7:5
¶ 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.
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.
The
earth was covered with the water from both rain and from the eruption of great
fountains of water under the earth’s crust. Skeptics used to ask where did this
water from underneath come from and where did it go after the Flood. Those
whose faith was solid did not worry about this question as they should not
worry so much about any question regarding the Bible’s accuracy. If science is
diligent it may catch up to the Bible in each point of question. This cataclysm
also included volcanic activity of immense proportions.
Scientists
now believe that there is enough water under the ground to cover the continents
in 600 feet of water if it were above the ground, according to a November 17,
2015 news article on The Christian Science Monitor website.[1] A March 12, 2014 article
on the Scientific American website also confirmed that scientists believe there
is as much water in the earth’s mantle in a particular zone as there is in the
earth’s oceans.[2]
(26)
God
brought to the ark the creatures that He wanted preserved and in the six
hundredth year of Noah’s life the deluge began.
7:13
¶ 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. 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.
It
is important to read this passage in light of the context it is in so that we
can see that by saying this the sevens mentioned earlier are not excluded, just
not a detail that is repeated. Representatives of all major groupings of
living, land creatures that breathed air, even though that breathing is done
somewhat differently in land animals, fowls, and, say, a grasshopper, breathing
is done nonetheless, are preserved. This implies that the genetic variation
within a family like the dog or wolf can eventually lead from a small
population to a great variety of canines. Even evolutionists assume a wolf-like
ancestor of both dogs and wolves so it is more likely, if such a beast existed,
he would have been on the Ark.[3] If you consider the number
of breeds of dogs that man has created by manipulation in the last two hundred
years alone it is no stretch of the imagination to consider how rapid
speciation can occur under God’s direction. And yet, as all creatures have
boundaries set by the genetic code with great diversity within there are
limits, boundaries which cannot be passed, kinds,
so that a fish doesn’t become a lizard any more than a chrysanthemum
becomes a butterfly.
Probably
the most important thing to consider in this passage is that the Lord shut him in. It is God who
saves humankind, not man himself.
John
1:12 But as many as received him, to
them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his
name: 13 Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
God
closes the door on your salvation. You are sealed by the Holy Spirit provided,
the means by which God dwells in everyone who trusts in Him.
2Corinthians
1:22 Who hath also sealed us, and given
the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts.
Ephesians
1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that
ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after
that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise,
Ephesians
4:30 And grieve not the holy Spirit of
God, whereby ye are sealed unto the day of redemption.
You
are not saved by your good works or your kind nature or how much other people
admire and like you. It is God who closes the work of salvation. You are saved
by His mercy and grace.
Peter
used this salvation from the flood as well as baptism as types of our salvation,
the like figure in the passage below.
Notice that as Noah was saved before the Ark was baptized in the Flood by being
shut in we are already saved before we are baptized as it has no saving power
but is a fulfillment and expression of our condition, the answer of a good conscience toward God.
1Peter 3:18 ¶ For Christ
also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring
us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit:19 By which also he went and preached unto the
spirits in prison;20 Which sometime were
disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah,
while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by
water.
21 ¶ The like figure
whereunto even baptism doth
also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the
answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: 22 Who is gone into heaven, and is on the right
hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him.
[1]
Lucy Schouten, “Scientists Tally Earth’s Hidden Mega-stashes of Groundwater,” The Christian Science Monitor, November
17, 2015 (accessed July, 28, 2016).
[2]
Becky Oskin, “Rare Diamond Confirms that Earth’s Mantle Holds an Ocean’s Worth
of Water,” Scientific American, March
12, 2014 (accessed July 28, 2016).
[3]
Raymond & Lorna Coppinger, Dogs: A
New Understanding of Canine Origin, Behavior, and Evolution (Chicago:
University of Chicago Press, 2001), 273.
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