And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is full of violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.
God speaks the sentence on a whole world to one man, and He gives His reason: the earth was full of violence. What does "all flesh" cover, why does God name violence, and why does the same speech that announces destruction also lead to an ark?
The verse names violence as the reason for the sentence. One writer looks under that violence, and separates what people notice from what God notices.
The most serious evil of man is his corruption before God, and it led to an earth filled with violence. Violence is of course against others, and people consider this the worst thing. But their corruption is against God, and they think little of it. If there were no corruption there would be no violence. But at this time "all flesh" had corrupted itself. God tells Noah that the end of all flesh was near because violence filled the earth. Violence was the glaring proof of man's corruption. God would destroy the people along with the earth.
Older translations read, "The end of all flesh is come before me," and the writers below quote that wording. The sentence covers everyone, not just the worst offenders. God keeps nothing back as still usable, and in the same breath He names His remedy.
The mighty men and the men of renown must all be swept away, without distinction. "All flesh" must be set aside as completely unfit for God. "The end of all flesh is come before me." This was not the end of some flesh only. No, all of it was corrupt in the sight of Jehovah — all of it beyond recovery. God had tried it and found it wanting. Then the Lord announces His remedy to Noah: "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood."
The word "end" marks a closed case, not just a coming disaster. One writer pictures the difference between a man awaiting trial and a man already condemned.
The end of man's time of testing has come before God. It is too late for man to ask for a new trial. He is guilty and under condemnation. It is too late for that poor young man, condemned to death, to talk of being tried again. He must be pardoned or executed. Such is man's condition. The prisoner may dream he is free, and hope to commit no more crimes — but he wakes for execution.
Before the flood arrives, God speaks. He tells Noah what He had already settled in His own heart, and the way He tells him matters as much as the news.
He dealt with him as a man deals with his friend, and as God deals with a chosen sinner. "The end of all flesh is come before Me," says the Lord to Noah, telling him what had been passing in His own heart. Later, on the day of the waters, He showed the same gracious friendship. When the ark was about to float on the scene of judgment, "the Lord shut him in." He did it with His own hand.
The flood does more than end the old world. The same waters lift the ark, and one writer sees the death of Christ in that.
The flood of waters that came, covering everything, so that the end of all flesh came, is a picture of the death of Christ. In His death God passed judgment on all flesh and carried it out. The waves and billows rolled over His innocent head. He passed through death and judgment for us and has made Himself our perfect ark, our hiding place. In Him we are lifted above the waters of judgment.
One writer takes this sentence beyond the flood. God does not improve the flesh, and only two places remain where He ends it.
There can be no purifying of the flesh. God has only one way to deal with it. As He said in Genesis 6, "The end of all flesh is come before me." He deals with it either at the Cross, where faith submits to the sentence, for God, "by sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, ... condemned sin in the flesh" — or else in the lake of fire.
- Cause — Corruption toward God came first. The violence that filled the earth was its visible proof.
- Verdict — God ends all flesh, not just its worst examples. It was tried, found wanting, and beyond recovery.
- Closed case — Man's testing is over, not just going badly. Two options remain: pardon or execution.
- Friendship — God told Noah what had been passing in His own heart, and later shut him in with His own hand.
- Shelter — The waters that ended the old world carried the ark. Christ passed through that judgment and is Himself the hiding place. So the flesh meets its end at the Cross or in the lake of fire.
Make thyself an ark of gopher wood [with] cells shalt thou make the ark; and pitch it inside and outside with pitch.
God tells Noah how to survive the judgment He has just announced. The answer is a wooden ark with rooms inside, sealed with pitch — and that word for pitch is the word used elsewhere for atonement.
The judgment and the way out came from the same mouth. Noah's part was to believe both.
The Lord, in this way, provided Noah with an answer to His own righteous and purposed judgment that was coming on the world before the Flood. "Make yourself an ark of gopher wood," said God to him. Noah did so, believing the word both of judgment and of deliverance, and he was safe.
God spelled out the design, down to the rooms and the single door.
Yet the grace of God would provide a refuge for those who realized their need of His grace. God instructed Noah to make a large ark of gopher wood. It was six times as long as it was wide, with three decks and rooms built in, not only for people but for animals too, and covered with pitch inside and out (v. 14). One door is mentioned, which may seem inadequate for so large a ship, but it pictures the truth that Christ alone is the door of salvation for mankind.
No one can say for sure which tree gopher wood came from. But its name stands close to the name of the pitch.
The ark is built of gopher wood. We do not know this "gopher," but the name is very close to the "copher" or "pitch" named afterward... Because of this, the gopher has long been thought to be the cypress, which could well have supplied the "pitch" for the ark's seams. The picture would then fit even better. There is no doubt that the gopher, like the acacia wood of the tabernacle ark, refers to Christ, and "copher" is the word used elsewhere for "atonement." It was not enough that the tree be cut down to provide a refuge from the waters of judgment. The seams also had to be sealed with the pitch the tree supplied. And so death by itself, even Christ's death, would not have been enough to make safe the soul that fled to Him for refuge.
The pitch did more than keep the water out.
Now there was one very interesting feature in that ark. It was covered "inside and out with pitch." That was not only to make it watertight. It would do that, of course. But it was also to teach us a great truth, even if Noah did not understand. The word "pitch" in our translation is the same word translated "atonement" seventy times in the Old Testament. Only in this one place is it translated "pitch." It means a covering — a covering God ordained and provided for the man who had found grace in His eyes. Wherever Noah looked inside the ark, he saw this covering. Wherever God looked outside the ark, He saw the covering. Atonement within, atonement without.
Everyone in that generation ended up covered by something. What differed was the covering itself.
The waters of judgment fell upon the ark, but because it was covered, not one drop touched those inside... It is significant that the waters of judgment also covered the unbelievers, but there was no atonement in that covering.
God ordered the ark sealed. He also took charge of its one door.
Remember, the Lord's own hand shut Noah and his family in the ark (Gen. 7:16), which was made judgment-proof outside and inside (Gen. 6:14). God Himself secured the door. None could enter, and none could get out. "The Lord shut him in." God took charge of the door — safety — while Noah looked out of the window above — communion.
God gave this instruction to one man for one flood. What it pictures is already finished.
As a sinner there is nothing before you but judgment... But you may find a place of safety. You say, Where is it? You do not have to prepare an ark, because God has prepared one. Christ is the place of safety now. He bore all the judgment and the wrath, rose from the dead, and is now at God's right hand.
- Word — God announced the judgment and the remedy in one breath; Noah believed both and was safe.
- Wood — the tree had to be cut down to make the refuge, a picture of Christ; but timber alone would not hold back the waters.
- Pitch — the sealing word is the word for "atonement" seventy times elsewhere. Death alone was not enough. Atonement was needed.
- Within and without — Noah saw the covering inside, and God saw it outside. The same flood that covered the unbelievers left no drop on those in the ark.
- Door — one entrance, shut by God's own hand. It pictures the one place of safety already prepared, so no one today has an ark to build.
And thus shalt thou make it let the length of the ark be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits.
Here God gives Noah the exact size of the ark, a huge ship to build on dry land long before the flood came. Two questions follow: was it a real vessel of real size, and why did God draw up the plan Himself?
God gave the plan; Noah supplied the labour and the faith.
So Noah started his great work of preparing an ark to save his household. God was the Architect, so he had no need to worry about its design. His only concern must have been to carry out properly what God had designed. A single man receives a commission to build a gigantic ship, and apparently in the middle of dry land! It was an extraordinary command, and it must have called out faith of no ordinary kind in Noah.
A cubit means little today until you turn it into feet.
Its proportions were to be 300 cubits long, 50 cubits broad, and 30 cubits high. If the cubit is taken at 18 inches, its length would have been 450 feet, its breadth 75 feet and its height 45 feet. If the cubit used was 21 inches, the dimensions would be one-sixth larger.
Now compare the ark with the ships built since.
In the whole history of the world up to about a century ago, every other ship ever constructed was a mere shell compared with this. Only in quite recent years have these dimensions been surpassed. But what God said, Noah did, and he proved that God's command was his enabling.
One common objection says the ark was too small to hold the animals. The figures in this verse answer it.
The objection is that the ark was not big enough to "take in all the creatures" — more exactly, the animal races belonging to the dry land. It has been proved, over and over again, that it was. It has been calculated that it was a vessel of more than forty-two thousand tons. That is eighteen times as much as the largest warship. One warship can stow, say, a thousand men, with provisions, for a much longer time than the flood lasted, besides an immense weight of guns, shot and so on. So it is clear the ark could easily have received the animals that could not live in the water.
The ark's shape is unlike a ship built for speed. That is not a flaw.
The shape of the ark was not meant for sailing through storms and waves. But it suited exactly the purpose it was made for. Someone once built a freight ship in the same proportions, for use in quiet waters, and people declared it a great success.
Some treat the flood account as poetry or legend. This verse reads like a builder's brief.
Now it is of the greatest importance to stand firm and unbending in the faith. We are not dealing with poetry and its figures of speech. This is the language of sober history. It deals with facts, and with God's declaration about them… It is the plain and unvarnished statement of fact. The question is: are believers to accept the word of God without hesitation?
Noah's neighbours had every reason to think the plan absurd.
I do not suppose the men of the world thought it was built on the right lines. But he did not care one bit about that. God had given him the lines to build on (verses 14-16), so he did not care how they criticised his ark.
Notice also what the plan left out.
Noah's ship had no pump in it. Indeed it could not. Such a thing would have been a witness against it. It would mean that God's provision was not enough by itself. That could never be. He rested in the seaworthiness of his vessel because of God's appointment and approval of it — indeed, I may say, because of God's building of it. Faith kept his heart quiet about the judgment; hope filled it about the coming glory.
Commentators read the ark as a picture of Christ. The plan came from God, not from man.
It was entirely of God. He devised the ark, and gave Noah its specifications. The storm might rage, both above it and around it, but the ark was never submerged. "The ark floated on the face of the waters." A type of Him who bore the storm of divine wrath on behalf of all His people. The greatness of His person made Him equal to so mighty a work.
- Designed. God was the Architect and Noah the builder; the measurements came down as a command, not a suggestion.
- Measured. At an 18-inch cubit the ark was about 450 feet long, 75 broad and 45 high — unmatched by any ship until modern times.
- Ample. At over forty-two thousand tons, the ark had room to spare for every land animal.
- Factual. The passage reads as sober history, not poetry or legend, and asks whether we will take God's word as it stands.
- Trusted. Noah built on the lines God gave him and ignored the critics. He rested in a vessel God Himself designed — a picture of Christ, who bore the storm and was never submerged.
A light shalt thou make to the ark; and to a cubit high shalt thou finish it above. And the door of the ark shalt thou set in its side [with] a lower, second, and third [story] shalt thou make it.
God's last instructions for the ark sound purely practical: an opening for light, a door in the side, and three decks. Commentators read each detail two ways — as a building plan, and as a picture of how God saves.
The plan came from God; the work came from Noah. One writer explains why each feature sat where it did.
Noah was the builder but God was the Designer of the ark. The door was in the side, so people could get in easily. The window was above, to let in light from heaven and to shut out any view of the flood waters soon to come. Its dimensions were large. The cubit is reckoned to have been 18 to 22 inches long. The ark was made only to float, not shaped like a ship for travel, so its capacity must have been very great.
Another writer reads these instructions as plain fact, not as a story.
This is not poetry with its figures of speech. It is the language of sober history, dealing with facts and with God's declaration about them. It is the plain, unvarnished statement of fact.
One dictionary explains the Hebrew word here, and the question the cubit raises.
A window was to be made to the ark. Gen. 6:16. The word tsohar means "a place of light." It was probably set in the roof, and may have served for ventilation as well as for giving light. In Gen. 6:16, after speaking of the window, it says, "and finish it to a cubit above." Does this refer to the size of the window, or does the word "it" refer to the ark? It has been said that the word rendered "it" is feminine and cannot refer to "window," which is masculine. So the cubit may refer to the roof: the middle of the roof raised a cubit to give it a pitch.
Commentators differ on the exact form of the opening. One suggests a continuous gap running around the vessel:
It may be that the window "finished — to a cubit from the top" was an opening that encircled the whole ark, giving full ventilation, but able to be closed.
The window sat at the top, and that fixed where those inside could look.
The Lord secured the door with His own all-powerful hand. He left Noah the window. From it Noah could look upward to the place from which all the judgement had come, and see that no judgement remained for him. The saved family could only look upward, because the window was "above." They could not see the waters of judgement, nor the death and desolation which those waters had caused.
God carried them; they did not steer.
The passengers in that wonderfully guided and protected vessel did not need their eyes for steering. They were not to look out on the solemn scenes of the judgment taking effect around them. Meanwhile the waters, which were the grave of the world, floated them above its mountain-tops up to the blue heavens, growing calmer as they rose. What a time for them — shut in by God, with God! And what a preparation for the new life they were to begin in the world beyond the flood!
A ship that size might be expected to have several ways in.
One door is mentioned, which may seem too little for so large a ship, but it pictures the fact that Christ alone is the door of salvation for mankind.
Noah did not fasten himself in.
Remember the Lord's own hand shut Noah and his family in the ark, which was made judgment-proof outside and inside. God Himself secured the door. None could enter, and none could get out. "The Lord shut him in." God took charge of the door — safety — while Noah looked out of the window above — communion.
Commentators have seen growth in the three levels, though the shelter is equal on every floor.
It had rooms — varied ages, orders and families of salvation, but one Christ. It had three floors: that is, there is development in Christ — progress to higher and still higher levels. But clearly all who are "in Christ" have perfect salvation. That is no matter of degree or attainment. Salvation is as complete for the small timid animal creeping for refuge onto its lowest deck as for Noah on its topmost floor — no more and no less.
- Designed — God gave the plan; Noah gave the work. Every feature was God's choice, and the record reads as sober history, not poetry.
- Door — one entrance only, set in the side for easy access. It points to a single way of rescue. God shut it, and no one could open it.
- Light — the word means "a place of light," probably set in the roof. Commentators differ on whether the cubit measures the window or the pitch of the roof.
- Above — the opening faced upward, so those inside saw heaven, not the flood. The door was God's work; the window was theirs.
- Decks — three floors suggest growth in Christ. But the shelter is equal: the timid creature on the lowest deck is as safe as Noah on the top.
For I, behold, I bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh under the heavens in which is the breath of life everything that is on the earth shall expire.
God speaks to Noah before He acts, naming both what He will send and how far it will reach. It raises three questions. Whose act was this? How far did it reach? And why was it announced so long before it came?
God does not say the flood will simply happen. He says He Himself is bringing it. And He has given the same kind of warning about a judgment still to come.
God gave warning of the flood well in advance, and there was no doubt of its coming. It would destroy every living thing on earth (v. 17). In the same way, God has given advance warning of another judgment. He has appointed a day when He will judge the world by the Man He has ordained, the Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 17:31). Men may mock at this, but it will come just as surely as the flood came. It is not simply that God allowed it to come, but He insists, "I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth."
(He quotes an older translation, where God's own "I" is doubled for emphasis.)
God often works in hidden ways behind the scenes. This judgment was not one of them.
The flood was not one of God's hidden works of providence, like the kind we see in the story of Esther. That story is important in itself, and we learn much from it. But the flood was a judgment God inflicted, and prophecy made it known beforehand. It was also worldwide. That set it apart from other times God stepped in, however real and instructive those were, and made it fit to compare with the days of the Son of man.
Years passed between God's word and the water. Noah spent them building, and the building itself was a warning.
Here we see the patience of God. He bore long with the sinners before the flood and gave them space to repent. Every day that Noah worked at the ark, every plank, every nail, every stroke of his hammer was a warning and a threat of the coming judgment. And more than that: God could do nothing until Noah was safe in the ark, after He Himself had shut him in.
The verse does not single out the worst offenders. Its terms take in everyone.
"The Lord said, I will destroy man." Nothing less would do. What had corrupted God's way on the earth had to be destroyed completely. "The mighty men, and men of renown" had to be swept away too, with no exceptions. "All flesh" had to be set aside as wholly unfit for God. "The end of all flesh is come before me." This was not the end of some flesh only. No — all of it was corrupt in the sight of the Lord, all of it past saving.
Some have read these words as covering only one region. One writer answers that they mean the whole earth.
I believe the flood covered the whole earth, wherever man was. There is no mistake about it. Some have questioned that, speaking in general terms, as if it only covered the inhabited earth. But Scripture says, "the mountains were covered," and "the tops of the mountains were seen," and so on. That sounds like the whole earth. Either way, you have to allow for a miracle... The flood's universality, complete universality, seems to me to be plainly meant, because it destroyed the world that existed then. God puts an end to the whole system of the world.
One writer reads the flood, and the ark riding above it, as a picture of the death of Christ.
The flood that came, waters covering everything so that the end of all flesh arrived, is a picture of the death of Christ. In His death God passed judgment on all flesh and carried it out. The waves and billows rolled over His innocent head. He passed through death and judgment for us and has made Himself our perfect ark, our hiding place. In Him we are lifted above the judgment waters.
- God brings it. The flood is not fate or nature acting alone. God says He Himself brings it. And He has fixed a day to judge the world by Christ.
- God announces it. God often works unseen. Not here. Prophecy announced this judgment before it fell, and its worldwide reach makes it the pattern of the day of the Son of man.
- God waits before it. Every plank and hammer stroke of the ark was a warning; the judgment could not fall until Noah was safely shut inside.
- God spares nothing in it. "All flesh" means all — not the worst sample of humanity, but the whole condition God had judged as unfit for Him.
- God provides through it. The waters that ended one world carried the ark above them. The death that fell on all flesh fell on Christ. He lifts everyone in Him above the judgment.
But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee.
God has just announced the end of all flesh. Now He makes a promise to one man and his household — a covenant given before a drop of rain fell.
God speaks this promise while the ark is still only an instruction. One writer notes where the word "covenant" first appears, and how the promise is filled out later.
"I will establish my covenant with you" had been God's word to Noah, before the ark was made, or the waters had come (Gen. 6:18). Now the judgment is past, and the new earth is inherited. So God sets that covenant out in full, and pledges it again, to His elect (Gen. 9:8-17). And it is here that the word "covenant" is first used.
The same writer weighs what the promise says about the earth's future.
"Everything that is on the earth shall die," says the Lord to him, "but I will establish my covenant with you." So He discloses the secret: God would establish the earth according to His own purpose, in resurrection, stability, and beauty.
The verse holds two settled decisions side by side, and the second is as firm as the first.
However, if God ordained judgment, He ordained salvation just as surely. God established a covenant with Noah to this effect: He would preserve Noah and his family by means of the ark. They were the only exception to the awesome destruction of man's civilization.
Knowing the outcome in advance did not spare Noah the years of work.
So God made His intention known to the man who believed Him. He would deliver Noah, his wife and his family in the way appointed. Carrying this out was a fitting and remarkable test of Noah's faith. It meant a long time of waiting, continuous labour, and entire but active submission to God's word. Noah kept two things before his spirit. First, the world was doomed, and judgment would fall on it at God's hand because of its wrongdoing. Second, he and his family would without doubt be sheltered from it in the ark, with the creatures needed to renew the world after the flood.
The shelter named here is not for Noah alone. His household enters on the strength of his faith, not their own.
The same ark that lay open to him lay open to them also. Why? Was it because they had faith? No; but because he had, and they were connected with him. God gave him a blank cheque for himself and his family, and it fell to him to fill it up by bringing them in along with him.
Translations differ over one word here. Some read "go into the ark." One writer defends "come," and finds the gospel in the difference.
God does not say, Go into the ark, but Come into the ark. He was "in Christ" (2 Cor. 5:19), and when He invites them to Christ, He invites them to Himself. When the storm-threatened traveller comes to make the divine Ark his refuge and home, he finds that Another is there to welcome him. God has made it His own retreat and tent… The word is altered to 'go' in a current translation of Genesis. I cannot see any ground for this needless change. It is true that boh is sometimes rendered 'go', when the context seems to require it. But in the vast majority of cases where it is used, it means 'come'.
The details of its build carry the meaning — a window above, and a single door.
The ark had a window above — looking towards Heaven and not upon the earth and its judgment beneath. It had one door and only one, in the side. All of it applies wonderfully to Christ and salvation. The flood of waters came and covered everything, so that the end of all flesh came. That flood is a picture of the death of Christ. In His death, sentence was passed on all flesh and carried out. The waves and billows rolled over His innocent head. He passed through death and judgment for us. He has made Himself our perfect ark, our hiding place. In Him we are lifted above the judgment waters.
- Covenant — Scripture's first covenant is spoken here, before the ark was built or the waters came. God sets it out in full after the flood.
- Purpose — Everything on the earth would die. Yet the promise held an earth established according to God's purpose — in resurrection, stability and beauty.
- Certainty — God ordained judgment. He ordained salvation just as surely. The ark was the one exception He had fixed.
- Household — The ark lay open to Noah's family because it lay open to him. His faith, not theirs, brought them in.
- Refuge — The call is "come," not "go." God made the ark His own dwelling, so the one who enters finds Another there. Christ is that ark now: He passed through judgment, and in Him we are lifted above the waters.
And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every [sort] shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep [them] alive with thee they shall be male and female.
God has announced the flood and ordered the ark; now He turns to its cargo — not just eight people, but a living sample of every kind of creature on earth. Why rescue animals from a judgment caused by human sin, and why two of each?
The name used for God in this chapter shapes the instruction. One writer says the order here is about the Maker keeping His creatures alive, not about His moral dealings with anyone.
So in Genesis 6 it says that "the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence." It is not "Jehovah" now but "God." … What does He do then? He directs the ark to be made. For what end? The preservation of the creatures that needed the ark. So He orders that two of every kind should be taken into the ark. We can easily see how fitting this is. It is simply a measure for keeping the creature in being by God the Creator, despite the judgment about to fall. It has nothing to do with moral relationships. … Here, then, we only hear of pairs entering.
Genesis 7 tells Noah to take clean animals by sevens. Some critics call that a second, contradictory account. One writer answers that the twos and the sevens belong together in one text, under the two names for God found there.
When Jehovah is stating His thoughts about Noah, and giving His directions about His relationship with man and the earth, He tells Noah to take clean animals by sevens — still two and two, male and female. And they all go in two and two, as God had commanded. This ties the two names together in the text itself in a way that would make separating them difficult. The reason for distinguishing the clean animals (still two and two, male and female) is too obvious to cause the smallest difficulty. The twos refer, moreover, to male and female on a general principle. A person must be very hard pressed for a difficulty, or for a discovery, to find a contradiction here.
Gathering the pairs was part of a long assignment, with nothing to go on but God's word. Two settled convictions carried Noah through it.
Carrying this out was a fitting and remarkable test of Noah's faith. It involved a long wait, continuous labour, and complete but active submission to God's word. Noah kept two things before his spirit all the time. On the one hand, the world was doomed, and judgment would fall on it from God's hand because of its sins. On the other, he and his family would without doubt be sheltered from it in the ark, with the creatures needed to renew the world that would come after the flood.
The creatures aboard point beyond the flood itself.
The animals, clean and unclean, taken into the ark, along with the birds of the air, give us the hint that creation will share the blessed effects of salvation. The later prophetic word, and Romans 8:19-23, tell us of a coming deliverance of groaning creation.
Another writer goes further and uses the language of redemption.
Some of every sort are carried with Noah from the place of death into the ark of salvation. The "eight souls," as Peter calls them, but with them remnants of the animals of the earth, small and great, winged birds and creeping things — all are housed and redeemed together with Noah.
Critics said no ship could hold them all. One writer answers from the ark's own size.
It has been proved, over and over again, that the ark was big enough. People have calculated that it was a vessel of more than forty-two thousand tons: four hundred and fifty feet long, seventy-five broad, and forty-five high. That is eighteen times as much as the largest warship. One warship can stow, say, a thousand men, with provisions, for a far longer time than the flood lasted, besides an immense weight of guns and shot. So it is clear that the ark could easily have received the animals that could not live in the water.
Commentators read the ark as a picture of Christ. It carries its passengers through judgment into what lies beyond.
The ark is Christ, and the flood it saves through is the judgment of the whole world, which perished in it. Those preserved come through to a new world that emerges from the waters. There the sweet savour of accepted sacrifice secures lasting blessing.
- Creator. Here God acts as Maker. The pairs keep every kind alive through a judgment aimed at human sin.
- Command. Two of each, male and female, is the least life needs to continue. The sevens of chapter 7 serve another purpose. They are not a rival account.
- Carried. Two certainties carried Noah through the long wait: the world was doomed, and the ark would hold.
- Creation. The animals sheltered with Noah hint that creation itself will share in the deliverance promised in Romans 8.
- Comes through. Everyone inside comes out into a new world. The ark pictures Christ: in Him you pass through judgment rather than around it.
Of fowl after their kind, and of the cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of each shall go in to thee, to keep [them] alive.
God's instructions to Noah move from building the ark to filling it. Noah does not hunt the animals down; they come in to him. Two questions sit inside the verse. Why did God save the animals at all? And why do the pairs here become sevens of the clean animals one chapter later?
Here God acts as Maker of the earth, not in moral dealings with a person. One writer ties the pairs to that.
Then what does He do? He directs the ark to be made. For what purpose? The preservation of the creatures that needed the ark. So He orders that two of every kind should be taken into the ark. We can easily see why this is fitting. It is simply a measure by God the Creator to keep the creature going, despite the judgment about to fall. It has nothing to do with moral relationships.
Readers often stumble at the different numbers given in Genesis 6 and Genesis 7. The difference tracks the two names of God used in the two passages, and the animals themselves settle the matter by entering in pairs.
In the accounts where Elohim gives directions for saving the different kinds of creatures, He directs that two of every sort be taken, male and female, to keep them alive. Nothing could be simpler than the meaning of this. Jehovah then states His thoughts about Noah, and gives His directions about His relationship with man and the earth. He tells Noah to take clean animals by sevens, still two and two, male and female. And they all go in two and two, as Elohim had commanded.
The animals move toward Noah. One writer turns that into a warning for people today.
From east, west, north, and south, the hand of God gathered the dumb creatures. The people must have thought it strange when those animals went in. They were wiser than men. They obeyed the call of God. Men would not then, and many will not now, so God says, "The ox knows its owner, and the donkey its master's crib, but Israel does not know, my people do not understand" (Isa. 1:3). These animals knew the call of their Creator, and they passed in safely, but man paid no attention.
The phrase looks past the flood. What enters the ark will renew the world after the flood. Noah had to hold that in mind through years of building.
Carrying this out was a fitting and remarkable test of Noah's faith. It meant a long wait, continuous labour, and complete but active submission to God's word. Noah kept two things constantly before his spirit. One: the world was doomed, and judgment would fall on it from God's hand because of its sins. The other: he and his family would without doubt be sheltered from it in the ark, with the creatures needed to renew the world that would come after the flood.
The creatures kept alive point past their own survival.
The animals, clean and unclean, taken into the ark, along with the birds of the air, hint that creation will share in the blessed effects of salvation. The later prophetic word, and Romans 8:19-23, tell us of a coming deliverance for groaning creation.
One writer reads the ark that held them all as a picture of something greater.
For plainly, the ark is Christ, and the flood it saves through is the judgment of the whole world, which perished in it. Those preserved come through to a new world which rises out of the waters. There the sweet aroma of accepted sacrifice secures lasting blessing.
- Creator. The pairs are God acting as Maker, keeping every kind alive through the coming judgment.
- Call. The creatures are not captured but come; they answered the call of their Creator when men would not.
- Count. Two here, sevens of the clean later. That is not a contradiction. Elohim, the Creator, orders the pairs; Jehovah, dealing with Noah in relationship, names the sevens.
- Continuity. "To keep them alive" means the ark carried the seed of the world to come. Noah's long labour was faith holding onto that.
- Christ. Writers read the ark as a figure of Christ. The flood falls, the vessel rises, and everything inside — man and creature alike — reaches a new world.
And take thou of all food that is eaten, and gather [it] to thee, that it may be for food for thee and for them.
Commentary for this verse has not been generated yet.
And Noah did it; according to all that God had commanded him, so did he.
Genesis 6 ends with judgment announced and an ark measured out in detail. Nothing here tells us how Noah felt about the task — only that he did what God said, and did all of it.
Nothing in the world around Noah supported what he had been told. The word itself held him steady.
All that the man of faith needs is to know that God has spoken; this imparts perfect certainty to his soul. "Thus says the Lord" settles everything. A single line of Sacred Scripture is a full answer to all the reasonings and all the imaginations of the human mind. When someone has the word of God as the basis of his convictions, he can stand calmly against the full tide of human opinion and prejudice. It was the word of God which sustained the heart of Noah during his long course of service. How could Noah have preached righteousness for 120 years if he had not had the word of God as the ground of his preaching? How could he have withstood the scoffs and sneers of an unbelieving world? How could he have kept on testifying of a judgment to come, when not a cloud appeared on the world's horizon? Impossible.
The plan came with the command. That left Noah with only one concern.
So Noah started on his great work of preparing an ark to save his household. God was the Architect, so Noah did not need to worry about its design. His only concern must have been to carry out rightly what God had designed. A single man receives a commission to build a gigantic ship, and that, it seems, in the middle of dry land! … But what God said, Noah did, and he proved that God's command was his enabling.
The verse says it twice: Noah did it, and he did all of it. His response matches the instructions in every detail.
The great thing to notice in Noah, warned of the coming catastrophe, is his simple obedience to the voice of God. God gave the dimensions of the ark — the window, the door, and the different decks. Noah made every part of it exactly as God commanded.
That obedience has a root. It grows out of faith, and it runs the opposite way to a life steered by sight.
In Hebrews 11 we find the principle of his walk. It was faith, not sight… It was faith working holy obedience — "Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him." How simple, how blessed, and how opposite to the walk by sense and sight! That walk leads us in self-will to do the very thing God commanded not to be done.
This was not a single decision. He had to take the task up again every morning, while nothing in the sky changed.
Carrying this out was a fitting and remarkable test of Noah's faith. It meant a long time of waiting, continuous labour, and complete but active submission to God's word. Noah kept two things before his spirit at all times. One was that the world was doomed, and that judgment would fall on it at God's hand because of its sins. The other was that he and his family would beyond doubt find shelter from it in the ark.
Doing all that God commanded also meant looking absurd for the whole stretch of it.
Faith here for a hundred and twenty years seemed to be a fool. Noah was building a ship for dry ground. His neighbours may well have mocked him. But he saw the thing that was invisible.
The command was not a burden laid on Noah for its own sake.
He had only to build an ark according to God's command. He would soon find he was building something for his own safety. Obedience was his blessing.
For readers now, the shelter is not one we construct.
Noah's faith recognised that the world was a judged scene… Noah prepared an ark for the saving of his house. We do not have to prepare an ark. But we have to accept the shelter of the death of Christ, and the end of all flesh before God. Then we find how the power of God's salvation carries us through a judged scene.
- God spoke. "Thus says the Lord" settled everything for Noah. The word, not the weather, was the ground he stood on.
- God designed. God was the Architect of the ark. Noah's one concern was to build exactly what God had designed — and God's command was his enabling.
- Noah did all. Window, door, decks, dimensions: he made every part exactly as God commanded. Faith working holy obedience — the opposite of walking by sight.
- Noah kept doing. For a hundred and twenty years he waited, worked and submitted. The neighbours laughed at a ship on dry ground.
- Noah was saved. He built for God and found he had built his own safety — obedience was his blessing. We build nothing; we take shelter in the death of Christ.