(Genesis) Genesis 7-9 — Joe Focht

Noah’s Faith Amid Judgment and Mockery

We're in Genesis chapter 7 now we are Coming to the place where the Lord takes Noah and his family into the ark. The backdrop again is an era with a huge population on the earth a very strange spiritual activity of the corruption of the human race violence.

The imagination of man's heart only continually evil tyranny and Idolatry. And God comes to Noah and asks him to build this ark and again. You have to imagine that it never had rained before. Noah had no idea what God said it's going to rain.

You can understand where Bill Cosby jumped in here. What you know, what is rain? Well small drops of water will fall from the sky. That was something that had not happened it tells in Genesis 2 it had not rained.

But a great mist went up from the ground and watered the garden and the earth. He Spends a hundred to a hundred and twenty years building this boat in the face of mockery in the face of The challenge constantly to his faith as as you and I live in these last days.

There's a constant challenge to our faith. I mean sometimes in difficult circumstances we find ourselves saying Lord. Where is your love? You really love me. Why are you letting this happen? If you're really in control Lord?

Why this why now? Why can't I sense your presence? Why can't I get an answer from you right now about this? In in many ways we we sometimes find things in the scripture that are difficult For us to digest and hard for us to to understand.

Martin Luther said there's a doctrine for every season in a man's life and Noah is hearing many new things. He's hearing about a worldwide judgment, which is something that never happened. He's hearing about rain something that had never happened before.

He is asked to prepare in a long Obedience. Imagine if you had to obey in regard to one particular thing for a hundred to a hundred and twenty years. In the face of constant mockery I mean it's wonderful that we can gather here together and worship together and sing his praises together and we have the reinforcement of the body of Christ and other believers that that strengthen us.

Imagine if it was just you and your wife and your kids and no one else in the planet on your side and Constant people being belligerent and and Persecuting Hebrews says by faith Noah being warned of God of things not seen as yet.

Something had never been seen. Moved with fear. I like that Prepared an ark to the saving of his house by the witch. He condemned the world and became the heir of the righteousness. That's in regards to the Messiah.

Which is by faith. So as we come to the end of chapter 6 through the remarkable verse 22 that says thus did Noah notice according to all That God commanded him. So did he by faith? He believed these things were true by faith.

He was able to fear it says he was moved with fear. Fear is a good thing. Not the dread of God not fear in the sense of fear having torment. But the fear of the Lord is clean. The Bible tells us there is a fear that is a good fear.

It's a good thing that you stop at red lights. You do that out of fear. You're afraid of an accident. You're afraid that the policeman will catch you if you don't. You have medical insurance. That's because you're afraid.

That you may get sick and not be able to pay the bills. It's just prudence wisdom fear and it is is a good thing. It can be a tormenting thing if Satan is at the root of it. But there is a you know, perfect love.

John says cast out all fear. That is the perfecting the tenses in the Greek the perfecting of God's love towards you the more you grow in that love it. Cast out all fear in the sense of fear that is tormenting.

But the fear of the Lord is a good thing. So here is Noah. He by faith that's attached to things that had not been seen before. Faith is the evidence of things hoped for the substance of things not seen.

So Noah Exercising faith in regards to something God said would come that had never been seen a world by judgment. We're standing in front of that today. Then it says because he really believed what he heard it gave birth to fear in his heart a good fear a clean fear irreverence and that fear motivated him to obedience to building an ark which took a hundred years and It put him in a position where he was able to stay above things in a world that was falling apart.

Faithful Watchfulness for Christ’s Return

So I think you know as we talk to our friends and if we really believe that Jesus could come at any time. And that's what we say. We believe that faith and it's something that hasn't been seen before.

You know the Lord Descending with the with a shout with the voice of the archangel in the temple of God the only ones ever been raptured before is Enoch. And In Elijah hasn't happened on the scale that we believe it's going to have we believe Jesus is going to come interrupt human history at any time and If we really do believe that and that takes faith then We should be moved by fear.

There should be a reverence in regards to the days we live in and then the fact that Christ could interrupt us in the middle Of anything so we want to make sure when that happens. It's not in the middle of being drunk or not in the middle of being violent or not in the middle of living with Compromise or apathy if we get interrupted we want to be interrupted about his business.

Jesus said that we should occupy till he comes. So fear is a healthy thing. It keeps us clean and pure and and it gave birth to His obedience and imagine a hundred years working Alone without a church without fellowship him and his family on this ark.

Chapter 7 begins by saying and the Lord said unto Noah Come thou and if you have a Translation that says go thou it's a bad translation there God is in the ark when he beckons Noah. By the word, that's the first time the word come.

CME is used this particular word in the Bible and The Lord said unto Noah come thou and all thy house into The ark. God is inside beckoning him. For thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation now by the way He sees us righteous the same way.

It isn't that that Noah was sinless. That again that God saw him righteous, but he was righteous and that he believed. That's what chapter 11 is all about in Hebrews that the just shall live by faith.

Noah’s Sacrifice and the Meaning of Clean Animals

Soon as Noah gets off the ark. He sacrifices he builds an altar and he sacrifices he understands Blood atonement again. You have to remember that that Noah's father Lamech. That Adam lived until Lamech was about 50 years old.

So Noah's father heard directly from the first man who wasn't born but was created by God understood what the stakes were understood about substitutionary atonement taught by Adam and his family and Noah has a direct line to that and as soon as he gets off the ark He will build an altar and sacrifice so God sees him righteous the same way He sees us righteous and that is by faith for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation of every clean beast.

Thou shall take unto thee by sevens. Male and female. Now, there's another place where it says you take them two by two. Here's the purpose to keep them alive on the earth for reproduction. But now he's told in regards to clean animals and this is before Leviticus.

So God has ministered to the heart of man in regards to sacrifice now. We don't read about sin offerings or meal offerings or fellowship offers. The only offering that we read of until the law really is the burnt offering.

Every offering is a burnt offering, but God has already ministered to those who believe That there are animals that are acceptable in the sacrifice. So now God's gonna say of every clean animal I think there's ten listed in Leviticus that That you take seven pairs of each clean animal because they were not just to reproduce.

They were also to be there for sacrifice, so he is taking seven of every that's a hundred and forty of those animals take thee by sevens male and female and of the beasts that are not clean by two male and female and of fowls.

Also of the air by sevens the male and the female to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth for yet seven days and I will cause it to rain of 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?

So isn't it interesting all of a sudden God is speaking to him saying in seven days is when all of your labor a hundred Years worth of work is going to be worth it in seven days. I take it that at some time in this time period where Methuselah Passes off the scene because his name is when it when he dies it shall come and it We hear that Methuselah died at the very time that the flood came so Seven days.

The Flood and God’s Preservation of Noah

I imagine what those seven days were like certainly they were preparatory Noah preparing his heart preparing his family. Verse five says Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him particularly after God said seven days.

And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth now He knew he was five hundred when he started building the ark. And Noah went in and his sons and his wife and his son's wives with him into the ark because of the waters of the flood of Clean beasts and of beasts that are not clean and a thousand of everything that creepeth upon the earth there went in to and to.

Unto notice they came to Noah. Into the ark the male and the female as God had Commanded Noah and it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. So very interesting as we head into this there's at least six times through these passages that tell us that God preserved Noah and His sons and Noah's wife and his son's wives alive.

We have no detail anywhere of the perishing of the ungodly world we have no record of the screaming of People that are drowning or banging on the ark asking them. You know the Bible tells in Ezekiel that God takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked and there is in this no record now as We begin to read this that the the waters came the flood began.

You have to understand this is written for us. This is not written for the unbelieving world to them. It's still a storybook kind of tale a Nontruth this is like Genesis chapter 1 it's written for us those who believe and there's no doubt in my heart at all that this Is all true.

This took place as God now beckons them to come in and then God says of all the animals they came to Noah. No, I didn't have to go find them. You know, they may have started out five years earlier. I mean, you know reindeer had to come all the way from the North Pole and Ernie and Bert had to come all the way from Sesame Street, you know, and then you know they had to come all the way from all over the world who knows some of them their Grandparents may have started on the journey and then the kids were born along the way and then the grandkids finally got to the ark.

God brought them. No, I didn't have to go out and trap them and hunt them down and bring them to the ark. So They all of this is converging at one time as God said to Noah in seven days. The rain will begin.

No, I must have looked around and and the animals then started to come and he must have just been confirming all of this now is culminating at one time. Verse 11 says in the 600 year of Noah's life the second month.

And the 17th day of the month. The same day were all the fountains of the great deep that's very important broken up and The windows of heaven were open and the rain itself was on the earth 40 days and 40 nights now this Incredible amount of water could not have come just from rain.

Obviously, we believe that there was a vapor canopy then and that had a lot to do with the longevity of man. There had never been rain, but a mist watered the earth and it seems like there was a vapor canopy that filtered Infrared ultraviolet light, but we're told some very interesting things.

As we look at the record in Genesis 2 we see Eden. We're in a world. It tells us right there in that chapter There's no rain and yet we see rivers and gumming in the foreheads coming out of Eden. So we know it was a world with rivers and yet without rain.

That means it wasn't fed by tributaries in the way we understand it and it seems that there was a tremendous Aquasystem under the ground a huge Aquasystem that when the rain began the plates of the earth begin to crumble and change and the fountains of the great deep Were broken up and the majority of that water seems that it gushed out from under The ground and that's what it's telling us here and the rain itself was on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

The Ark, the Waters, and the Judgment of the Earth

In the cell same day entered Noah and Shem and Ham every time I read this my kids Love it that there's a guy named Ham and Japheth. The sons of Noah and Noah's wife and the three wives and his sons with them into the ark they and every beast.

After his kind all the cattle after their kind every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind and every fowl after his kind every bird of every sort now again. By the dimensions of this ark there is a tremendous amount of room.

They say today with the species of land animals that we know of that on a hundred and fifty Box cars we could basically fit two of every Land creature now. We know the dimensions of the ark that the space was about five hundred and twenty boxcars worth of space.

So there is plenty of room On the ark in this scene. When the when the rain begins and the and the fountains of the deep are broken up no doubt immediately There was a change in weather patterns. Did Noah have to bring enough food on board and water for these animals to maintain their normal Consumption every day.

I don't know that did were they in a stupor that God allowed them because the weather's changing for the first time To be at a semi state like a hibernation state during this 371 days upon the ark. I don't know that we're not given those details, but certainly there are changes taking place that are incredible.

Verse 15 says they went in to Noah the animals into the ark To and to of all flesh wherein is the breath of life and they that went in went in male and female of all flesh as God had commanded him and Of course amazing it says and the Lord Shut him in.

It was God that shut the door when it was time. I Don't think God wanted on Noah's conscience The the the sense of Noah himself. Cranking that door shut and hearing an unbelieving world begin to pound on the outside of that ark.

It was God who shut the door and bore responsibility for all that he was doing at this time. It says in the flood was 40 days now this is in regards to rain Upon the earth and the waters increased now in these next three verses we have they increased they prevailed they increased greatly.

They prevailed exceedingly. You'll see that as we read through The flood was 40 days upon the earth the waters increased to bear up the ark and it was lifted up above the earth and The waters prevailed and were increased greatly upon the earth and the ark went upon the face of the waters and The waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth and all the high hills That were under the whole heaven were covered 15 cubits.

Upward did the waters prevail and the mountains Were covered so 30 foot or so above the top of the highest mountains That existed now. The question is of course What were the mountain ranges like were they similar were they hills were they anything like the mountain ranges?

We see today were the mountain ranges born when the fountains of the Greek the great deep began to break up. Had they been there before that Presently on the earth with 330 million cubical miles of water in the oceans 330 million cubical miles.

They say if you would take the entire surface of the earth and make it completely level Flat all around that the water would be thousands of feet deep everywhere on the surface of the earth. So we know that water from Genesis 1 was in its beds.

It tells us that he appointed the waves their boundaries then has separated the the land from the sea. It seems that all land was connected by land bridges at that time and we'll look at that as we go on but we have no idea if the surface of the earth at the Himalayas and And the the Andes and all of those mountains where are were they the same way they were today?

I don't think so. There are places in the Himalayas where they find crustaceans and salt water shells fossils. Again, Lake Titicaca in the Andes they find the terraces are still there for planting vineyards and it is way above the timberline so there's great evidence that these Mountains were much lower at a certain point in time and the geological changes that take place when this Cataclysm comes actually pushed up some of these ranges and things Changed in a dramatic way that the earth was an upheaval in an interesting way.

So at this point in time, we do know however high any of the highest points were that they were covered by at least 30 foot of water and all flesh died that moved upon the earth both of the fowl of the cattle of the beast of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth and every man All in whose nostrils speaking of men was the breath of life and All that was in the dry land died.

Every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground. Both man and cattle creeping things and the fowl of heaven. They were destroyed from the earth and Noah only Remained alive and they that were with him in the ark and the waters prevailed upon the earth 150 days so these are 360 days in a year then so this is five months.

So for five months the waters prevailed it gives us the idea they came to a peak and And they leveled off at their highest point for five months they reached their highest level. You know somebody had brought in a book several weeks ago of satellite photography of different places all around the the globe and Photographing out into space from some of our satellites and it is real incredible how beautiful the earth is.

I mean they give you shots of the Andes and the Himalayas and of Paris. You can see you see the streets and different cities and I think it would have been Remarkable to get a satellite photo of the ark I mean with the whole earth blue with not a thing anywhere with this one boat roughly the size of the Titanic and again, I know that's a bad comparison because But just this one thing visible on a perfectly blue background everywhere what an Interesting site that must have been and for these five months the waters are prevailing now 15 of cubits above the highest Hill or the highest mountains at that time.

God Remembers Noah and the Waters Recede

Now chapter 8 begins by saying and God remembered Noah now. It wasn't that God forgot Noah. We didn't have a lot to remember at that point in time. Everybody else was gone. It wasn't like Noah was down there saying if you forget about me and leave me with all these animals I'm gonna drown myself, you know.

We we lack Terms to describe divine activity in heaven. I'm sure we'll learn new words that will be adequate to describe the things that God does here in human language. The writer the idea is God in a particular way begins to be active with Noah.

You know, he's he's drifted for five months and basically the dimensions of the ark with a six to one ratio are made to to drift a Dutch Navigator several about 150 years ago, I believe was the one who Researched all the dimensions of the ark and their Navy began using these dimensions and the modern dimensions that we Use now in our naval warfare naval systems around the world.

Basically, we're born out of this this man's research in regards to the ark now. Most of our our ships today are a seven to a seven point five to one ratio. They're swifter. They have an engine. This was really perfect dimensions to float.

And for five months now he's been adrift as it were and now the idea is God begins to act in a particular way. So the language that we have to convey the activity of God beginning says that God remembered.

No, I know it wasn't that he forgot him. The idea is God is beginning to work again divine activity begins and and he remembered Noah and every living thing and all the cattle that was with him in the ark and God made a wind and To pass over the earth and the waters King James assuaged.

Literally, they became quiet or they began calming so I get the idea those great turbulence before this now. There's a change now. No doubt weather patterns are beginning. There's a wind. No doubt things that had not been seen before under a vapor canopy are taking place possibly.

The earth now coming on its access of 23rd and a third 23 and a third degrees because we're gonna see seed time and harvest summer and winter. God describes Seasons now that it doesn't seem existed before this so some incredible things have taken place.

The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped and the rain from heaven was restrained and The waters returned from off the earth. Continually they began to subside going and after the end of a hundred and fifty days the waters were abated and the ark rested in the seventh month on the 17th day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat now by the way, it's very I don't think it's coincidental.

The seventh month and the 17th day of the month in the Hebrew Calendar the seventh month the 14th day of the month was the Passover the seventh. It was changed after that, but the seventh month the 17th day is resurrection day.

Interesting. The ark comes to rest now what it must have been wonderful to hear that I don't know if you've ever been out in a boat when you bring it up in the shore. You hear it crunching on the bottom.

It must have been a nice sound to hear that baby go crunch and pull into something Solid so it comes to rest on this particular day, and it's interesting God Locates the ark for us. I think there's a reason it may show up before this is all over.

Not on Mount Ararat, it doesn't say that which is 17 ,000 foot 17 ,250 exactly. But on the mountains plural of Ararat somewhere in that range in Armenia Turkey today Where the Tigris and the Euphrates find their sources and Again, I think it's interesting that in Revelation chapter 16 we find the river Euphrates drying up not Dammed up.

It doesn't say that I know there's a dam doesn't say that God doesn't need our help it says that river dries up and for that river to dry up the Glaciers will have to melt in this Ararat range, and if they do it'll leave this thing.

I think that's why it was pitched within and without because I think it had to last. I Think it will lay out in the open again to a shocked world that is once again under a global judgment. So it is there somewhere in the mountains of Ararat.

Marco Polo and his journal speaks About staying at st. James Monastery and those who had seen it that would go up when there were warm Summers to the ark they saw crosses made of the wood from the ark.

It would be neat if somebody found the captain's log wouldn't it. I'd love to hear what it was like on there Over and if you have a wry study Bible, he gives you the note in there, too. There are over 270 accounts that anthropologists have discovered around the world in all different civilizations of a global deluge with a man and his family surviving over 270 from ancient cultures around the world preserved today now.

The Raven, the Dove, and Signs of Rest

One of the interesting ones is in a book called the Assyrian discoveries By George Smith and he talks about the Seneiform inscriptions that are 2 ,000 years before Christ to 2 ,500 years before Christ and they actually speak of a holy man who was a sage a man devoted to a single deity and That in his day.

The Seneiform tablets read very close to scripture in some places that the earth was filled with violence. It actually says there were races of giants then on the earth. The earth was corrupt and it tells how this man and it talks about his father doesn't use the name Lamech but it talks about his father how he came into this boat that he built and that he was there and it tells that how He sent out a raven and how he sent out a dove.

We're gonna come to that. This is in Seneiform inscriptions. It actually says that is when he first came off of the boat that he built an altar and he sacrificed to his God. Very remarkable records of this bearing witness to the truth of it but you know second Peter tells us that men are willingly ignorant of these things.

That hark of the judgment of God. That men are willingly ignorant that there's enough evidence. If men care to see if they search with an honest heart that that it will be revealed to them. But there are those who begin to see the truth and because what it means it means Accountability and what it will mean to them if they dig deeper that they shut it off and they are willingly ignorant.

They don't want to know but it's interesting this arc came to rest now. It tells us in the mountains of Ararat now and no doubt a 17 ,000 foot mountain. You know, these may have been pushed up under the ark as the earth is changing.

It is interesting that in the Mariana Trench off of Japan and some of the trenches of the Philippines that are deepest in the world over five miles deep that That the silt in There is miniscule is hardly any silt at all which tells oceanographers that they're fairly new.

They're less than several thousand years old because if not, they'd have been very deep in sediment and silt. So so no doubt during this time as the as the water was moved off the earth God was gouging out deep beds in the ocean and All of this to balance the earth again to take it out of a wobble to leave it on a 23rd and a third degree Axis, he was raising, you know again like somebody balances your tires hammering those things on he was putting mountain ranges in other places and Balancing this world out to spin again With a balance and God locates very interesting to me this thing in the mountains of Ararat.

It says it comes to rest and the waters decrease continually until the 10th month now. That's three more months in The 10th month on the first day of the month the tops of the mountains now are being seen.

So Noah is stuck in a place as he's looking out. He can see the tops of the hills now coming out above The waters and I'm sure it is a strange world to him much different than the tropical world that he had known.

And it came to pass at the end of 40 days 40 more days that Noah opened the window and I Bet he was glad. You know what I mean. You know, all you have to do is have a dog and though sometimes in your car.

You're glad to roll the window down. I mean here is almost a year with all these animals. Noah opened the window of the ark Which he had made. And he sent forth a raven which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth and Also, he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground.

The dove found no rest for the sole of her foot and she returned to him in the ark for the waters were on the face Of the whole earth. He put forth his hand he took her and pulled her in unto him now.

The raven did not return. The raven is a scavenger that would have been content to sit on a carcass that was floating in the water and feed very interesting type by the way of the Holy Spirit and this dove will come back finally with an olive branch and both the Holy Spirit both the dove and the olive branch symbols of peace and The holy the the dove a type of the Holy Spirit returning to the ark finding no rest in this world and in the destruction that is in this world the the raven certainly a Type of the lower nature goes out finds its rest in the carcass of this world.

He pulls the dove back into him again. He stayed yet another seven days and again He sent forth the dove of the out of the ark. The dove came in to him in the evening and low in her mouth Was an olive leaf plucked off.

So no one knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. Now if you're thinking How could an olive tree grown in all of that water all of trees had been have been known to actually produce leaves?

Underwater sometimes in fact when they take the olives if they leave a twig on and And before they throw them in brine if they just throw them a water to ship them sometimes that leaf will continue to grow Underwater and spread out and become a full leaf so olive trees are very interesting.

So he returns with an olive branch in his mouth, and he stayed yet another seven days and Sent forth the dove Which returned not again unto him anymore. I guess the dove figured there's no use he keeps sending me out again.

No, the dove finally found a place to rest and it came to pass in the 600th and first year in The first month the first day of the month that the waters were dried from off the earth and Noah removed the Covering of the ark and looked and behold the face of the ground was dry that must have been a wonderful day also.

And in the second month on the 7th and 20th day of the month was the earth Dried now. This is one year and 11 days 371 days 360 day year then 371 days on this boat and God spoken to Noah saying go forth now.

You know it's amazing. Noah and all this Doesn't leave the ark even though for months now It seems that he's lodged on the ground the tops of the mountains were appearing. There's dry ground the the dove has not returned.

The the water is dried up off the ground and Noah doesn't dare take a step outside till God tells him to God says go forth from the ark thou and thy wife thy sons thy sons wise with thee and Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee of all flesh Both the fowl and of cattle and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth that they may breed Abundantly in the earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.

And Noah went forth and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with him. Imagine what a day that must have been for them to walk down that plank off of that boat to step back on dry ground again to To look at a world Vastly different than anything they had known.

There is now climate. There is now wind blowing. There are clouds moving through the sky that they had never seen. I Imagine every time they heard thunder they wanted to run back onto the ark again. God had to tell him no.

No, no, he makes a covenant with him that he won't do that again. No doubt. There are earthquakes. There are geological changes. There are carcasses and as far as I as the eye can see there is not another human being in the world, you know, but him and his family.

I mean if somebody makes a noise They don't say who was that did you hear something. Had to be one of the kids and I'd be one of them there is no one else. Imagine getting on a plane and Flying across the United States not having to worry about how high you are because there's no other planes.

And imagine as far as you can go. Not seeing a single human being all across this nation all through Central and South America all through Asia. Not another human living being anywhere. What a strange Strange experience as they come out of the ark in this new world not worried about anybody stealing anything.

You know the other the other morning five o 'clock in the morning Saturday. All of a sudden Joanne is in her room saying somebody's bashing on the door you hear somebody's been we kind of sit up and look around and somebody's banging on the door downstairs and She said I thought it was you getting firewood.

She said but I came in here. You're in bed. So I said what no world's going on. So I'm walking around in my shorts, you know, my hair is all sticking up and I can't. I can't see yet. You know, I'm feeling my way down the turn on the lights.

And there's some kid 20 21 years old who had ripped my storm door open. Standing there banging on my door. I Looked at him baseball hat. I said what you know, it's dark. It's five o 'clock in the morning.

He said I'm lost. I'm thinking I'll say. He says this is just Saturday. He says I'm lost. I need to use your phone. Phone. I'm thinking I said, okay, let me put shoes and pants. Let me put some clothes on.

I'll be back, you know. So now now the little kids are gone. You know because he's still down there bashing on the door, you know, and I'm thinking what's wrong. I just told him I you know, and and cat says who's down there what's going on, you know, and and I said Some kid somebody wants to come in.

You can't let him in. There might be other kids out there. Maybe people waiting to ambush, you know, so she's on the phone calls the police, you know. Which I guess was a sensible thing to do. And I staggered back down again, and I hear him bashing, but I can't see him now.