Joe Dude's Bible Thoughts: Genesis 7

I find it interesting to see a distinction between clean and unclean animals already. I wonder if God had already made that distinction to Noah, or if he listed them off by name -- and then when Moses penned Genesis, he substituted "clean and unclean" because he knew what groups they were in. The answer doesn't really matter, but I thought it was curious.

Seven pairs of clean animals is interesting, as seven typically stands for perfection or completeness.

And speaking of numbers, now we have seven days until 40 days/nights of rain, where 40 typically stands for judgment. So, God's perfect judgment?

You know how a lot of people in ancient times (and some today, less legally) had multiple wives? Got sure permits a lot, even though Jesus seemed to make it clear from the beginning the design was one man, one wife (see Genesis 2:24 and Matthew 19:5). Look at Noah's family -- Noah and his wife, 3 sons, and 3 wives. Righteous Noah's family was following the design. In fact, now that I think about it more, those multiple wife situation I read about just seem to cause trouble. Perhaps God's design is better, and in more areas than this one?

Related to the last comment, even the animals were paired up evenly, one male, and one female. :-)

Hey, wait a minute! What about the fish? My kids gave me the "duh" look -- in the water. But then you get people moaning that the salt water fish can't survive in the fresh water and vice versa. Okay, but we're really supposed to know what the world looked like back then in the first place? And if we did, wouldn't there be less salt in the ocean water anyway? And even if they got mixed up, would all the fish die? No. I put salty water in my fresh water fish tank on accident, and I've still got fish in it. Not as many as before I did that, but there were survivors and they were fine!

Think the flood was local? "...all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered." That sounds world wide to me. The "Answers in Genesis" folks wrote about more evidence than I care to read about. The main point -- just read what God's Word says and don't try to get too clever with your own twists. Being born again of the Spirit of God first help with that whole illumination thing.

And, the most important thing I think there is to take out of the chapter -- God provides a way for his people to be saved from judgment. Remember in chapter 6 that "Noah walked with God". Noah's family wasn't "good people". Rather, they were "God people".

Now, did Noah get saved because of his own efforts? No, God provided the means. Does that mean Noah could sit on his butt and be lazy? No! He still had to do what God said, or perish. That's not salvation by works, that's evidence of faith. Well then, could Noah boast about the ark project later? No! Who do you think was in his heart and mind, keeping him on task for all those years? Tinkerbell? Or should we look ahead to Philippians 2:13, which says "for it is God who works in you to will and act according to his good purpose." All credit and glory to God!

Think about the alternative here, if Noah was one of those Sunday-only walk-with-Godders. A century passes. "Noah, where's the ark?" "Uh, I don't have one. But I memorized what you told me to do. And then my family did a 5 week study with the neighbors about what it would look like to build the ark. And then I learned how to repeat your instructions in Greek." "Okay Noah, but you, your family, and all those animals aren't going to fit into that big head of yours..."