The following is based on the phonetic writing of the expository teaching tapes of Pastor Jim Mooberry.
Genesis 7:11-24, “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the flood-gates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures.
Romans 12:2, “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—His good, pleasing, and perfect will.”
Paul encourages us by the Spirit of God to have our minds renewed—not to be conformed to our present world and as a Christian, as a believer in Jesus Christ, this an age-long life-long battle. We are born in the world. We are of the world until we are born again and so we think like the world until that time and after we become Christians we are encouraged to not think as the world does but to “think after the truth” and to see the world “reality” which is “the truth of God.” We are constantly being challenged to have our minds renewed.
We live in a day which is probably dominated by what is called scientism—we revere, almost worship science. Science is a science in our day without God. Having eliminated God from their thoughts and their minds and their evaluation of the world, we have been given some very strange interpretations of life and reality. A worldview is at stake. Either the world’s worldview or our worldview as Christians through God’s Scripture. Our salvation is at stake as well. Put aside all pre-conceived conceptions about the earth and reality as you see it because some of this may make you uncomfortable because you have been taught over and over that the world is here by chance, that we are here by a process called evolution and when we read what God says in the Scriptures we will have conflict with that. Mankind may strive to explain life in the cosmos by leaving God out, but they cannot erase God’s continuing witness that He is and that He does rule this earth.
“There is a silent yet eloquent witness in the very rocks of the earth’s crust. In every nation, in the land beneath our feet and in the hills and the valleys through which we travel reposes a vast cemetery. Therein lies the bones, shells, the teeth, and trails of innumerable animals along with the compressed and carbonized remains of immense forests that once filled a beautiful world. Here and there also scattered widely in the rocks can be found artifacts or fossils even of human life of a time long ago.” (John Whitcomb, “The World That Perished”)
Modern science has managed to take this evidence that we see buried in the earth and have taken this sedimentary graveyard and turned it into a fictional account of earth history. What they have told us and what we have been told from our generation from almost birth through schools and all the universities of academia that all of this is and evidence of a slow evolutionary development over billions of years of imaginary earth history. In fact, this strange notion has today become so accepted and taught that you will find it everywhere in our society. But fossils speak of death not development. Their witness is one of extinction not evolution and death speaks of sin and judgment not chance and progress. The evidence is there. Fossils by the billions and some scientists estimate by the trillions. The Bible says it is explained by the great Flood.
The setting is in Genesis chapter six and the corruption of mankind. Genesis 6:5-7, “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He made man on earth, and His heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.’” We observe here the tragic results of the Fall. They are totally depraved. Their bent is always toward sin. Mark 7:20-23, “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come form inside and make a man ‘unclean.’” No one is more grieved about our sin than God is. God must judge mankind and proposes to do so in verse 7. There is one exception found in that generation—Noah.
Verses 8-10, “But Noah found favor (grace) in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” Literally, Noah found grace. God singled out this one man and extended grace to him in the midst of an evil generation. Noah was just as sinful as everyone else on the earth except that God in His grace singled him out and brought to him life and declared him to be righteous through faith. This is typical of all salvation. Its God’s unmerited favor—we deserve nothing. His loving kindness extended grace to Noah. As a result of that Noah walked with God (vs. 9, 10). The result of the grace that Noah had received was that his life was changed and he lived a holy life—that also is the pattern throughout history. When you become a believer in Jesus Christ you receive the grace of Christ, then the change within produces a new life and you desire to live a holy life—a life that is pleasing to God.
The judgment is announced in vs. 11-13. “Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God and the earth was filled with violence and God looked on the earth and behold it was corrupt. For all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. Then god said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before me for the earth is filled with violence because of them and behold I am about to destroy them from the earth.”
“But I will establish my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your son’s wives with you.”(vs. 18). So God announces that there will be a worldwide universal flood. In some ways it’s the reversal of the Creation in chapter 1. But not absolutely because the promise in Genesis 3 was that there would be one that would be coming—the seed of the woman who would crush Satan and would bring salvation to the human race. And so a remnant is still allowed to live in it is Noah and his family through which the Christ would come.
The provision for the ark (vs. 14-16): “Make for yourself an ark of gofer wood. You shall make the ark with rooms and you shall cover it inside and out with pitch and this is how you shall make it…” “I will establish my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your son’s wives with you” (vs. 18). The size of the ark is 300x50x30 cubits. We know that the Biblical measure of a cubit was 18 inches and so this ark, this huge boat, really a huge box—was 450’ long, 75’ wide, and 45’ high. It was covered inside and out with pitch which is something similar to our creosote and so it was totally waterproof. This was not canoe that Noah built. If you think about the size of this boat—it was 1 1/2 times of the length of Soldier Field. Plus it was almost as wide as that field and it was as tall as a 4 story building. This thing was huge. It was six times longer than its width, which is the same ratio used by modern shipbuilders. Its capacity is amazing—there where three decks and so the total deck area comes to 95,700 sq.ft. That works out to a total volume of 1,396,000 cubic feet. It was the largest vessel built in history until 100 years ago in 1884…. The equivalent of the storage capacity of this boat was 520 modern railroad cars.
Notice the time to construct it in chapter 6:3: “The Lord said my spirit shall not stride with man forever because he also is flesh, nevertheless his day shall be 120 years.” So when God appeared to Noah and spoke to him and said “build this ark” it was approximately 120 years before the Flood. He was involved in constructing this ark for over a century. 2 Peter 2:5 says, “He did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah a preacher of righteousness with seven others when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly.” 1 Peter 3:20, “Who were once disobedient when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah during the construction of the ark in which a few that had 8 persons brought safely through the water.” Hebrews 11:7, “By faith, Noah being warned about God, ABOUT THINGS NOT YET SEEN in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household by which he condemned the world and became the heir of righteousness according to faith.”
The world was given a 120 year warning of judgment that was coming, but hey ignored it. In fact, they probably mocked him all the days of the construction of this ark. They thought it would never happen. Not much has changed. Even today we warn people of the coming judgment of Jesus Christ on the earth and yet they ignore it. Unless God, in His grace, comes and opens their eyes and causes the fear of God to come into their heart. But Noah was a testimony and it is a testimony to us. He believed God against the tide of public opinion. He obeyed God even when it wasn’t popular. And as we move toward these last days of our generation we’re going to find that its going to be less and less popular to stand forth and believe and proclaim what we believe. Noah is an example to us.
This huge boat was being constructed for over a century. Notice its contents(vs. 18-20). “I will establish my covenant with you and you shall enter the ark you and your sons and your wife and your son’s wives with you and of every living thing of all flesh you should bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female of the birds after their kind, of the animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind. Two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive. And so as Noah and his family and pairs of all air-breathing creatures… Also when Genesis speaks of those after “their kind” that is not the same as what modern taxonomy calls “species.” In fact scientists today in their classification of so-called species often classify animals that we would look at biblically as a certain kind, like a dog, as all kinds of different species. That’s important to notice because zoology has discovered an amazing potential for diversification. The Creator has put into the different kinds. They’ve never merged and crossed over each other you cannot breed a cat and a dog and come out with something different. And yet there is amazing diversification and a staggering number of varieties. For example, there are over 500 varieties of sweet peas that have been developed from one type that began in 1700. There are 200 distinct varieties of dogs from the collie to the dachshund that have been bred from a few wild dogs. There are thousands of varieties of pigeons just from the rock pigeon alone. And so God has created into His creation in the genetic makeup of these kinds tremendous ability for diversification. But when we speak of the kinds of animals that Noah brought aboard the ark, it probably is a significantly less number than what scientists today refer to as species. But even if that were true, remember he had no need to take fish, mollusks, or most amphibians, aquatic animals, or worms… only the air-breathing land animals.
In Morris and Whitcomb in their studies of the Flood have said that that would leave perhaps 17-18,000 remaining species as they are classified today. Probably much less in terms of kind. Lets take that number. If you double that for a male and female that’s 35,000 animals that need to be aboard the ark. If we figure the average size of them were the size of a sheep, which is really generous, 240 sheep can be accommodated in a two-decker box car. Take 35,000 and divide by 240 and it takes 145 boxcars to house all of those sheep. You have 520—that box could handle anything that was required with regard to preservation of these animals.
How did the animal kingdom round-up occur? The animal kingdom, just like Noah, obeyed God. In chapter 6:20 it says, “Two of every kind SHALL COME TO YOU.” God directed them to come to Noah. In chapter 7:16, “Those that entered male and female of all flesh entered as God had commanded it and the Lord closed it behind it.” Most of the animals were considered domestic until after the Flood, but this must have been an erie phenomenon for this society to watch these animals begin to appear and to come to this huge ark. God in his supernatural control could have caused most if not all of these animals to hibernate. Many could have been taken in as young animals. One of the evidences we see is there is no offspring in this year of the Flood. The two that went in are the two that go out. With rabbits, the likelihood of that is pretty slim.
In chapters 7-8 we have the Flood itself. The final preparations—the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark you and your household for you alone I’ve seen to be righteous in this generation… For after seven more days I will send rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.” One more week to finalize loading and equipping the ark and then the Flood is unleashed—Noah and his family take a last look a the world that then was, and it was very different than the world that is today and they enter the ark.
In verses 10-12 we see the cause of the Flood. Two cataclysmic and supernatural cosmic disruptions occurred. Two things that occurred—the fountains of the great deep burst open, and secondly the floodgates of the sky were opened. All of the underground reservoirs emptied and burst open. In a National Geographic a few years back, a satellite picture showed by a ground penetrating radar—they showed huge channels underneath the Sahara desert that were empty that they suspected one time contained water. They are all over the earth. Most of them are empty now because they have been unleashed. There were tremendous volcanic eruptions in mass there were tidal waves uplifting the oceanic basins and this flood came over the earth. About 1520 BC we have a recent example. The Aegean volcanic island of Feyra(?) exploded causing 32 sq. miles of the earth to sink into the sea to a depth of 1,300 ft. in a matter of hours. Snuffing out the brilliant Minoan civilization there and on the nearby Crete island.
The second thing that occurred was that the floodgates of the sky were opened. This indicates that there was a reservoir of water above the atmosphere at that time. In Genesis 1:6,7, “Then God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters and let it separate the waters from the waters. And God made the expanse and separated the waters which were below the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse and it was so.” So there were the waters below the expanse, which were the existing oceans, and there were these waters above the expanse. Later he says that the birds fly in the expanse. So that’s the atmosphere. And, in fact, the case was that there was a global canopy of water around the earth at that time that protected it and caused it to have like a greenhouse effect. In chapter 2:5, 6 it says that they had not had it rain yet. That was one of the things that Noah did not see yet and yet he went ahead and prepared the ark—they didn’t know what rain really meant. Genesis 2:5,6, “Now no shrub on the earth no shrub had yet sprouted, the Lord God had not sent rain upon the earth and there was no man to cultivate the ground, but a mist used to rise from the earth and water the whole surface of the ground.” That was how the land was watered in those days was like from dew or condensation of a mist from the ground. If that is true, and it took six weeks for this vapor canopy, or this water canopy to condense, the pre-flood climate would have been very different from what we see here today. There would have been a greenhouse affect with a gentle almost tropical climate throughout the whole globe—including the poles. There would have been no storm systems like we have today to ravage the planet. There would have been a protection from the sun’s rays so people would have lived longer life because of the protection from radioactivity which is in fact what the Bibles says in this case is. But after the Flood when this vapor water canopy condensed and left us more exposed, there would have been significant temperature differentials from the poles almost instantly. It would have caused ice and snow like layers to form. Life spans would’ve shortened and there would have been a disappearance of many fragile life forms—that probably included the dinosaurs who could not find enough to eat in a post-flood world.
So the cause of the flood was the breaking up of the underground reservoirs and the condensation of the vapor or water canopy. The extent of the Flood is in verses 17-20. For six weeks, 40 days it increased to its maximum height, and then for 16 weeks it remained there. 150 days after it began it remained above the mountains by 15 cubits (almost 25’) and then it began to subside.
- Mooberry, Pastor Jim. The Faithful Word. GENESIS 6:5-9:7, “The Flood”.
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