The ark is built, and God said, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.” (v1)
Spurgeon made the point that God did not say, ‘Go into the ark’ but ‘Come’ as if He was already in there. God had seen Noah’s righteousness and was going to be with him in the ark.
In verses 2-9 God goes into more detail about what Noah should take into the ark. Noah was 600 years old when he went into the ark and he was to take his wife, his sons and their wives, eight persons in all. We tend to think that there were just two of every animal, creeping thing, and bird, male and female but this was only of unclean things. He was commanded to take seven (pairs (ESV; NLT)) of every clean animal and bird, male and female. This was to keep the species alive. In seven days, rain would come on the earth, and it would rain for forty days and nights, as God would destroy from the earth all living things which He had made. Noah did as God had commanded him. Maybe some of the animals and birds were for food.
There is no doubting the fact that the animals came to Noah at God’s command. Birds migrate by the instinct placed in them by God, others hibernate by the instinct placed in them by God, so I see no difficulty in them coming to Noah. God said that He was going to destroy them, and, in His mercy, He was going to preserve some. If man can tame animals and birds to obey commands as they do, I see no problem with God, the creator, doing that.
Sure enough, after seven days, the rains came and flooded the whole earth. We are even given the precise day – in the 600th year of Noah’s life, the second month and the seventeenth day of the month, the fountains of the great deep were broken up and the windows of heaven opened (v10-12). This was no mere storm; it was a catastrophe, and it continued to rain forty days and nights. Water came from above and up from beneath.
Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives entered the ark with every beast, cattle, creeping things, and every bird on the same day as God commanded, and The LORD shut them in (v13-16). It was God’s prerogative to shut the door, not Noah’s. God’s divine power kept them safe, so far as we know there was no sail, no mast, no rudder, only God.
Verses 17-23 describe in detail what happened during the flood. It was on the earth for forty days and as the water level increased the ark floated high above the earth and moved about on the waters. It went above the hills, all of which were covered to fifteen cubits above them, the mountains were covered. All flesh, mankind, animals, cattle, beasts, creeping things, and birds died, all that breathed on the dry land. God destroyed every living thing on the face of the ground. Only Noah and those with him in the ark were kept alive.
We have a picture of salvation in that Noah and his family were saved whilst the rest of humanity was condemned. Only God can save us. All who refused to respond to Noah’s preaching were too late just as Paul says, “Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation.” (2 Corinthians 6:2)
In the previous chapter 6:3 The LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh;”
Couple these with the words of Jesus in Luke 13:24, “Strive to enter through the narrow gate, for many, I say to you, will seek to enter and will not be able. When once the Master of the house has risen up and shut the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock at the door, saying, ‘Lord, Lord, open for us,’ and He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know you, where you are from,”
Noah had continued to preach throughout the building of the ark but now God had closed the door, and the opportunity was passed. The Gospel continues to be preached, and the day of salvation is here but there will come a day when The Lord Jesus will come again and the opportunity will be over. Those in Christ will be saved but those who are lost will suffer the torment of hell.
The details of the flood clearly indicate a worldwide flood, not a local one. The following two passages of Scripture point out that the waters covered the world.
The Apostle Peter reminds us in 2 Peter 3:1-7 by way of warning, “Beloved, I now write to you this second epistle (in both of which I stir up your pure minds by way of reminder), that you may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us, the apostles of the Lord and Saviour, knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, “Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.” For this they wilfully forget that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and in the water, by which the world that then existed perished, being flooded with water. But the heavens and the earth which are now preserved by the same word, are reserved for fire until the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
Psalm 104:1-9 (probably written by David) also reminds us – “Bless the Lord, O my soul! O Lord my God, You are very great: You are clothed with honor and majesty, Who cover Yourself with light as with a garment, Who stretch out the heavens like a curtain. He lays the beams of His upper chambers in the waters, Who makes the clouds His chariot, Who walks on the wings of the wind, Who makes His angels spirits, His ministers a flame of fire. You who laid the foundations of the earth, So that it should not be moved forever, You covered it with the deep as with a garment; The waters stood above the mountains. At Your rebuke they fled; At the voice of Your thunder they hastened away. They went up over the mountains; They went down into the valleys, To the place which You founded for them. You have set a boundary that they may not pass over, That they may not return to cover the earth.”
Some have asked, did the fish die? I remember driving my grandson home one evening, with instructions not to let him sleep in the car because he wouldn’t go off to sleep when we arrived home. We played ‘games’ in the car to keep him awake. One was to name all the animals in Noah’s ark. Running out of names I said, ‘Dolphins’ and he quickly retorted, ‘Grandad dolphins can swim.’ There was a lot of truth in that from an under two-year-old. The fish did not die in the flood; only animals with the breath of life in them died, the animals on dry land.
Verse 24 tells us that the floodwaters lasted for 150 days. God kept them all safe in the ark and provided for their needs.
