminder that we are not independent creatures, going our own way, mastering of our own fate. We have no life force of our own; life as we know it is all borrowed. 

The Lord Jesus said, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. But whosoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life." In that verse the Lord Jesus did not mean that we should feed on Him literally, but symbolically. We are to feed on Him, and draw from Him all that we need. He is our life, and without Him we will never be what we were created to be.

In v.4-5 of today's passage we read, "4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man."

When the early church was facing legalism and the Judaizers were arguing what believers in Christ could and could not eat, telling them that they had to be circumcised, or telling them that they had to observe certain feasts or festivals or the Sabbath, a council was called in Jerusalem. The conclusion of that council was simple and concise: abstain from things offered to idols, from blood, from things strangled, and from sexual immorality.

Clearly, since then, the epistles of the apostles have to be considered and applied to our lives, but nothing written by the apostles contradict this early decision, especially concerning what can and can’t be eaten. The Apostle Paul later clarified the part about things offered to idols and he and the other apostles speak in detail about sexual immorality. Beyond this, things that are strangled has its own context in which to be considered. And the drinking of blood is forbidden because it predates the Law of Moses and the blood contains the life.

Life is God's property. Man does not impart life; he does not originate it and it does not belong to him. Therefore, man has no right to take life. The life of man is peculiarly sacred to God; only God has the right to take it. If anyone else violates this, God says he will require a reckoning, and that would be a terrible price. The emphasis throughout the Bible is on life and the preservation of life, otherwise man would look upon life as cheap. It is a cheap view of life that leads man down the path of not appreciating the sacred. And, we will not value life unless we see it as all things as sacred.

Genesis 8:20-22

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20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, "I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease." ~ Genesis 8:20-22

Today, we close out our study of Genesis 8 where we have been given details about Noah and his survival through the flood. Noah was a man of faith whose faith was galvanized in the faithfulness of the God of the Bible. Noah had a trust in God even though all of his friends and acquaintances had chosen to believe that God was not good. Noah's faith in God was seen in his obedience to God to build the ark, even though it had never rained before. Noah's faith was seen as he preached to the pre-flood world about God's righteousness and the judgment that was to come. 

In v.20 of today's passage we read, "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar."

After the flood, the first thing Noah did was to build an altar which appropriated his worship of God. To worship God is to be defined by God. When we obey God, we show that He is defining us. Noah's was the first altar built in the Bible. Cain and Abel gave a sacrifice, but there was no mention of an altar. 

The flood or the judgement of God upon man did not change the heart of man. This has been seen down through the centuries. It has always been the grace of God that changes man's heart. It was God's grace that caused Noah to build the ark. Grace is God’s unconditional love in action, embracing us in our imperfections and transforming us by His mercy. The human heart can only be changed by the grace of God, and yet, we can resist such an expression of love. John M. Sheehan once said, "Grace was against my will till God's grace changed me to accept His grace!"

The word "altar" means "high" or "elevated." Noah was atop the mountains of Ararat and the smoke of his offerings ascended even higher. When the altar was built, it was built to the God of grace. God's grace had changed the heart of Noah and as a result he saw God as the covenant keeping God who had proven Himself true as He fulfilled His promises to Noah. In response, Noah offered burnt offerings which was for the atonement for sin. In making these offerings, Noah was asking God for more of His grace and mercy. 

The fire in the offering symbolized Noah's acknowledgment that he knew he deserved judgement from God. Through the flood Noah saw God's staggering judgment. Thus, he offered the sacrifice because his life was granted to him in the midst of the death of the rest of those on the earth around him. Most notably, this and all the other sacrifices in the rest of the Bible point us to the eternal work of the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.

Noah remembered the Lord. That's a miracle because it is our human nature to forget the Lord. It is our human nature to promise God great things in a catastrophe, and then when the catastrophe is over we forget the Lord. In the Gospel of Luke the Lord Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem and He passed through Galilee at the border of Samaria and there were ten lepers and they cried out, "Jesus! Master! Have mercy on us!" In response, the Lord Jesus healed them. Then the Lord Jesus told the healed men, "Go to the priest and offer the offering and go through the ritual purification and he'll pronounce you clean." One out of ten healed men returned and thanked the Lord for healing him. Noah remembered the Lord.

The very same day that Noah offered these sacrifices was the very same day that Ezra offered his sacrifice in the book of Ezra. This also was the very same day the Lord Jesus was born in Bethlehem. Right here in this verse is the first time the Bible mentions an altar. Instead of building a house for himself, Noah offered worship to God. He prepared a spot to meet with God and to give thanks to Him, and to glorify Him. The first thing Noah did after leaving the ark was to worship and to be defined by God.

In v.21-22 of today's passage we read, "And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, 'I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease.'"

The Lord smelled a soothing aroma. In response to Noah's soothing sacrifice, God gave Noah a promise that the laws of nature would remain steady and dependable. God promised that there would be a consistent pattern of the motion of the heavenly bodies, consistent gravity, consistent rotation of the earth, consistent solar orbit, and consistent annual cycles. 

This means we will not all die from global warming. It means it will be cold in the winter and warm in the summer. It means there will be summer, and there will be winter, and there will be seedtime and harvest. It means, even though the Flood happened, we will enjoy a period of uniformity where everything continues the same, until the earth goes out of existence. This is the promise of God upon whose faithfulness all of His promises rest. 

The words, "The Lord said in His heart" means this wasn’t a covenant that YHWH made with Noah. This was a covenant that God made with Himself. He determined to overlook the coming times of ignorance. And now, we have been on this earth for some 4500 years and we have survived because of this promise. But, God's next judgment will be the destruction of the planet by fire not water.

In 2 Peter 3:10-13 we read, "10 But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. 11 Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness, 12 looking for and hastening the coming of the day of God, because of which the heavens will be dissolved, being on fire, and the elements will melt with fervent heat? 13 Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells."

I trust that you have entered into the salvation of God through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is as simple as admitting to God that as a sinner you are in need of His forgiveness. Then, believing that the Lord Jesus died on the cross for the forgiveness of your sin. And then, asking Him to come into your life as the Lord of your life. If you enter into the protection of God by believing in His Son, I would love to hear about. You can let me know by sending me an email at byoungministry@gmail.com.

Genesis 8:13-19

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13 And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14 And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. 15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 "Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth." 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. ~ Genesis 8:13-19

Today we return to our study of Genesis 8 where we are invited to see and understand the unsinkable promises of God. The story of Noah is quite interesting and very exciting until we get to Genesis 7. At that point, the story seems to get bogged down in the details of the animals and the precise dates. It is easy to skim over such details but that would be a great mistake. We expect and want God to work in the big headlines of life, but He is best found in the subscript of the text.

In v.13 of today's passage we read, "And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry."

It was the 601st year of Noah’s life and it took a lot of courage for Noah to leave the ark. This meant leaving behind a certain measure of safety and security that he and his family had come to know over the year they were in the ark. This new step meant trusting God for a totally unknown future. This is what makes our journey with God in this world so worth it though. When we give Him enough time to bring about His plans for our lives, we are left amazed. Think of it, this was the first day of the first month of that year for Noah. It was the exact same day 1657 years earlier that Adam was created and it was the same day about 2400 years later that the Savior of the world would be born in an insignificant town known as Bethlehem. Such design left for us to discover the Designer of it all.

In v.14 of today's passage we read, "And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried."

When God gives dates in the Bible, it is significant and we must take note. Today's plot took place 57 days after Noah opened the covering of the ark and it was the 380th day after Noah and his family entered the ark. Noah and his family had spent over a year waiting and watching as the world was destroyed by water. All of that time, they were in that ark as the waters rose and as the waters receded. 

In v.15-17 of today's passage we read, "15 Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16 'Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.'"

Just imagine the excitement that the family must have felt as they got word it was time to leave the ark. We do not know how God spoke to Noah, whether in a dream or directly, or whether in some other way, but Noah was given divine guidance that he and his family could leave the ark, just as he received divine guidance to enter it. And just as they filled the ark with animals, they’re told now to empty it out. 

As the animals departed, God also gave them a divine command; that they should be fruitful and multiply on the earth. This is the exact same command that was given back in Genesis 1. God created all of the animals at the beginning and the same spark of life that was put into them then carried through to the time of Noah and it carries through even until today. There is a spark of life in all of us and that spark transmits from us to the next generation.

Were it not for the Ark of Noah, there would be no life on earth apart from the oceans. And any animal which wasn’t on the ark is extinct because its life spark died with the flood. And, if the world were billions of years old like evolutionists claim, then the problem would only be exacerbated. From the trillions of moments which have happened since the first life of spontaneous generation supposedly occurred, Evolutionists only explanation for development is evolution, not more generation. When we consider evolution, we are left shaking our heads. It takes far more faith to believe in evolution than it does to believe in the God of the Bible.

In v.18-19 of today's passage we read, "18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark."

Probably in a state of awe and wonder, Noah and his family obeyed the divine command and they left the ark. The earth was certainly completely different than it was when they entered. The vapor canopy surrounding the earth was gone and the skies looked different. The landscape would have been totally reformed from what they had known. The climate would have been different. Everything was new and everything was a mixed bag of a new adventure.

Sometimes God calls us to do things that are hard and may even seem impossible. We are called to leave the known for the unknown, and when we have to leave the ark that has taken us this far and step out on our own, that's difficult. At times, it is scary and unnerving because once we leave the familiar confines we have always known, we can never go back there again. To leave the ark meant embarking on a new life with new dangers and new opportunities. That takes courage and resolve and a decision not to look back or to second-guess oneself.

This is why God makes so much of our faith in Him. Faith means taking the next step and then trusting God with the results. It is a paradox of life that even though the ark was smelly and cramped, we may be afraid to leave it because it represents the only security we have known for some time. Sometimes we pray for a change in our circumstances, but when the moment comes, we are so overwhelmed with fear that we are paralyzed and unable to move. It is then that faith is given its chance.

We are told in Hebrews 11, by faith Noah built, entered and left the Ark. Both entering the ark and leaving it were very difficult for Noah and his family, I am sure. But, this is what life is really about; getting over those moments when we are paralyzed by the unknown. Some of us are stuck because we know it’s time to move forward but we are afraid to take the first step. We must remember that we do not walk through this life alone. And, the more we respond to the revelation that God gives us, the better we will recognize Him in those most unwanteds of life. It is in the darkest of times that we see Him best. The rule of thumb in following God must be that His presence and His proximity will always be my protection whether I can see Him or not.

Genesis 8:6-12

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6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. 10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. 12 So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore. ~ Genesis 8:6-12 

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 8 where Noah and his family and all of the animals that God brought to them had been on the ark a total of 380 days. That is more than a year. I can only imagine what it was like to be cooped up in that boat for that long with so many animals.

In v.6-9 of today's passage we read, "6 So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. 7 Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8 He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself."

Forty days after the ark came to rest on Mt. Ararat, Noah opened the window. With the opening of the window, Noah released a raven which did not return to the ark. A raven is a scavenger bird and would have been perfectly content to land on any surface, even on a dead body to feast. The raven is a bird that represents the flesh. As this passage makes clear, the raven was no help to Noah whatsoever. According to Leviticus, a raven is a symbol of the unclean, like a person who lives apart from the grace of God, content to live in this world of death.

After the release of the raven, Noah released a dove providing for the reader a contrast of the unclean and the clean. God had defined them as such and so each of them provided a picture of man's response to God. The dove returned to the safety of the ark picturing a lost sinner who humbles himself enough to return to God. The reason we return to the Lord is represented by the dove throughout the Bible. At His baptism, the Spirit of God rested on the Lord Jesus and He rested on Him as a dove would come down and rest upon its perch. The dove represents the Holy Spirit throughout the Bible, and, it is His presence in the believer that enables him to persevere in the faith.

In addition, the raven and the dove picture for us the fact that the believer in Christ has two natures. This explains the civil war within the believer that the Apostle Paul describes in Romans 7. The Apostle describes these two within us as "the flesh" and "the Spirit." The whole struggle of the spiritual life arises out of the conflict of the flesh with the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh. One is evil, unclean; the other is clean, and good. These are symbolized by these two birds. It is God's way of telling us that in the present age, like Noah, we must be wise to choose the way of the dove, always being defined by God.

In v.10-11 of today's passage we read, "10 And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. 11 Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth."

Seven days later, Noah sent out the dove once again. This time the dove returned with an olive leaf in its mouth. The raven represented death and the dove represented life. In the dove we have the symbol of the Holy Spirit descending upon us when we call on the name Jesus. The Holy Spirit is the Messenger of God telling us that all is well with our soul. Through the return of the dove, Noah knew the earth was drying out finally. But, the olive tree can yield leaves even under water. Throughout the Bible, the olive, and the oil it produces gives us symbolism of the work of Christ and the presence of the Holy Spirit in the life of the believer. And, is a picture of the resurrection of Christ. Just as the olive can grow out from under water, so Christ came out of the grave as a victor over death. 

In v.12 of today's passage we read, "So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore."

This verse highlights the utter necessity that is ours as we learn daily to walk with the Lord. God continually calls His people to wait on Him. The Israelites waited for over four hundred years to be released from the bondage of Egypt; God’s people waited thousands of years for Him to send the Messiah; and now, two thousand years later, we still wait on the return of the Lord Jesus. Waiting is part of God’s plan for the life of the believer, and I don’t think He wants us to miss the opportunities and growth found in the waiting. Waiting on God gives us the chance to get to know Him better. And the more we know Him, the more we will be defined and completed by Him.

The number 7 is the number that represents completeness or maturity in the Bible. In fact, it was on the seventh day of creation that God rested. The idea of resting and the number seven are intimately connected in the Bible. While on the cross of Calvary, the Lord Jesus uttered seven sayings, the final one being: "It is finished." When the Lord Jesus said those words He was saying the work of redemption is complete. This is why salvation is by faith through the grace of God. Even the faith that we exercise in the God of the Bible is a gift because it is conditioned upon our understanding of God's faithfulness.

Genesis 8:1-5

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1 Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. ~ Genesis 8:1-5

Today, we continue our study of Genesis where we are being given an overall view of the story of man with God. In giving us this story, God is highlighted His faithfulness to us. Since Noah had faith in the God of the Bible, God did not disappoint him. We have seen through Noah that true faith in the God of the Bible is not in a hurry. True faith waits on the faithfulness of God. The number 8 in the Bible is the number of "new beginnings" thus the number of the people on the ark.  

In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided."

I can only imagine what a whirlwind Noah felt that he was in while he was on the ark for so long. I am sure that when he first heard God tell him to build the ark, He was like, "This can't be real." And, as the days marched on, I am sure that Noah wondered about the veracity of this call that God had given him. In addition, I am sure that Noah wondered after being on the ark for all of those days that if God was aware of him. 

We are told by Moses that "God remembered Noah and every living thing and all of the animals." This means God never relinquished the promise of salvation that He had made to Noah. The Hebrew word translated "remember" is used a total of 73 times in the Scriptures. For Noah, the impossible happened. And, hundreds of thousands of humans and animals died in the flood because they lacked the type of faith that Noah had. 

God remembered Noah by making a wind dry off the earth after the waters receded. It was highly probable that before the flood there was no wind due to the vapor canopy that surrounded the earth. Then, before the flood, a whole different hydrology existed, but when the canopy was removed, typical evaporation and the jet streams happened. 

The word for "wind" in the Hebrew is exactly the same word used in Genesis 1:2 for God's Spirit. There, we read, "The Spirit of God hovered over the waters." Spirit and wind in Hebrew are the same word. 

In v.2-3 of today's passage we read, "2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased."

No doubt the surface of the earth was greatly changed after the flood. In fact, this was when the Grand Canyon was formed as it is now. It wasn't until the flood that the high mountains that we have today were formed. This was due to the break-up of the earth and the subsequent continental drift. It was at that time that the huge basins in the ocean were formed.

In v.4-5 of today's passage we read, "4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen."

On the 17th day the ark rested on Mt Ararat. Interestingly, it happened on the same day that the Lord Jesus Christ came out of the grave almost 2400 years later. The Bible uses two calendars, the creation calendar and the redemption calendar. Until the time of the Exodus, the calendar started in the fall, but at the Exodus, the first month was changed to the spring. The 17th day of the seventh month in the creation calendar is the 17th day of the first month of the redemption calendar. The Passover occurs on the 14th day of the first month and the resurrection happened, according to the Bible, on the Sunday after the Passover, the 17th day of the first month.

Most interestingly, "Ararat" means "the curse is reversed." On the same day that the ark struck the ground, the waters began to subside. The curse of the waters were then reversed at the exact same moment that Noah was brought to the safety of the land. Noah and his ark are a picture of the true reversal of the curse which began at the fall of man in Genesis 3. Only 5 chapters after the fall, Noah was given as a sign of what was to come in the future. The rain lasted 40 days. The waters stayed upon the earth 150 days. It took another 150 days for the waters to abate.  And then Noah waited another 40 days before he opened the window. It all took place in the time of 380 days. Often in life, troubles come on fast and recede slowly. Our calling is to be faithful, to persevere, to hold on to the faithful object of our faith. 

The waters didn’t cover the earth forever. The ark shows that salvation is by faith through God's grace. Grace means that God saves us apart from any effort of our own. God's grace began something new on that 17th day when Noah and his family were saved, What started off as an insignificant date has become a whisper of His grace. This 17th in reality was the first in a series of clues that God gave throughout the Old Testament which all points us to the greatest display of all, the resurrection of His only Son! 

Genesis 7:17-24

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17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. ~ Genesis 7:17-24 

Today, we conclude our study of Genesis 7. It was the design of the Flood to show us how serious God is toward our sin. The purpose of the flood was to save Noah and his family, and to destroy those who were not willing enough to believe in the goodness of God. So when we hear the Lord offer us grace and salvation and an escape from His judgment, we must be quick to understand and respond to that which He offers us.

In addition, to being a man of faith in the God of the Bible, Noah was a patient man. He preached to those who in the end didn't believe right up until one week before the raindrops started the flood. He gave the unsaved a witness of God through his words and he did it by his actions. And even today he still preaches by those same actions to anyone who is willing enough to listen. He was patient in waiting on the Lord’s timing and his patience must have included immense sadness.

In v.17-21 of today's passage we read, "17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man."

The rains came for 40 days and the waters prevailed for 150. Here, we have the word "prevailed" used repeatedly. The word "water" appears repeatedly, as well. The Flood prevailed. This is the flow of the text. And, during all of the time, Noah and his seven family members waited in the quiet solitude within the ark. When the waters came, Noah and his family had to be patient. Whether or not they heard the people outside the boat they knew what was happening and they patiently endured the loss of all of the people they knew. Noah probably thought about the many people who had come into his life as the flood waters rose. This wasn’t a localized flood as skeptics try to claim. This was a global flood and every high hill and every higher mountain was covered and even submerged. Fifteen cubits is almost 25 feet. 

In v.22-24 of today's passage we read, "22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 23 So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days."

And so, everything and everyone died. And, only a perverse and disconnected heart would find fault with the Creator concerning how He handled this situation. The reality is all things have an end and mixed with joy is sadness and loss. This is the fallen world we live in and even though sin has wrecked this world with death and destruction God is still sovereign and good.

Waiting on the Lord isn’t a concept unique to Noah. Rather, we all struggle at waiting. For many, the deepest pain of waiting lies in the sense that God, who once seemed so near, now feels so far away. But the answer is that if we give God enough time, all things in their end with make sense. When we give Him time, God will enable us to see our waiting from His viewpoint. He will give us His vision, if we are patient. Those days when we find ourselves living in hindsight we understand the why behind the wait. In the meantime, God is doing something eternal within us. When we are careful to be defined by Him, God will define us further with the eternal. The Bible is full of people who waited on the Lord. They discovered God’s delays are not His denials. God always does something in us before He does something for us and though us. The only thing worse than waiting is wishing we had.

In Isaiah 40:31 we read, "But they who wait for the LORD shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint."

There is so much significance to the illustration of an eagle, but one thing about an eagle is that while most birds flee storms, the eagle seems to long for it because it enables him to soar higher than he can in normal conditions. The eagle is the only bird that can lock its wings and wait for the right wind. He waits for the updraft, then soars. At different times of our lives, we are all going to face fierce storms. As we wait on the Lord and trust in Him, He will not only take us through the storm, but He will actually lift us above the storm. In and through our patience in Him, God, in the middle of our storms is allowed to rise us above those storms. So, as we wait on Him He will help us use the adversities and strong winds to benefit us! And, in the end, we will learn that all tides raises all boats to the benefit of all and to the glory of God.

Genesis 7:13-16

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13 On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark— 14 they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15 And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in. ~ Genesis 7:13-16

Today, we return to our study of Genesis 7 where we are studying the flood that God brought upon the face of the earth because man's wickedness had gotten to be so destructive. You will remember the book of Genesis has an outline that includes four great events and four great people: Creation, The Fall of Man, The Flood, The Tower of Babel, and Abraham, Isaac, Jacob and Joseph. In Genesis 7, the flood and the obedience of Noah is front and center. 

Again and again in this chapter, Noah’s obedience is brought up. Noah was an obedient man because he was a man of faith in the God of the Bible. Noah was told to build the ark and he built it. Even though it took him a long time, 120 years, and it took a lot of effort, Noah pressed on in His faith in the veracity of the God of the Bible. Then add to that, Noah probably endured a sizable amount of verbal abuse from the people who lived around him. Noah's faith in the promises of God was made veracious by his obedience. But, it was not Noah's obedience that made him right before God.

No one has or ever will be justified by our good works. Justification before God is an act, not a work or process. It is not a hopeful destination. Justification is God’s gracious, once-for-all gift to anyone who believes that God has told the truth. Justification is a gracious verdict from God declaring the believer to be righteous in and through Christ alone. It is only Christ's death and resurrection that makes us right before God and fully accepted by Him.

In v.13-14 of today's passage we read, "13 On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark— 14 they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort."

Obedience is what leads to life, happiness, and a close and personal walk with God. On the other hand, there is disobedience which is what leads to loss, sadness, punishment, death, and condemnation. This is the reality of life in a fallen world. When we are not obedient, we only bring troubles on ourselves. When we choose to be obedient, life happens in a much different way. Someone once said, "Eighty percent of life is how we choose to respond to the twenty percent that happens to us." When we choose to be defined by God as evidenced in our obedience to His word, life will be more meaningful and purposeful.

In v.15-16 of today's passage we read, "15 And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in."

Noah did not slam the door shut, God shut it seven days before the first raindrop fell. The Lord shut the door from the outside because he was the protector of the ark and its precious cargo. While the sun was yet shining and the sky was blue, while the people around were still convinced that nothing was going to happen, God shut Noah in so that he could not get out. You can see how this pictures "the sealing of the Spirit" described in the book of Ephesians. When we believed on the Lord Jesus Christ we were sealed and kept by the power of God, safe in Christ.

The flood waters came in the second month on the seventeenth day of the month of October or November. It happened some time around the autumn equinox. While the world was sowing its next harvest, Noah was preparing for something different. While the world was probably worshipping the alignment of the heavenly bodies, Noah was worshipping the Lord. While the world was anticipating its next harvest, Noah was anticipating a flood that everyone else laughed at.

God closed the door to the ark and He sealed it from the outside miraculously. Without human hands, Noah and his family and the animals were all sealed in the ark. The whole world was behind them, never to be seen again as they had known it. The world was soon to be below them, and they were embarking on the most incredible journey of faith ever. Nobody had ever or before or since taken such an incredible journey as this. The biggest floating structure ever built, up to that time, rain they had never seen, the destruction of the entire planet. They were all apart of a floating zoo, guided only by God, and living in the hope of a better world and a new life.

Genesis 7:7-12

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7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights. ~ Genesis 7:7-12

Today, we continue our study of Genesis 7 which was the fulfillment of what we had seen in Genesis 6. In Genesis 6 God had told Noah what He wanted him to do and in Genesis 7 Noah did it. God kept His word to Noah. He sent the flood that destroyed every living thing on the earth, and yet He saved Noah, his family, and all of the animals that He brought to the ark. The main point of this chapter is that God always keeps His promises and is always faithful to His word.

God rendered the Flood due to the fact that mankind spoiled His creation. God created all things to be good, but Adam and Eve believed the lies of the serpent and doubted God’s goodness and disobeyed His word, bringing sin into the world. The sin of man pained God and moved Him to bring judgement upon rebellious man. We are told several times early on here in Genesis that the earth was "corrupt" which means to mar, to mutilate, to pervert, to go to ruin, or to destroy. As a result the whole world was "filled with violence." The Hebrew word for "violence" means lawlessness, unrighteousness, or injustice. This Hebrew word is a broad term referring to all the ways sinful man mistreats all of God's creation. 

The flood was God’s response to the evil, the corruption and the violence that man exacted on God's creation. The flood was God taking merciful action to restrain humanity’s ever-increasing evil. God saw that "every intention of the thoughts of man’s heart was only evil continually." So, He decided to destroy what was self-destructing. God didn’t take pleasure in the flood. Rather, man chose His judgement by ignoring Him and embracing the self life which always leads us down the pathway of wickedness. Man's embrace of the self life caused all living things on the earth sorrow and grief. God made the earth to be a place where all of life could flourish, but instead selfish man turned it into a theater of violence and disaster.

In v.7 of today's passage we read, "So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood."

Noah was a righteous man because he believed God enough to be defined by Him. God had told Noah to build the ark and then to gather the animals that He brought to him into the ark. Then Noah and his family took shelter in floating savior that was given him by God. Noah illustrated that if we believe God enough, we will obey Him. This does not mean that we will be perfect. Just as our faith will never be perfect this side of heaven, so our obedience will never be perfect. But Noah's faith was good enough that day.

In v.8-9 of today's passage we read, "8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah."

This means everything God has created is to be seen as sacred. Those things and places and people that we see as unclean were made by God, and therefore we should love and care them. We should always see all people as redeemable even though they may incessantly reject the free gift of salvation. Noah and the animals all obeyed God because of God's grace. God’s grace toward Noah created a man who obeyed Him.  Noah didn’t just want to obey God, he actually obeyed God’s commands. Obedience is evidence that the light has come on in our understanding with regard to what is true, real, and substantive. Disobedience always leads to some form of death because it always takes us away from God, the source of life and reality.

In v.10 of today's passage we read, "And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth."

God is trustworthy and can be trusted. I have discovered that the more I trust Him, the easier I find it to trust Him more. As God had said, seven days later it began to rain. God kept His promise about sending judgment on the earth because God never breaks His word. God always does what He says He will do. The Bible contains somewhere around 2,500 prophecies, and of those approximately 2,000 have already come true. They have come true with perfect accuracy, not a single error! The remaining prophecies predict events yet to occur. If God says He will do something, or says something will happen, we know His words is true due to His track record. 

In v.11-12 of today's passage we read, "11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights."

The water of the flood came from two places: from above and from below. The first source came from the canopy in the upper atmosphere that shrouded the earth at that time. The second source was from below the surface of the earth. About ten miles below the earth's surface were these subterranean interconnected chambers of water. Volcanic like pressure in those caverns produced an explosion of water that traveled at three miles per second and covered the whole globe in two hours. Once again, as God said it would happen, so the flood came to pass. 

There is much evidence of the flood. Fossils are one of the best evidences of a global flood, especially where many of them have been found. We haven’t found marine creatures, such as fish, clams, and corals, buried and fossilized on the sea floor where they once lived. Instead, we have found most of them buried in sedimentary rocks on the continents, even on high mountains. For that to happen, the ocean waters had to totally flood the continents. 

Countless billions of plant and animal fossils have been found buried in extensive graveyards around the world. Billions of straight-shelled, chambered nautiloids of all different sizes were discovered fossilized with other marine creatures in a 7 foot thick layer within the Redwall Limestone of the Grand Canyon. This fossil graveyard stretches for 180 miles across northern Arizona and into southern Nevada, covering an area of at least 10,500 square miles. To form such a vast fossil graveyard required 24 cubic miles of lime, sand and silt, flowing in a thick, soup-like slurry at more than 16 feet per second to catastrophically overwhelm and bury this huge, living population of nautiloids. And people say the flood did not happen.

Genesis 7:1-6

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1 Then the Lord said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. 2 You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made." 5 And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. ~ Genesis 7:1-6

Today, we transition in Genesis 7 where the narrative continues to be focused on Noah and his family and the animals God brought to them. Noah was righteous because of his faith in the God of the Bible. The Bible is the foundation of our lives and Genesis is the foundation of the Bible. It is very clear that the New Testament writers believed that this story about Noah and the Flood was absolutely true. This also includes the Lord Jesus, as well. He spoke of Noah as a real person and the account of this Old Testament story as literal. 

In v.1 of today's passage we read, "Then the Lord said to Noah, 'Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.'"

In the same way that God spoke to create the heavens and the earth and everything in it, the Lord spoke to Noah. Through it all God gave to Noah a story of immense love and faithfulness in the midst of judgment. This is what life is all about; being given a story with God that we can share with others in hopes that faith in the God of the Bible will be awakened in them.

In v.2-3 of today's passage we read, "2 You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3 also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth."

This is the first mention of clean animals in Scripture. According to the Mosaic law, we are instructed on how important blood sacrifices are to God, the blood sacrifices of clean animals. It is also clear that sacrifices were instituted by God long before Noah's story. Cain murdered his brother because he was jealous that his brother made the right sacrifice. And, after the flood, Noah came out of the ark and made a sacrifice unto God. 

The Old Testament sacrificial system pictured a sacrifice that would come. In all the offerings that Old Testament believers made to God, they didn’t buy salvation with those. Those were, in a sense, depictions of the fact that God wanted their heart and their soul to be engaged with Him. He desired faith; He has always desired faith. And faith is best seen in the giving to Him of all that we have been given, and these are ways in which the believer can demonstrate our yieldedness and submission to God. Again, it wasn't that they earned God's favor; No mere human can do that. In giving their all to God meant that they were better off.

The clean-and-unclean animals were symbolic of the fact that God wanted His people to learn to make distinctions. The clean animals were to be used as sacrifices. Through the sacrifices the Lord was saying to those with a heart to trust Him, "I want you to learn to separate my ways from all other ways." From the very start, God taught His people there was His way and there was another way. And it all had to do with every day life. All of it was to be applied to the most common things of their lives. This is the process involved in learning God's culture and to learn to live in God's way. 

In v.4-6 of today's passage we read, "'4 For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.' 5 And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. 6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth."

According to v.4, God clearly told Noah why he needed to get on the ark. One week later it was going to rain for forty days and forty nights. God’s grace toward Noah created a man who obeyed God. As is always the case, God's grace precedes our obedience. The flood was a precursor for a coming period of time known as the Tribulation. It will be a seven year period which will culminate in God's judgment upon sinful man. 

God gave Noah one final week before the flood to warn the people of His impending judgement. I am sure, during those final seven days, Noah intensified his message of salvation to the people who were on the earth at that time. I am sure the people laughed at the concept of rain since they had never experienced rain before. And, of course, nobody listened. This just underscores how far from God humanity had fallen in those days. Similar to the seven days before the flood, God will give seven years before His next judgement upon man. God is always faithful to offer the way out before man's sinfulness is judged. Aren't you glad that you had the where with all to respond before it became too late?