And Jehovah said to Noah, Go into the ark, thou and all thy house; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.
Genesis 7 opens with God speaking to one man while the rest of the world stands under sentence. Two phrases carry the weight of the verse: "you and all your household," and "I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation."
The previous chapter speaks of God as Creator. Here the name is Jehovah — the LORD. One writer says the whole tone changes with it.
It is no longer the faithful Creator merely, but special relationship, and ends of a higher and more intimate nature. So we have a quite new call to the patriarch as one who had found grace in the eyes of Jehovah and was righteous before Him.
The instructions that follow point the same way. The clean animals come by sevens, the unclean by twos — a difference no mere rescue operation would need.
"Come into the ark," He says, "for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation." "Righteous" — is this about creation as such? It is not; it is about moral relationship... God is not just providing for the survival of the creature. He is providing, with marked completeness, for sacrifice.
Genesis says Noah found grace before it says God saw him righteous. The order matters.
But "Noah found grace in the eyes of Jehovah," that is, divine favour rested on him; righteous in himself, no doubt, but all through grace of course... In the next chapter God says of Noah, "You I have seen righteous before me in this generation." But the earth was completely filled with violence.
One writer marks the difference between Noah and a believer today.
Only of Noah could God say, "You I have seen righteous before Me in this generation" (Gen. 7:1). Righteousness for men was not fully accomplished until the death and resurrection of Christ. Noah became an heir of that righteousness. The believer of today is not an heir of righteousness, for he has it.
The ESV reads "Go into the ark," while older translations read "Come." Commentators differ over how much the verb carries. One finds real beauty in "Come":
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. The traveller under threat of the storm comes to make the divine Ark his refuge and home. He discovers that Another is there to welcome him.
Another writer holds that the verb is not decisive:
A good deal is sometimes made of the word "Come"... The verb may be either, as best suits the context. Where no emphasis of this kind is called for, either word may be used correctly, as here.
This verse is where a pattern in God's dealings first surfaces.
The first verse of Genesis 7 gives us the first instance of how God links a man's house with himself in His dealings with men on earth. Here "you and all your household" occurs for the first time. Salvation from judgment poured out on earth is before us here, but in Acts 16:31 the same principle holds good in regard to eternal salvation.
Did the rest of the family qualify on their own? One writer answers from what happened later.
Someone may object that all the members of the household were probably "righteous" before God too. But the later history of one of them — Ham (Gen. 9:22-25) — forbids the thought. So the statement loses none of its force: God delivered Noah's family from the judgment of the flood because of the faith of its head. True, it was not salvation itself; but it was a picture of it (1 Peter 3:20-21).
Verse 1 calls Noah in. Verse 16 completes it: God shuts the door with His own hand.
Jehovah Himself had invited him in. We read in Genesis 7:1, "Come, you and all your household, into the ark." And when he had taken his place there, we read, "the LORD shut him in." Here was full and perfect security for all within. Jehovah kept the door... The Lord secured the door with His own almighty hand. He left Noah the window. From it Noah could look upward to the place where all the judgment had come from, and see that no judgment remained for him.
- Grace first. Noah found grace before God called him righteous. His righteous walk flowed from that favour, not the other way round.
- Grace names. God is named Jehovah here, not simply Creator. That marks a relationship, not just the saving of a species — and the animals taken for sacrifice confirm it.
- Grace invites. One writer hears a call to come, with God Himself already inside the refuge to welcome Noah. Another holds that the verb settles nothing.
- Grace widens. "You and all your household" appears for the first time here. Ham's later history shows God spared the house through the faith of its head.
- Grace secures. God invited Noah in, then shut him in. He left only a window facing up — the hand that sent the flood held the door.
Of all clean beasts thou shalt take to thee by sevens, a male and its female; but of the beasts that are not clean two, a male and its female.
Noah's last instructions before the flood single out one difference: the clean animals come aboard in sevens, the unclean only in pairs. That raises two questions — why God wants more of one kind, and how Noah knew which was which before any law listed them.
Two names for God run through the flood story. One writer ties the difference in numbers to the difference in names.
As to the "two of every sort" in chapter 7, and the "seven clean" in verses 2 and 3: the first were male and female, to keep them alive. When they were clean beasts, he took fourteen. I have no doubt the "clean" animals were the ones people usually offered in sacrifice. Who would offer a ravenous wild beast in sacrifice to God, but sheep or oxen? This difference between provision for the race and provision for sacrifice is tied to the different use of the two names: God (Elohim) and the LORD (Jehovah).
The way God speaks here shows more than concern for survival.
Is this only about keeping the creatures alive? No. It is the language of One who has special relationships with Noah and with his family… God is providing not merely for the creature to continue, but with marked completeness for sacrifice. So we see His perfect care to maintain His rights and His place as the One who governed morally.
The ESV reads "seven pairs" here, while older translations read "by sevens," and commentators differ on the count. Read as seven animals, six make three breeding pairs. The one left over has another purpose, seen when Noah steps out onto dry ground.
And now we discover why the clean animals were taken into the ark in sevens and the unclean only in twos… But why the odd one in the seven? Because they were to be offered as a burnt offering at the very start of the renewed earth. The Lord knew the flood had made no change in human nature. Even in Noah and his family it was the same after the flood as before… so from the very start the new world could only continue on the basis of sacrifice.
The command in the ark and the altar after it belong together, and the whole standing of the world after the flood rests on what happened there.
So we find Jehovah directing Noah to take to him of all clean animals by sevens, but of those not clean two, a male and its female, to enter the ark. And on this Noah acted when after the deluge he built an altar as his first recorded act, and offered up burnt offerings of every clean beast and of all clean birds. For the tenure of the post-flood earth hung on sacrifice.
The word "clean" later covers what may be eaten. Here it cannot mean that yet.
The first time we read of clean and unclean animals is when Noah went into the ark… We are not told how Noah told them apart. But it shows that in early days there was a distinction between clean and unclean. Those called 'clean' were doubtless clean for sacrifice, and not for food. Nothing is said of man eating animal food till after the flood, and then God gave "every moving thing" for food.
Scripture never says where Noah got his list, and commentators differ. One writer argues from the moral teaching in the later law:
Noah knew well before the flood which creatures made an acceptable sacrifice (Gen. 7:2), though how he learned it was never recorded. But in the law we read God's own definition of clean beasts and clean birds, and we find moral teaching tied to the subject (Lev. 11). We must conclude that no man could have discovered by natural intuition which creatures God would count clean and which He would not.
Darby does not settle the question.
It may have been instinct in man in a way at first, and that God put His positive sanction on it when He gave the law.
Some readers set this verse against the earlier order to bring in two of every sort, as if two accounts had been stitched together. On the other reading, the sevens are counted in pairs.
The LORD (Jehovah) is stating His thoughts about Noah and giving His directions about His relationship with man and the earth. So He tells Noah to take clean beasts by sevens, still two and two, male and female. And they all go in two and two, as God (Elohim) had commanded. The text itself ties the two names together in a way that would make separating them difficult… You would have to be very hard pressed for a difficulty, or for a discovery, to find a contradiction here.
- Name. The order for sevens comes from the LORD, not just from God the Creator. It speaks of relationship, not only of keeping species alive.
- Purpose. The extra clean beasts are for sacrifice, beyond the pairs needed to keep every kind alive.
- Seventh. On one reading, the odd animal in each seven has no mate. It goes on the altar when the ark opens.
- Foundation. Human nature came out of the flood unchanged, so the renewed earth could only stand on sacrifice.
- Knowledge. The clean and unclean line was known before any written law. Writers differ on whether God taught him or whether it began as instinct that God later confirmed.
Also of the fowl of the heavens by sevens, male and female; to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7 opens with the LORD calling Noah into the ark and sorting the animals into two groups: pairs of most kinds, sevens of the clean. Verse 3 puts the birds in the larger group, and gives the reason: to keep their offspring alive across the whole earth.
Commentators read the extra animals as provision for sacrifice, not just a surplus for breeding. The writers quoted here use an older translation, which says "by sevens" where the ESV says "seven pairs."
As to the "two of every sort" in chapter 7, and "seven clean" in verses 2, 3, the first were male and female, to keep them alive; when they were clean beasts, he took fourteen. I have no doubt the "clean" were the ones people usually gave for sacrifices. Who would offer a ravenous wild beast in sacrifice to God, but sheep or oxen?
Commentators differ on the count. Others read seven animals, with one left over after three pairs, and find that odd one's purpose on the far side of the flood.
And now we discover why Noah took the clean animals into the ark in sevens and the unclean only in twos… But why the odd one in the seven? Because Noah was to offer them up as a burnt offering at the very start of the renewed earth. The Lord knew that the flood had made no change in human nature… and so from the very start the new world could only continue on the basis of sacrifice.
The instructions in chapter 6 and those here use different names for God. Writers treat that change as the key to the different numbers. The older translation says "Jehovah" where the ESV says "the LORD."
The first mention is this: "Two of every sort shall come to you, Noah, to keep them alive." That is God's (Elohim's) care of His creatures, to preserve every kind alive on the earth. But when we read of His taking "of every clean beast by sevens, his male and his female," it is God as Jehovah who speaks. And why? Because He is now arranging, as in relationship with man, for sacrifices — types of Christ.
The birds of the air, named in this verse, are read along the same line — not merely creatures preserved, but a supply held ready for God.
It is God providing not for the perpetuation of the creature merely, but with marked completeness for sacrifice. As a result we have this perfect care over the maintenance of His rights and place as One who governed morally. "And Noah did according to all that Jehovah commanded."
Some readers set the "two of every sort" of chapter 6 against the sevens here and see a clash. One writer answers that the text itself ties the two accounts together.
Jehovah states His thoughts about Noah, and gives His directions about His relationship with man and the earth. So He tells Noah to take clean beasts by sevens — still two and two, male and female. And they all go in two and two, as Elohim had commanded. That ties the two names together in the text itself, in a way that would make separating them difficult… The birds of the air, which went in by sevens, plainly mean clean ones too, as Genesis 8:20 shows.
Nothing here explains what makes a creature clean. The verse takes it for granted that Noah already knows.
As a general principle, the difference between clean and unclean was known in early days. So we find Jehovah directing Noah to take all clean animals by sevens. But of those not clean he was to take two, a male and its female, into the ark. Noah acted on this. After the flood, his first recorded act was to build an altar and offer up burnt offerings of every clean beast and of all clean birds. For the tenure of the post-flood earth hung on sacrifice.
The reason given in verse 3 looks past the ark to the whole earth. One writer explains why the larger number mattered.
Had there been only "two of every sort," offering some in sacrifice would have put an end to those particular kinds of creatures. So the "sevens" left plenty of room both for sacrifices and "to keep seed alive on the face of all the earth."
Another writer looks further ahead, to what the rescued animals point toward.
The beasts, clean and unclean, taken into the ark, as well as 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.
- Preserved. Every kind enters in pairs. After the judgment the earth still has its living creatures. The waters carry creation through; they do not sweep it away.
- Doubled. The clean beasts and birds go in by sevens. That is more than survival needs, because sacrifice is in view as well as breeding.
- Offered. The extra clean animals meet the altar Noah builds when he steps out. The renewed world begins on the ground of sacrifice.
- Named. God the Creator commands the pairs. The LORD commands the sevens, speaking as One in relationship with man. The two names explain the two numbers; they do not contradict each other.
- Widened. The purpose reaches "the face of all the earth." The sevens leave room for sacrifice and for survival. Commentators see in the rescued animals a hint that creation itself will share in salvation.
For in yet seven days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living being which I have made will I destroy from the ground.
God has already told Noah to go into the ark. Now He starts a clock. One week of waiting, then rain for forty days and nights, then everything He made wiped off the ground. Why the extra week? What does forty mean? And why is rain named here for the first time in the Bible?
Earlier God had told Noah in general terms that judgment was coming. This verse fixes the timing down to the day.
God warned Noah about things not yet seen, both on the ground of a special relationship and on the ground of His nature. Genesis 7:4 then follows that general warning with precise details. Just as it was predicted, so it happened, right on time, as Scripture plainly states. No history could be more exact, or more full of detail in so few words.
The world had already had one hundred and twenty years of warning. This last week was extra.
At last the one hundred and twenty promised years ran out, and then God gave a guilty world seven extra days of grace... He did not promise these seven days, but He gave them. How like God. There is no promise of seven days of grace to you. Come to Jesus today.
Those seven days also gave one last piece of evidence: the animals streaming into the ark. One writer suggests the delay worked the other way on people's minds.
Men saw the huge number of animals coming to the ark. Then they saw Noah's whole family go into this finished, giant vessel. By then, at least, they ought to have realized that this project did not come out of Noah's imagination... But God gave men another week to change their minds. Perhaps, as those few days passed, people grew more confident each day that nothing was going to happen, instead of getting seriously worried.
Until this verse, Scripture never mentions water falling from the sky. Genesis 2 describes another way the ground got its water.
Genesis 2:6 shows that a mist rose from the earth itself and kept the plant life alive, with no water coming down from above. There were waters "above the firmament" (Genesis 1:7), but they had not yet come down as showers on the earth. Not until Genesis 7:4 do we read of rain. Some think that the watering of the earth by mist and not rain persisted until the time of the flood. It may have been so.
Forty days and nights is not a random number. One writer traces the same span through Scripture, and shows where the 120 years came from.
The flood came down for forty days, and that number shows a period of testing. God tested Israel forty days while He gave the law, and forty years in all in the wilderness. The Lord was tempted forty days. Spies searched Canaan for forty days. Jonah's warning call to Nineveh was forty days... But God's patience sometimes lengthens the time of testing. In that case forty is multiplied again by three, the divine number, bringing us to 120. That is the time through which the long-suffering of God waited while Noah preached. Notice that this testing, while it destroys all else, lifts the ark up on its surface (Gen. 7:18).
The threat covers every living thing, and it fell exactly as God said. But it never fell without notice.
God never destroys without warning. So He gave a hundred and twenty years' notice of the coming ruin. Through those years men had the ministry of "Noah, a preacher of righteousness." In that scornful age the result was nothing: no one was saved but Noah and his household... Seven days after the hand of God shut the door of the ark, the blow fell, and the rain kept falling for forty days and forty nights without a break.
One writer asks how that generation could be caught out after so much warning.
"They did not know." Had they not had plenty of testimony? Plenty. For a hundred and twenty years Noah, the "preacher of righteousness," pointed to the coming storm, which Enoch had predicted too. They had plenty of testimony, but they paid no attention to it. How dull their ears were! People were taken by surprise in Noah's day, and so will they be when He Himself returns to judge the earth as Son of Man.
- Warned — God gave notice first. One hundred and twenty years of Noah's preaching, then a date for what was coming.
- Given — the seven days were an extra mercy, not part of the original promise; God added time no one had asked for.
- Wasted — the extra week may have hardened rather than softened. As nothing happened day by day, people grew more confident, not more concerned.
- Tested — forty is the span of testing all through Scripture. The same waters that destroyed everything else lifted the ark.
- Repeated — Jesus tied this scene to His own return. The verdict on that generation: they did not know until the flood came.
And Noah did according to all that Jehovah had commanded him.
Genesis 7:5 closes God's final instructions before the flood: Noah did every single thing he was told. But what had God commanded, why is He called "the LORD" here, and what makes a man act on a warning about something no one has ever seen?
The commands in view came just before: which animals to take, and a countdown of seven days. One writer finds kindness in that short delay.
Next, we see the LORD's thoughtful care. He gave notice of only seven days before the flood, so that Noah and his family could enjoy their deliverance, and the goodness of their Deliverer, with calmer hearts. The world of unbelievers had refused the warning that sounded through one hundred and twenty years. The seven days' notice was a fresh proof of gracious concern for those who believed.
The word "all" carries the weight of the verse. Noah chose nothing for himself, and he left nothing out.
God warned Noah of the coming catastrophe. The great thing to notice in him 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 everything according to what was commanded.
The names for God shift back and forth across these chapters. One writer traces the pattern and shows that each name is chosen with care.
"Jehovah" is a relationship name, one specially revealed; it is not the Creator's name, the name of the divine Being... The earth (Genesis 6) was corrupt before God as such. Yet the writer always speaks of Jehovah and His dealings. And "God" deals with the earth as so corrupted; again, verse 22, as "God" commanded him, not Jehovah. Then in Genesis 7 Jehovah said to Noah, and as Jehovah (v. 5) commanded him; then as God commanded him (v. 9), and again as God commanded him, and Jehovah shut him in (v. 16).
"Jehovah" is the name printed as "the LORD" in most Bibles. So verse 5 uses the relationship name: the God who spoke to Noah is the God he obeyed.
There was no cloud on the horizon when Noah acted. Everything he did rested on a word about things not yet visible.
When God spoke to Noah of judgment impending, there was no sign of it. It was "not seen as yet"; but the word of God made it a present reality to the heart that was enabled to mix that word with faith. Faith does not wait to see a thing before it believes.
Nor did Noah wait until the plan made sense to him. Understanding came the other way round.
Noah believed what he did not understand at first, and acted on his faith. Soon he got understanding. Faith understands because faith believes God. Where unbelief sees a difficulty, faith does not. Noah believed, acted, and then understood.
Being righteous was not what carried Noah through. Another writer traces where his safety actually came from, and what his obedience said to the world.
Noah's personal character was no exemption from the threatened flood. His life and safety depended solely on his obedience to the warning voice of God. Because he believed in God he listened to this special revelation... Noah was shut into the ark before God brought His word to pass. God shut him in. He made secure His own work of salvation before He laid His judgment on the works of men... He condemned the world by his obedience to the word of God. His testimony was a witness of their madness as they carried on in their old way, paying no attention.
One writer lists this verse among Noah's honours. Then he sets beside it what happened later.
He was an obedient servant; he did according to all that the LORD commanded him (Genesis 7:5)... Despite all this high favour and special experience, as soon as Noah was left to his own will, under Satan's influence he became a slave to lust... We do well to be watchful: "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." ... A Christian may have spent forty years with the highest privileges, in the best conditions for growth toward God. He is still not immune from failure.
- Word. God spoke first — one hundred and twenty years of warning, then seven days' notice, a fresh proof of His concern for those who believed.
- Faith. No sign of a flood was in view. Noah acted on a word about things not seen, and understanding came after the believing.
- Obedience. "All" is the key word: the dimensions, the decks, the door — Noah did every part of it as commanded.
- Shelter. His character did not exempt him from judgment. Obedience put him inside the ark, and God Himself shut the door before the waters came.
- Watchfulness. The same obedient man later fell. The verse honours him, but it does not make him safe: "Let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."
And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was on the earth.
Genesis 7:6 fixes the flood to a single point in one man's life: the year he turned six hundred. That small line of chronology marks the end of God's patience with a whole world. It raises two questions: what filled those six hundred years, and why the record changes its tone right here.
Most of Noah's six hundred years pass without a headline. One writer weighs how little the record says about the first four-fifths of that span:
When Noah was born, over a thousand years had passed since sin entered the world, at the lowest estimate. Six hundred years later the flood would sweep away the world of the ungodly. Divide those six hundred years into five equal parts. Four of the five passed with nothing put on record except the all-important fact that he was "a righteous man, blameless in his generation," and that he "walked with God."
That quiet stretch was not wasted time. It was the groundwork for the final fifth:
Four-fifths of the period passed with little happening. Yet during those years this steady walk with God laid the foundation for the activity and the witness of the final fifth — the one hundred and twenty years just before the flood. That was the period when "God's patience waited … while the ark was being prepared" (1 Peter 3:20), and also of the witness Noah gave as "a herald of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5).
Those closing years were not just construction time. The ark itself preached, plank by plank:
Is not this same care for His people seen in the long respite granted to the people before the flood? Here we see the longsuffering of God, who bore long with the sinners before the flood and gave them room for repentance. 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. More than that, God could do nothing until Noah was safe in the ark, after He Himself had shut him in. Even then there was a respite of seven days (perfect forbearance).
Noah himself worked without knowing the deadline. One writer draws attention to what God withheld:
The Lord God had fixed 120 years as the term of His longsuffering. Noah's preaching, as well as ark-building, was to be for that period. Such was the purpose of God. But Noah was told nothing of this appointed interval. The Lord kept back all mention of the 120 years.
The opening of Genesis 7 says "the LORD," while this verse and the ones after it say "God." One writer reads that change as a move from private favour to public judgment:
The general statement that follows in verses 6-10 confirms the special force of these five verses all the more. There "God" appears rather than Jehovah, and so nothing of moral relationship in particular. Here we have Noah's age when the flood came — six hundred years — and the entrance of himself and all his house into the ark… He who enjoyed the favour of Jehovah had the earlier communication in grace. Nobody could fail to be aware of God's judgment when it came.
The same writer treats the change of names as evidence of design rather than of stitched-together documents:
The theory of Elohistic and Jehovistic documents so fails to account for the use of the divine names, as well as the other features of the text… From verse 6 we have Noah's action in view of Elohim's word as such, where accordingly the entrance of the creatures, clean or unclean, two and two, is named as in Genesis 6; and all the more strikingly here, because in the earlier verses the clean by sevens had been commanded by Jehovah, as suited His dealings with His own.
The record does not stop at Noah's age. A few verses later it gives the day itself:
In verse 11 God gives the date of the beginning of the flood in relation to the age of Noah. He gives not only the general time, but the exact day: the 17th day of the second month, in Noah's 600th year. The many dates, names and places recorded in Scripture are an invitation to anyone to check the accuracy of the word of God as he pleases.
One writer reads Noah as a picture of every believer, and Noah's day as a picture of ours. What made Noah look foolish was how long normal life had lasted:
Noah pictures the believer in general, as one who flees to Christ for refuge from the wrath to come… There is a sense in which the whole time of gospel witness matches Noah's days… It was the long stretch of undisturbed prosperity that made the builder of the ark look like a fool to those whose day was nearly over. In the same way we are warned that the Destroyer will appear when men begin to think that peace and safety are about to crown a world whose earlier generations have seen such strange changes.
- Walk first. Four-fifths of Noah's six hundred years hold no recorded event. The record says only that he was righteous and walked with God. That hidden walk carried the visible work.
- Then witness. The last hundred and twenty years turned that walk into building and preaching. Every hammer stroke was a warning to those who watched.
- Patience has a term. God fixed the length of His longsuffering but never told Noah the number. The builder worked by obedience, not by countdown.
- Then the name changes. From this verse on the record says "God" rather than "Jehovah." Grace had spoken in private. Judgment now lands where no one could miss it.
- And it dates itself. Noah's six hundredth year, second month, seventeenth day. The date is precise enough to check, and the pattern will return.
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.
Genesis 7:7 records eight people leaving the old world and stepping into the ark, while the sky was still dry. Why did they go in, and why did a whole household go in on the strength of one man?
Noah moved because of waters no one could see yet. One writer explains what made that possible:
When God spoke to Noah of judgment coming, there was no sign of it. It was "not seen as yet"; but the word of God made it a present reality to the heart that was able to mix that word with faith. Faith does not wait to see a thing before it believes, for "faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ."
(The older translation reads "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.")
Going in was one plain act, and it cut them off from everything outside:
The last day came, however. Each of the four men and four women took the last decisive step that secured their preservation from destruction. That step came when each of them planted one foot on the ark and lifted the other off the earth under judgment. It was impossible to have one foot in and one foot out. It was either both feet in, or both feet out. This is a useful parable for gospel preachers today. Their action agreed with God's judgment against the world. It also expressed their faith in the way of salvation God had appointed.
The verse names sons, a wife, and sons' wives. Later events rule out the idea that each of them earned a place:
The Lord commands Noah to enter the ark with his house on this ground: "for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation." Someone might object that all the members of the household were probably "righteous" before God too. The later history of one of them — Ham — forbids that thought. So nothing weakens the statement: God delivered the family of Noah from the judgment of the flood because of the faith of its head.
One writer notices who was not in that group:
The three sons of Noah, all married men, did not carry one infant into the ark. Eight adult persons passed through the flood. What a touch this is, showing God's thoughtful planning, His arranging and tender care! It turns up in such an unexpected place, and it may well comfort many who face trials in their circumstances.
They entered ahead of the flood, not during it. Their safety rested on whose hand shut them in:
Noah's story was now nothing less than safety and deliverance. He held it with the fullest security and the clearest right, in an hour of most solemn judgment. And this is the salvation of the gospel… The One who decided within Himself to judge the world had also told His chosen ones the way of escape. It was the hand which was about to let the waters out that was now shutting Noah in. Could they then prevail against him? Just as impossible!
Outside, ordinary life carried on to the last hour. One writer asks what was actually wrong with it:
"They were eating and drinking and marrying and being given in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all" (Luke 17:26-27). There was nothing wrong in any of these things, looked at in themselves. The wrong was not in the things done, but in the doers of them. They could do every one of these things in the fear of the Lord, and to the glory of His holy name, if only they did them in faith.
Entering was not the end of the story. One writer traces where the door led:
He entered the ark before the flood, and God shut him in. He was as safe as God could make him. Even so, no one could yet call him saved: he was still to be brought safely through the water. The water was God's judgment, and it overwhelmed the world. Noah goes through it. He enters the ark in the old world, goes through the water, the judgment, and comes out in the new world. He could not be saved except by going through.
- Warned — Noah went in for waters no one could yet see; God's word, believed, made the flood a present fact.
- Went — one step took both feet off the condemned ground; there was no standing half in.
- Whole house — the family entered on the faith of its head, and even the make-up of the eight shows God's care.
- Walled in — the hand that released the waters had already closed the door; safety was as secure as God Himself.
- Water-borne — the ark did not avoid the judgment but carried them through it, out into a new world.
Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowl, and of everything that creeps on the ground,
Here the ark's passengers are named in four groups, and the next verse says they went in two by two. Two questions follow. Why pairs, when verse 2 asked for seven of every clean kind? And why are animals called clean or unclean here, when no rule has yet been given to explain the difference?
No rule here tells Noah how to tell one class from the other. What he did after the flood shows what the sorting was for.
The first time we read of clean and unclean animals is when Noah went into the ark. God told him to take seven pairs of each of the clean beasts and clean birds, and only two of the unclean. We are told nothing about how Noah told them apart, but it shows that in early days there was a distinction between the clean and the unclean. Those called "clean" were surely clean for sacrifice, and not for food, since Scripture says nothing of man eating animal food until after the flood... When Noah came out of the ark, he offered some of every clean beast and every clean bird as burnt offerings.
Verse 2 asked for seven of each clean kind. The next verse says they went in two and two. Commentators see no clash here: the twos describe male and female pairing, while the clean came in greater numbers. Two names for God appear in what follows — Elohim and Jehovah.
In the accounts of Elohim's directions for saving the different kinds of creatures, the order is to take two of every sort, the male and the female, to keep them alive. Nothing could be simpler than the meaning of this. When Jehovah states His thoughts about Noah, and gives His directions about His relationship with man and the earth, He tells Noah to take the clean beasts by sevens — still two and two, male and female. And they all go in two and two, just as Elohim had commanded.
Commentators read the switch between the two names as deliberate. Where He acts as Creator, pairs are enough. Where He deals with Noah in relationship, He asks for more.
In relation to His place as Creator, God preserved two of every sort. In relation to His own moral government, He would have seven taken into the ark — seven animals of each clean sort. Of the unclean, just enough would be there to preserve what He had made. So in the one case we have what was generally necessary. In the other we have what was special, and due to the relationship in which man stood with Jehovah.
This verse belongs to a paragraph where God is named as God rather than by His covenant name, and the wording matches that.
Clean beasts are named as well as unclean, and birds, and reptiles, as all going in. Yet only two and two, male and female, are spoken of, "as God commanded Noah," because the point here is simply to keep each race alive, high or low.
Commentators differ on whether verse 2 means seven animals of each clean kind or seven pairs. Read as seven, the number leaves three pairs and one over — and that one had a purpose waiting on dry ground.
Why the odd one in the seven? Because they were to be offered in sacrifice as a burnt offering at the very start of the renewed earth. The Lord knew that the flood had made no change in human nature. Even in Noah and his family it was the same after the flood as before it... and so from the outset the new world could only continue on the basis of sacrifice.
Noah did not have to hunt these animals down. They came — and their coming preached to the people watching.
From east, west, north, and south, the hand of God gathered the animals that cannot speak. The people must have thought it strange when those beasts went in. They were wiser than men. They obeyed the call of God... These animals knew the call of their Creator, and they passed in safely, but man paid no attention. Oh, sinner, what a state you are in! Just think — the very creatures stand as a testimony against you. They all came to a place of safety. Have you?
The ark held more than one family. Its passenger list points beyond the rescue of people.
The beasts, 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. Later prophetic words, and Romans 8:19-23, tell us of a coming deliverance for groaning creation.
- Commanded. Every passenger came in at God's word, not by instinct alone. That command covers the whole list, clean and unclean alike.
- Counted. Seven of each clean kind, two of the unclean, and all of them still male and female. Commentators see design here, not contradiction.
- Clean. Scripture first draws the clean and unclean line at the ark. It points forward to the altar, not back to an earlier rule.
- Consumed. The spare clean animal was for the burnt offering. Human nature came out of the flood unchanged, so the new world would rest on sacrifice.
- Carried. Beasts, birds and creeping things all rode out the judgment. That hints that creation itself will share in God's salvation.
there came two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
The animals go into the ark in pairs, and the verse ties the whole scene to one fact: God had commanded it. That raises two questions — why "God" here and not "the LORD", and how the pairs fit with the sevens of clean animals Noah was told to take.
Genesis 7 uses two names for God within a few verses. Commentators read the change as deliberate. In the five verses before, the name is Jehovah — the personal name printed as "the LORD". From verse 6 the account uses "God", which is Elohim in Hebrew.
The general statement that follows in verses 6-10 confirms the special force of these five verses. There "God" appears rather than Jehovah, and so nothing about moral relationship in particular. And this is so true that the account names clean beasts as well as unclean, and birds, and reptiles, as going in too. Yet it speaks of only two and two, male and female, "as God commanded Noah," because the point is simply to keep each kind alive, high or low.
"Male and female" belongs to the same thought. It is about keeping the kinds going, not about how anyone stands with God. That is why the name "God" fits here.
Some read verse 9 as clashing with the earlier instruction about sevens of clean animals. Both are true at once: the sevens were themselves counted in pairs.
When Jehovah states His thoughts about Noah, and gives His directions about His relationship with man and the earth, He tells Noah to take clean beasts by sevens — still two and two, male and female. And they all go in two and two, as Elohim had commanded. So the text itself ties the two names together. The reason for treating the clean beasts differently — still two and two, male and female — is too obvious to raise the smallest difficulty.
The clean animals were counted differently, and not only so that they would survive.
Here God provides not merely for keeping the creature alive, but with marked completeness for sacrifice. So we see His perfect care to keep His own rights and place as the One who governed morally.
The verse does not say Noah rounded the animals up. It says they went in. One writer draws a warning out of that.
From east, west, north, and south, the hand of God gathered the animals. It must have looked strange to the people when those animals went in. They were wiser than men. They obeyed the call of God. Men would not obey then, and many still do not. These animals knew the call of the Creator, and they passed in safely, but man paid no attention. Oh, sinner, what a case yours is. Imagine — the very creatures being a testimony against you.
Every detail of the ark and its passengers came by instruction — the numbers, the kinds, the food. That is the point of the closing clause of the verse.
God also gave instructions about all that the ark was to hold: seven of the clean creatures and two of the rest, male and female, with enough food for all. Nothing was left to arrangement or imagination; God ordered it all from first to last. This is worth noting, for here we have the first illustration of salvation that the Bible gives us.
Commentators read the ark itself as a picture of Christ:
The ark had a window above — looking towards Heaven and not on the earth and its judgment beneath. It had one door and only one, in the side. All of this applies to Christ and salvation... 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.
The ark held more than one family. The pairs of animals and birds point past their own survival.
The beasts, clean and unclean, taken into the ark, as well as 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.
- Commanded. Every number came from God's word, not Noah's planning: "nothing was left to arrangement or imagination."
- Gathered. Noah did not hunt the animals down; they came, obeying a call that the people around them ignored.
- Counted. Pairs and sevens do not conflict: the sevens were themselves male and female, the extras kept back for sacrifice.
- Preserved. The name "God" fits verse 9. Here the Creator keeps every kind alive through judgment.
- Restored. The animals saved with Noah hint that creation itself will share in God's deliverance.
And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth.
God had set a seven-day countdown, and this verse records that the week ran out just as He said. One short sentence raises two large questions: why did God wait, and what happened to the people who wasted the wait?
The 120 years of Genesis 6:3 had already run out before this last week began.
Noah preached all these years, and never got a convert, that I know of. Remember, a moment is coming when you will have heard the last word. So it was in Noah's day. In the end the one hundred and twenty promised years ran out. Then God gave a guilty world seven extra days of grace. He did not promise these seven days, but He gave them. How like God. If you want to be saved, you come to Jesus today. There is no promise of seven days of grace to you.
That week put the evidence in plain view.
Then a respite of seven days is given before the flood would come. This shows again the longsuffering of God. Men saw the large number of animals coming to the ark. They saw Noah's whole family go into this finished, gigantic vessel. At least by then they should have realized that the project was not just something Noah had dreamed up, even though rain had never fallen before. But God gave men another week to change their minds. Perhaps, as those few days passed, people grew more confident each day that nothing would happen, instead of growing worried as they should have.
Notice the order: the door closed first, and the water came after.
We see God's longsuffering here. He bore long with the sinners before the flood and gave them space for repentance. 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. More than that, God could do nothing until Noah was safe in the ark, after He Himself had shut him in. Even then He waited seven more days. And if Noah had taken twice as long to be shut up safe in the ark, judgment would have waited just as long.
The door that shut Noah in also shut everyone else out.
Once God had shut the door, no one could open it again. When the rain began to fall, others might be terrified enough to rush for shelter, but they could not get in. Once the door closed, it was too late. How solemn a lesson for those who neglect the salvation of their souls until too late!
Two deadlines stand in the record here, one long and one short.
So we have clear examples of God's ways in prophecy. There is the short, clearly marked interval of "seven days" in Genesis 7:10, when the blow was to fall. It came after a long and generous warning of "a hundred and twenty years" in Genesis 6:3. Both stand plainly in the record. Each is worthy of Him who alone could announce both with authority and fulfil both on time. If He executes judgment on a world that hardens itself in wickedness and refuses to believe His word, He also makes room to show His mercy. He shows it to those who keep His word in faith and obey Him, as Noah did, and so saved his household.
The warning came first to one man. The flood reached everyone.
The man who enjoyed Jehovah's favour received the earlier word in grace. When the judgment came, no one could miss it.
Jesus pointed back to the days of Noah when He described His own coming.
The Lord next refers to the days of Noah. It will be the same in His own days, when He comes as the Son of Man… "They ate, they drank, they married, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed all of them." Men forget too easily that a far more sweeping judgment awaits the world, on the pattern of these two acts of God — the flood in Noah's day, and the fire that fell on Sodom in Lot's day. The Lord waits, to save souls. Such is His longsuffering and grace, but He "is not slack concerning His promise as some men count slackness."
- Warned — 120 years of building and preaching gave the world notice; every nail Noah drove was a warning.
- Extended — the 120 years ran out, and then God added seven days He had never promised.
- Wasted — the loading of the ark should have convinced them; instead each quiet day made them surer nothing would happen.
- Sealed — judgment waited until Noah was safe inside; the door that shut him in shut everyone else out.
- Kept — the short deadline landed as surely as the long one; Jesus points back to Noah's day when He speaks of His own coming.
In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Genesis 7:11 fixes the exact day the old world ended. It also names two sources for the water, one below the earth and one above, and both raise one question: was this weather, or was it God?
One writer takes the exact date itself as part of the message:
In verse 11 God gives the date when the flood began, in relation to Noah's age. He gives not only the general time, but the exact day: the 17th day of the second month, in Noah's 600th year. The many dates, names and places recorded in scripture invite anyone to check for himself how accurate the word of God is.
The verse describes a double assault. The deep beneath broke open, and the sky opened above it.
The term, "windows of heaven," is very expressive. It denotes an outpouring from God above; it may be in blessing, as Malachi 3:10 shows, but here it was in judgment... But also there was from beneath a breaking up of the established order. What exactly is signified, when we read of all the fountains of the great deep being broken up, it is impossible to say. The tremendous event had never happened before, and it will never happen again. For we read, "never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:11). So we must be content to know this much: there were immense convulsions inside the earth, which produced a mighty upsurge of earth's waters to meet the waters coming down from above.
The picture behind the word is not glass panes but sluice gates held shut and then thrown open.
At the flood the expression the "windows of heaven" is in the sense of the "floodgates," as the margin note says. Gen. 7:11.
The same image returns later in the Bible, but with the opposite content:
In Genesis 7:11 we read, "the windows of heaven were opened," a scene in which the wrath of heaven was poured out upon a world of violence and corruption. In Malachi 3:10 we read of God's desire and promise: to "open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need." A flood of judgment, required by the holy character of God; but a flood of blessing, expressing the love of God's heart.
People have long argued whether the flood was just extreme weather. One writer answers a critic who suggested the water came from clouds and perhaps the sea:
Scripture uses language found nowhere else. It shows that this was an extraordinary outbreak of waters, unheard of except in this one case, and never known in any other way... Does not the narrative speak of some outburst of water known on no other occasion? But let us be more exact about the fact. The passage speaks neither of clouds nor sea... It never says the water drained back into the sea, but that "the waters receded from the earth continually." It also declares that the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was held back. That is, the narrator does present it as having its source and its arrest in the extraordinary intervention of God — call it "miracle" or what you please.
Note the two halves of that argument: God started it, and God stopped it. Neither end of the flood belongs to the normal running of nature.
God shut the door, and the waters broke out that same day. Scripture then says almost nothing about the scene itself:
And now the last day came. It was on the seventh day that Noah went in, and then God shut the door. Then the world saw what it had never seen before... And then what panic! To me it is a very striking thing that God has drawn a veil over what happened then. All Christ says is this, "and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away" (Matt. 24:39). They paid no attention. They did not care about their souls. Then the moment came, and judgment overwhelmed them. It is a solemn picture of the terrible judgment coming on a world without Christ.
- Dated. God records the year, month and day the flood began, inviting anyone to check the accuracy of His word for himself.
- Doubled. Judgment came from beneath and above at once: the deep torn open, the sky unsealed. It had never happened before, and God promises it will never happen again.
- Opened. "Windows of heaven" means floodgates. The same open heaven pours out judgment here and blessing in Malachi — one God behind both.
- Beyond nature. The unusual wording points past normal weather. God released the waters, and God later shut them off.
- Sudden. The waters broke out the very day the door closed. That is why the flood pictures a judgment that arrives while people are unaware.
And the pour of rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
The rain that began here was no accident of weather; God had fixed the day and said so long before. Two questions come out of this verse: why forty days, and why does Scripture measure the flood so exactly?
Genesis gives two timescales: a long warning and a short one. Commentators read both as proof that the God who spoke was the God who acted.
Here we have clear examples of God's ways in prophecy. First, a short, exactly marked gap of "seven days" in Genesis 7:10, when the blow was to fall. But that came after a long warning of "a hundred and twenty years" in Genesis 6:3, when God's judgment would end man's days for the world of that time. Both stand undeniable in the record. Each is worthy of Him who alone could speak with authority, and He fulfilled both exactly on time. If He carries out judgment on a world that hardens itself in evil and will not believe His word, He also provides mercy for those who keep His word in faith and obey Him, as Noah did, saving his household.
Scripture keeps coming back to this number, and always with the same sense.
"Rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights" (verse 12). Here for the first time in the Word we find the number forty. It is not the last time. Forty means endurance and testing. Moses was forty days on the mountain; his life was divided into three forties. Forty years Israel was in the wilderness. Elijah knew the forty days, and Ezekiel lay forty days on his right side, a typical action (Ezekiel 4). Jonah preached, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown"; and Christ was forty days in the wilderness to be tested.
Genesis says the rain came through the windows of heaven. That picture is not always one of judgment.
The term "windows of heaven" is very expressive. It means an outpouring from God above. It may be in blessing, as Malachi 3:10 shows, but here it was in judgment. The devastating waters came down for forty days and forty nights.
Rain alone could never have done this. Genesis names two sources at once, and neither belongs to the ordinary running of the world.
This was no mere matter of the clouds or of the sea, as it usually is. The inspired writer speaks of sources that were completely different and had never been seen before. All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of the heavens, as the phrase goes, were opened. Neither the one nor the other was according to the course of nature that God established before or since. This is exactly what makes a miracle clear and impressive. Everyone admits the regular working of the physical laws by which God orders the universe.
One writer works the problem from the other end. Could the sky even hold that much water?
It is claimed that the sky above us would be full to saturation point if it held enough water to cover the earth just thirty feet deep... But to add to the awesome flood, the rain fell for forty days and forty nights (v. 12).
In Genesis 2 a mist waters the ground, and no rain falls. Some commentators think that lasted until the flood. They offer it as a suggestion, not a fact.
Verse 6 shows that a mist rising from the earth kept the plants alive, without water coming down from above. There were waters "above the expanse" (Genesis 1:7), but as yet they had not fallen as showers on the earth. Not until Genesis 7:4 do we read of rain. Some think that the watering of the earth by mist and not rain continued until the time of the flood. It may have been so.
For everyone outside, the rising water meant death. For those inside, the higher it rose the higher they went.
The ark was borne up. And that which was judgment to the world was safety for Noah. As the waters rose, what rose? This ark. A happy and blessed thing for those in the ark.
That reversal is why commentators read the flood as a picture, not just a record:
Plainly, the ark is Christ. The flood it saves through is the judgment of the whole world, and that world perished in it. Those kept safe come through to a new world that rises out of the waters.
- Announced — 120 years of warning, then seven days, then rain: God said it before He did it, and did it on the day He said.
- Measured — forty days marks a full testing. It is the first of many: Moses, Israel, Elijah, Jonah, Ezekiel, and Christ in the wilderness.
- Doubled — water fell from the opened windows of heaven and burst up from the great deep. The sky alone never held enough.
- Miraculous — neither source ran by the course of nature God set. Ordinary weather cannot explain it.
- Lifting — the same water that drowned the world carried the ark upward. Commentators read the ark as Christ: the judgment that ends one world floats His people into a new one.
On the same day went Noah, and Shem and Ham and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah's wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
Genesis 7:13 stops the flood story to name every person who walked into the ark. It also fixes the day. Two things stand out: God timed the rescue to the day, and the rescued company was tiny.
The chapter dates the disaster to the year, month, and day, and this verse ties the entry to that same date. One writer weighs that care in the record against the size of what happened.
So tremendous an event is recorded with the utmost precision and solemnity. We are told of it to the year, month, and day, when the judgment was executed.
The same detail carries a second point. If they entered on the day the rain began, then the way in had stayed open right up to that morning.
Verse 13 makes it plain that Noah and his family entered the ark on the very day that the storm broke. Noah had been a preacher of righteousness... Still to the very last day the door of the ark stood open, and nothing would have stopped a repentant man from entering, if such a man had been found.
Nothing in the sky announced what was coming.
Luke 17:26-27 tells us that life in Noah's day went on in its usual routine — eating, drinking, and marrying — until the day Noah entered the ark. On the morning of that day the sun rose as it always did. No cloud, heavy with rain, cast its shadow upon the scene, and yet sudden destruction overtook the world of that day. The letter to the Hebrews tells us that Noah's faith was warned about things not yet seen. He believed God, against all the evidence of his senses, and resisted the reasoning of the men around him.
The verse lists three married sons and no grandchildren. One writer sees God's planning in that fact, and comfort in it for people under strain.
The three sons of Noah, all married men, did not carry one infant into the ark. Eight adult persons passed through the flood. What a touch this is, showing God's thoughtful arranging and planning tenderness! And occurring as it does in such an unexpected place, it may well come as a comfort to many who are tried in circumstances.
Seven people went in alongside Noah. God calls only one of them righteous, and one son's later history rules out treating the rest the same way.
The Lord commands Noah to enter the ark with his house on this ground: "for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation." Someone might object that all the members of the household were probably "righteous" before God too. The later history of one of them — Ham — forbids that thought. So the statement loses none of its force: God delivered the family of Noah from the judgment of the flood because of the faith of its head... God's grace reached wider still: the sons' wives were included in His merciful purposes too, making up the eight persons Peter speaks of, who "were brought safely through water."
The sons appear here in the same order as elsewhere — Shem, Ham, Japheth. Commentators point out that this is not the order they were born in.
Shem comes first in the usual formula of "Shem, Ham, and Japheth" not because he was born first, but because of the spiritual purpose that gave him that position... Japheth, as the eldest, had the honour of birth. Ham has his own recognition, for rising early to political place and natural power. But the honour Godward was reserved for Shem, though he is named last elsewhere.
Writers do not stop at the history here. They read the ark as a picture of Christ, and turn the flood into a question for the reader.
That ark, floating peacefully over the dark depth of waters, was a type of Christ, and of the believer in Him. The waves of judgment buried the old world and man with it. Only one object remained — the ark, the vessel of mercy and salvation, riding in safety and triumph over the waves... It all hinges upon this one question: "Am I in or out of Christ?"
- The day — God dated rescue and judgment to the same day, recorded to the year, month and day.
- The door — they entered on the day the rain began, so the way in stayed open to the last morning. A repentant man could still have walked through it.
- The disguise — that morning looked like any other. Noah acted on a warning about things he could not see, against everyone's reasoning.
- The dependents — three married sons, and not one infant aboard. That touch shows God's thoughtful, tender planning.
- The dividing line — God saw one man as righteous, and carried his whole house through. Writers read the ark as a picture of Christ, so the question narrows to one: in Him, or out of Him?
they, and every beast after its kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and all fowl after its kind -- every bird of every wing.
The verse stops the story to list who came aboard: beasts, livestock, creeping things and birds, each one "according to its kind." Why would a judgment aimed at human corruption carry the whole animal world through it?
One commentator starts with a plain question: what was the ark for? The answer settles who goes in, and how many.
He directs the ark to be made. For what end? The preservation of the creatures which needed the ark. So He orders that two of every kind be taken into the ark. It is simply God the Creator's way of keeping the creature alive, despite the judgment about to fall. It has nothing to do with moral relationships. So here we only hear of pairs which enter.
Earlier in the chapter, clean animals go in by sevens. Here the creatures enter two by two. Is that a contradiction? One writer answers by pointing to two names for God in the story: God the Creator, and Jehovah, the name that goes with His relationship to man.
In relation to His place as Creator, God preserved two of every sort. In relation to His own moral government, He would have seven taken into the ark — seven animals of each clean sort. Of the unclean, just enough would be there to preserve what He had made. So in the one case we have what was needed in general. In the other we have what was special, and it came from the relationship in which man stood with Jehovah. This shows at once that these wonderful communications are not merely earlier and later legends, put together by a much later editor who tried to make something complete by stringing together what did not really fit. On the contrary, it is the Spirit of God who gives us the various sides of the truth. Each one falls under the name and style of God that suits the matter in hand.
Noah did not have to hunt the animals down. They came. One writer pictures the week before the flood as a sermon the whole world could watch.
I think there was a seven days' sermon. From east, west, north, and south, the hand of God gathered the animals. The people must have thought it strange when those beasts went in. They were wiser than men. They obeyed the call of God. Men would not obey then, and many still will not. These creatures knew the call of the Creator, and they went in safely, but man paid no attention. Oh, sinner, what a state you are in! Think of it — the very creatures are a testimony against you. They all came to a place of safety. Have you?
The animals in this list are not extras in the story.
Some of every sort are carried with Noah from the place of death into the ark of salvation. There are the "eight souls," as Peter calls them. But with them go what is left of the beasts of the earth, small and great, winged birds and creeping things. All are housed and redeemed together with Noah.
Another writer reads the animal cargo as a hint of something far wider.
The beasts, clean and unclean, went into the ark, and so did the birds of the air. This gives 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.
Why does so much depend on one wooden boat? Commentators read the ark itself as a picture.
Clearly, the ark is Christ. The flood it saves through is the judgment of the whole world, which perished in it. Those who are preserved come through to a new world that rises out of the waters. There the sweet savour of accepted sacrifice secures a lasting blessing.
- Creator. The pairs of every kind are God guarding what He made. They kept each creature alive through the judgment.
- Clean. The clean animals by sevens answer to something else: God's moral dealings with man, beyond the bare survival of the species.
- Call. The creatures obeyed God's call and went in. The people watching ignored it — a week-long sermon wasted on them.
- Carried. Small and great, winged and creeping, they all came through the same waters with Noah. They were safe because of where they were.
- Creation. That cargo of beasts and birds hints at a wider rescue still to come. Groaning creation will share the effects of salvation.
And they went to Noah, into the ark, two and two of all flesh, in which was the breath of life.
Genesis 7 records the moment when the ark Noah had spent years building filled up. The animals went in "two and two." The verse raises two quiet questions. Who moved these animals to come? And why did God's rescue of one family also carry the animal world through the judgment?
The text does not say Noah rounded up the animals; it says they went in to him. One writer pictures how that gathering looked to the people watching:
From east, west, north, and south, the hand of God gathered the animals. The people must have thought it strange when those beasts went in. The animals were wiser than men. They obeyed the call of God. Men would not obey then, and many still do not. 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 creatures knew the call of the Creator, and they passed in safely, but man paid no attention.
One writer names what the animals left and what they entered:
Some of every sort are carried with Noah from the place of death into the ark of salvation. Peter speaks of the "eight souls." But with them go remnants of the beasts of the earth, small and great, winged birds and creeping things. All are housed and redeemed together with Noah.
Why did they enter two by two? One writer answers from God's purpose as Creator:
What does He do then? He directs the ark to be made. For what end? The preservation of the creatures which required the ark. So He orders that two of every kind go into the ark. It is easy to see why this fits. It is simply God the Creator's way of continuing each creature, despite the judgment about to fall. It has nothing to do with moral relationships.
The sevens, by contrast, are linked to a different purpose: "It is God providing not for the perpetuation of the creature merely, but with marked completeness for sacrifice."
The verse marks out the passengers by their breath. One writer notes how far that phrase reaches:
The words "in whose nostrils was the breath of life" included man and beast. All go together in that way of speaking. Then at the right time God takes Noah with his family, and all enter the ark, "and the LORD shut him in."
Everything with breath outside the ark died. Everything with breath inside it lived.
The animals are not filler in the story. Their presence points forward to a wider deliverance still to come:
The beasts, clean and unclean, taken into the ark, as well as 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.
One thing marks every creature in this verse: it went in. Commentators see the ark as a picture of Christ. The dividing line is not nearness but entry:
All perished outside the ark: all must perish outside Christ. It did not matter how close a person was to the ark, he was either shut in or shut out. He might have helped to fell the trees or even build the ark, but once the door was shut he was shut out.
The same writer adds why the ark could save at all:
If the ark had not risen and floated above the waters, it would have been no use at all — if it had stayed under the waters, it would have been a huge coffin. Our blessed Jesus did sink down to the lowest depths; He died, the Just for the unjust. But He rose again for our justification, and so the ark floating in safety to Ararat is a true picture of the risen Christ.
- Called in. God's hand gathered the creatures from every direction. They obeyed a call that the people around Noah ignored.
- Carried in. Pairs of every kind moved from the place of death into the ark of salvation. They were housed and redeemed alongside the eight people.
- Kept in pairs. Two of every kind was the Creator's own provision for carrying each creature through the judgment.
- Creation in. Beasts and birds inside the ark hint at more. One day the whole groaning creation will share what salvation brings.
- Shut in. The ark stands for Christ. The only question is whether you are in or out. Helping to build it saved no one who stayed outside.
And they that came, came male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And Jehovah shut him in.
Genesis 7 closes its account of the entry into the ark with one short sentence about a door. Everything before it was Noah's obedience. This last act belongs to God alone, and commentators read it as a picture of how God secures salvation.
The verse does not say Noah closed the door behind himself.
Nothing shows the believer's perfect security in Christ better than these words: "the LORD shut him in." Who could open what God had shut? None. The family of Noah were as safe as God could make them. No power — angelic, human, or demonic — could burst open the door of the ark and let the waters in. The very same hand that had opened the windows of heaven and broken up the fountains of the great deep shut that door.
The same writer looks at what that meant for Noah. The flood that destroyed everything else lifted him above it.
He knew that God had poured out "all" the judgment, and that those very waves had lifted him into a region of cloudless peace. He floated in peace on the very water that judged "all flesh." He was put beyond the reach of judgment; and put there, too, by God Himself.
The verse uses two names for God. One goes with the command about the animals, the other with the shutting of the door.
"Male and female of all flesh went in as God (Elohim) had commanded him. And the LORD (Jehovah) shut him in" (verse 16). In this verse we have Elohim and Jehovah used. God, as Creator, had commanded Noah. Jehovah had announced the judgment, and the ark being prepared represented the patient and merciful Jehovah. And now, as the hour of mercy was past, Jehovah shut the door. He who had given an open door shut it at last.
Some claim the two names prove that two writers' work was patched together here. One commentator shows why the names differ:
Elohim is "God" in His sovereign dealing, as in creation. Jehovah is "the LORD," in His unfolding of special relationship... Take one verse (Gen. 7:16) to burst the bubble: "as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in." Two writers! because the name "Elohim" expresses care for the male and female animals, while the special concern as "Jehovah" shows in shutting Noah in.
The picture goes further than a strong door.
"The LORD shut him in." The hand of the Lord gave its own strength and security to Noah's condition. It is not too bold to say that all within the door of the ark were as safe as the Lord Himself. The Lord returned, we may say, to His own heavens, to His throne which stands for ever. Noah remained on the earth, in the place and day of judgment. But Noah was as safe as the Lord.
The ark had a door and a window. Each served a different purpose.
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.
Eight people stepped off ground under judgment and onto the ark. What God did next settled the outcome for those inside and those outside.
The decisive step for each was when they planted one foot on the ark, and lifted the other off the earth that was under judgment. It was either both feet in, or both feet out... Once inside the ark, "the LORD shut him in." When the Lord shuts, no man can open — not even Noah himself, had he wished to do so. The shut door secured salvation for the eight souls, and ensured destruction for the world of the ungodly.
Outside, minds changed once the water started rising.
Those who refused to enter the ark through the preaching of Noah could not get in after the door was shut. They might seek, and seek with all their heart, begging and pleading, as they saw the waters rising on the earth, but it was too late.
- Command, then close. Noah obeyed as God the Creator directed. Then the LORD Himself shut the door.
- Closed by the same hand. The hand that broke up the deep and opened heaven's windows fastened the ark. No power could force it open.
- Safe as He is. Noah stayed in the place of judgment. He was as safe as the Lord on His throne, because the Lord's own strength held him.
- Door and window. God kept the door — that is safety. Noah had the window above — that is communion, his eyes turned upward.
- Shut in, shut out. The same act saved eight and settled the ruin of the rest. When mercy's open door is shut at last, no one can reopen it.