BIBLE FOR YOU!--No.21! 10/90
--Genesis Chapter 7!--The Flood! DFO 2751
--Bible Classtime with Grandpa!
1. (David: Thank You Jesus for this class time, Lord. We pray, Jesus, that we'll learn some good things. Please bless this time & give us all a good night together, in Jesus' name.) Amen! Thank You Lord! Thank You Lord for how well they've studied & what good grades they've made.
2. Don't you like this way of study, review & taking tests as you go? Oh, I used to hate it when a teacher would wait until the end of the month to give us a test!--Or even worse, till the end of the semester, the end of about four months, & then give us a final exam. Well, I might just give you a final exam at the end of our semester just to see how well you remember these things, but it will be a lot easier because of our frequent tests on material as we cover it. (Techi: Like at the end of this Book?) Yes!
3. But it's so much easier when you have your test immediately after you've studied & reviewed the Chapter, because then it's all fresh in your memory. I think that's much more fair. Nevertheless, it's important to find out how much you've retained & how much you still remember at the end of a longer period of time. If you're not going to remember it past the first or the second day, it's not achieving its purpose, right? We want to help you remember it for the rest of your lives! OK? (Kids: Yes!) Maybe the whole Millennium!
The Command to Fill the Ark!
4. All right, Genesis Chapter 7! Praise the Lord! You can tell I've used this Bible a lot--it's falling apart! That's what happens with every one of my Bibles.
5. (Verse 1:) "And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou & all thy house into the Ark; for thee have I seen righteous before Me in this generation. And of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male & his female." So how many of any species of clean beasts did he actually take into the Ark? (Techi: 14.) Right! 14, 7 male & 7 female. (Techi: I just figured that out today.) Good for you! (Techi: Actually, Auntie Amy helped me.) "And of beasts that are not clean by two, the male & his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male & the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the Earth."
6. Since this Flood was going to last over a year, that would even have drowned the plants, right? So why did the Lord say that the birds were going to help preserve the seeds?--"To keep seed alive upon the face of all the Earth?" (Techi: Because they eat seeds?) Yes, they eat grain, & their droppings contain the seeds that they eat. And eventually those seeds would be able to restore the plants that might have been drowned. (Techi: Oh yes, because all the plants & even trees would have been drowned!)
7. (Verse 4:) "For yet seven days, & I will cause it to rain upon the Earth 40 days and 40 nights." We've never had a rain like that, have we? "And every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the Earth. And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the Earth."
8. How old was Noah when the flood came? (Techi: 600.) Right!--And that's important, you should remember that, because later, when we get that far, we are going to figure out the Age of the Earth! We're going to calculate it from all these places where the years were mentioned. You might want to do this in your spare time some time, because that's going to be the first part of your chronology. You can add up the ages of all these men & figure out how long these years were in the 5th Chapter. At the end of the 5th Chapter Noah was 500 years old, & at the beginning of this Chapter how old is he? (David: 600 years old.)
Noah, His Family & the Creatures Enter the Ark!
9. (Verse 7:) "And Noah went in, & his sons, & his wife, & his sons' wives with him, into the Ark, because of the waters of the Flood." Had the waters of the Flood already started? (Techi: No.) But he was doing it because they were going to start, which showed he had what? (Kids: Faith!)
10. (Verse: 8:) "Of clean beasts, & of beasts that are not clean, & of fowls, & of every thing that creepeth upon the Earth." I always wondered if he took grasshoppers & every kind of insect. Maybe he did! (Techi: It says "every thing that creepeth upon the Earth.") There are certain kinds of cicadas* that it takes years for their larvae to hatch. They bury the larvae & then it's years before they hatch. (David: Amazing!) So there could have been a lot of things he didn't have to take because they were going to hatch later. (*cicada: A large flying insect. The male makes a loud, shrill sound.)
11. (Verse 9:) "There went in two & two unto Noah into the Ark, the male & the female, as God had commanded Noah." Now how do you suppose he persuaded them to get into the Ark? (Techi: They came to him.) They came to him! God caused them to come. He probably commanded them, or they understood Him, that they were to go to Noah & enter his Ark. (Techi: They must have picked the real good animals, the ones that weren't polluted in any way.) Amen!
The Flood!
12. (Verse 10:) "And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the Flood were upon the Earth." After seven days the Flood came. How long was Noah in the Ark before the Flood began? (Techi: Seven days.) Yes, that will be a test question!
13. (Verse 11:) "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life"--this doesn't mean on his six hundredth birthday, but in that year--"in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, & the windows of heaven were opened." From what two sources did the flood waters come? (David: From the great deep & the windows of heaven.)--Right! In other words, from the rain & from the fountains of the Earth. (Techi: Like volcanos spouting up water?) What they call geysers, waters that spring up like a fountain.
14. So the Lord caused all the fountains to open up & spring up, & the rain was upon the Earth 40 days & 40 nights. If you ask most church people, "How long did the Flood last?" or, "How long was Noah in the Ark?", they'll usually say, "40 days & 40 nights." But it was only the rain & the waters that came up & made the Flood that lasted 40 days & 40 nights. Then the Flood was on the face of the Earth much longer than that! The Sunday school teachers don't read this very well sometimes, they don't see it, but I figured it out.
15. And I've only found that one place else, in Halley's Handbook! Dear Halley agreed with my time on Noah & the Ark. (Techi: How did you figure that out? Does it say it?) I'm going to show you! We're going to find out.
16. (Verse 13:) "In the selfsame day entered Noah, & Shem, & Ham, & Japheth, the sons of Noah, & Noah's wife, & the three wives of his sons with them, into the Ark." "In the selfsame day" means "in that day," meaning "at that time."
And God Shut the Door!
17. (Verse 14:) "They, & every beast after his kind, & all the cattle after their kind, & every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth after his kind, & every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort. And they went in unto Noah into the Ark, two & two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male & female of all flesh"--He's repeating some of this to make sure you got it--"as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in." How about that? Since there was only one door & the window was what today would be five stories off the ground, certainly nobody would want to jump out the window!--Also, neither could the wicked get at'm! God locked the door! He shut the door so that nobody could get in. It was kind of like the day when the Angels shut the door to Lot's house so the wicked couldn't get in.--Gen.19:9-11.
How Deep Were the Waters?
18. (Verse 17:) "And the Flood was forty days upon the Earth." Now if that was the only verse you'd read, you'd say, "Well, the Flood only lasted 40 days." "And the waters increased, & bare up the Ark, & it was lift up above the Earth. And the waters prevailed, & were increased greatly upon the Earth; & the Ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the Earth; & all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered." So the waters would have had to have been how deep? How high is Mount Everest, the highest mountain in the World? As I recall, it's about 29,000 feet high.
19. (Techi: And then the water was even 15 cubits above that.) Yes! The Flood would have had to have been even over Mount Everest, because in Verse 20 it says, "Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; & the mountains were covered." 15 cubits is how many feet? 1 times 15 is 22 feet (7 meters). So in round numbers to the nearest 10,000, how deep were the waters of the Flood? (David: 30,000 feet. [EDITED: "10,000 meters"]) Right. It was nearly 30,000 feet deep! Think of that!
20. If you want to know how high that is, that is the height that most of the high-flying passenger airplanes fly, between 30 & 35,000 feet. So when you're going up in the next airplane some time & they tell you you're at 30,000 feet, that's how deep the Flood was! (David: Amazing!--30,000 feet deep!) (Techi: That takes faith.) Yes, it takes faith to believe it, but you've got to believe it because God's Word says so!
21. (Verse 21:) "And all flesh died that moved upon the Earth, both of fowl, & of cattle, & of beast, & of every creeping thing"--creepy crawlers--"that creepeth upon the Earth, & every man." And of course all the women, too. "Man" is used here in a general way, including both men & women. "All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground..." "Living substance" must have meant a lot of the vegetation as well.--Like if you soak your potted plants too much in water they'll drown. "Both man, & cattle, & the creeping things, & the fowl of the heaven; & they were destroyed from the Earth: & Noah only remained alive, & they that were with him in the Ark. And the waters prevailed upon the Earth an hundred & fifty days."
Length of Time in the Ark!
22. Now, it doesn't give us the rest of our arithmetic until the next Chapter. But by this time, at the end of the 150 days, how long had they been in the Ark? The waters continued to flood & continued to rise. (David: 197 days, wasn't it?) Yes! It says 150 days in the 24th verse, then in verse 12 we have 40 days. And how long were they in the Ark before the Flood? (David: Seven days.) So that's 197 days total so far. (David: But that's not the whole time, right?) We haven't finished yet. (David: Oh, I see!) We don't get to that until the next Chapter.
23. But just as a gentle hint, go to the 14th verse of Chapter 8 & see what you get. (Genesis 8, verse 14:) "And on the second month, on the seven & twentieth day of the month, was the Earth dried." Now when did Noah enter the Ark? It tells you back in Genesis 7 somewhere. (Techi: "In the second month, the 17th day of the month.") Yes, where was that? (Techi: Verse 11.) Oh, yes! "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month."
24. So in this 14th verse, it was again the second month, right? (Techi: Yes, but in the 13th verse it says, "In the six hundredth and first year.") Right! There you are! It was a year later, in the second month on the 27th day when the Earth dried. So they were in the Ark from the second month, the 17th day to the second month, 27th day. What's the difference between 17 & 27? (David: Ten days, wow!) Plus the seven days they were in the Ark before it began to rain makes a total of one year & 17 days! Now that's until the Earth was dry enough that God told them to go forth from the Ark. So there it is in exact figures, mathematically! (Techi: So there were probably puddles all over the place!) Yes, but they landed on top of a mountain so the drainage was pretty good there! Right? (Kids: Yes!)
The Window of the Ark!
25. All right, this 7th Chapter will be on your test tomorrow & that is all. Have you any questions about it? (Techi: I had a question about one thing from the last Chapter about the window.) Yes. (Techi: How do we know that it goes all the way around? It only says in Chapter 6, verse 16, "In a cubit shalt thou finish it above.") The word "above" is the key. Because there would not have been enough air in the Ark for all those people & all those animals unless it meant that.
26. The word "above" has something to do with it. If you look in the original Hebrew*, it meant that the window went all the way around. (Techi: Oh, I see. Because that was their only source of air.) Yes! Otherwise there wouldn't have been enough air in there, it would have been one helluva stinkin' barn! (*"Above" in Hebrew is "Mah'al," meaning: The upper part, above, overhead, from the top etc.)
Oral Review!
27. Do you want a little review?--Some possible test questions? I remember the time an old unbeliever, the town drunk, got me on a question about Noah when I was a little boy! First of all he said, "So you're a Christian."--Because he knew I was the evangelist's son. He said, "You read the Bible, tell me where Cain got his wife." Well, at that time I really didn't know, so I just said, "I don't know!" Then he asked me about Noah & the animals, & if you'd ask the average person how many of each kind, or species, of creatures did Noah take into the Ark, what would they tell you? (Kids: Two.) Two, that's the common misunderstanding.
28. So the old drunk asked me, "When Noah came out of the Ark, it says he sacrificed one of each kind of creature." (Gen.8:20) (David: Of everything?) (Techi: Of the clean animals.) Yes, one of each of the clean kind. He said, "So if Noah sacrificed the male or the female of each, then how did they ever propagate or reproduce again?" Well, I didn't know the answer to that either! So then I went back to my Bible & found out that Noah took seven pairs of the clean kind, so he had plenty of pairs to select from for his sacrifice after the Flood! But we'll study that later. OK?
29. So one test question will be, "How many pairs of each kind of clean beasts did Noah take into the Ark?" (Kids: Seven.) Or I might even ask you how many of each kind. (Techi: 14.) How many pairs of each unclean creature? (Techi: Two.) (David: One.) One pair, two creatures. So watch out! You can stumble on the way I ask the question like you did before.
30. How long was Noah in the Ark before the Flood began? (Kids: Seven days!) Right! How long did the rains last? (Kids: Forty days & 40 nights!) Right! How deep were the waters to the nearest 10,000 feet? (Kids: 30,000 feet.) How many feet did the water come up above the highest mountain? (Techi: Fifteen cubits.) (David: 22 feet.) 22 feet or 15 cubits, either one. I'll take cubits because it might be easier for you to remember. And everything outside the Ark & under the water did what? (David: Perished, or died.) Yes. And only Noah & his family & the creatures that they saved survived. OK? That was a quick review!
The Garbagemen of the Sea!
31. (Techi: So when Noah & all of the people came out of the Ark, were there a whole bunch of dead things lying around?) Well, Honey, after being a year under water with all those sharks & piranhas & other kinds of garbage-eating creatures, they were probably pretty well eaten up by that time. (Techi: Oh, that's right.) You take all those crabs that people eat...(Techi: And lobsters.) Yes, crabs & lobsters, & all those kind of sea creatures, they all eat garbage! So over a year later, all the people & all the other animals were garbage, & probably had been pretty well devoured & gotten rid of by the garbagemen of the sea!
32. (Techi: Do you think there were a bunch of skeletons lying around though?) Oh, I'm sure there were a lot of skeletons, goodness yes! No doubt about it. (Techi: Oooh, poor Noah & his family! They probably had to clean it all up!) Why should they have to clean it all up? They only lived in one place on Earth, just one family. (Techi: But what about all the skeletons lying around where they were?) Oh, Honey, couldn't you hop over a few skeletons on your way to Babel?--Ha! Plus, many bones were covered by the sediment & dirt from the Flood.
Closing Prayer
33. Are you ready to pray? (Kids: Yes!) (Techi: Thank You Lord for that Bible class, Jesus, & for how inspiring it was. We pray, Jesus, that You'll please bless Grandpa, Lord, for teaching us. Please give him wisdom, Jesus, & us too, to study & to be able to pass the test tomorrow, in Jesus' name. Amen!) Amen, PTL!
34. You guys don't mind if I make our Bible studies a little humourous, do you? (David: No!) You don't mind if I crack jokes & point out some funny things? (Techi: Oh, no, Grandpa! It would be really boring if you didn't.) OK! I love you!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family