The flood waters in Genesis 7 were also terrifying, and it served a similar purpose. Terrifying, but those covered by the Ark (which is a place of atonement) were also safe.
Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.
Genesis 7:1 (NKJV)
Different translations render Genesis 7:1 as “GO into the ark” or “ENTER the ark” as though these all mean the same thing… but the Hebrew word בֹּֽא־ (“bo”) most often means to “come in.”
God didn’t say “GO into THAT boat over there.” He said “COME into MY boat with Me, right HERE.”
You’re going to see yourself cast out of the garden.
Marked for death.
A random name in a list of names.
Left off the boat as the flood rises.
But that’s not the story.
He left the garden with you.
He shielded you from vengeance.
He knows your name.
He carries you in the boat.
It is your story. It is the story of His great love for you.
But on the boat, we see:
Both pure and impure animals.
All three of Noah’s sons, including Ham, the “bad one.”
All three kinds of animals, including the creeping ones, which are the “bad ones.”
Animals and birds.
Males and females.
What do you suppose this is saying? Perhaps the Ark represents God planning to redeem everyone. To make all things new.
People often argue that Noah’s boat wasn’t big enough for all the animals of the world, but perhaps we are meant to think that. We’re meant to be shocked at the absurdity of the story, in the same way we should be surprised by the spiritual equivalance: “Perhaps God’s grace is big enough for everyone.”
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.
Genesis 7:11 (NIV)
I find it interesting that after discussions about “approximate years” and “outrageous ages” of the men listed in the genealogy of Genesis 5 (suggesting that the dates are vague approximations or merely symbols of “very long times”), we are presented with this extremely specific day of the flood.
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.
Genesis 7:17-18
If you can see it, it’s so clear.
Forty days is a period of testing.
The flood is a refining force.
The Ark is covered in pitch, which is the same word as atonement.
In our lives, there is a period of testing. This testing refines us. It grows us and raises us above the earth and the waters that would swallow us.
But we are preserved in the ark. In atonement. Held by the very hand of God through it.
“In a sense, sickness is a place more instructive than a long trip to Europe. […] Sickness before death is a very appropriate thing and I think those who don’t have it miss one of God’s great mercies.”
– Flannery O’Connor
You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female
Genesis 7:2 (NASB)
We meet a new word in Genesis 7: “Tahor.”
I. pure, clean
1. clean (ceremonially – of animals)
2. pure (physically)
3. pure, clean (morally, ethically)
H2889: טָהוֹר (ṭâôr)
We translate it as “clean” along with its opposite: “unclean.” This may seem like it is related to filth, unworthiness, but that is not the meaning.
When used with gold, it is always translated as “pure,” and it evokes an image of unblemished, refined, wholly dedicated, the best.
This is how it is meant to be understood.
Something impure contains blemishes. These things must be purified. Gold is purified by fire, and is also made clean by water.
You shall take with you seven pairs of every clean animal, a male and his female; and two of the animals that are not clean, a male and his female
Genesis 7:2 (NASB)Also of the birds of the sky, seven pairs, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.
Genesis 7:3 (NASB)For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights; and I will wipe out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made.”
Genesis 7:4 (NASB)
By the time we get to Genesis 7, we should start noticing some patterns involving numbers. We’re going to start looking at Hebrew numerology, because we’ve finally gotten to the part of the story where the numbers themselves carry the narrative.
Some of the numbers are repeated almost absurdly. It can’t be ignored: seven, two, and forty.
But there is a hint of threes being repeated, too. Back in Genesis 1, we learned about three types of animals. And we read in Genesis 6 that Noah had three sons.
These numbers all have meanings.
Then Noah and his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him entered the ark because of the waters of the flood.
Genesis 7:7 (NASB)They all went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
Genesis 7:9 (NASB)Now it came about after the seven days, that the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
Genesis 7:10 (NASB)In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
Genesis 7:11 (NASB)The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Genesis 7:12 (NASB)
Here the three types of animals are listed again, in conjunction with the three sons again: the animals, the livestock, and the crawling things: threes.
And then twos again in the pairs.
On this very same day Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark
Genesis 7:13 (NASB)They and every animal according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kind, and every crawling thing that crawls on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, all sorts of birds.
Genesis 7:14 (NASB)So they went into the ark to Noah, by twos of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.
Genesis 7:15 (NASB)
And the chapter closes out with forty again, and then another mention of the three kinds of animals.
(I keep the birds off the list for a reason, and it’s because of how Genesis 1-3 keep them separate. They are different. They represent something different.)
Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth.
Genesis 7:17 (NASB)So all creatures that moved on the earth perished: birds, livestock, animals, and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind.
Genesis 7:21 (NASB)
There’s a lot of study on numerology — far too much to explain in detail, but here are some basics:
2 = separations, agreements
3 = community
7 = perfection
10 = completeness, fullness
40 = testing, trials
And some might see some larger numbers as being combinations of these underlying numbers. For example, 430 is written 30 and 400 in Hebrew, and it can be read this way: 3×10 and 40×10. Or perhaps “the fullness of community and the fullness of testing.”
Just something to consider.
This is about the grief and suffering of the dying.
We have a vocabulary about death. We say things like “at least it was a quick death,” or “at least they died in their sleep.”
In the sadness of loss, we acknowledge the mercy found in certain kinds of death. This sort of death is… better. Better than suffering.
For the one experiencing the loss of a loved one, these phrases don’t lessen the pain, but it is helpful to know that the words are true, isn’t it? It’s good to know that loved ones who die this way did not experience prolongued agony and pain before they passed.
But it doesn’t lift the grief. It is still sorrowful.
But what about those who do suffer in agony?
I won’t describe any of it, because there are those who know already know people who have died this way, and they don’t want to be reminded. We have witnessed it. We have grieved it. And we have prayed for it to be over. We have prayed for an end of the suffering. For mercy.
And when the end comes, we are left with the most troubling and turmoil-filled spirit. We prayed for the end, but then we grieved the loss. We are relieved that their suffering stopped, but we didn’t want to lose them.
This is sorrow.
In Genesis 6, prior to the flood, the text mentions the “wickedness of man.”
We’ve been taught to read this as written in the English. Humanity is completely wicked, so the Flood waters are a judgement to wipe out the earth in God’s wrath.
But that is not the whole picture.
The word here for “the wickedness” is the noun-form of the word ra’. We translate it as “wickedness” or “evil,” but the word carries the connotation of suffering. So when we read “…and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time,” we are being told something important.
Can you see it?
III. evil, misery, distress, injury
1. evil, misery, distress
2. evil, injury, wrong
3. evil (ethical)
H7451: רַע (raʿ)
The text is not describing a humanity in defiance or disobedience to a holy God who must respond in wrath. That’s not the story. It is describing a humanity that is suffering. They are in misery. And they are dying. The curse of sin (death) has laid hold of all of them.
And when the text says “the Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled,” we see it clearly.
This form of “regretted” is compassionate mercy.
1. (Niphal)
1. to be sorry, be moved to pity, have compassion
2. to be sorry, rue, suffer grief, repent
3. to comfort oneself, be comforted
4. to comfort oneself, ease oneself
H5162: נָחַם (nāḥam)
And this form of “grieved” is precisely that feeling of troubling and turmoil-filled sorrow. It is the ending that you wish didn’t have to happen, but you understood that it would be worse if it didn’t.
5. (Hithpael) to feel grieved, be vexed
H6087: עָצַב (ʿāṣaḇ)
This is what our God is showing us with this story.
This stems from Adam and Eve’s eating from the tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil. This evil is the source of the suffering of humanity.
The narrative isn’t pointing to a God who is punishing us for doing the wrong thing. It is about a God grieving our suffering from it.
But God does not leave us in our suffering.
In Noah (whose name means “comfort“), we see God pointing to restoration. We see God making a new covenant and promising that this Flood will not happen again. Perhaps it’s because He will one day end all of our suffering.