Genesis 7

Ge 7:1-24.

ENTRANCE INTO THE

ARK.

1. And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the

ark--The ark was finished; and Noah now, in the spirit of implicit

faith, which had influenced his whole conduct, waited for directions

from God.

2, 3. Of every clean beast . . . fowls--Pairs of every

species of animals, except the tenants of the deep, were to be taken

for the preservation of their respective kinds. This was the general

rule of admission, only with regard to those animals which are styled

"clean," three pairs were to be taken, whether of beasts or birds; and

the reason was that their rapid multiplication was a matter of the

highest importance, when the earth should be renovated, for their

utility either as articles of food or as employed in the service of

man. But what was the use of the seventh? It was manifestly reserved

for sacrifice; and so that both during Noah's residence in the ark, and

after his return to dry land, provision was made for celebrating the

rites of worship according to the religion of fallen man. He did not,

like many, leave religion behind. He provided for it during his

protracted voyage.

4. For yet seven days--A week for a world to repent! What a

solemn pause! Did they laugh and ridicule his folly still? He whose

eyes saw and whose heart felt the full amount of human iniquity and

perverseness has told us of their reckless disregard

(Lu 17:27).

9. There went in two and two--Doubtless they were led by a

divine impulse. The number would not be so large as at first sight one

is apt to imagine. It has been calculated that there are not more than

three hundred distinct species of beasts and birds, the immense

varieties in regard to form, size, and color being traceable to the

influence of climate and other circumstances.

16. and the Lord shut him in--literally, "covered him round

about." The "shutting him in" intimated that Noah had become the

special object of divine care and protection, and that to those without

the season of grace was over

(Mt 25:10).

17. the waters increased, and bare up the ark--It seems to have

been raised so gradually as to be scarcely perceptible to its

occupants.

20. Fifteen cubits upward . . . and the mountains were

covered--twenty-two and a half feet above the summits of the

highest hills. The language is not consistent with the theory of a

partial deluge.

21. all flesh died . . . fowl . . . cattle, and

. . . creeping thing--It has been a uniform principle in

the divine procedure, when judgments were abroad on the earth, to

include every thing connected with the sinful objects of His wrath

(Ge 19:25;

Ex 9:6).

Besides, now that the human race was reduced to one single family, it

was necessary that the beasts should be proportionally diminished,

otherwise by their numbers they would have acquired the ascendancy and

overmastered the few that were to repeople the world. Thus goodness was

mingled with severity; the Lord exercises judgment in wisdom and in

wrath remembers mercy.

24. an hundred and fifty days--a period of five months. Though

long before that every living creature must have been drowned, such a

lengthened continuance of the flood was designed to manifest God's

stern displeasure at sin and sinners. Think of Noah during such a

crisis. We learn

(Eze 14:14)

that he was a man who lived and breathed habitually in an atmosphere of

devotion; and having in the exercise of this high-toned faith made God

his refuge, he did not fear "though the waters roared and were

troubled; though the mountains shook with the swelling thereof"

[Ps 46:3].