Summary of Genesis 7:
God tells Noah to enter the ark with the animals for in seven days He will send rain for 40 days and nights. Noah obeys. Noah was 600 years old when the flood happened. All the animals came to him. Then the Lord shut them in and the waters came. Everything perished. After the rain stopped, the earth remained flooded for 150 days.
BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 5: Genesis 7
13) Personal Question. My answer: God always has hope, even though He knows what will happen. He created man, knowing that one day He would destroy them. He gave man 120 years to repent, and still nothing but evil. God’s judgement is swift, it’s absolute, and you are powerless beneath it. No questions are raised for me.
14) Personal Question. My answer: God is always faithful to His word, and if we have faith in the Word, we have faith in God.
15) Personal Question. My answer: It’s an encouragement because it shows there is retribution for all the wrongs done in the world. It’s a warning that God can judge whenever He wants. It’s both for me, to follow His ways always. I know God will punish and destroy the wicked one day. I know He will judge. And I need to be as prepared as I can be for when He judges me.
16) Personal Question. My answer: It shows how every day could be your last and that you should live each life — treating others as if it is your last.
Conclusions BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 5: Genesis 7
I love the story of Noah. Here’s a guy of faith who is told to build a big boat and save his entire family by God. How awesome and scary is that! Yet, he does it without fail, without question, showing us what a walk with God truly is.
End Notes BSF Study Questions Genesis: Lesson 5, Day 5: Genesis 7
Genesis 7:
God was in the ark and would be with Noah in the ark, so He called Noah to come into the ark with Him.
“Notice that the Lord did not say to Noah, ‘Go into the ark,’ but ‘Come,”
In Genesis 6:20 God said the animals would come to Noah by migration.
Noah, the animals, and his family had to wait in the ark seven days for the rain to come. They had never seen rain up to this time. This was a real test of faith – to wait a week after more than 100 years of preparation.
The heavens containing the great waters that were above the firmament (Genesis 1:7) opened up. These waters formed the huge so-called blanket of water in the upper part of the earth’s atmosphere since creation. Waters came up from under the earth, too.
The Number 40 in the Bible
Here we see the first use of the number 40 in the Bible. It has become associated with testing and purification, especially before entering into something new and significant.
- Moses’ time on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:18, Deuteronomy 9:25)
- The spies’ trip to Canaan (Numbers 13:25)
- Israel’s time in the wilderness (Numbers 14:33, 32:13)
- Elijah’s miraculous journey to Sinai (1 Kings 19:8)
- Jesus’ temptation in the wilderness (Mark 1:13).
Note that God shuts the door. God has the final say in judgement. God shuts people out.
God kept the door open until the last possible minute, but there came a time when the door had to shut. Jesus is He who opens and no one shuts, and shuts and no one opens (Revelation 3:7).
Of the more than 200 cultures that have their own account of the flood the following aspects of the story are common:
- 88% describe a favored family.
- 70% attribute survival to a boat.
- 95% say the sole cause of the catastrophe is a flood.
- 66% say that the disaster is due to man’s wickedness.
- 67% record that animals are also saved.
- 57% describe that the survivors end up on a mountain.
- Many of the accounts also specifically mention birds being sent out, a rainbow, and eight persons being saved.
The water from the flood is collected in oceans today.
The Bible says that only the animals that had the breath of the spirit of life. The fish did not die in the flood; only animals with the breath of life in them died, the animals on dry land.
- God may have put some or many of these animals into a period of hibernation for this period, meaning that less food, space, and supervision was be needed.
- God provides many animals today with an amazing instinct for hibernation. It would be no difficulty for Him to miraculously impart a unique instinct for these particular animals.
Fun Fact: The flood is given more words in Scripture than Creation or the Fall.
Credit to enduring word for commentary