Verse 9-10

T

HE ARK AND ITS CONTENTS

Notice the phrase “the generations of” and recall the instruction about it in lesson 2. When Noah is spoken of as just and perfect, that relative sense is used in which any man is just and perfect before God who believes His testimony and conforms his life to it. It is in this sense that every true believer on Jesus Christ is just and perfect. What two charges does God make against the earth (Genesis 6:12-13)? What is Noah commanded (Genesis 6:14)? The measurement of the cubit is uncertain, the ordinary length being 18 inches, the sacred cubit twice that length, and the geometric, which some think may be meant, six times the common cubit. At the lowest calculation the ark was as large as some of our ocean liners. Notice “covenant” (Genesis 6:18), and connect it with the original promise of Genesis 3:15. Why was Noah to take two of every living thing into the ark (Genesis 6:19-20)? What else was he to take (Genesis 6:21)? Mention is made of the sevens of clean beasts (Genesis 7:2), doubtless for the purpose of sacrifice in the ark and after departing from it. If inquiry be raised as to how so many animals could be accommodated in such a space, it is to be remembered

(1) that the ark in all its three stories contained probably one hundred thousand square feet of space; perhaps the animals were not the totality of all the animals known in all the world, but those known to Noah; and

(2) that the distinct species of beasts and birds even in our own day have been calculated as not more than three hundred.

Verses 11-14

DURATION AND EXTENT OF THE FLOOD

When did the flood begin (Genesis 7:11)? What shows an uprising of the oceans and seas, occasioned perhaps by a subsiding of the land? How long did the rain continue? What suggests a rising of the water even after the rain ceased (Genesis 7:17-19)? How long did it continue to rise (Genesis 7:24)? What circumstance mentioned in Genesis 2:5 may have given “a terrifying accompaniment” to the rain? When and where did the ark rest (Genesis 8:4)?

Ararat is rendered Armenia in 2 Kings 19:37 and Isaiah 37:38. What is the story of Noah’s messengers (Genesis 8:6-12)? How long did the flood last (Genesis 8:14)? A beautiful parallel is found in considering the ark as a type of Christ. All the waves of divine judgment passed over Him, and He put Himself judicially under the weight of all His people’s sins. But He rose triumphantly from the grave to which that penalty had consigned Him. Nor did He thus rise for Himself only, but for all believers who are in Him by faith as was Noah and his family in the ark.

But did the flood actually occur? and did it cover the whole earth? are questions frequently asked. As to the first, the Word of God is all-sufficient to the man of faith, but it is pertinent to add that the event is corroborated by tradition and geology. As to the second, there may be a division of opinion even among those who accept the authority of Scripture.

Genesis 7:19-23 seems to teach its universality, but whether this means universal according to the geography of Noah or Moses or the geography of the present, is a question as to which Christians are divided.