A Lamp Unto My Feet Bible Study Website
GENESIS 7
Lesson #18
ANALYZING THE FLOOD
- Memory verse: John 10:9
- Read Gen 7:1-10 the animals
- Who gathered the food? (6:21) Noah
- Who gathered the animals? (6:20, 7:9, 7:15) God brought them to Noah who was already in the ark.
- Faith is a continual cooperation between man and God.
- God expects us to put our faith into action.
- Faith is also a daily relationship.
- According to Gen 6:19 and Gen 7:2 there were 2 classes of animals.
- The unclean animals: 1 male and 1 female of every kind.
- The clean animals:
- 7 of every “clean” beasts (male and female).
- It is very strange to see the designation of animals as clean and unclean at this point in the Old Testament.
- The designation of clean and unclean was overtly stated much later in the Mosaic Law to designate animals that could be used as sacrifice to God and those that could not be so used.
- Clean animals (Lev 11:2-8)
- Animals that part the hoof
- The significance represents the believer, separated from the world unto God (Eph 4:1,17)
- Animals that chew the cud
- The significance represents the believer who meditates in the word of God (Psa 1:2 Jos 1:8)
- (The camel chews cud but does not have a divided hoof, so it is unclean)
- (The pig has a divided hoof, but does not chew the cud, so it is unclean)
- There were 10 clean animal names designated for sacrifice: bulls, sheep, goats, birds, calves, lambs, pigeons, red heifers, rams, and turtle doves.
- With the flood, God divides animals into clean and unclean.
- With the flood, mankind is also divided into 2 classes, sinful and righteous.
- The size of the ark and the number of animals:
- There are over a million different species of animals alive today on the earth including fish and sea creatures. 17,500 species of non-sea animals.
- The ark, therefore, would have to hold 35,000 (2 of each kind and 7 of each of the clean animals) to account for life on earth today.
- The average size of these animals is about the size of a sheep.
- 35,000 sheep need 146 railroad boxcars
- 850,000 insects need 21 railroad boxcars
- Therefore, the total requirement would be 167 railroad boxcars of space.
- The capacity of the ark is 522 railroad boxcars, enough for all the animals, food, Noah and his family and room to spare.
- The symbolic numbers in the flood account:
- 1 window = one God; one way to God.
- 3 floors = Trinity of God; trinity of man (body, soul, and spirit)
- 7 clean animals = God’s perfect number signifying perfection
- 8 people in the ark = new beginnings
- 40 days and nights of rain = period of testing
- 50 cubits wide = unification; Pentecost – presence of the Holy Spirit
- 600, Noah’s age = 6 is the number for man (1 short of the number of perfection)
- 15 cubits of water = 5 is a round number meaning undetermined amount. [3 (Trinity) x 5 (undetermined amount) = God determined the depth of the flood.]
- 150 days of water on the earth = 10 is a round number meaning God’s standard or God’s government
- [10 (God’s standard) x 10 + 50 (unification) = God governs the standard by which man will be unified in his presence]
- God’s mercy and a final warning of seven days: (7:4)
- It started to rain 7 days later (7:10)
- Read Gen 7:11-24
- Source of the flood:
- Rain from the sky
- Possibly the earth had been covered in an ice canopy from the time of creation.
- This produced a green house effect with no rain, but with only dew or mist watering the earth.
- Now, at the time of the flood, the ice canopy is broken up to produce rain from the sky. (“windows of heaven opened“)
- According to the Biblical time sequence, rain water alone could not have produced a world-wide flood to this extent.
- Possibly the earth had been covered in an ice canopy from the time of creation.
- Fountains of the deep (7:11). Water from inside the earth produced the remaining water to enable a world-wide flood.
- Rain from the sky
- Who shut the door of the ark? (7:16) God shut the door.
- In verse 16 we have an interesting shift of names used for God. It is “Elohim”, God the creator, who has given commands to Noah regarding the ark and the flood.
- However, it is “Jehovah”, the personal covenant-making Lord that gently closes Noah in the ark.
- The Bible clearly indicates that this is a world-wide flood and not just a local flood.
- Biblical evidence for a world-wide flood:
- The Genesis account:
- Gen 7:17,21,22 these verses say that the flood destroys all flesh.
- Gen 7:19 says that all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered with water.
- Gen 7:21 says that every creeping thing was affected.
- Gen 7:22,23 says that all living things on the face of the earth experienced this flood.
- The rest of the Bible:
- 2Pet 3:5,6 the word “overflowed” in the Greek means “cataclysmized” which is a sudden violent, physical action producing tremendous changes in the earth’s surface; total destruction, totally wiped clean.
- In Mat 24:37-39 Jesus himself tells us those not taken into the ark were all taken away.
- Scientific evidence for a world-wide flood:
- Literary evidence: Every major culture around the world has in its literature an account of a world-wide flood.
- “The Gilgamesh Epic” from Babylon is one of the most famous.
- The ancient historian, Josephus, reported that the ark was found and people took pieces of it as souvenirs. (Antiq. 3.6.5)
- Fossil evidence
- Everywhere on earth we find sedimentary rock (by definition it is rock laid down by water) that contains remains of animals suddenly caught in water and buried in rock.
- Evidence of large deposits of coal and oil prove a world-wide flood.
- Coal
- A seam of coal 1 foot thick requires 20 feet of vegetation compressed under pressure without loss of heat of compression.
- In other words vegetation must be buried and compressed quickly before heat is lost.
- Only a cataclysmic event (big and sudden) can do this.
- Oil
- The formation of oil demands the burial of animal life on a large scale, suddenly and without loss of heat.
- This can only occur in a cataclysmic event such as the flood of Noah.
- Every place where we find oil, it is under pressure. Pressure decreases over time.
- The pressure we find remaining tells us the oil was formed less than 10,000 years ago.
- Evidence in population statistics:
- If we start with 8 people 4,300 years ago, what would statistics show to be the present population?
- If the growth rate of the population, conservatively speaking, averaged 1/2 of 1 percent per year, the population figures would coincide quite well with the population statistics at the time of Christ as well as the present population. (The present population growth rate is 2%)
- The conservative average allows for wars, famines, and plagues.
- Literary evidence: Every major culture around the world has in its literature an account of a world-wide flood.
- The Genesis account:
- The flood of Noah’s day is a type or an illustration of water baptism
- Read 1Pet 3:20-21
- Source of the flood:
| Noah’s Flood | Water Baptism
1Pet 3:19-21 Rom 6:3-10 |
| A decision to identify with God | A decision to identify with Christ |
| A public identity | A public identity |
| An immersion by water | An immersion by water |
| Emerged to a new beginning | Emerge to a new life in Christ |
| A one-time experience | A one-time experience |
- Discussion application:
- Mat 24:37-39 What warning does Jesus give to people today of which Noah’s day should remind us?
Homework
Genesis 8
- Application of Gen 7:
- When we consider the world we now live in before the second coming of Christ, and compare it to the world Noah lived in before the flood, we see many characteristic parallels as well as many warnings.
- How does your life and walk with God compare to Noah’s life of obedience and walk with God?
- About what specific points of obedience in your life is the Lord speaking to you?
- When we consider the world we now live in before the second coming of Christ, and compare it to the world Noah lived in before the flood, we see many characteristic parallels as well as many warnings.
- Preparation for Gen 8:
- Read Gen 8:1-19
- Using the following scriptural events, make a log book of Noah’s journey to determine exactly how many days he was in the ark. (Calculations should be made according to a lunar month of 30 days to a month)
- Gen 7:11
- Gen 7:12,17
- Gen 7:24
- Gen 8:3
- Gen 8:4
- Gen 8:5
- Gen 8:6-7
- Gen 8:8-9
- Gen 8:10-11
- Gen 8:12
- Gen 8:13
- Gen 8:15-17
- Using the following scriptural events, make a log book of Noah’s journey to determine exactly how many days he was in the ark. (Calculations should be made according to a lunar month of 30 days to a month)
- Read Gen 8:1-19
- Memory verse: Psalms 29:10
