Genesis 7:1 ¶ And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and
all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this
generation. 2 Of every clean beast thou
shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are
not clean by two, the male and his female. 3
Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep
seed alive upon the face of all the earth. 4
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty
days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I
destroy from off the face of the earth.
Here, God gives
Noah more specific instructions. Creatures that were considered clean, which were worthy of sacrifice to
God (see 8:20), were commanded to be permitted in by sevens, rather than the
twos that the common animals came as. Clean
beasts were understood as different from other animals. Perhaps, could the
difference between clean and unclean have to do with a genetic code
that was corrupted by what was happening before the Flood? It is no coincidence
that with Christ’s resurrection all animals were made clean.
Acts
10:9 ¶ On the morrow, as they went on
their journey, and drew nigh unto the city, Peter went up upon the housetop to
pray about the sixth hour: 10 And he
became very hungry, and would have eaten: but while they made ready, he fell
into a trance, 11 And saw heaven opened,
and a certain vessel descending unto him, as it had been a great sheet knit at
the four corners, and let down to the earth: 12
Wherein were all manner of fourfooted beasts of the earth, and wild
beasts, and creeping things, and fowls of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him, Rise, Peter;
kill, and eat. 14 But Peter said, Not
so, Lord; for I have never eaten any thing that is common or unclean. 15 And the voice spake unto him again the second
time, What God hath cleansed, that call
not thou common.
In any case, it is
clear that prior to the Law given to Moses there was an understanding of God’s
standard of clean and unclean animals just as Abram knew to honor God at an
altar and Job understood sacrifices for sin. There was a knowledge of God’s
standards which became corrupted and which understanding He renewed in the Law
given to Moses. Clean animals were brought into the ark by sevens and unclean
by twos. The literal reality is far different than that in the popular
imagination of all creatures being brought in twos. Still, these were probably
not a huge variety of animals, based on the information given later in the Law.
Birds are included in the groups of sevens brought in so what we would today
consider in the taxonomic classification of “family” had its bird
representatives.
Noah has a week
before it starts to rain, something that this world may have not seen previous,
based on the statement of how the earth was set before the Flood.
Genesis
2:6 But there went up a mist from the
earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
Notice that every living substance in verse 4 is
conditioned by what God said previously and the whole context must be taken
into account in order to get at what is really being said. Context and
cross-referencing are essential to interpreting the Bible truthfully and
faithfully if you do not have an agenda other than explaining what has been
left for us, rather than some social or political purpose of manipulation and
control.
We
will soon see that more was involved than just rain.
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