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Studies in Genesis, The New Earth, Lesson XVIII, Genesis 7 and 8
We ended our lesson last week from our Genesis six and seven passages learning that our God does nothing in vain.
He is a Creator for a purpose and He will not have that purpose thwarted by any part of His Creation, for there are no other Creators and everything created was by His hand, created to serve Him.
And even if it takes the destruction of the earth as it was known during Noah’s time our God will do so in order for His purposes to be accomplished.
God placed a garden in Eden that He intended to have forever and that action will indeed be realized even if it takes thousands of years to accomplish.
And to aid in this accomplishment God had a man, a singular man He called just and perfect in his generation, a man who desired to walk with Him.
So he told that man his purposes.
He told that man that enough was enough, violence filled the earth, the rottenness of corruption filled His nostrils, and the stink was past correction and therefore in:
Genesis 6:13, God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
But all flesh did not include Noah for God had promised a deliverer and that deliverer was to be a man from the line of Eve and that line ran through this man Noah whom God chose to preserve for that purpose.
So Noah was given an enormous building assignment by God, an assignment never equaled or surpassed.
He was commanded to build an Ark measuring 450 feet in length, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, a vessel foretelling a savior to come.
The Ark declared to all that it alone was the savior from the flood, again foretelling the message of the savior to come, that no man cometh unto the father but by me.
So the Ark, ordered by God and provided for by Him was built to save both man and animals.
We are told in chapter 7 verse 6 that Noah was six hundred years old when God let the flood waters loose.
Noah had been faithful in fulfilling God’s direction for the Ark.
There were no change orders needed, no increases or decreases in the dimensions of the Ark, no floor plan changes required.
Noah’s wife was content to let Noah build the Ark according to God’ direction, a miracle in itself I must say.
So the time of judgment had come.
God had been longsuffering for a century as the corrupt people of the earth had seen this great Ark in building and had been given a hundred years to repent but none were found but Noah, his wife and their three sons and their wives, eight souls in all.
And it was God who shut the door.
God decides when the last one is saved.
God decides the hour of judgment and there is nothing man can do to change God’s timing for no man knoweth the day nor the hour.
And His judgment began with simple raindrops, raindrops never seen before for in that time the earth was watered with a mist.
Simple raindrops but drops which would progress into torrents of rain, driving rain, the earth’s mist canopy falling to the earth as a driving blanket.
But not only rain, the fountains of the deep were opened as we read from:
Genesis 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. 12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Water from above and water from below for God had degreed that all life upon the earth would be destroyed.
So the number forty enters scripture here and that number will appear many times for it is the number of testing.
From the children of Israel in the Wilderness to Jesus fasting for forty days and forty nights the number forty shows that testing and trials and probation are associated with this number.
We continue reading in Genesis 7:17-24, 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 breath 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.
The judgment of God was complete.
A new beginning of the earth with only 8 souls was degreed by God to fulfill His promise in preserving the righteous line.
The earth was washed and cleansed, violence had ceased, the stink of corruption had ended.
Five months after the flood began the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Read of this in Genesis 8:4, And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
The flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month and the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month, five months to the day.
The number five is the number symbolizing grace in the Bible.
God could have completely destroyed the world but at the end of five months His grace provided Noah a new beginning, a new direction toward fulfilling the purpose of God.
Noah and his family were now in the waiting mode for after finding a resting place in the mountains of Ararat the receding of the waters took more months until we find that this small body of pioneers were on the Ark a little more than a year.
And upon leaving the Ark we read in:
Genesis 8:20-22, And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord; and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And the Lord smelled a sweet savour; and the Lord said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done. 22 While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
So Noah’s first act upon setting foot upon the new earth was to take of his precious cargo, now very, very rare animals and fowl and to offer sacrifices to God.
This was indeed the act of a man of faith for God had provided and if needed Noah knew God would provide again.
We cannot imagine Noah’s heart as he contemplated what had just happened for he and his small band were now the only people and animals left upon the earth.
God had indeed extended great grace to this man of faith a faith that pleased God.
The stink of the fouled earth was gone and in its place a sweet savor from the sacrifices of Noah rose up to the nostrils of God and God said in his heart He would not again smite the earth in such fashion as this for in:
Genesis 8:22 God declares, While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
Now in this promise is an interesting aside for God said: I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;
So here in this conclusion of God we see that the flood is not going to solve the problem of man’s heart.
God states clearly that the flood does not change the heart and what took place before the flood will again take place after the flood.
Jesus spoke to this in Matthew 24:37-39, But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. 38 For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, 39 And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
The flood was only a temporary solution for if not executed by God, man would have self-destructed and Satan’s purpose to cut off the righteous line would succeed.
God knows that what is needed is a new man not a continual destruction of man so he makes this promise.
The flood has done its duty.
A flood judgment will be used no more for God’s plan is to change the heart of man that sin will no longer abound.
God’s spirit will indwell the heart and sin will be banished to be under the blood of God’s sent one, the promised deliverer, the Messiah, the Son of God.
God’s plan is for men to become new creatures to dwell in a new heaven and a new earth.
And that is stated by the Apostle Paul in II Corinthians 5:17, Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
The flood was used by God to accomplish a purpose and that purpose was to bring forth sons of God, sinless sons conformed to his Son, sons to enjoy His presence for all eternity.
And God marks that promise with every rainbow given to man for every rainbow comforts us that the earth will never again be flooded.
So the purpose of the flood was twofold as the purpose of the Gospel is twofold.
One of salvation, one of condemnation.
One of judgment, one of grace.
In many ways the people if Noah’s day experienced on a daily basis the grace of God for it was not until 120 years after the revelation of a coming judgment that that judgment actually came upon men.
God is indeed long suffering.
We ask, How long oh Lord, How long!
And God says, be patient for I am patient and not willing that any should perish.
But God’s patience does have a season for all of Noah’s day save eight souls were indifferent to God’s grace and therefore they chose judgment.
Did they even consider that God cared?
Noah knew that God cared, for he believed God and it was counted unto him as righteousness as later Abraham would also follow.
Noah recognized the grace of God for he walked with God.
Noah had an intimate relationship with God and therefore obeyed God for he knew God’s love and that all things God commanded only brought good.
The scriptures give nothing negative about Noah’s response to God’s command to build an Ark.
For one who walks with God the command to build an immense water craft must be for good for Noah knew that all things work together for good to those who love God.
When God commands, we simply obey!
So God, who gave the people of Noah’s day 120 years before judgment, now promises this
Genesis 8:22, While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.
So those to come thousands of years after Noah are given to contemplate the grace of God and in that contemplation to know that all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
But without that new heart, without that new man, sin remains and the question asked by those who perished in the flood is still being asked as we read in II Peter 3:3-7
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, 4 And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. 5 For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6 Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.
How easy does the natural heart fall into apathy for seedtime and harvest, and cold and summer and winter and day and night repeat itself again and again.
And because of this it is easy to lull one into sleep thinking that all things remain and will always remain.
But God thinks differently and says these things repeat and repeat not to lull one into apathy but to know that what God declares in His word about His love brings great long suffering toward the sinner on His part.
II Peter 3:8,9, But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9 The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.
The difference between the new heart, the heart implanted at the new birth and that of the heart that came with the first birth is this that the continuation of all things as they have been, seedtime, harvest, cold, heat, summer, winter, day, and night brings the believer to humble himself before God knowing so well His care and love and direction.
The old heart, that heart that came with Adam and Eve as they were expelled from the garden only twists the message to one where God cares not what the sinner does and thinks that all things will continue as they are.
This question, Where is the promise of his coming? is voiced by the mockers following after their own lusts saying for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
But a resounding NO to this is voiced for Noah says, Remember, remember the flood for all things did not continue as they were from the beginning of the creation for there came a day of judgment.
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