Considering the Universal Flood (Genesis 71-20)

Gen. 7:1-5 God prepares Noah for the Flood by sending him into the Ark.

         7:2,3 Noah to take with him animals and birds.

         7:4 Rain predicted for 40 days and nights – What a weather forecast! Purposeful weather!

         7:5 The obedience of Noah.

Gen. 7:6-12 Details of the Predicted Rain Given and Achieved.

7:11 The precise date, with its lack of obvious symbolism, has the mark of a plain fact well remembered; and this is borne out by the further careful notes of time in the story, which are characteristic of the Bible’s texture, knitting together the local and the cosmic …We can infer from the statement about the great deep and the windows of heaven a vast upheaval of the sea-bed, and torrential rain; but the expressions are deliberately evocative of chapter 1: the waters above and below the firmament are, in token, merged again, as if to reverse the very work of creation and bring back the featureless waste of waters. – Kidner

Gen. 7:13-24 Details of the Predicted Flood Given and Achieved.

         7:17 Called a “flood”. In the Old Testament, the authors utilize a unique Hebrew word, mabbûl, when referring to the Flood. This word is used mainly in the Flood narrative, Genesis 6:17; 7:6–7, 10, 17; 9:11, 15. Genesis 9:28; 10:1, 32 and 11:10 utilize mabbûl when referring to the Flood as a past event. Psalm 29:10 is the only other passage in the Old Testament where mabbûl is found.

In the New Testament, we find several references to the Noachian Deluge. The unique Greek word used in these passages of Scripture is kataklusmŏs and its derivatives. Strong’s Concordance defines this word as meaning “to dash, wash down, to deluge, surge of the sea, inundation, flood.” From this we derive the modern English word “cataclysm.” Jesus describes the time of His return as analogous to that of the Flood in Matthew 24:38–39. A local flood was not in Jesus’ view.

7:20 Fifteen cubits deep refers to the clearance above the mountains, not the total depth. Possibly, as many have suggested, the measurement was learnt from the draught of the laden ark (i.e. half its height of thirty cubits), which had cleared all obstacles. It should perhaps be added that some of the writers who consider the flood to have been global conjecture that in the pre-diluvian world the main mountain ranges had not yet been thrust up (see Whitcomb and Morris, The Genesis Flood, pp. 267ff.).

Preparation for the Universal Flood of all the Earth

6:13 The reason for God speaking. – Warning of destruction to come. Grace.

6:14-16 Build an ark. – An assignment only God would understand. Why the precise measurements? Is the Bible accurate? These measurements with accuracy are a prelude to the measurements provided about the flood in Genesis 7.

6:17 A flood is coming. – An event only God would understand.

6:18-21 The covenant of God and the ark will deliver you from the flood. – A covenant only God could make.

6:22 Thus Noah Did according to all that God had commanded. – The only possible response.

A Judgment is Coming - We call it The Flood

                           Genesis 6:1-4 The Setting – God strives with men.

6:1 More people – This is God’s census. We don’t know how many, but “more”.

6:2 Major Problem for our Understanding – Who are “the sons of God”? I like what Ryrie says: “the sons of God. Possibly the godly line of Seth, or ungodly kings and kinglets of that day, or more likely, a group of fallen angels… Angels do not procreate after their kind (Mark 12:25).”

            Note: Not angels. Possibly men controlled by bad angels. More likely, the godly line of Seth. The context refers to “flesh” and “man” not angels. The Nephilim (giants) are “men”.

6:3 The Spirit that moved on the earth (1:2) now strives with men – but not “forever”. God reminds man that he is mortal (“flesh”). God makes a promise – 120 years left in the era of Adam.

                                              6:5-7 The sorrow of God.

      6:5 The reason for the universal flood was the universal wickedness.

·      Wickedness – twisted.

·     Every intention of the thoughts of the heart – comprehensive and deep. “heart” not “mind”

·     Evil continually – contra good always.

                                               6:8-10 But Noah.

·       Why the exception? God’s grace (favor).

·                             Result of God’s favor:

o   Righteous.

o   Blameless in his time – not like his contemporaries.

o   Walked with God.

                                   6:11-12 The corruption of the earth.

6:12 God looked – He sees. “all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth” – self-corruption, no blame on someone else – not the woman, not the snake, “It’s me, oh Lord”