Genesis 7:1-24 - Sermon Bible Commentary

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Gen. 6-7

A long period elapsed between the commencement of the building of the ark and the actual flood. During that period we notice: (1) the strength of Noah's faith. God has told him of a deluge of which there is no appearance; he has commanded him to build a strange vessel for no apparent purpose; he has told him that one hundred and twenty years of toil must elapse before the vessel can be of any use to him. And yet, in the face of all these difficulties, Noah forms and keeps his resolution to obey God. (2) Notice the reception which Noah's work and message probably met with. The first feeling excited would be one of derision and mirth, then would come wonder, then pity, then disappointment and disgust, and lastly, perhaps, a silent contempt.

I. The flood shows us: (1) how absolute is God's control over the natural world; (2) it illustrates the evils of sin and the light in which it appears to the eye of God; (3) it reminds us of another deluge, of which all unreconciled sinners stand in jeopardy. No dove wings its way across that deluge; no mountains lift their tops through its departing billows. From this deluge let us all flee. Christ's ark still waits for us; His door stands open, and His voice says, "Turn ye to your strongholds, ye prisoners of hope."

II. Consider the various purposes that were served by the deluge: (1) it swept away an effete and evil generation, which had become of no use, except to commit sin and thus deprave and weaken the general stock of humanity; (2) the flood was calculated to overawe mankind, and to suggest the idea that other such interpositions might be expected when they were required; (3) the flood furnished an opportunity to God of coming more nearly and closely to men; (4) the flood brought the human family nearer to the promised land of Canaan.

G. Gilfillan, Alpha and Omega,vol. i., p. 241.

References: Genesis 6. Expositor,2nd series, vol. i., p. 223.Genesis 6 and Genesis 7. S. Leathes, Studies in Genesis,p. 65.

Related Commentaries of Genesis 7:1

Genesis 7:1-24

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.

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

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

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 destroyc from off the face of the earth.

5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

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.

8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,

9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

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 windowsd of heaven were opened.

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

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;

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.e

15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

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.

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.

18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

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:

22 All in whose nostrils was the breathf of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

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.

24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.