Verse 1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
When the Bible refers to someone’s “house”, it usually means family or household. The Hebrew word “tsaddiyq”, pronounced tsad deek, is translated here as “righteous” and that means the LORD saw Noah as someone who was just, lawful and willing to do the right thing. He had been living a life that was pleasing to the LORD and he had been obedient and faithful in building the ark and following the LORD’s directions. The Hebrew word for “generation” is “dowr or dor” and it can mean a period of time.
Application: You, the reader, can grasp the enormity of the task God gave to Noah by realizing that it had never rained on the Earth since the creation. Noah did not know what rain looked like or what flood waters could do in regards to being destructive. He was operating totally on faith and a reverent fear of his God. Imagine the ridicule he and his family would have no doubt received from neighbors and friends and passers by when the ark began to take shape and form in their front yard: 120 years of construction, day in and day out, never wavering from the task at hand. Although the ark and Noah’s persistence would have been a testimony to all the people, no one was listening and only Noah and his family entered the ark. Think about how they must have felt dealing with negativity and mockers and not knowing exactly what their own future held.
Today the LORD is still calling unbelievers to come into the ark, the ark representing a place of refuge and salvation from the spiritual darkness of this world. Heed His call and live spiritually for ever, or ignore His call and die spiritually and spend eternity in Hell.
Verses 2-4 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. 4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
The adjectives clean and unclean refer to the ceremonial purity of an animal. The clean and unclean categories are explained in the law of Moses. For ease of discussion, most ceremonially clean animals were grass or plant eaters and most unclean animals were meat eaters. This presents a problem here at this time period as animals were not yet being eaten by man or by each other. Every living critter, including man, was a vegetarian. So how God decided which animals were clean and unclean and how He communicated this information to Noah at this time in history is unclear. Since God is not bound by time and space and knows what will happen on Earth before it occurs, it is reasonable to assume that He knew man would eat flesh after the flood and so He wanted to preserve the clean animals by sevens so that there would be some for sacrificial rituals and some for repopulating the Earth. Regardless, here is the number seven again which is the number of deity or divine perfection. God is giving Noah a week to get all the critters and his family onboard and then everything living on the Earth will be destroyed. Notice the number 40 which represents both a generation and judgement.
Verses 5-6 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. 6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
Noah was 600 years old and the number six is representative of man. Because of man’s sin, God was going to destroy all that He had created on the Earth just to cleanse the Earth and to start over with righteous people. The amazing thing here is that Noah “did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.”
Verses 7-9 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth, 9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
Application: Luke 17:26-30 states, “And as it was in the days of Noe (Noah), so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone from Heaven and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
These passages will be more thoroughly studied when in the book of Luke. They are included here to show that both the flood and the brimstone from Heaven were examples of what will happen in the future at the second coming of the LORD when His judgement will be poured out one last time upon a sinful world. No one was expecting a catastrophe or that they would die by flood waters in Noah’s day and by a type of volcanic action in Lot’s day. They were taken by surprise only because they failed to hear and heed the words of Noah, and many years later, the words of Lot. Believers need to be sure they are right with God at all times as no one knows the day or the hour when the LORD will return and the last, world wide catastrophe will ocurr. Are you ready?
Verses 10-16 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; 14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. 15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. 16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.
Originally, the Earth was watered by a mist that came up from the ground, presumably from the “fountains of the great deep.” It is also possible that the Earth was covered with a dome shaped heaven that contained water and that was protective of the living things upon the Earth. Some have believed that this moisture dome provided a greenhouse effect and that the climate would have remained very stable. All the theories can only remain theories as nothing was recorded by the inhabitants during Noah’s days to tell future generations what the climate conditions were like before the flood. Only what is recorded here in the Bible can be studied and believed as it is the Word of God. Only eight people survived, a remnant, and it is from these four couples that all the people living on the Earth today are descended.
Application: Notice that Noah did not just shut the door and the window of the ark, but that “the LORD shut him in.” Nothing could get into the ark to harm Noah, his family, or the critters. They were protected by the ark structure and they were lifted up from off the face of the Earth where the destruction was to occur. They were secure. The believer today does not have a physical barrier like an ark for protection. But each believer has the presence of the Holy Spirit living within them and He provides a barrier between the believer and the dangers of the world.
Verses 17-18 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. 18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
Again, the number 40 represents a generation and judgement. Generation can refer to a period of time and it can also refer to a group of people. So a generation of people were destroyed by God’s judgement which He brought upon the Earth in the form of a world wide flood that cleansed the Earth of the sinful inhabitants that were polluting God’s creation.
Application: Today, there are all kinds of discussions about the pollution that is occurring on the Earth by such things as man made chemicals, industrial wastes, radiation and non organic farming practices. Many of these pollutants have been linked to human and animal diseases such as cancer. While these pollutants may be serious and life threatening, is any thought given to how God sees pollution? It is doubtful that any pollutant such as those listed above were in existence during Noah’s days, yet God saw fit to cleanse the Earth because of the pollution of sin in the lives of the people He had created. Like the pollution facing the inhabitants of Earth today that may be causing physical disease and death, the polluting effect of sin before the flood was causing spiritual disease and death. It appears that God is more interested in the spiritual health of His people than in their physical health. After all, to be absent from the body is to be present with the LORD. See 2 Corinthians 5:8
Just as the ark was lifted up above the Earth, saving Noah and his family from physical death, Jesus was lifted up on the cross of Calvary to save man from his sins and from spiritual death. See John 3:14-21 which explains this thoroughly. So the ark and the flood is pointing to that day when God would come to Earth in the body of Jesus and be lifted up on the cross in order to save man from the flood of sin that can cause both physical and spiritual death.
Verses 19-20 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. 20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
The Hebrew word for “hills” is “har” and it occurs 546 times. It is translated as “mountain” 261 times, as “mount” 224 times, and as “hill” 59 times. It is not known if there were mountains (as opposed to hills) on the Earth after it was created. Many scientists believe that the force and weight of the water upon the Earth caused the mountains that are seen today to be created. Again, it is all speculation and the manner in which the word “har” has been translated doesn’t aid in forming any conclusions regarding the Earth’s topography today. Regardless, the result of the flood was that all the high land places were covered with water so that there was no place for anyone to escape the flood.
Fifteen cubits would roughly measure 22.5 feet. Verse 20 above seems to read that the flood water was 15 cubits deep. This would not make sense as even a small hill would no doubt be higher than 22.5 feet. So the way this writer reads this verse is that the flood waters prevailed until they were 22.5 feet above the highest hill or mountain. Note that the same Hebrew word, “har”, is used in this verse and translated as mountain.
Verses 21-23 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: 22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. 23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
Application: Many churches today preach that in the end times there will be a huge revival and people will turn to the LORD and commit their lives to Jesus. Time will determine if this is correct doctrine or not. But think about the two judgements that God brought upon mankind in Noah’s day and Lot’s day. Only eight people were saved from the flood, and only three people were saved from the fire and brimstone. Only a remnant people survived. Could it be that at the end of time, only a remnant people will be serving the LORD at the time of Jesus coming back to Earth to bring a final judgement upon sin? You decide.
Verse 24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.
So, according to Scripture, it appears that the actual flooding event which involved the ground water surging upward upon the Earth and the rain water pouring downward upon the Earth only lasted 40 days. But the covering of the Earth with water continued another 150 days. So Noah and his family and all the critters were in the ark 190 days so far.