Join us as we read and talk about the start of the flood in the story of Noah.
Journey by Faith
Genesis Part 18: The Flood Begins
You're listening to Journey by Faith, the official podcast of Faith Bible College in Norfolk, Virginia. We hope you enjoyed today's episode, here we go. Welcome back everyone. We are talking through Genesis 7 today, starting in verse 6 here on the Faith Bible College podcast. Thank you once again for joining us, we're so happy you were walking through this book with us. I'm really enjoying it. Some of the things we talk about, it may not be directly related to the text, but it's things that God brings up to have us talk about. I like that. I like how the Bible does that, helps every time I read it. I've probably read Genesis, I don't even know, dozens of times, I'm sure, but every time something new comes out, that's the power of God's Word. There's something new to learn, and whenever people tell me, "Well, you know the Bible's boring, I just wonder what Bible you read." Right, yeah, you're not reading the same one I am then, because there's lots of exciting things. And again, we are all about the Bible at Faith Bible College, of course. We recently were at the Heave Convention in Richmond, and we had a couple of booths there for all the homeschool attendees there to learn about our college, and people would come up, and I would tell them, "You know, we have three options. We've got a Bible degree, a Bible degree, and a Bible degree." That's right. That's what we do. That's what we do. And I told them we do one thing, we do it as well as we possibly can. And we do that unapologetically. Exactly, yes. So that is what we are all about, and that's why what we're doing here on the podcast is talking about the Bible, because we are Faith Bible College, not just a name, right? It's who we are. Yes, it's who we are, yes, absolutely. So here we are in verse 6 of chapter 7 today, "When the flood waters are going to come." So it says, "Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters came upon the earth, Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons wives went with him into the ark to escape the waters of the flood." All right. So again, some of this is reiterating what has been said before, but this is now when the flood waters are coming. Yes. Now, let me just, if you don't mind. One of the debates that has always revolved around the story of Noah and the flood is what kind of flood are we talking about? In other words, are we looking at a local flood or a universal flood? And so let's just go off on that for a moment. Sure. Yeah, that's always an interesting topic. Yeah. Some proof and evidence that this was indeed a universal flood. All right. First thing we notice here is in verse 7, and that is that God says, "Noah and his sons and his sons and their wives went into the ark for what to escape the waters of the flood." Right. Yep. Now, here's the thing. If this was a local flood, there's been a whole lot of work for nothing. All right? Yeah. Right. Right. Why build an ark? Yeah. Why bring all the animals of the earth there? Yep. If this is just a local flood, you just go someplace else. Yeah. You know? God would just bring him to another area. Yeah. I mean, sure. We live here in Hampton Roads. Yep. That hurricanes happen around here. Right. You drive along the interstate, and there are hurricane signs that say, you know, this road may be closed in case of a hurricane, or this road is a hurricane evacuation route. Right. Yeah. Why? Well, because if a hurricane comes, we know we're going to be told, "Get out of Hampton Roads." Exactly. Yes. You don't have to build an ark. Just leave. Yeah. Right. Yeah. I didn't tell Noah that. Yeah. Also, just a few other things that we notice, we're going to see that this flood lasts 371 days. Right. Yeah. I was going to say. It's very long. Yes. That's over a year. Right. Yeah. For a local flood, the last that long would be incredible. Yeah. Right. Now, somebody would argue, "Well, for a flood to cover the entire earth would be incredible." Yeah. That's true. But there's more evidence to support that. Right. For example, part of it is, we're going to be told soon, the depth of the flood. The waters are 20 feet above the mountains. Right. Well, that's important. It's important because scientifically, we know that water seeks its own level. Yes. So, if I have a glass of water and I pour it out onto a table, it's going to spread. Right. And it's going to be of even depth throughout. Yeah. It's not going to be in a pillar or a column. Right. Yeah. That's right. So, the fact that it's above the mountains tells us, "Hey, the mountains are keeping this in locally." Yeah. Without a doubt. It's spreading around. Yeah. Again, the design of the earth, well, it's just too big for it to be local. There's no reason for that, the destruction of all life. Once again, some scholars believe that the population of the earth at that time was similar to what it is today in the billions of people. So, when I'm talking about a few thousand people living in a small area, we're talking about people that have spread out because there's no other choice but to spread out, to accommodate everybody. And so, you know, we're looking at seven billion people. It's going to take a universal flood to destroy that. The word used here, the flood, is a Hebrew word that can be translated "catechism." And it's only used in reference to Noah's flood. No other disaster like that. I've heard that word before, yeah. Also, we look at the decline in lifespan, you know. We go from people living before the flood like Methuselah, 969 years, now it's going to drop down drastically to about a hundred years, which is still pretty significant but you know, a hundred close to what that was. It's not even in the same ballpark. And not only that but, you know, the distribution of stories and what I mean by that is almost every people group has a flood story. Now, that certainly does not prove that the flood of Noah is the one true story. But the fact that there were so many flood stories out there of so many people groups means there must have been something that happened. And all these groups of people can orally relate this story. The geology, I think, tells us. We have discovered skeletons and fossils of fish and sea creatures on top of mountains. How does that happen? Yeah. You know, they're certainly not walking out of the oceans and then climbing up the mountains and dying there, you know, it had to be something else. And also, here's the thing, to me this is the biggest one. If it's not a universal flood, then God's a liar, God's broken his promise because he's allowed local floods to come. That's true. And he says afterwards, never again will I flood the earth like this. Exactly. So I think we've got really good evidence that supports a universal flood. Yes, I agree. God did say the whole earth. Yes. If he didn't mean the whole earth, then yeah, exactly. That's right. And I did. I remember being a kid and watching on the news and hearing there was going to be a flood somewhere. And I'd be like, you know, I'd ask my parents, but God said he wasn't going to have a flood anymore. And my parents were like, no, he wasn't going to flood the whole earth anymore. Right. I mean, I'm very specific. That's a very specific memory that I have. It's like, no, that is not the same promise. He said, I'll never flood the whole earth again. You're right. Yeah. That doesn't make sense. That's not the local flood. God said, I'm not going to do that anymore, and he did. Right. Yes. Yes. Very good points. You know, I think that is very important for us to talk through all of these instances of interpretation and different viewpoints that people have because they're being talked about, right? Yes. And if we, you know, one of the dangers that we can have in biblical interpretation is we try and rationalize it too much and we ignore what God has said in his word, right? Or we twist it to the point that it is, you know, we believe something that it doesn't say anymore. Right. And that's the, that's what we want to avoid. You know, all, you know, there's several things that we'll read in the Bible. I say several. There's many, many things in the Bible that we're going to read that are, you know, have different interpretations, you know, but what we cannot do is say, well, the Bible says this, but I believe this instead. Right. We can never do that. And we can never take science or something along that way, which many people have done and said, well, the Bible says this, science says that. So we need to make the Bible match science. Exactly. Right. No, I believe that science matches the Bible. Absolutely. If we interpret science properly. Yes, I agree. And again, not exactly what is here in Genesis, but I read every day almost. I feel like there's some new headline about the James Webb telescope that's out in the middle of space somewhere. I won't bore you with the details. I'm kind of a space nerd, but it's it's out orbiting somewhere and it's it'll look out into the far reaches of the universe. And I'll just read this headline all the time that says James Webb finds something that shatters our view of physics all the time. Yeah. And it's like, well, there's a galaxy out there that's way too formed for how long ago it existed or whatever that's right. Right. Right. They'll say things like that or it's like, this is there and we're seeing things that we didn't think would have it. I was like, yeah, I'll tell you exactly why you don't expect that because it looks designed because it was. Yes. Exactly. Science always catches up with what the Bible is saying. It does. It really does. And that's just one example. Yes. Yeah. So again, yeah, never we cannot say, well, science says this, but the Bible says this and well, I'm going to have to believe science. We can't do that. Right. Right. Absolutely. They work hand in hand and more often than not the God who invented science told us what has happened. Absolutely. So in back in Genesis, we are at, I keep getting loose and tracking. That's okay. Because I love this stuff we're talking about. We're in verse eight. Let's look at verse eight of clean animals and of animals that are not clean and of birds and of everything that creeps on the ground to and to male and female went into the ark with Noah as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days, the waters of the flood came upon the earth. And I think that just kind of sums up what God had said was going to happen has happened, which is also an important point. God said it and then it happened exactly. Right. He said you got seven days and in seven days it began to rain. Yep. The flood came. So exactly what God said happened, you know, God doesn't make guesses. God doesn't say well, you know, he says, this is going to happen and it happens. Right. So. Exactly. Yep. So then in verse 11, yes, the in the 600 year of Noah's life in the second month on the 17th day of the month on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened. So two things happen here, which I think, and I mentioned this before. The fountains of the great deep and the windows of the heavens. So it seems like we have the fountains coming up that are bursting forth and also water from above, you know, when you see heavens in the Bible, you usually means just the skies, the heavens, what's above us. And so, you know, we kind of see it coming in both directions. Yes, absolutely. And that's important to remember because again, you know, people are looking, they say, okay, what, you know, what brought about the flood? Well, rain, 40 days and 40 nights. Well, okay, it did do that, but that wasn't the totality of it. Right. Water comes from above in the form of rain and water comes from beneath and to a great extent, it is that water from beneath, that is the greater cataclysm because if you can picture this, you know, it's water that is underneath the earth, that is now pushing up and breaking through. And what does that do? Well, it forces the land farther apart, you know, we talked before about the scientific theory of Pangea that all the land was one, one single landmass and, and yet the Bible doesn't support or condemn that. But surely we see as the flood comes, it pushes the, the, the plates farther apart. And I think just looking at a globe or at a map of the world kind of supports that as you see. I've got a globe right here. I'm looking at it. Yeah. I mean, you look at South America and Africa and boy, do they look like they once fit perfectly together, you know, and like the jigsaw map. And so, yeah, and not only that, but the formation of mountains and, and you know, the glaciers and the canyons and so forth, the great devastation to the earth and yet in all of its devastation, all because of the sin of man, the beauty that comes as the result. Yeah. I love mountains and I believe that the mountains are the result of the flood, of this water coming up from underneath and pushing the land up in the form of mountains. And, you know, the, the rocky mountains and the other mountain chains and, you know, glaciers and so forth, all are a result of the flood. The Grand Canyon. Oh, yeah. As a result of the flood and, you know, people by the thousands traveled to Arizona to go to the Grand Canyon to see that big hole in the ground. Right. You know, having lived in Arizona, we visited the Grand Canyon a number of times and the first time was spectacular. Oh, yeah. After that, it was like, okay. Yeah. Sure. See this. Okay, cool. Yeah. Still a big hole. Yeah. But to think that all of that beauty came as a result of the judgment of God and, you know, what, as the Bible talks about beauty for ashes, you know, and God does that with us. You know, he takes us who are sinners and he makes us beautiful in his sight, regardless of the sin that we've committed. And God did that here with the earth, how spectacular the creation of God is. And so, yeah, it's important for us to remember that it did come from beneath as well. Yeah. And how that changed the earth. Yeah. Without that. And so the post flood earth is going to be so drastically different from what it was before. Right. We can't even begin to imagine. Mm hmm. Yeah. You know, you know, make the point, you know, we're, you know, we're not science deniers, right? No, like you said, South American Africa looked like they used to fit together. They probably did. Right? Yeah. You know, we're not saying, you know, this didn't happen. We're just, you know, we're saying, well, this is what God said happened. Right. So if science says something different, well, science must be a little bit off, but we're not saying science isn't true. God's the invention of it as well. Right. So I want to just, I thought about that, you know, it's like, yeah, all this stuff that appears. Yeah. Yeah. We believe God did that. Yeah. And, and you know, the thing about science is is that they're great explanation for just about anything is time that yes, well, I don't know. Right. There's a whole lot of time for this to happen. Yep. Well, in most cases it does, but in some cases God does things quicker. Right. There is a video, I guess a DVD now that's out and you can still find it some places. I forget the name of it. But what it does is it compares Mount St. Helens to the Grand Canyon and it shows that some of the same rock strata and the geological formations that we find in the Grand Canyon, we also find after Mount St. Helens erupted. Right. And, but the thing of the Grand Canyon is that science tells us millions of years and a little bit of water did this. Yeah. And yet with Mount St. Helens, we know it's a whole lot of water and a little bit of time. Yeah. Did this. Yeah. And I think the same is true of both. Right. A little bit of time and a whole lot of water is what and other destructive is what caused these geological formations. Yeah. So we know it's true because we witnessed it with Mount St. Helens. It did not take millions of years for that to come about. Right. Yeah. So if that could happen in a few days time, why couldn't the Grand Canyon and other things like that take the same amount of time? Right. Yeah. Very good points. Very good. All right. So then we are at a keep losing track. Just we are fountains of great first 12 and rain fell upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights. And on the very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and J. F. and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. They and every beast according to its kind and all livestock according to their kinds and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind and every bird according to its kind and every winged creature. So I feel like part of this again, God's reiterating what he has said and what he has said is happening. But I got a little another sense of like some creation echoes here. Yes. Where he's talking about all of these different creatures and their kinds. According to their kinds again, for the purpose of reproduction, not evolution, you know, so they're going to reproduce. And again, you know, it's just interesting to notice that once again, you know, people say, well, how could you have this many animals on the earth? Well, you know, I kind of believe that large animals would would have been represented by young, their babies, you know, you're going to fit, you know, elephants on the ark, well, baby elephants. Yeah. Probably. Yeah. Same thing with giraffes and other things. Yeah. First, as babies, they're a whole lot less dangerous. Yep. And also, I believe that our supernatural God that brought all of this about is also working on behalf of Noah and his family in that I think, and again, I can't prove this with any scripture, but I believe that God caused most, if not all of these animals, to go into hibernation, you know, and be a whole lot less to care for, you know, you don't need as much food, you don't have to be constantly taking care of them, they're just sleeping. Yeah. You know, and, and again, knowing that God's love Noah and God protected Noah and provided for him, I like to think this is one of the ways that God did that. Yeah. That is portrayed interestingly in the Russell Crowe, Noah movie, there you have some kind of, I don't even remember what it was, some kind of smoke or something that makes him fall asleep. Oh, there you go. Yeah. I don't know. That movie is, again, I've referenced that movie for very, very interesting, but I wouldn't actually take it as the Bible. It's no quite different. And yes, right. So we then see that they went into the ark, Noah and two of, they went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered male and female of all flesh went in, as God had commanded him and the Lord shut him in. So you know, I think about all breath, obviously we don't have sea creatures, they're going to be fun. I think isn't. So the ones who have the breath of life have entered and then the Lord shuts him in. Right. Yeah. So it's God that takes care of him and keeps him safe in this ark along with all the animals. Yeah. God closed the door. Yes. And when it was time, God closed the door and all those outside of the ark, well, too bad for them. Right. You know, they had their opportunity, but now the doors close and, you know, the same is true today. God still closes doors. Right. There'll be a day when time is no more and he closes that door, but for each individual person, there's a time when the door is shut and your time here on earth is over. Yeah. And, you know, we like to think that, well, you know, it's somewhere down the road many, many years from now, but we never know. That's right. So when our last day or hour or breath is going to be on this earth and again, I just see the supernatural hand of God closing the door, shutting them in, sealing them, protecting them, even as the Holy Spirit seals us today in our salvation and protects us mostly from ourselves, you know, not only can Satan not snatch us out, but we can't jump out. We can't do anything to counteract the, the work of God in our lives. And so to me, those few words and the Lord shut him in are incredibly powerful words. Absolutely. Yeah. Not only for what he did with Noah, but what he still does today. Yes. That's good. Again, I think a good place for us to end this week's episode is just to mention that, you know, we have limited time on this earth. Jesus has called us to follow him. So if you're not following him, we would love for you to do that to make that decision because again, we're all about the Bible, but, you know, the Bible points to Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith. And he is the one who saves by his power alone. So if you don't know him, we want you to, we'd love for you to reach out to a local pastor, reach out to us here at Faith Bible College. We'd love to talk to you more about that. So if none of this makes sense and you're thinking, I don't know, I understand all this Bible stuff, but you want to and you want to pray that God would come into your life, that you would commit yourself to him to worship him as Savior and Lord. We'd love for you to talk to us about that. Amen. Yeah. Absolutely. That's what we're here for. Yep. So I think next time we will continue, I thought we might get to the end of chapter 7. We did not. And that's fun. We are really getting some great content here about just learning about Genesis, learning about the Bible, learning about salvation, all these good things. So we will wrap up, talk about chapter 7 next time and get into chapter 8 and seeing what happens with Noah and his family. Amen. Fantastic. Once again, everybody, thank you for joining us and we'll see you next time. God bless. [Music] [Music] (upbeat music) (upbeat music)