In the Beginning: From Creation to Covenant
Part 4
“The Flood”

Genesis 6:7-9 “And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.” 8 But Noah found favor with the Lord. 9 Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person (of integrity and faith) living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.
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Genesis 6:13-18,22 “So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!
14 “Build an ark from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. 15 Make the ark 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.16 Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper. 17 “Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. 18 But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 22 So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.”
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Heb.11:7 “By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.”
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So from what we’ve read, we know that Noah was a righteous man of integrity and faith, who walked in close fellowship with the Lord, and preached coming judgment to his generation. And there was no other such man in the world at that time!
It says when God commanded him to build the ark, Noah was ‘moved with fear.’ The Greek word is εὐλαβέομαι, which means he was moved by reverence toward God. Another Greek word for fear–phobos–which is fearful terror, is not used. Noah revered God.
His reverence and respect for God moved him to act under the belief that what He had said was true, and that the calamity which He had predicted would certainly come upon the world.
Does that describe you and me? The church world today? Do we reverence God to the place of believing His word is true? And that the things His word predicts regarding a coming judgment upon the entire world will certainly come to pass?
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So Noah began to build. As the construction neared the end, he further obeyed God who had commanded him, “of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.” (Gen 6:19-20)
–Based on initial projections of a group called the Ark Encounter team, there were around 1,400 animal kinds or species on the ark. They further project that there were fewer than 7,000 animals on board the ark.
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And all the while he was building, Noah boldly called his generation to repent and prepare to board the ark once finished. No one believed him. Jesus said of Noah’s time:
Matt 24:37-39 “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 38 In those days before the flood, the people were enjoying banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat.39 People didn’t realize what was going to happen until the flood came and swept them all away. That is the way it will be when the Son of Man comes.”
In other words, Noah’s generation was doing life without God. Their perspective was completely horizontal. There was no fear of God, no thought of Him, no acknowledging Him…nothing.
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Then one day God told Noah, “It’s time. Get you and your family into the ark.”
The Bible says, “On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark…and the Lord shut him in.” (6:13,16)
God closed the hatch and the rain began to fall!
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The Bible says the floodwaters came from both above and below:
Vs. 11-12 “…all the underground waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. 12 The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights.”
The ‘underground waters’ refers to vast bodies of water or subterranean watery chambers, a source of water that surged upward to flood the earth. God caused the Earth’s crust to shift and these waters to burst forth.
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So from below and from above, the entire earth was flooded with water.
Gen 7:12-13 “The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights. That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives.”
Vs. 24 “And the floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days (5 months).”
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Now, there are some that claim that Noah’s flood was only local, that it did not span the entire globe. But that’s not what the Bible says. The Bible says that the waters of Noah’s flood covered all of the Earth, far above the peaks of the tallest mountains:
“As the water rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely upon it; 19 until finally the water covered all the high mountains under the whole heaven, 20 standing twenty-two feet and more above the highest peaks.”–Gen 7:29-20
Gen 7:6,10 “Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. 10 After seven days, the waters of the flood came and covered the earth.”
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EVIDENCES: Today on every continent we find fossils of sea creatures in rock layers which today are high above sea level. For example, most of the rock layers in the walls of the Grand Canyon contain marine fossils. This includes the limestone layers along the top rim of the Canyon, which today is 7,000–8,000 feet above sea level.
Fossil ammonites (coiled marine gastropods) are also found in limestone beds high in the Himalayas, reaching up to 30,000 feet above sea level. All geologists agree that these marine fossils must have been buried in these limestone beds when the latter were deposited by ocean waters.
There is only one possible explanation—the ocean waters at some time in the past flooded over the continents!
Hundreds of thousands of marine creatures were buried along with amphibians, spiders, scorpions, millipedes, insects, and reptiles in a fossil graveyard discovered in France.
In Colorado, a wide variety of insects, freshwater mollusks, fish, birds, and several hundred plant species (including nuts and blossoms) have been found buried together. Wasps and birds have to be buried rapidly in order to be so well preserved.
Alligator, fish (including sunfish, deep sea bass, chubs, pickerel, herring, and gar-pike 3–7 feet [1–2 m] long), birds, turtles, mammals, mollusks, crustaceans, many varieties of insects, and palm leaves (7–9 feet [2–2.5 m] long) were also buried together in the vast Green River Formation of Wyoming.
In these examples marine and land-dwelling creatures are found buried together. How could this have happened unless the ocean waters rose and swept over the continents in a global, catastrophic Flood?
Noah’s flood was world-wide, just as God told him it would be!
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The Apostle Peter attests to this: “They (skeptics and unbelievers) deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood.”
So Peter writes under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that God brought a world-wide flood that destroyed the ancient world. Now listen to the following sobering words from Peter:
7 “And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.”–2 Pet 3:5-7
So the same word of God’s command that unleashed the Great Flood will one day unleash fire to destroy this present world! Peter goes on to say in vs 10:
“But the day of the Lord will come as unexpectedly as a thief. Then the heavens will pass away with a terrible noise, and the very elements themselves will melt with a fervent heat, and the earth and everything on it will be found to deserve judgment.”–vs 10
In light of this, Peter asks a question, “Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness?”–vs.11
Jesus gives us the answer, “Therefore you also be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.”–Matt 24:44
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The historical evidences for the universal flood are many. First, there is:
Evidence of Tradition: The Christian Church and the Jewish population has historically maintained that Genesis describes a universal flood. These scholars could be wrong, but the burden of proof is on whomever is making the claim against tradition.
Cultural evidence: There are literally hundreds of different accounts of a global flood in nearly every culture that we have discovered. These have remarkable parallels to the Genesis account, such as raining for many days, and the hero is saved in a giant boat with all the animals.
Geological evidence: Many of the earth’s mountain ranges give evidence of having once been under the sea.
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TAKEAWAY:
One, a universal flood covered the earth in Noah’s day at the word of God’s command.
Two, the flood of Noah’s time is a cautionary warning of God’s judgment on unrepentant sin.
Finally, it begs the question, “Are you in the Ark of the New Covenant, the Lord Jesus Christ? For as safety in Noah’s day was found only in the ark, safety from the coming judgment is found only in Jesus!