Genesis · chapter 7 of 50
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Genesis 7 tells how Noah, at 600 years old, enters the ark with his wife, his sons, his daughters-in-law and the pairs of animals. Seven days later the fountains of the great deep burst open and it rains forty days and forty nights. The Lord shuts the door, the waters cover even the highest mountains and every creature on dry land dies, except those in the ark.
Genesis 7 is the center of the flood story. Noah has obeyed the command to build the ark in Genesis 6, and now the announced judgment arrives. The chapter stresses two things at once: the seriousness of God's judgment on sin and the care with which God keeps those who trust him.
The Lord tells Noah to enter the ark with all his household, because he has seen him to be righteous in this generation. He is to bring seven pairs of the clean animals and of the birds, and one pair of the unclean animals, to keep life alive on the earth. In seven days he will send rain for forty days and forty nights, and Noah does all that the Lord commands.
Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. He enters the ark with his sons, his wife and his sons' wives, along with the pairs of animals, just as God had commanded. After seven days the waters come. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst open and the windows of the heavens are opened, and the rain falls forty days and forty nights. Animals of every kind enter the ark, and the Lord shuts the door behind them.
The waters rise, lift the ark above the earth and cover the highest mountains by fifteen cubits. Every creature that moved on the earth dies: birds, livestock, wild animals and all people, everything with the breath of life on dry land. Only Noah and those with him in the ark remain. The waters prevail on the earth for 150 days.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord invites Noah to enter the ark with all his household because he has seen him righteous before him. Noah does not enter alone but with his family, and God's invitation to take refuge is a picture of the salvation he offers.
Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. Throughout the story Noah hardly speaks; his faith shows in doing what God says, even when the rain has not yet begun.
The Lord himself shuts the door of the ark behind Noah. It is a tender and at the same time solemn detail: God protects his own, and by shutting the door he makes clear that the time to enter is over and that the judgment is real.
God blots out every living thing from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remain. The repetition of total judgment shows how serious sin is, and also how grace leaves a remnant.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Noah and all his household, because he had seen him to be righteous before him in that generation. — Genesis 7:1
Answer: Seven pairs of the clean animals; of the unclean, one pair. — Genesis 7:2
Answer: Six hundred years old. — Genesis 7:6
Answer: All the fountains of the great deep burst open and the windows of the heavens were opened. — Genesis 7:11
Answer: The Lord shut him in. — Genesis 7:16
Answer: One hundred fifty days. — Genesis 7:24
Genesis 7 reminds us that God's patience has a limit and his judgment is real, but also that his care for those who trust him is greater. The Lord shut the door, and no one else could open it. In a class you can talk about what it means to take refuge in God before the storm arrives, not during it.
Noah's simple obedience also teaches. He did all that God commanded before seeing any rain. Ask where God is asking you to trust and obey now, even when the consequences are not yet visible, and how to encourage others to take refuge in him.
Genesis 7 ends with the earth under water and the ark afloat with the survivors. In Genesis 8 God remembers Noah, the waters recede and a new chapter begins for humanity.
Christians hold different positions. Many read the text as a flood that covered the whole earth; others think it describes an enormous but regional event, from the narrator's viewpoint. Both groups agree on the center: the flood was a real judgment of God on sin and at the same time an act of grace toward Noah.
The text says Noah was to bring seven pairs of the clean animals and one pair of the unclean. The practical reason is that the clean animals would be used for sacrifices, as happens in Genesis 8:20, and for food, besides preserving the species.
It is ancient-world language for the underground waters and the sea that, according to Genesis 1, God had held back. The flood is like an undoing of creation: the waters God separated return to cover the earth, before he makes a new beginning.