Genesis 7 – Study

For those who may wish to ‘study’ this chapter, the following simple resources are provided for you. Each passage has a four-Part approach to help you take in and think further about what you have read.

Passage: Genesis 7:1-10

1 The Lord then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.’

5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

A. Find Out:

1. Why did the Lord want Noah saved? v.1
2. What was the purpose of taking the animals? v.3
3. How many days had Noah left? v.4
4. How extensive was the destruction to be? v.4b
5. How many people entered the ark? v.7
6. How did they get the animals to come? v.9

B. Think:

1. What do you think Noah must have felt about what happened?
2. How would Noah have been reassured in the last days that he was doing the right thing?
3. Why do you think most animals had to die in the flood?

C. Comment:

This passage repeats what was said in chapter 6, and repetition in scripture indicates seriousness. Noah alone has been found righteous and his righteous stand in the midst of an ungodly generation will bring the reward of salvation (v.1). The amazing thing is not that destruction is to come but that ANYONE is saved!

 The animals to be saved are classified as clean and unclean (v.2). Such a classification would not be fully utilized until the sacrificial system came in many hundreds of years later in the life of Israel. For now it indicates that salvation is dependent upon God’s choosing, not upon how “clean” a person is. Miraculously, when Noah and his family entered the ark, God brought the animals to him (v.8,9). In the last week before the flood the ark fills up with all those God has called. The rest of the world will cease to be, and because it is impossible to separate men from beasts, both will die. God IS a God of love, but even love sees that sometimes there is no hope in a situation and therefore ends it that something else may be brought into being. This is a devastating passage of Scripture but we must not avoid because it is so.

D. Application?

Recognize that the Lord is God of peace AND God of Judgement and His ways are perfect and just. Bow before Him and acknowledge that He is Lord.

Passage: Genesis 7:11-24

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month – on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights.

13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits. 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished – birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

A. Find Out:

1. Where did the water come from? v.11
2. How long did it rain? v.12
3. How was the Lord’s presence felt? v.16
4. How great was the flood? v.20
5. With what result? v.21
6. How long did the flood remain? v.24

B. Think:

1. What disasters do you know of that compare with this one?
2. Read 2 Peter 2:5,9 How does the New Testament use the picture of Noah and the flood?
3. Read Matthew 24:37-39 How does Jesus say the people of Noah’s day were acting up to the flood?

C. Comment:

The ground and the skies open up (v.11,120 and water pours forth in the greatest calamity that the world has ever known. We should observe several things: First here is a picture that says that even when disasters come, God is there to save the righteous. The Scriptures testify to this again and again.

Second, the unrighteous have no excuse. They ignored God and were “doing their own thing” completely oblivious to what was coming. Perhaps if others had been righteous, had a relationship with God and listened to God, they too would have been saved. See 2 Peter 3:9b.

Third we should, in the face of such disasters, remember that all men have to die sometime and go on into eternity. The truth is that many people die earlier in life. What shocks us with a disaster is that so many go at once. Perhaps we need to get a clearer eternal perspective in line with the Scripture. We should also remember what we said yesterday: the amazing thing is NOT that total destruction came, but that ANYONE was saved. This was an act of mercy!

D. Application?

1. Thank the Lord that He DOES look after and protect the righteous, those who love and follow Him.
2. Thank Him that ALL have the opportunity to turn and be saved.