Friday, May 4, 2007

Genesis 7 - Aboard the Ark

Aboard the Ark

Gen 7:1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

His was the only family who worshipped and obeyed God.

Rom 1:17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Gen 7:2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

There were clean animals, those suitable for food and for sacrifice. God had revealed this to Noah, before the law was given. Clean beasts were gathered in seven pairs and the unclean in twos; male and female.

Gen 7:3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

This rule applied to the fowls of the air, as well. For example: seven pairs of geese, a clean bird and one pair of heron.

Gen 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
Gen 7:5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
Gen 7:6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
Gen 7:7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Gen 7:8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,
Gen 7:9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.
Gen 7:10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
Gen 7:11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Fountains of the deep were broken up. The water under the earth.

Windows of heaven were opened. The firmament that was lifted up.

Gen 1:7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. The firmament was there; a large supply of water that dropped to the earth. It had never rained, now it came down in a deluge.

Gen 7:12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

The number 40 would be associated with trials and testings.

Moses was on Mt. Sinai 40 days to receive the law and the people fell into sins.

Exo 24:18 And Moses went into the midst of the cloud, and gat him up into the mount: and Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights.

Exo 32:1 And when the people saw that Moses delayed to come down out of the mount, the people gathered themselves together unto Aaron, and said unto him, Up, make us gods, which shall go before us; for as for this Moses, the man that brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we wot not what is become of him.

The 12 spies searched the promise land 40 days and 10 of the princes brought an evil report of no faith.

Num 13:25 And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.

Num 13:31 But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
Num 13:32 And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.

Num 14:6 And Joshua the son of Nun, and Caleb the son of Jephunneh, which were of them that searched the land, rent their clothes:
Num 14:7 And they spake unto all the company of the children of Israel, saying, The land, which we passed through to search it, is an exceeding good land.
Num 14:8 If the LORD delight in us, then he will bring us into this land, and give it us; a land which floweth with milk and honey.
Num 14:9 Only rebel not ye against the LORD, neither fear ye the people of the land; for they are bread for us: their defence is departed from them, and the LORD is with us: fear them not.

Jesus fasted in the desert 40 days and was tempted by the devil

Mat 4:1 Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Mat 4:2 And when he had fasted forty days and forty nights, he was afterward an hungered.
Mat 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

Jesus appeared after the resurrection 40 days and still most would not believe.

Acts 1:3 To whom also he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible proofs, being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things pertaining to the kingdom of God:

Are you going through a 40 day time of testing? Stand fast and trust the Lord. Be a people of faith, for unbelief is of the devil.

Gen 7:13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

On the appointed day, all the family entered the finished ark. Jesus is our ark and by the faith of the mother and father all the family will enter into him and dwell in safety. Keep interceding in prayer, for salvation is of the LORD.

Acts 16:31 And they said, Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.
Acts 16:32 And they spake unto him the word of the Lord, and to all that were in his house.
Acts 16:33 And he took them the same hour of the night, and washed their stripes; and was baptized, he and all his, straightway.

Gen 7:14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
Gen 7:15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

God controls the animals. Noah did not have to go looking, for God sent them two by two and of the clean animals and birds, by sevens. All that had the breath of life.

Gen 7:16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

The LORD shut the door of the ark. The LORD chose them, selected and delivered them and kept them safe within. This is exactly how he saves us in Jesus.

God the Father chooses

John 6:37 All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.
John 6:38 For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me.
John 6:39 And this is the Father's will which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the last day.
John 6:40 And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day.

Gen 7:17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
Gen 7:18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
Gen 7:19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

All the earth was covered with water.

In the early days of geology, especially during the 17th and 18th centuries, the dominant explanation for the sedimentary rocks and their fossilized contents was that they had been laid down in the great Flood of the days of Noah.

Toward the end of the 18th century, and especially in the first half of the 19th century, the ancient pagan evolutionary philosophies began to be revived and promoted by the various socialistic revolutionary movements of the times. These could make little headway, however, as long as the scientists were predominantly creationists. Evolution obviously required aeons of geologic time and the scientific community, including the great Isaac Newton himself, was committed to the Ussher chronology, with its recent special creation and worldwide Flood.

Therefore, it was necessary, first of all, that the Flood be displaced as the framework of geologic interpretation, so that earth history could once again, as in the days of the ancient Greek and Oriental philosophers, be expanded into great reaches and cycles of time over endless ages.

Ussher Chronology

Up until fairly recently, nearly all printings of the King James Bible included dates in the marginal notes which helped place Biblical events in their chronological context. Using this as a guide we can see that "God created the heaven and the earth" in 4004 b.c.; the Flood covered the Earth in 2348 b.c.; the Exodus occurred in 1491 b.c.; David became King of Israel in 1056 b.c.; and the Nation of Judah was carried into captivity in 593 b.c. Obviously, the numbers are helpful in understanding the sequence and timing of events, but where did they come from, and are they reliable?

The chronology was derived by Archbishop James Ussher, and first published in a.d. 1650.

While Ussher had access to documents we no longer have, numerous discoveries have come to light since Ussher, which enhance our understanding. But none of them change his conclusions to any great extent. There have been over 100 attempts to establish a chronology since Ussher, and each one is slightly different, but all are fairly close to his.

Gen 7:20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
Gen 7:21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
Gen 7:22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

All flesh that breathed air died, this does not apply to water creatures.

In the Scopes Monkey Trial, Clarence Darrow humiliated William Jennings Bryan by asking him if he believed every word in the Bible. When Bryan said he did, Darrow asked him how the fish drowned in the flood. Bryan didn't know the answer, gave a great, confused speech, and died the next day. If only he would have known the Bible better, he would have known it says All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. The fish did not die in the flood; only animals with the breath of life in them died, the animals on dry land.(Guzik)

Gen 7:23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.
Gen 7:24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

How could the animals survive all this time? There was food and perhaps God put them in a state of slumber or hibernation. Perhaps there were angels aboard controlling the animals?This way the lions would not eat the deer, etc. If God closed the Lions mouth for Daniel, he could do it on the ark.

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