OVERVIEW:
Noah, his family, seven pairs of every clean living creature and one pair of every unclean living creature enter the ark as God had commanded; the great flood; the Rainbow Covenant; the new beginning; the curse upon the descendants of Ham (the Canaanites).
HIGHLIGHTS & INSIGHTS:
“The Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark…”(Genesis 7:1) It is the first invitation extended by God in the Bible. Hallelujah, it certainly won’t be His last! In Matthew 11:28, Jesus said, “Come unto me…and I will give you rest.” In Acts 16:31, Paul said, “…Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house.”The Bible ends in Revelation 22 with God extending a similar invitation: “…Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”(Revelation 22:17)
Notice here in Genesis 7, that the ark was God’s secure refuge from the judgment that was to come. Just as Noah was saved from the wrath to come and found rest within the ark, Colossians 3:3 says to those of us who have called upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, “…your life is hid with Christ in God.”
People constantly want to call Noah’s world-wide flood into question. The fact of the flood is proven by God’s record of it here in Genesis through MOSES (Genesis 7:1–8:22), as well as by the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 24:37-39; Luke 17:36), the prophets (Isaiah 54:9), the apostles, (1st Peter 3:20), along with the ancient historical records of virtually every civilization on the earth!
The flood teaches us at least two key practical principles that we will see repeated throughout the entire Bible:
1) God will punish sin!
2) There must be death to the old before He will establish the new.
Notice that after the death of all mankind, God begins again with eight souls (Noah, his three sons, and each of their wives). From this point in the Bible, we will discover that eight is the number of “new beginnings”.
In 8:15, after 370 days, God speaks to Noah and tells him to take his family out of the ark along with all of the animals. Recognize, God is starting over. Just as He had given King Adam the 1st dominion over the earth and had given him the commission to “…be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth…” (Genesis 1:28), God starts over with King Noah 1st, likewise giving him dominion over the earth, and commissioning him to “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” (Genesis 9:1–2) One of the principles we need to learn early on in our journey through the Bible, is that anytime we find God moving in a significant way, we need to train our brains to be looking for Satan to counter, especially when man’s commission is involved! Noah is no sooner off of the ark before Genesis 9:20–21 says, “And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard: And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.” This is usually what happens when people get drunk! They usually end up taking their clothes off which usually leads to some kind of sexual sin. Which, in this case, it did! Though God thankfully spares us the gory details, Ham, Noah’s son commits an act of sexual perversion with his father and perhaps also with his father’s wife (Leviticus 18:8; 20:11). We discern that from the fact that in Genesis 10:19, Ham’s children settle in a place that becomes known for homosexual activity, a place called Sodom and Gomorrah!
But recognize, here is the man to whom God had extended grace, and had chosen to give the earth a new beginning, and he’s lying drunk, naked on his bed, in a perverted, sinful, and unnatural sexual relationship! From here, the whole earth begins to be filled with corruption once again, as we will see demonstrated as we move into chapter 11 of Genesis.
From an extremely practical standpoint, may we all learn that just as Satan sought to come against Adam because of his commission, and just as that slithering serpent came against Noah because of his commission, Satan will likewise come against us because of our commission! (Matthew 28:19–20; 2nd Timothy 2:2) May God help us! Be aware in 9:8-17, that God enters with Noah what verse 16 describes as an “everlasting covenant.” This is the first of five covenants in the Bible that God refers to as “everlasting”:
• The NOAHIC Covenant. (Genesis 9:16)
• The ABRAHAMIC Covenant. (Genesis 17:7)
• The PRIESTLY Covenant. (Numbers 25:10-13)
• The DAVIDIC Covenant. (2nd Samuel 23:5)
• The NEW Covenant. (Jeremiah 32:40)
As God replenishes the earth through Noah’s three sons (9:18-19), note that through Shem come the Asians, through Ham come the Africans, and through Japheth come the Europeans.
CHRIST IS REVEALED:
Through the ARK – Genesis 7:1,7 (Acts 4:12; 2nd Corinthians 5:17; Colossians 3:3; 1st Thessalonians 1:10)
Note: To be delivered from the wrath of God to come, you must be “in Christ,” the only “Ark” of safety.