Chuck Smith :: Verse by Verse Study on Genesis 6-7 (C2000)

Chapter six.

It came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born unto them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took unto them wives of all which they chose. And the LORD said, My spirit will not always strive with man, in that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years (Gen 6:1-3).

So we're coming now to a time in which God is going to drastically alter man's lifespan. By the time they were getting nine hundred years old they were getting so wicked. God says I'm not going to leave them around that long; cut them down to a hundred and twenty years. So drastic altering after the flood of man's lifespan which could easily be explained by the loss of the protective blanket around the earth, allowing much greater cosmic radiation which causes the mutations of the cells which causes the aging process in man. There's no way by which you can protect yourself from these little neutrinos, these little cosmic rays that bombard the earth and pass right through the thing like it wasn't even there. The earth is under this constant bombardment.

Actually, we are protected much by our atmosphere. There is a certain danger to too much high-altitude flying. You get up above the protective blanket and your ultra-violet ray radiation gets much greater, in that the airlines have found that they can only -you can say pilots really have it made, you know, they only fly once a week. All that's because of the fact that it is a hazardous thing you're getting up above much of our protective blanket when you get up thirty-eight to thirty-nine thousand feet. And so they limit their exposure. We're learning more and more about that.

Who are the sons of God? Now there are those who will make the sons of God the descendants of Shem. So they are Shemites, say some. The daughters of men were the Cainites, the descendants of Cain, according to the theory. And that the godly line of Shem began to intermarry with the ungodly line of Cain. And the product -it's hard to explain how it was giants, but that's the theory.

The term "sons of God" in the Old Testament is used elsewhere but only of angels, never of man. In Job, the sons of God were presenting themselves to God and Satan also came with them, angels. It would appear that these are angels here in Genesis, that they actually began to intermingle and intermarry. You say but wait a minute. Jesus said the angels neither marry nor are given in marriage in heaven. That is true. But Jesus did not say that they were sexless; He just said there was no marriage nor given in marriage. And it is interesting that always angels are referred to in a masculine form.

There are difficulties with this verse, if you try to make it the godly line of Seth and the ungodly line of Cain. There are also difficulties if you try to make it angels intermarrying with man. But in verse four.

There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown (Gen 6:4).

Some kind of a super race of giant men as a result of this.

In the New Testament, we read that those angels, which kept not their first estate are reserved in the chains of Tartarus awaiting the day of judgment (Jude 1:6). It seems that there were certain angels, perhaps, that did not keep the first principle or first estate. Maybe they were these angels who came down and began to intermingle and intermarry with men. There are a lot of interesting things that we don't know all of the answers to, this being one of them.

And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and the eyes and that every imagination and the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them (Gen 6:5-7).

Now whenever we get to this statement that it repented God, we find that it is again a difficult statement to handle because the Scripture clearly teaches that "God is not a man, that he should repent, or that He should lie; nor the son of man, that he should repent" (Numbers 23:19). In other words, God being omniscient knew from the beginning what was going to be. Then what does this scripture mean? "It repented God" and God said, I, you know, "I'm sorry that I've made man." That it repented God that He had made man.

It is extremely difficult to talk about God in human terms because we are limited to human terminology. Therefore, there are certain actions of God that I must describe but how am I going to describe them except with language that we understand? So this is one of those areas where you run into the difficulty, because you're trying to explain an action of God, but the only words that you have to explain, that action, are words that are significant to man but not at all in the category of God. So trying to explain it in a way that man would understand from the human level this action of God, I am bound to the human terms. And thus, I attribute unto God a human capacity, though in reality, the repentance of God is not at all as I would repent or I would be sorry for a thing. But I cannot understand the action of God because "His ways are above my ways and beyond my finding out" (Romans 11:33).

So God knew from the beginning all things. God knew that men would be corrupted. God knew that there would be violence. God knew that men would bring self-destruction upon himself. And so we describe the action of God in human terms. But yet the Scripture declares that "God is not a man that he should lie nor the son of man that he should repent." But I have no other words to describe the action of God, so I describe it in human terms. Though it is not at all repentance as man would turn or man would change.

God said, "Behold, I am the Lord God, I change not" (Malachi 3:6). He doesn't have to change. He is God. So God declares His destruction of the earth.

But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. And these are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God (Gen 6:8-9).

In the midst of an evil and corrupt world, with the wickedness and the corruption and every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart evil continually, there is one man down on earth walking in harmony with God, in fellowship with God. Noah walked with God. What a testimony and what a witness.

The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. God looked upon the earth, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and thou shalt pitch it or cover it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits (Gen 6:11-15).

Now a cubit is about eighteen inches long which means that this ark was four hundred and fifty feet long, one hundred and fifty feet wide, and forty-five feet tall. It was to be three stories, fifteen feet each. Pretty big boat, really, it has a cubit footage of about one million, four hundred thousand cubit feet, equivalent to about five hundred and twenty-two cattle cars of a train. So if you had a train with five hundred and twenty-two cattle cars, you could carry quite a few animals. The ark was no just little boat. It was something like man had never seen up to that point.

It is interesting that it is six times as long as it is wide, which, of course, we have discovered today as the ideal ratio for a ship its length to its width. And most of our Navy ships are just about the same ratio, about six times to our, four hundred and fifty by seventy-five, about six to one.

Now a lot of times people have difficulty with this story of the flood, the story of the ark, the story of the animals coming in, the story of the preservation of man and animals, but there have been some excellent books written on the subject. Dr. Whitcam and Dr. Morris have combined together in a book called "The Genesis Flood" which is perhaps one of the most scholarly of all of the books that have been written on the subject. But there has been of late recent interest in the flood and in the ark because there are continuing reports of a large ship up encased in the ice on Mount Ararat. And these go back to the time of Marco Polo who reports this great boat up there in the ice as the people in the area talk about it.

In 1917 there was a report of a Russian flyer who spotted, in a particularly hot summer and long summer, as he was flying in the area of Mount Ararat, he spotted this great boat down there in the ice. According to his story, an expedition was formed and at the time that they were coming out with the evidence was when the Bolshevik revolution took over, and all, and the evidence was destroyed. This flyer later came to Canada and told his story which caused others to try to find or locate this boat. And one of these being a French explorer by the name of Navarro, who has brought back wood from this object, that he found high above the timberline encased in the ice and described it in his book, "Noah's Ark, I Touched It", by Francis Navarro.

There are attempts at expeditions now, but the Turkish government being Moslem controlled, has really not allowed any recent kind of expeditions. There are men of science who would like to go up and settle the issue once and for all but the Turkish government right now is opposed to it.

Even as the government of Syria has been reluctant to allow any more excavations where they found the Ebla Tablets. Because if the Ebla Tablets, proving the fact that Abraham did exist, David did exist, and so forth, and they're upset with this because it does give to the Israeli a claim and a right to the land. And so the Syrian government has asked them not to do anymore excavations in the area of the Ebla Tablets and are cutting off any further scientific expeditions there because of the adverse effect upon it, also a Moslem state.

And if the ark could be discovered, then of course, it would create an interesting problem for the scientist is how did that boat get up there so high? How did they carry the lumber up there to build that thing? And the whole thing, it would be, of course, very interesting. Jesus said, "Blessed are they who see and believe; more blessed are they who believe without seeing" (John 20:29). And if it would take the ark's discovery to make a believer out of you, I feel sorry for you. But I hope that they will discover it so you will become a believer.

But there is other interesting evidence that the world did experience a worldwide flood. Of course, the idea of a worldwide flood is opposed to the Uniformitarian theory upon which evolution is based, and it is interesting that scientists are not always honest. In fact, there's a lot of dishonesty in the scientific field. They like to come off as men of science, but most of them have certain theories that they have sworn by and thus to change would be to discredit themselves, and their pride won't allow them to do it. And anyone who says anything other than what they have already accepted as fact, any evidence that is brought forth that would destroy one of their theories that they accept as scientific fact, they immediately reject, crucify the individual, reject his work.

Emmanuel Villakoski first came out with his book, Ages or "Worlds in Collision" and it was first published by McMillan. Now McMillan publishes a lot of school textbooks. And the professors were so angry at the fact that Emmanuel Villakoski came out with in his book, "Worlds in Collision", showing the impossibility of Uniformitarianism, disproving it, that they raised such a ruckus that McMillan Company had to quit publishing the book. And Doubleday picked up the rights and began to publish it, but they were determined to not allow the book to come to the public. And when it was delivered to the public, there was a great furor and a quick retraction of the things that he said before the book was ever published. Before people had full copies of the book, they were already writing rebuttals, not even knowing for sure what he said.

Scientists are not dishonest. I mean, they are not honest. When it comes to a destroying of one of their pet little theories, there they will lie, they will connive and everything else in order to keep their theory alive, and their pet theory is that man exists by an evolutionary process. And the reason why they love that theory so much is because it is able to exclude God from the system. And anxious to exclude God from their system, they tenaciously, religiously hold to the evolutionary theory. Though much evidence is being uncovered that would really make the theory quite incredible.

Emmanuel Villakoski has written a new book, "Earth in Upheaval". Now let me say this concerning Emmanuel Villakoski. Number one, he doesn't really believe that the Bible is the Word of God. In fact, there are parts of the Bible that he completely rejects. He's not a Christian; he's a Jewish scientist. But he looks at the Bible as a history book, and he takes the things that happened or that the Bible declares happens.

And he seeks to use them as historic facts to prove his theory which is that the planet Venus was introduced to our solar system and became fixed in its own orbit at about the time of Joshua. And the long day of Joshua is explained by this near pass of the planet Venus. That the plagues in Egypt at the time of Moses are explained by an earlier pass of the planet Venus. That there were several passes until it became fixed in its own orbit around the sun. There were several near misses. And that there was a change in the orbital pattern of Mars and Venus, and that Venus was introduced actually into our planetary solar system within the last five thousand years causing major upheavals upon the earth. Now that's his theory and he seeks to prove his theory. But in so doing, he amasses a great deal of evidence.

But some of this evidence that he has amassed is very interesting to me. For instance, in this book "Earth's in Upheaval", he tells about the bones of whales that have been found four hundred and forty feet above sea level north of Lake Ontario. A skeleton of another whale was discovered in Vermont more than five hundred feet above sea level and still another in Montreal, Quebec area about six hundred feet above sea level; the skeletons of whales. Now people don't carry the carcass of a whale five hundred feet up the mountain and several miles from the ocean. So the question is how did the whales get there?

Now he has his own theory of the upper, you know, the thrusting upward of mountain ranges and that is what he is seeking to prove in this book "Earth's in Upheaval" that the mountain ranges have all been thrust upward in very recent history. I mean, you talk about recent history, you're talking about in something less than seven thousand years.

But rather than the mountains being thrust upwards, what about the water being thrust upwards and covering the area and the whales swimming there, until the waters receded and happened to get caught and was left floundering as the waters receded off of the face of the earth? That's just as plausible as his upward thrust theory, a little more scriptural.

He also points out that Joseph Prestwich, the professor of geology at Oxford, 1874-1888, an acknowledged authority in the quantinery glaciate. Recent age in England was struck by a numerous phenomena, all of which led him to the belief that south of England, the south of England had been submerged to a depth of not less than a thousand feet between the glacial and post-glacial, or in the recent Neolithic late stone period. In a spasmodic movement of terrain, the coast in the land masses in southern England were submerged to such a depth that points to a thousand feet high were below sea level in England.

And then they show, or they talk about how that they found these cliffs in the various strata, various widths, and with the bones of animals-mammoth, hippopotamus, rhinoceros, horse, polar bear, bison-the bones are broken into innumerable fragments. No skeleton is found entire. The separate bones, in fact, have been dispersed in the most irregular manner and without any bearing to their relative position in the skeleton. Neither did they show any wear nor have they been gnawed by beast of prey, though they occur with the bones of hyena, wolf, bear and lion.

In other places in Devonshire, and Pembrook in Wales, the ossiferous breccia or conglomerates of broken bones and stones in the fissures and limestones consist of angular rock fragments and broken and splintered bones with sharp fractured edges and a fresh state and in splendid conditions showing no traces of gnawing.

And it tells about in there are so many areas around the world where in caves or in cliffs, in fissures, they have found these bones like they have been thrown in the various animals, which are actually predatory to each other but thrown in at the same time smashed and then covered with silt, as if by some violent tidal wave action or force submerged to a thousand feet. Now you might again use that to prove an upward thrust theory but it would also provide very interesting proof of a violent flood, which I opt for.

Now it goes on to tell about the covered Cumberland cavern in Maine or Maryland, when workmen were cutting the way for a railroad with dynamite and a steam shovel came upon a cavern or a closed fissure, with a peculiar assemblage of animals. Many of the species are comparable to forms now living in the vicinity of the cave, but others are distinctly northern in their affinities and some are related to species peculiar to the southern or lower astral region.

Thus wrote J.W. Gidley and C.L. Gaston of the United States National Museum: A crocodile and taper are representative of the southern climate. A wolf or lemming are distinctly northern. It seems highly improbable that they co-existed in one place. The usual assumption was made that the cave received the animal remains in a glacial and interglacial period. However, the scientists to explore the cavern for the Smithsonian Institute, as soon as it was discovered and to return there the following years for closer investigation, J.W. Gidley contended that the animals were contemporaneous; that is, they lived at the same time. The position of the bones excluded any other explanation. This strange assemblage of fossil remains occurs hopelessly intermingled.

Now of course, the climactic condition prior to the flood was different around the earth. The animals could have been co-mingling and existing together in the same area, thrown in by the violent force of the flood. The great waters of the deep being broken and thrown in and broken the bones, broken and then covered there in the cavern with silt.

Now one further thing in the book is he talks about the Himalayas. Scientists of the nineteenth century were dismayed to find that as high as they climbed in the Himalayas, the rocks of the mass sifts yield skeletons of marine animals, fish that swim in the ocean and the shells of mollusks. This was evidence that the Himalayas had risen from beneath the sea or evidence that the Himalayas were covered by water. Same thing down in South America there in the Andean Mountains, and so forth. All evidence that at one time covered by water.

So God has left evidence. Men are misinterpreting quite often the evidence that God has left. But there is not one good reason to believe other than these remains were left by a great flood. That these areas were indeed covered with water that covered the earth unto fifteen feet above the highest mountains, just like the Scriptures declared.

You might pick up this little book, "Earth in Upheaval", or "Earth in Upheaval" by Villakoski. It certainly destroys the theory of Uniformitarianism and shows the real documentation of cataclysmic changes in the earth. Also I was intrigued by his books, "World in Collision", his book, "World in Collision", too. I find it very interesting.

There are many evidences of a great flood. There are some areas where the silt deposits are so thick, hundreds of feet thick, and for silt to be deposited in such a thick deposit would necessitate several thousand feet of water for silt deposits that large.

Now the evolutionists seek to use the geological column as the basis of proof for the evolutionary theory. There are many problems with the use of the geological column as the basis of proof for the evolutionary theory, not the least of being the fact that the geological columns are totally lacking in any evidence of any transition forms from one species to another; not one single evidence of a transitional form of species, which of course is a vital part of the evolutionary theory.

But this total lack of evidence in the geological column of any transitory form of species caused a professor at Stanford University to come up with the Hopeful Monster Theory to prove the change or to explain the changes of species for which the geological column is so absolutely silent. And so according to the Hopeful Monster Theory, the snake laid its eggs in the sand and when they hatched the birds flew out. He may call it the Hopeful Monster Theory but as far as I'm concerned, it's for the birds. Because you've had to have two birds flying out in order the thing might continue a new chain, develop a new species.

The geological column is interesting. Of course, it's a thing that is involved in circular reasoning. For how do they age, how do they date the various geological formations? They age them by the type of fossil found in it. Now how do they age the fossils found in the various formations? The fossils are aged by the type of formation they are found in.

In other words, there is no accurate way of aging. They are dated upon the assumption of the truth of the evolutionary theory that all things have evolved from a lesser form to a higher form. But there are areas where there is a total reversal of the geological column, where some of the older columns are over the top of the new for several hundred, and in some places several thousand square miles.

And so they have developed, of course, they're never lost for an idea or a theory and they develop this whole flip-flop pancake theory that somehow the whole thing got flipped over several thousand miles, just square miles flipped over, inverting the columns. Of course, how one tree was able to grow through several of the various forms of these, of the geological column rocks and so forth covering several millions of years is a little bit harder for them to explain. But if you believe in the flood, you have no problem with the geological column at all. Everything was made after its own species just like God said.

Now it would stand to reason that the low order form of life would be the first that would just be lost in the flood and drowned at the lower levels. And as the sediment would build up, you would have the higher forms of life, some that would be able to get higher in the -on the cliff or be able to swim maybe a bit and would be planted higher, so the more complex forms would be higher in the geological column, but all of them being placed there by the flood.

And the flood really is a far more plausible explanation of the geological column and is in total harmony with the model that you would set by creation by God of species after their own kind and all, because then you would not expect to have any transitional forms between species. So the flood itself gives to us a very plausible explanation of the whole geological column, and the geological column actually again a proof that the flood did exist.

But Peter, though he wrote two thousand years ago, seemed to nail the thing right on the head. For he said, "In the last days scoffers would come saying, Where is the promise of his coming? For all things continue as from the beginning since our fathers have fallen asleep" (2Peter 3:3). That's the doctrine or the theory of Uniformitarianism. Everything is continuing as it was from the beginning.

So Peter foresaw this theory of Uniformitarianism by the scoffers who would be mocking at the Bible and the promises of the coming of Jesus Christ. All things continue as they were from the beginning, Peter said they would be saying or the doctrine or the theory of Uniformitarianism. But Peter said, "Of these they are willingly ignorant, that God destroyed the world with a flood" (2 Peter 3:5). The one thing that would account for all of the evidences, they are willingly ignorant of that fact. Peter nailed it way in advance, foreseeing it by the Spirit of God. So again the Bible is well ahead of man.

So God gave to Noah the dimensions of the ark. Now it was to have a window of about eighteen inches, and I feel that this window was all the way around the top. In other words, there was this opening all the way around the top to give air and ventilation. Of course, man with all those animals for that much time, you'd really want to ventilate it to some extent. And so eighteen inches,

A cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side; with the lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. 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. Of the fowls after their kind, the cattle after their kind, the creeping things of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he (Gen 6:16-22).

Now, of course, when Noah brought them in it was all after their kind. In other words, he didn't have to bring in dachshund and collies and spaniels and Samoyeds and all different kinds, he could bring in one pair of dogs. And there are mutant strains that do exist. And there's definitely evolutionary processes that take place on a horizontal plane within a family, within a species. There are the changes, the mutant changes that can take place within species. So he didn't have to bring in all kinds of cats, Persian, Siamese, et cetera. Just one pair of cats would do. And so the variations that have come within species, there's no problem with that.

So the ark, you know, wouldn't have to bring one of every variety within a species, just the major species head for each species that he brought in and allowing evolutionary changes within a species. Where you cannot find evidence for evolutionary changes is in the vertical, the transition from one species to another. That's where the evidence is lacking.

Sure you can show that a monkey at one period had, you know, eighteen teeth and another and during the different periods, you know, there were mutant strains and so forth and more teeth and less teeth, et cetera, changes of facial parts and so forth. Sure, you can have mutants in a horizontal change, but you don't have vertical changes from one species to another. And this, of course, is where the theory of evolution fails in proof of any transitional forms in the changing from one species to another species.

Chapter 7

And so the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all of your house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Now of the clean beast thou shalt take by sevens, male with his female (Gen 7:1-2):

So seven pair of the clean beasts.

and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of the fowls of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep the seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For in seven days, I will cause it to rain upon the earth for forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. 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. And of the clean beasts, and the beasts that were not clean, and the fowls, and every thing that creeps upon the earth, There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah. And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened (Gen 7:2-11).

Now you remember back in the first chapter of Genesis there God set a space-the raqiya-the heavens separating the waters, which were above the heavens, and the waters which were upon the earth. These waters now condensed and fell to the earth. But with that, the great fountains of the deep being broken up, there were great upheavals, no doubt, upward thrust of mountain ranges.

It could be at this time that the Himalayas did rise out of the sea. As former mountain ranges collapsed into the sea, the pressure of the water as the body, the ocean bodies were moved. The pressure pushing downward upon the new ocean beds would thrust upwards mountain ranges and would create a whole violent change in the geographical surface of the earth. And I have no doubt but that there were many dramatic changes, as far as geography is concerned at the time of the flood, as mountain ranges would disappear, the great fountains of the deep broken up, the rain descending, the pressure of the new oceans and the changing of oceans, and so forth, would of course create great changes.

There used to be a vast ocean up in the area of middle northern America, up in the area of Salt Lake and they feel that that's all that's left of which of what was once a very vast ocean. You go over to the south rim of the Canyon there and you find at the eight thousand foot level fossil remains of sea fish, shells, mollusks and so forth, so that area was once covered by a vast ocean.

Dinosaurs lived around its edges. The Painted Desert is an interesting area to search for dinosaur artifacts. I have a very interesting vertebrae of a dinosaur from the Painted Desert there. And it's very interesting to go and search for the remains of the dinosaurs that were once around the shores of the vast ocean that was up in that area or the vast sea, whichever the case may be. But there have been great cataclysmic changes; upward thrust, pressures by the water changing its beds and so forth.

And all testify to the truth, the biblical account of there one time being a great cataclysmic upheaval in which the fountains of the deep were opened. Changes of the ocean floors. Changes of mountain ranges. Upward thrust, other areas sinking and disappearing. It could be that the lost continent of Atlantis, that there is in reality a basis of fact that this did exist and they could have been eliminated by this great flood, by the whole change of the structures.

They have found in the middle Atlantic vast beds of sand. You only have sand on the seashore. It's caused by the action of the movement of the water wearing down the rocks and so forth, the granite. Much of the sea is covered by silt through the centuries, just the silt settling down to the bottom of the ocean. But these great beds of sand are something they can't explain out in the middle of the Atlantic showing that it was once a beach, a seashore. Why isn't it covered by several feet of silt? How did it get there? All interesting things that the scientists have not yet figured out. But the flood with the changes of the surface of the earth would easily explain all of these things.

So "the great fountains of the deep were broken up, the windows of heaven were opened."

And the rain was upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. And in the selfsame day entered 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; They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort (Gen 7:12-14).

I only wish that he could have gotten those two fleas at that time.

And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all the flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in. And the flood was for forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the water prevail; and the mountains were covered (Gen 7:15-20).

Now there are some who try to make this a local flood. That it only happened in the Babylonian plain. Well then, why would God put Noah to the job of building such a big boat? Why didn't He say, "Move out of this plain, Noah, over to the next mountain, you know, range and all and get into that valley over there cause this thing is going to get flooded"?

And how could the ark be deposited on Mount Ararat and how could the waters cover Mount Ararat fifteen feet above which is seventeen thousand feet high? How could the waters just be piled up in that one area without being dispersed around the face of the earth? So those who try to just make this a local flood have many problems. Why bring all the animals in? It would not at all be necessary if it were just a localized flood.

But evidence, of course, the Scripture declares it was a worldwide flood and evidence would seem to go along with the Scriptures on this. That is the whales being found here in Vermont, five hundred feet above sea level and the cavern in Maryland, and things of this nature with the various animals thrust in and broken up.

"The flood was forty days upon the earth; the waters increased, bare the ark, it was lifted up above the earth. The waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered." That is, fifteen feet above the highest mountain.

And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and cattle, and beast, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, creeping things, the fowl of heaven; they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth for a hundred and fifty days (Gen 7:21-24).

Almost a half a year the waters prevailed upon the earth, during this time of great cataclysmic upheaval. Now Jesus, when talking to His disciples about the signs of His coming and the end of the world said, "as it was in the days of Noah, so shall the coming of the Son of man be" (Matthew 24:37).

The days of Noah were days of rapid population explosion. "It came to pass in those days, when men began to multiply upon the face of the earth" (Genesis 6:1), population explosion during Noah's day. The days of Noah were days of abnormal sexual behavior. "The sons of God seeing the daughters of men." Jesus says that they were days in which marriage vows were cast aside and men were marrying and giving in marriage, or live-in type of relationships, not honoring the marriage vows, casting them aside.

The days of Noah were days of wickedness, man's mind being evil continually. They were days of corruption and they were days of violence. As it was in the days of Noah, so it is today. Noah was to be a sign of the coming of Jesus Christ. I believe that Noah also gives to us another sign of sorts, for Noah was upon the earth at the time of God's great judgment of the earth because of the wickedness. And God is going to again judge the earth because of wickedness. But I do not believe that Noah is the type of the church that God preserves during His period of judgment.

There is a group that God is going to preserve during the period of coming judgment that will be sheltered by God, these are the 144,000, the Israelites who will be sealed by God and be sheltered from many of the judgments of God that are coming. That seal upon their forehead, the name of God upon their forehead will be, as it were an ark.

But I believe that Enoch is a type of the church who walked with God and was not for God took him. But before God took him he had this testimony that he pleased God and Enoch was taken up before the flood, before the judgment of God, being a type of the church. And Noah, the type of the 144,000 Israelites that are sealed, is protected by God and taken through the judgment of God that is coming upon the earth, even as the 144,000 will be protected and taken through.

The interesting thing to me is that God placed Noah in the ark and He shut the door. The Bible says that Noah was a preacher of righteousness. He was preaching to these people during the hundred-year period that he was building the ark, warning them of God's impending judgment that was to come. But the people no doubt scoffed at Noah and laughed at his warnings and mocked the crazy old coot building a big boat out in the area where there is no water.

But Noah by faith built the boat to the saving of his family. It brought salvation because he obeyed God and God shut him in. At that point, the die was cast; Noah, his family, safe inside. The others, on the outside; it's too late. That marked an interesting day between the mercy and the grace and the patience of God and now the necessary judgment. For God said, "My spirit shall not always strive with man."

God's spirit does strive with man. That in itself is a miracle and a marvel. Why should God strive with me? Who am I that God should strive with me? Who are you that God should strive with you? What a miracle of grace that God would even strive with man! What a marvelous demonstration of His condescension and of His love and of His concern that God would even bother to strive with man.

But what an awesome and solemn warning. God's spirit won't always strive with you. In Hebrews we read of those "who have done despite to the spirit of grace. Who have counted the blood of the covenant wherewith Jesus was sanctified an unholy thing. Done despite to the spirit of grace." And there remains for them that "certain looking forward to the fiery indignation of the wrath of God by which His enemies shall be devoured. For if he who despised Moses' law perished in the mouth of two or three witnesses: how much sorer punishment, suppose ye, he should be counted worthy, who hath trodden under foot the Son of God, counted the blood of his covenant an unholy thing, done despite to that Spirit of grace" that's been dealing with his heart (Hebrews 10:27-29).

"God's spirit will not always strive with man." There is a time we know not when, a line we know not where; that marks the destiny of men twixt sorrow and despair. There is a line though by man unseen, once it has been crossed, even God Himself in all His love has sworn that all is lost.

It's possible for you to say "no" once too many times. It's possible for you to do despite to the spirit of grace. It's possible for you to cross that line between the grace and the mercy and the patience and the long-suffering of God, and the judgment of God. There came that day when Noah went in and God shut him in. What a glorious day when God shuts us in to himself, to that ark of refuge that He has provided for us through Jesus Christ, and I become a part of His beautiful kingdom through faith.

May God by His Holy Spirit speak to each of us as we continue our journey through Genesis.

Father, we thank You for the privilege of studying Your Word together, looking over these interesting things. Thank You for the record, Lord, that leads us to Jesus Christ and to eternal life in Him. Lord, let Thy Holy Spirit now implant upon our hearts Thy truths. In Jesus' name, Amen.