Genesis 7 - It's Been Raining All Day

Journey through the Book of Genesis with me.  The plan is simple. Read ONE chapter a day. Blog or journal 5* things you learned that you previously didn't know and ask 5* questions about the chapter that you'll ponder all week. Let's go!

** You'll probably learn way more than 5 things and have more than 5 questions about each chapter. That's totally fine. The more the merrier! 

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Genesis 7:1-24

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Question 1: How did God communicate with Noah when it says in verse 1, "... the Lord said…?" Was it verbal? Was it an appearance? Or did he get "impressions"?

Question 2: What heart attitude or behavioral actions in Noah's life qualified him as "righteous in his generation" (6:9) before God? Was this imputed righteousness or was there something about Noah’s inner/outer life that set him apart?

Question 3: Were Noah’s kids also righteous or is this a case where the grace of God over dad's life extends to his children?

Question 4: Was the flood global? Could Mankind have covered ALL the face of the earth, or did the flood only go as far as man and animal had spread across the land at the time? (Verse 19 says the flood covered ALL The high mountains under the WHOLE heaven, and ALL died that moved on the earth).

Question 5: What was Noah’s and his family's experience like on the ark as they must have heard thousands screaming and drowning outside at the ark? How did Noah address these questions that must have come up?

• Dad, will this boat hold?
• Honey, will this rain ever stop?
• Dad, are you sure were safe?
• Hon, what will we do with all the bodies when we come out?
• Dad, can we make room to let others in? (Verse 16 - "... and the Lord shut him in..")

WHAT I LEARNED

Insight 1: Everyone in the genealogies of Genesis 5 fathers children at a fairly early age; Enoch was 65 years old (v.21), Methuselah was 187 (v.25), Lamech was 182 (v.28). Noah, however, doesn't father children till he is 500 years old! That’s a long time to be single. Did it take him that long to find a righteous wife? Or did he have a wife earlier, but simply didn’t have kids yet.

Insight 2: It is possible for a culture to grieve God’s heart so deeply (Genesis 6:6) that God will regret His actions to the point that the only option is a wipe out humanity. (Selah: let all mortal flesh keep silence.)

Insight 3: Noah was righteous in his generation, "blameless" (Genesis 6:9). This righteousness is different from sinlessness, because there is none righteous. This means that Noah was a flawed man who walked in his brokenness before God. There’s hope for the worst of us!

Insight 4: Genesis 5:32 says Noah was 500 years old when he had kids. Genesis 7:6, however, says he was 600 years old when the flood started. Genesis 6:3 says God’s patience would endure 120 years before God wiped out humanity. Therefore, Noah must have started building the ark at age of 480 years old (480+120=600); which means, for at least 20 years or so, Noah was all by his lonesome gathering materials and building that ark. Sometimes, the righteous must walk a lonely path.

Insight 5: Noah and his family were actually in the ark longer than 40 days and 40 nights. Genesis 7:12 (40 days) + Genesis 7:24 (150 days) + Genesis 8:6 (40 days additional), plus several more. Basically Genesis 7:11 says Noah went into the flood on 2/10/600 (dd/mm/yy), and came out on 2/27/601 (Genesis 8:13-19). In other words, Noah’s clan were in that massive floating device for a LOOONNG time!!

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