The Flood Comes (Genesis 7)

The Flood Comes (Genesis 7) A. Heretofore the ark was “...a preparing...” according to God’s longsuffering. 1PE 3:20. 1. It was not a matter of the world not yet being worthy of judgment: the judgment had already been decreed (GEN 6:6-7) but sentence delayed until salvation was prepared. 2. So also mankind that fell under sin was preserved until Christ was prepared. HEB 10:5. 3. NOTE: God-fearing men view His longsuffering as a window of mercy but fools despise and exploit it. MAT 24:48-51; ROM 2:3-6. B. The promise of coming judgment had been long awaiting fulfillment, but now “...the time is short...” GEN 7:4 c/w 1CO 7:29; ROM 13:11. 1. Long delays in God's working do not mean that He is not at work. 2. When a climax is approaching, He moves very quickly. HAB 2:3-4 c/w HEB 10:37-38. C. Salvation had been prepared for the righteous in advance of judgment. 1. That they be not destroyed with the world at judgment day, God said, “Come...into the ark...” (GEN 7:1). 2. The language of GEN 7:1 concurs with GEN 6:18 and HEB 11:7. This was indeed a covenant salvation for a particular people. 3. The language of GEN 7:1 also shows that God was already IN the saving vessel. So also “...God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself...” (2CO 5:19). 4. Compare the covenant salvation call of GEN 7:1 with MAT 25:34. D. God again chose to set a pattern of one man/one wife, as at the beginning. GEN 7:13 c/w MAT 19:4-9. 1. Fornication has always been forbidden and polygamy was only tolerated. 2. Deviations from the original pattern do not reflect the relationship of Christ to His church. EPH 5:25. E. The ark was to be laded with pairs of all air-breathing animals and food stocks. GEN 6:17-21. 1. GEN 6:21 implies that the animals would survive on plant matter as would humans. 2. There were excess clean beasts and fowls to be brought aboard. GEN 7:2-3. a. These were needed in order to allow for sacrifice. GEN 8:20. b. Some have surmised that since there were clean and unclean beasts recognized before Moses' Law, proscriptions against eating certain kinds of animal flesh (pork, etc.) have always been around and are thus still binding. c. However, permission to eat ANY animal flesh was not even granted until after the Flood (GEN 9:3-4), and there was no distinction then made between clean and unclean animals for consumption. d. The clean v. unclean distinction before the Flood can only have been referring to animals acceptable or unacceptable for sacrifice. 3. Feasibility studies have shown that the ark and its cargo were adequate and practical. 4. Mark that Noah didn't round up the animals and entice them to the ark. God altered their nature and sent them to Noah and salvation. GEN 7:9, 15. a. Noah cast out none that came to him by God's order. c/w JOH 6:37-39. b. All those that come unto salvation in God by Christ are saved “...to the uttermost...” (HEB 7:25). c. All of God's elect shall come to Him on Judgment Day. JOH 5:28-29; MAT 25:34. F. A countdown to judgment was provided here (GEN 7:4) but no such markers precede Final Judgment (MAR 13:31-32). We are to look not to markers but to holiness. LUK 21:33-36. G. Mind that “...the LORD shut him in” (GEN 7:16). The Flood Comes 7-29-18 Page 1 of 3 1. God PUT Adam in Eden, but He did not SHUT him in, so he threw himself out. 2. Not so with Noah or Christ. All of theirs are sealed and secured in salvation. c/w JOH 10:27-29. 3. Mind that God's shutting in of Noah & Co. was also the shutting out of the rest. c/w ROM 9:21-24; LUK 13:25; REV 3:7. H. Judgment fell the SELFSAME (very same, very identical) day that the righteous were delivered. GEN 7:11-13. 1. Christ likens the final resurrection and judgment to this pattern. LUK 17:26-30; JOH 5:28-29; ACT 24:15. 2. Noah didn't come back a few years after the righteous were saved to pick up any “tribulation saints” and neither will Christ. 3. The idea of a third coming of Christ is a phantom. I. When the Flood started, it was said, “...the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened” (GEN 7:11). 1. God had once sealed much of the earth's water in subterranean regions and set limits to them. GEN 1:9-10 c/w JOB 38:8-11. 2. Now He let them erupt. The stability of the “greenhouse effect” would have been dramatically altered. This may well have contributed to the sudden opening of the windows of heaven. 3. Scientists have estimated that there is even now an estimated 10 to 30 times the amount of the ocean's water in earth's mantle. 4. Volcanoes are evidence of subterranean fire. Might this have a bearing on the Final Judgment? 2PE 3:10. J. Consider the scope and depth of the Flood. GEN 7:12, 17-24. 1. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights. 2. The waters prevailed upon earth sufficient to cover “...all the high hills under the whole heaven...” (GEN 7:19). 3. High hills or high towers do not evade God's decrees. JER 3:23; GEN 11:4-8. 4. The waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days (v. 24), more than enough time to outlast the heartiest man or beast. 5. The finality and totality of a global deluge could not have been better described. 6. All air-breathing life was destroyed, save for those with whom God had made a covenant. c/w JOH 17:3-4. K. Consider the intense, dramatic effects of a sudden global Flood upon the geology and topography of the earth. 1. Peter describes the world as then being “...OVERFLOWED with water...” (2PE 3:6), implying not only depth, but great movement of water. The face of the earth would have been completely altered. 2. Local events of water's power help underscore (in small scale) what the water and waves would have accomplished in Noah's day. a. In the Cherrapunji region of northeast India, heavy rains have been seen to cause rapid rises in streams and their velocities, enabling them to move 350 Ton blocks of granite with ease. b. At Cherbourg, France, a breakwater made of large rocks and capped with a 20 foot wall saw storm waves hurl 7000 pound stones over the wall and move 65 Ton concrete blocks 60 feet. c. At Wick, Scotland, the end of the breakwater was capped by an 800 Ton block of concrete secured to the foundation by 3.5 inch diameter iron rods. In 1872, a great storm relocated both the foundation and cap, weighing some 1350 Tons. The The Flood Comes 7-29-18 Page 2 of 3 replacement cap, which weighed 2600 Tons, was similarly treated a few years later in another storm. d. The crustal upheaval that likely attended the Flood would have had another effect: tsunami-style monster waves. (1) Earthquake or volcano-inspired tsunamis are known to attain velocities of more than 400 m.p.h. and heights of 130 feet. (2) The Krakatoa earthquake of 1883 created waves at least 100 feet high and a velocity of 450 miles an hour which inundated neighboring islands and drowned nearly 40,000 people in a moment. (3) In the 20th century, earthquakes in Chile produced tidal waves up to 50 feet high, traveling at 525 m.p.h. By the time they reached Japan, 1/3 of the way around the world, they were still 32 feet high and caused massive damage. (4) The eruption of Mt. St. Helens in 1980 demonstrated something else: rapid, catastrophic damage in a very short time by the intense water and mud flows which ensued. A mini-Grand Canyon was carved out in days and towering, multi-layered rock formations came into existence almost overnight. (5) All the above are relatively small-scale events. Multiply that power by a factor of ? to put the destruction of Noah's flood in perspective. (6) Romantic speculations that the Garden of Eden was likely somewhere in what is now the Middle East should be discarded. The face of the earth was likely entirely rearranged by the Flood, and the present Euphrates river would not be the original one (GEN 2:14), but is likely a post-Flood river named after the original. (7) Such monstrous liquid and particulate action would undoubtedly trap and bury untold numbers of animal and plant life in a very short time, leaving a fossil-rich sedimentary record. This is exactly what we find. e. When we think of the Flood covering the mountains (GEN 7:20), we need not necessarily think that the Flood attained a depth of over 29,000 feet. (1) The Post-Flood ranges would seem to have been formed because of the Flood. (2) The tell-tale strata of the fossil-rich mountains of today indicate that they were upthrust while still plastic, and have hardened into the hydraulically- formed ranges we now see. (3) The present mountains were probably formed as part of the process described in PSA 104:5-9 in order to cause the water to recede and the land to re-emerge. 3. Note that during all this destruction, Noah and his crew were protected. a. God is well able to preserve the righteous from calamitous common judgment. EXO 12:12-13. b. Saints are “...preserved in Jesus Christ...” (JUDE 1:1), “...preserved for ever...” (PSA 37:28). c. Here is hope also for all the oppressive “floods” that come upon us in life: they can come no further than God allows. ISA 57:20 c/w REV 12:15-16; ISA 59:19. The Flood Comes 7-29-18 Page 3 of 3