7By faith Noah, after being warned about what was not yet seen, in reverence built an ark to deliver his family. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. (Hebrews 11:6,7)
Noah was righteous in the only way anyone can be righteous—anyone, that is, except Jesus! Noah was righteous because he trusted God. Noah had the righteousness that only comes through faith! Noah built the ark according to God’s instructions, 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. He stocked it with food for himself and his family and for all the animals, according to God’s intructions. Chapter 6 verse 22 says, “And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.” And that brings us up to chapter 7.
1Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before Me in this generation. 2You are to take with you seven pairs, a male and its female, of all the clean animals, and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female, 3and seven pairs, male and female, of the birds of the sky—in order to keep offspring alive on the face of the whole earth. 4Seven days from now I will make it rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights, and I will wipe off the face of the earth every living thing I have made.” 5And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him. (Genesis 7:1-5)
Again, Noah did everything the Lord commanded him.
Noah was 599 years old (the 600th year of his life) when he entered the ark and the flood came. Noah entered the ark along with his family and all the animals and the birds. Verse 16 says that the Lord shut him in. I believe this statement is included to show God’s protection for Noah and his family. Noah had seven days to get the animals into the ark. Then the flood started. Verse 11 says that “all the sources of the watery depths burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened, and the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights.” The water continued to rise until the mountains were covered to a depth of 20 feet (verse 20).
This was definitely a supernatural flood. Some people have argued that it was a local flood—that man had not spread very far on the earth—and that a local flood would have been enough to wipe out all mankind. But even so, it would have been supernatural. The mountains were covered to a depth of 20 feet. There would have had to have been a wall or something to hold the water in. And where would all that water have come from anyway; and where would it go when it was gone. But God made the heavens and the earth, as far as we can tell, out of nothing; so he could certainly have made a vast amount of water come into existence and then taken it away again.
The interesting thing about all this is that, while God made the flood, Noah made the ark! It appears that it took him 120 years to do it too. God could have made the ark. Or he could have simply taken Noah and his family to some supernaturally prepared place and fed him supernaturally. But Noah made the ark and stocked it with food for himself and his family and for all the animals as well. For Noah, it was a huge undertaking. But compared with creating the flood, it was insignificant. Yet God allowed Noah to participate in accomplishing his purposes. You know, God’s ultimate purpose is to bring glory to himself—to bring glory to himself by saving us from our sin. Jesus prayed in John chapter 17, just before he went to the cross, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son so that the Son may glorify You, for You gave Him authority over all flesh; so He may give eternal life to all You have given Him. This is eternal life: that they may know You, the only true God, and the One You have sent—Jesus Christ. I have glorified You on the earth by completing the work You gave Me to do. Now, Father, glorify Me in Your presence with that glory I had with You before the world existed.” (John 17:1-5) We, too, can participate with God. We can participate in saving others from their sin. But what we do is insignificant compared with what Jesus did!
Now let’s look at Genesis chapter 8. After every living creature was wiped off the face of the earth, God caused a wind to pass over the earth and the flood waters began to recede. (This was supernatural too. No natural wind could make all that water disappear!) At the end of 150 days, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. (Gen. 8:1-4) The waters continued to recede until the mountain tops were visible. Noah waited another 40 days and then opened a window and sent out a raven. The raven never came back and apparently either landed on a mountain top or just kept flying until the water was down far enough for it to land near the ark.
After sending out the raven, Noah sent out a dove. The dove could not find a place to land and came back; so Noah waited seven days and sent the dove out again. This time the dove came back with an olive leaf and Noah knew that the water had gone down. Noah waited another week and sent out the dove again. This time she didn’t return. Then Noah removed the cover from the ark. The time from the start of the flood until the earth was dry again was just a little over a year.
Did you wonder (as I did) why God didn’t just send a plague or some such thing to wipe out the men, women and children, but spare the animals and birds? He used plagues at other times throughout history. Why didn’t he do it this time? Well I don’t have a “for sure” answer, but I believe he wanted to wash away all the evil with water—to cleanse the whole surface of the earth. The apostle Peter says, “He (Jesus) also went and made a proclamation to the spirits in prison who in the past were disobedient, when God patiently waited in the days of Noah while an ark was being prepared; in it, a few—that is, eight people—were saved through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the pledge of a good conscience toward God) through the resurrection of Jesus Christ.” (1 Peter 3:19-21) And listen to this. David prayed to God in Psalm 51 and said, “Be gracious to me, God, according to Your faithful love; according to Your abundant compassion, blot out my rebellion. Wash away my guilt, and cleanse me from my sin.” I believe that God was washing and cleansing the earth through the flood. And remember that all these things that are recorded in the Old Testament are recorded for our benefit so that we can know and understand the God who made us and who sacrificed for us. We know from the flood that God hates sin. But we also know from the cross that God loves us and wants to save us.
Now, let’s go on in today’s passage. According to Genesis 8:15-19, after the ground was dry, Noah and his family came out of the ark, along with all of the animals. And the fact is, he stayed in the ark until God told him to come out. Then he came out.
Now look at verses 20 through 22. Here’s what they say:
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
22As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, and day and night
will not cease.”
Noah wanted to do something that was pleasing to God. He sacrificed some of the clean animals and birds as a burnt offering. He offered something that was good to God. It says that God smelled the pleasing aroma. Well, I personally don’t think the smell of burning flesh is necessarily pleasing. But Noah wanted to please God, so the aroma was pleasing to God. It also pleased God when his Son Jesus was brutalized and killed for our sin. It pleased him to save us through Jesus’s death and resurrection. When God smelled the pleasing aroma of Noah’s sacrifice, he said that he would never again curse the ground because of man or strike down every living thing—even though all of our inclinations are evil from our youth.
Now let’s look at chapter 9. Listen to verses 1 through 3. Here’s what they say:
1God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority. 3Every living creature will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything. (Genesis 9:1-3)
God told Noah’s family to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth, just as he had told Adam and Eve. You know, for the last forty years or so, there has been a lot of fuss about the earth being overpopulated. And, in fact, during that time, the earth’s population has at least doubled. But I read recently that earth should be able to sustain around 50 billion people. Well, I don’t really know what the limit is, but it’s certainly a lot higher than the present 6 billion—maybe higher than 50 billion too. The reason there is poverty and disease on the earth is not because of overpopulation, but because of men’s “evil inclinations”.
Verse 3 in the passage I just read says that God gave Noah’s family (and all their descendants—us too) all the animals for food. Before the flood, men were vegetarians. (The animals were too. Noah didn’t supply the ark with extra animals for the carnivorous animals to eat. There weren’t any carnivorous animals.)
J. Vernon McGee, whose commentary I was reading, told the story of a woman who heard him preach about men and animals being vegetarian before the flood. The woman happened to be a vegetarian and was very interested in the fact that God had originally created men and animals to be vegetarian. However, J. Vernon McGee said to her, “I wouldn’t make too much of it if I were you because you must remember that it was a bunch of vegetarians who were destroyed in the flood. If diet had in any way improved them at that time, they would not have been destroyed.” I guess there’s no spiritual benefit to being a vegetarian.
Now let’s look at verse 4. Verse 4 says, “However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it.” Why would God make that stipulation? Here’s what he says. This is from Leviticus 17:10-12:
10 “Anyone from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who live among them who eats any blood, I will turn against that person who eats blood and cut him off from his people. 11For the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have appointed it to you to make atonement on the altar for your lives, since it is the lifeblood that makes atonement. 12Therefore I say to the Israelites: None of you and no foreigner who lives among you may eat blood. (Lev. 17:10-12)
The blood of the sacrificial animal is its life. It was used to make atonement for the lives of the Israelites… and it is the blood of Jesus that makes atonement for our lives. That is why God told Noah that they were not to eat the meat with the blood in it.
Now let’s look at verses 5 through 7. Here’s what they say:
5I will require the life of every animal and every man for your life and your blood. I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life.
6Whoever sheds man’s blood,
his blood will be shed by man,
for God made man
in His image.
7But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it. (Genesis 9:5-7)
This is about capital punishment. We are made in God’s image. He considers our lives to be very precious. (How do you think he felt about killing everyone except Noah in the flood? And how do you think he felt about Jesus being put to death on the cross?) God proclaimed the death penalty for murder, but personally, I never liked capital punishment very much (mostly because it’s not reversible, at least not by men). People talk about the fact that the fear of capital punishment is a strong deterrent to murder. I don’t really think it is. Murderers commit murder because they don’t think they’ll get caught, or simply because they don’t think. But here’s what I believe. The severity of the penalty for murder, the death penalty, plants in people’s minds, even from childhood, the seriousness of murder. It tells people this is something you just never do! I think that’s a much stronger deterrent than the fear of being caught. And this is not about vengeance. God vengeance for those who reject him is much worse than the death penalty. This is about teaching people that they must not murder! You know, in the Law of Moses (actually, God’s Law) that came 800 years later, the penalty for adultery was death! Thirty five years ago, in Ohio, adultery was at least illegal. It isn’t any more. Now, no one seems to take adultery very seriously.
Now let’s go on. Verses 8 through 17 (which I’m not going to read) tell us that God confirmed his promise that he made at the end of chapter 8 to never again strike down every living thing as he had done in the flood. He made a covenant—or actually, confirmed his covenant. He said that he would never again destroy all life on earth in a flood. The sign of the covenant is the rainbow. Here’s what God said: “I have placed My bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh: water will never again become a deluge to destroy all flesh.” (Gen. 9:13-15) And, by the way, God has made a covenant with us, too. It’s called the New Covenant (or the New Testament). It’s the covenant in the blood of Jesus Christ. The sign of it is the cross!
God will never again strike down every living thing as he did in the flood. But the heavens and the earth will eventually be destroyed and replaced with a new heaven and a new earth “where righteousness will dwell.” (2 Peter 3:13) At that time, we who believe in Jesus will have indestructible bodies and have eternal life and righteousness. We will be like Jesus, our Lord and our Savior.
Now let’s look at the end of chapter 9. Listen while I read verses 18 through 29:
18Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were Noah’s sons, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backwards, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked.
24When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said:
Canaan will be cursed.
He will be the lowest of slaves
to his brothers.
26He also said:
Praise the Lord, the God of Shem;
Canaan will be his slave.
27God will extend Japheth;
he will dwell in the tents of Shem;
Canaan will be his slave.
28Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood. 29So Noah’s life lasted 950 years; then he died.
Well, Noah planted a vineyard, made some wine and got drunk. Sin was still in the world and still is! The New Testament makes it plain that being an alcoholic or a drug addict is a serious sin. (If you tell me that an addict can’t help being an addict, I will tell you that sin is addicting.) In any case, Noah was not an alcoholic, but it’s clear that he did something that God didn’t approve of. Noah’s son Ham discovered his father drunk and naked in his tent. Do you remember that Adam and Eve were naked and felt no shame… but after they had sinned, they covered themselves with fig leaves? In the Bible, nakedness represents sin. Ham told his brothers about their father’s nakedness and they went into the tent and covered him up without looking at him. God used the occasion to make a prophecy: “Canaan will be cursed. He will be a slave to all his brothers.” Canaan was one of Ham’s sons. I don’t know why Canaan was cursed because of what Ham did (or really because of what Noah did), but the descendents of Canaan, the Canaanites, were the people who were living in the land that God gave the Israelites 800 years later to possess as their own. The sin of the Canaanites was so great that God told the Israelites to wipe them all out and spare no one. They didn’t do this, but nevertheless, eventually all the Canaanites disappeared anyway.
Something else I ought to point out. This last passage has been used to justify enslaving black Africans. The Canaanites were not black Africans. (And furthermore, they were all gone by the time this slavery was instituted.) This prophecy is in no way a command or a justification to enslave anyone. Before God, there is no distinction according to race or sex or ethnic origin. All are the same in Christ. The only distinction God makes is whether or not you are in Christ. So trust Jesus to be your Savior. Give yourself into his hands for safekeeping for eternity.
This present world is an evil place and people are only inclined toward evil all the time. But Jesus is our Savior. He suffered and died in our place for our sin. So let’s follow Jesus in everything we do!
[Prayer]
END NOTES
1 Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holman Christian Standard Bible ®, Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2002, 2003 by Holman Bible Publishers. Used by permission. Holman Christian Standard Bible ®, Holman CSB ® and HCSB ® are federally registered trademarks of Holman Bible Publishers.
2 Genesis 7:1-9:29 –HCSB
Chapter 7
Entering the Ark
1Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you alone are righteous before Me in this generation. 2You are to take with you seven pairs, a male and its female, of all the clean animals, and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and its female, 3and seven pairs, male and female, of the birds of the sky—in order to keep offspring alive on the face of the whole earth. 4Seven days from now I will make it rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights, and I will wipe off the face of the earth every living thing I have made.” 5And Noah did everything that the Lord commanded him.
6Noah was 600 years old when the deluge came and water covered the earth. 7So Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives entered the ark because of the waters of the deluge. 8From the clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and every creature that crawls on the ground, 9two of each, male and female, entered the ark with Noah, just as God had commanded him. 10Seven days later the waters of the deluge came on the earth.
The Deluge
11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the sources of the watery depths burst open, the floodgates of the sky were opened, 12and the rain fell on the earth 40 days and 40 nights. 13On that same day Noah along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s wife, and his three sons’ wives entered the ark with him. 14They entered it with all the wildlife according to their kinds, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that crawls on the earth according to its kind, all birds, every fowl, and everything with wings according to their kinds. 15Two of all flesh that has the breath of life in it entered the ark with Noah. 16Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered just as God had commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in.
17The deluge continued 40 days on the earth; the waters increased and lifted up the ark so that it rose above the earth. 18The waters surged and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19Then the waters surged even higher on the earth, and all the high mountains under the whole sky were covered. 20The mountains were covered as the waters surged above them more than 20 feet. 21All flesh perished—creatures that crawl on the earth, birds, livestock, wildlife, and all creatures that swarm on the earth, as well as all mankind. 22Everything with the breath of the spirit of life in its nostrils—everything on dry land died. 23He wiped out every living thing that was on the surface of the ground, from mankind to livestock, to creatures that crawl, to the birds of the sky, and they were wiped off the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark. 24And the waters surged on the earth 150 days.
Chapter 8
The Flood Recedes
1God remembered Noah, as well as all the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water began to subside. 2The sources of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky stopped. 3The water steadily receded from the earth, and by the end of 150 days the waters had decreased significantly. 4The ark came to rest in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.
5The waters continued to recede until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were visible. 6After 40 days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made, 7and he sent out a raven. It went back and forth until the waters had dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out a dove to see whether the water on the earth’s surface had gone down, 9but the dove found no resting place for her foot. She returned to him in the ark because water covered the surface of the whole earth. He reached out and brought her into the ark to himself. 10So Noah waited seven more days and sent out the dove from the ark again. 11When the dove came to him at evening, there was a plucked olive leaf in her beak. So Noah knew that the water on the earth’s surface had gone down. 12After he had waited another seven days, he sent out the dove, but she did not return to him again. 13In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up. Then Noah removed the ark’s cover and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry.
The Lord’s Promise
15Then God spoke to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out every living thing of all flesh that is with you—birds, livestock, creatures that crawl on the ground—and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out. 19All wildlife, all livestock, every bird, and every creature that crawls on the earth came out of the ark by their groups.
20Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered • burnt offerings on the altar. 21When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, He said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
22As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, and day and night
will not cease.”
Chapter 9
God’s Covenant with Noah
1God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2The fear and terror of you will be in every living creature on the earth, every bird of the sky, every creature that crawls on the ground, and all the fish of the sea. They are placed under your authority. 3Every living creature will be food for you; as I gave the green plants, I have given you everything. 4However, you must not eat meat with its lifeblood in it. 5I will require the life of every animal and every man for your life and your blood. I will require the life of each man’s brother for a man’s life.
6Whoever sheds man’s blood,
his blood will be shed by man,
for God made man
in His image.
7But you, be fruitful and multiply; spread out over the earth and multiply on it.”
8Then God said to Noah and his sons with him, 9 “Understand that I am confirming My covenant with you and your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you—birds, livestock, and all wildlife of the earth that are with you—all the animals of the earth that came out of the ark. 11I confirm My covenant with you that never again will all flesh be wiped out by the waters of a deluge; there will never again be a deluge to destroy the earth.”
12And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all future generations: 13I have placed My bow in the clouds, and it will be a sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14Whenever I form clouds over the earth and the bow appears in the clouds, 15I will remember My covenant between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh: water will never again become a deluge to destroy all flesh. 16The bow will be in the clouds, and I will look at it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh on earth.” 17God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have confirmed between Me and all flesh on earth.”
Prophecies about Noah’s Family
18Noah’s sons who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. 19These three were Noah’s sons, and from them the whole earth was populated.
20Noah, a man of the soil, was the first to plant a vineyard. 21He drank some of the wine, became drunk, and uncovered himself inside his tent. 22Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. 23Then Shem and Japheth took a cloak and placed it over both their shoulders, and walking backwards, they covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father naked.
24When Noah awoke from his drinking and learned what his youngest son had done to him, 25he said:
Canaan will be cursed.
He will be the lowest of slaves
to his brothers.
26He also said:
Praise the Lord, the God of Shem;
Canaan will be his slave.
27God will extend Japheth;
he will dwell in the tents of Shem;
Canaan will be his slave.
28Now Noah lived 350 years after the flood. 29So Noah’s life lasted 950 years; then he died.