A Daily Genesis

Genesis 7:1-9

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[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 7:1 . .Yhvh then said to Noah: Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.[/B]

Noah is sometimes criticized for not utilizing more of the ark's cargo space to take humans aboard instead of animals; but what the critics are unaware is that it wasn't for Noah to say who did and who didn't get on the ark. Passage aboard the ark was by invitation only; and to qualify for an invitation, the passengers had to be righteous. Well; only Noah was righteous, so he alone was invited to come aboard with his family.

The antediluvians weren't left on their own to figure out what is righteous and what is not righteous. According to 2Pet 2:5, Noah was a preacher of righteousness. So then, the people who died in the Flood had no one to blame for missing the boat but themselves. Had they listened to Noah's preaching and changed their ways; the Flood wouldn't have been necessary to begin with.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 7:2-3 . . Of every clean animal you shall take seven pairs, males and their mates, and of every animal that is not clean, two, a male and its mate; of the birds of the sky also, seven pairs, male and female, to keep seed alive upon all the earth.[/B]

Official specifications for identifying clean, and unclean animals, are located at Lev 11:1-46, and Deut 14:3-20. Those specs were written many, many centuries after Noah; so precisely which animals he regarded as clean, and which not clean in his day is impossible to tell. But I think we can safely assume that "clean" animals were those designated for ceremonial purposes rather than for diet since God had not yet instructed man to begin eating meat.

The specific species that Noah took aboard were limited to the ones that God said in 6:20 "shall come to you". Any, and all, species that failed to come to Noah, went extinct in the Flood. He didn't go out and hunt them down, nor take them by force against their will. No; they had to show up on their own, or be left behind; and I have a sneaking suspicion that many were.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 7:4 . . For in seven days' time I will make it rain upon the earth, forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out from the earth all existence that I created.[/B]

The expression "all existence" is from [I]yequwm[/I] (yek-oom') which means[B]:[/B] standing (extant) i.e. a living thing. Yequwm appears in only three verses of the entire Old Testament. Two of them are here in chapter 7, and the other one is in Deut 11:6.

God's prediction didn't include vegetation; because when the Flood ended, at least one olive tree was still standing. So "all existence" only meant creatures; in particular those that live on land and need air to survive; like birds, bugs, and beasts; whether subterranean or on the surface. (Gen 7:21-23)

The seven-day deadline hung over the world's head like a sword of Damocles; and the Flood was now imminent. But a final warning was issued probably just in case somebody might change their mind about going along with Noah. Compare this moment of silence to the one at Rev 8:1 just prior to blasting the seven trumpets.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 7:5 . . And Noah did just as the Lord commanded him.[/B]

Not many people can say, with all honesty and a good conscience, that they do "just as" the Lord commands. It is a very unusual person who is careful to comply with God's will to the letter.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 7:6a . . Noah was six hundred years old[/B]

Years of life in Noah's day were expressed in what's known as prophetic years; which consist of twelve equal months of thirty days each. So in astronomical time; Noah was but 591[B].[/B]8 years old.

Noah died at 950. So the Flood came at roughly 63 percent of the way through his life. According to the US Department of Health, an average American born in 2007 can expect to live to about age 78. Using that as a point of reference, Noah would have been roughly the equivalent of 49 years old when the Flood started.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 7:6b . . when the Flood came, waters upon the earth.[/B]

The word for Flood is from [I]mabbuwl[/I] (mab-bool') which means[B]:[/B] a deluge. There's another word for "flood" in the Old Testament, but the Hebrew is different. Mabbuwl stands out as uniquely indicative of this one particular event.

Mabbuwl is used twelve times in Genesis regarding Noah's worldwide cataclysm. The only other place in the entire Old Testament where that word is used again is in one of the Psalms; and even there it relates to Noah.

"The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood; the Lord sits enthroned, king forever." (Ps 29:10)

[B][SIZE=1]NOTE[/SIZE]:[/B] Kings are male; ergo: it is proper to always refer to the Bible's God with masculine pronouns; viz[B]:[/B] him, his, and he.

Sometimes during huge natural disasters, people often ask: Where was God? How could He let this thing happen? Well, I don't know about those particular disasters but I do know about the Genesis deluge. God was on His throne during that one, and supervising the whole thing all the way.

[B][COLOR=#ff0000]†.[/COLOR] Gen 7:7-9 . . Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the Flood. Of the clean animals, of the animals that are not clean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two of each, male and female, came to Noah into the ark, as God had commanded Noah.[/B]

Again it's mentioned that the animals came to Noah rather than he and his sons going on safari to get them.

It was right about there that I would have become very nervous had I lived next door to the Noahs. Up till then, he probably seemed like an ordinary crack pot-- a nice enough guy, but kind of kooky. I mean[B]:[/B] who builds a great big barge on dry land? But when all those birds and animals showed up out at his place, and started boarding Noah's Folly all by themselves, in neither chaos nor confusion, and without Noah and his boys having to herd them in-- that was definitely cause for alarm.

It's true that wildlife at that time was not yet afraid of humans; and it was probably a very common sight to see them mingling with people all over the place-- maybe even assisting Noah to construct the ark --but not on such a scale as this. People had to wonder why all those bugs, and beasties, and birdies were migrating out there to Noah's spread. What's that all about? Did they maybe think to themselves that old fool might know something after all? Well; maybe they did; but according to Jesus they didn't really take Noah seriously but went about the business of their daily lives as usual. (Matt 24:38-39)

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