THE DESTRUCTION

OF ALL LIVING THINGS

GENESIS 7:13-24

ALL WAS DONE AS GOD HAD COMMANDED

7:13-16 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.  Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

As though the writer realized that future generations would find the story of the flood very difficult to believe, he stresses the enormous size of a vessel that could accommodate a selection of every kind of animal.

On the very last day, after the seven days had passed and water began to fill the earth, Noah and his family entered the ark. Completely doing as God had commanded them they entered the ark at just the right time. They didn’t rush in early out of fear, nor did they come in late out of slothfulness.

Once all were inside, Noah being the last, a remarkable thing happened: “The Lord shut him in.” The Lord shut and sealed the ark without the help of any human hands showing clearly that salvation is completely and powerfully the work of God alone. We cannot save ourselves and God does not need our help or cooperation.

God shutting the door provided Noah and his family a final assurance that they were under the sovereign care of the Lord and under His divine protection.

For those inside, closing the entrance meant their salvation, but for those outside it meant their destruction.

How dreadful to have the door shut to eternal life and to be locked out of heaven and confined forever to the lake that burns with fire!

For Noah and his family the old world was forever dead from the moment God shut the door. They had a new life and would live in a new world, like the believers Paul spoke of in 2 Cor. 5:17 “old things pass away behold all things become new.”

The ark of safety endured the battering of the Flood for Noah and his family, as the Flood destroyed the world of the ungodly. A part from the grace of God Noah and his family would also have been shut out and destroyed by the Flood of God’s wrath.

Likewise, Christ, in dying for our sins, triumphed over sin “that He might rescue us from this present evil age, according to the will of our God and Father, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen.”

(Galatians 1:4)

The same waters that raged over the surface of the earth, gradually rising to destroy and bury the old world, caused the ark to float above the destruction that was taking place in the depths below. Thus the waters of judgment and death were also waters of deliverance.

THE FLOOD COVERED THE WHOLE WORLD AND DESTROYED ALL LIFE

7:17-24 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.  The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. Every living thing that moved on the earth perished — birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth.  Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

We are told two things about the floodwaters.

1.     The flood waters “increased”, or “multiplied” upon the earth.

Instead of human and animal life multiplying upon the earth, the waters multiplied greatly upon the earth. Divine blessing gave way to divine curse. There was a sudden decrease in the human and animal population as the waters “greatly increased”.

2. The flood waters “rose and increased greatly”, like a victorious army. They covered all the mountains to a depth of twenty feet, allowing the ark to pass over them freely. The waters triumphed for 150 days, a figure that includes the first forty days of rain. There was no noticeable change until after this period had elapsed. Clearly, this was no local flood.

The earth had returned to the watery state of Genesis 1:2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

We are given three aspects of the Great Flood’s destruction.

1. Every living thing that moved on the earth perished — birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.

The creatures that perished are listed in the order they were created. The Flood reversed God’s act of creation.

2. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

Although this can refer to all the land animals, the use of the words “nostrils” and “breath” reminds us of the creation of man in Genesis 2:7 The Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

The God who breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life now brought that life to an end. It is significant that it does not say that they drowned. This was not only a natural tragedy but a divine punishment.

Thus we read in Amos 3:6 When disaster comes to a city, has not the LORD ordained it?

3. Everything on dry land and every living thing on the face of the earth make it clear that all creatures dependent on the dry land died. The verb was wiped out, stresses that the Flood was a divine judgment. What God threatened to do He did.

2 Peter 3:5-7 Dear friends, this is now my second letter to you. I have written both of them as reminders to stimulate you to wholesome thinking. I want you to recall the words spoken in the past by the holy prophets and the command given by our Lord and Savior through your apostles. First of all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. They will say, "Where is this 'coming' he promised? Ever since our fathers died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation."  But they deliberately forget that long ago by God's word the heavens existed and the earth was formed out of water and by water. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

The waters of the Flood that brought an end to all life on the earth had a three-fold different effect on the ark.

1. The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered.

The ark neither sank nor capsized. That great vessel, three decks high, bursting with life, floated.

2. The ark floated on the surface of the water. The ark was able to travel freely and was not broken to pieces on the rocks of the mountains.

3. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark. In the middle of that great Flood, when “all life” was destroyed, there was safety for all those in the ark.

APPLICATION

As believers, we can take great encouragement from this teaching that, no matter what we face, no matter how great the peril or the danger, God can deliver us from it.