Lesson 10 – Deluge
Genesis 6:9 – 7:24
Preparing for Lesson 10
The Bible leaves little doubt that the human race went into a moral free fall that continued even after the godly line of Seth was established. We don’t really know how or what to think about demon activity, but as we learned in our previous lesson, demons did frequent the earth and apparently had their way with the people who lived there. We also don’t know how much of the moral decline was due to demon activity and how much was the natural progression of the sinful human nature itself.
In any case, by the time the days of Noah came around, the earth had lost all signs of the beautiful, peaceful and orderly paradise it was originally created to be. Those were replaced by wicked, violent chaos so inevitably present in a society living without God.
When I was a little girl, I remember my grandmother telling me that we were then living in the most wicked generation she had ever seen in her lifetime. That was in the early 1960’s. That conversation with her comes to my mind whenever I think about the state of the world we live in today. I don’t believe the world is even close to being as wicked as it was in the days of Noah, but I do think things will go from bad to unspeakably horrendous when the restraining ministry of the Holy Spirit is removed prior to the Tribulation. But thanks to God that He is coming to rescue us from the Tribulation. That’s one party I don’t want to attend.
One final note before we begin Lesson 10. Have you ever wondered how many people lived on earth at the time of the Flood? According to an article published by Answers in Genesis, the pre-flood world population could have been around 750 million (assuming a growth rate equivalent to that in the year 2000, which was 0.012). However, considering the extremely long lifespans at that time, the population could have been as much as 4 billion people, all of whom perished in the flood except for the 8 godly people aboard the Ark.
Lesson 10 – Deluge
Noah, the Man
Only 69 years and 3 generations after Enoch was raptured, his descendant Noah was born. Like Enoch, Noah walked with God and found favor with the Lord. Why? Perhaps Noah had been told from an early age about his ancestor, Enoch, and how he had found an intimate relationship with God not unlike the relationship Adam and Eve had had with Him before the Fall. In the wicked and demonized world in which he lived, Noah had surely witnessed firsthand what a life without God looked like and he wanted no part of it. But most importantly, Noah believed and had faith in God, and it was counted to him as righteousness.
Think About This: Genesis 6:9 is the first mention of righteousness in the Bible and sets the standard that righteousness comes by faith. (R. Kent Hughes).
Was Noah sinless? No, Noah was a helpless sinner just like the rest of us. And like us, he was saved by grace.
Not only was Noah a righteous man, blameless in his time, but he had to have been a courageous man as well. Preaching righteousness to a depraved, demonized, corrupt and violent mob would shake the confidence of any man, but Noah stood fast and remained obedient to God.
Think About This: We all have visions of Noah and his three sons laboring for 120 years building the Ark all by themselves. However, it was entirely possible that others assisted in the building project. Scripture does not say that God forbade Noah from hiring qualified craftsmen to help with the building. Ungodly people have always been willing to work for godly men as long as the pay is good. Even in those days, men had to earn a living.
God gave Noah very specific instructions for building the Ark, including the type of wood he was to use, the dimensions, the interior structure and what kind of door to design. Noah carried out those instructions perfectly, and within the span of 120 years, he had built a very unique ship. It was unlike any that had come before, miles away from any body of water large enough to allow it to float, and at a time when no rain had ever fallen on the earth. God sent all of the animals and birds to him (Genesis 6:20) to be safely stowed away in the Ark, told Noah and his family to go aboard, and then He closed and sealed the door.
“Hello, God. Are You There?”
Noah and his family entered the Ark seven days before any rain fell, and were sealed inside when God closed the door. And then…nothing happened.
Was Noah filled with doubt? Did his sons complain and say, “Well, Dad, this is another fine mess you’ve gotten us in to!” After all, God had given Noah virtually no specifics about the covenant He would make with him, and the weather might have been sunny and mild with no chance of rain. But Noah was comfortable with his choice and although he might not have known everything God had in mind, he knew he had done everything God had required of him.
The following paragraph by R. Kent Hughes describes Noah’s dilemma: “So now we begin to see what it means to be righteous. The righteous person rests everything on the bare word of God and obeys it. We also glimpse what it means to walk with God, because to walk with Him is not a stroll. It means to go the same way in obedience…even as the culture marches the other way. What is the person God saves like? He believes in God’s promise to him, and it is counted as righteousness. As a righteous man, he lives not a perfect but a blameless life. He walks with God. And everything about him is covered by obedience to God’s perfect word.”
Let There Be Rain
So there was Noah and his family, sitting in the darkness inside the Ark waiting for something to happen; waiting for God to show up.
And show up He did. We don’t know if the event began with scattered showers, or whether it began with gut-wrenching sounds coming from deep within the earth as though the planet itself was being turned inside out. The language used in the Bible to describe the event tells of a violent, churning, whirling maelstrom.
Think About This: When God created the earth, He separated the waters above from the waters below (Genesis 1:7-8). We do not know what form the waters above the expanse took. Some have suggested the water was held in clouds, others that there was a water vapor canopy above the earth. But the point is that God had already built-in the means by which He would destroy the earth.
Some people question whether this was a universal flood. Scripture answers this question by stating that “all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered.”
“On the six hundredth year of Noah’s life…all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the floodgates of the sky were opened.” (Genesis 7:11). So not only did it rain for 40 days and 40 nights, but the ‘fountains of the great deep’ burst open. What were these fountains?
The Hebrew word for deep refers to the “world-ocean, an undifferentiated, unorganized and passive state of the watery mass.” (Gerhard F. Hasel).
“As the deep in Scripture usually refers to the ocean, so the great deep which was broken up evidently speaks of the great subterranean reservoirs or chambers deep inside the earth, all of which spewed forth their contents at the same time. This breakup continued all over the earth for 150 days. The reference to broken up merits attention, for it implies a wrenching of the earth’s crust, a great tectonic event. Any such breaching of the earth’s crust results in earthquakes and if occurring under water, results in devastating tsunamis. Continued pulsation of these fountains all over the earth for 150 days would totally restructure the surface of the earth.” (John D. Morris)
Think About This: The same word translated ‘burst open’ in Genesis 7:11 is also used in Numbers 16:30-33 (‘split open’) to describe the supernatural opening up of a great pit into which the rebellious Korah and his followers and their families fell.
Riding Out The Storm
“Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days; and the water increased and lifted up the Ark, so that it rose above the earth.” (Genesis 7:17)
The Bible tells us that “…all the high mountains everywhere were covered. The water prevailed fifteen cubits (about 22 feet) higher and the mountains were covered.” (Genesis 7:19-20). Earlier in Genesis we are told that the height of the Ark was thirty cubits (about 45 feet). Commentators agree that “fifteen cubits” refers to the draft of the Ark. “Draft determines the minimum depth of water a ship or boat can safely navigate.” (Draft (Hull) – Wikipedia). This means therefore that the water had to have covered the tops of the highest mountains by at least fifteen cubits in order for the Ark to have floated over them.
In their book “The Genesis Flood – The Biblical Record and Its Scientific Implications”, authors John C. Whitcomb and Henry M. Morris provide a chronology of the flood and determine that from the time the rain began to the time when the covering was removed from the Ark, the total duration of the flood event was 371 days.
Think About This: How did vegetation return to the earth after the Flood? We know it did return because one of the doves Noah sent out returned with the leaf from an olive tree. In researching this question, I found a paper written by Ginger Allen who describes just how totally remarkable plant seeds actually are. Check it out at www.answersingenesis.org, and look for How did Plants Survive and Disperse After the Flood by Ginger Allen.
For more than a year, Noah and his family cared for thousands of animals by feeding and watering them, and cleaning up after them. This is hard to imagine and fortunately, we don’t have to. An actual Ark built according to biblical specifications has been constructed by Answers in Genesis, Inc. in Florence, Kentucky. In my opinion, this is something that every Christian should see, and for those who think the biblical account is simply too incredulous to believe, their questions can be answered there as well. For more information, just Google: Ark Encounter.
Think About It, Talk About It
How did Noah find favor with God? Was he sinless? What were some of Noah’s good qualities?
By what means did God cause the earth to flood?
What are some arguments to support a universal flood?
Sources
Allen, Ginger: How did Plants Survive and Disperse After the Flood,
Hasel, Gerhard F.: The Fountains of the Great Deep, Geoscience Research Institute (www.grisda.org)
Hebrew-Greek Key Word Study Bible-NASB, AMG Publishers, Inc.
Hughes, R. Kent: Preaching the Word-Genesis, Crossway Books
Morris, Henry M.: The Genesis Flood – The Biblical Record and its Scientific Implications, (Baker Book House, Grand Rapids, MI)
Morris, John D.: All the Fountains of the Deep, The Institute for Creation Research (www.icr.org)
What was the Pre-Flood Population Like? Answers in Genesis, Thinking Outside the Box, January 2016 (www.answersingenesis.org)
Whitcomb, John C.: The Fountains of the Great Deep, Geoscience Research Institute (www.grisda.org)