Genesis 7-9

It's finally time.  Noah is told to go into the ark with his family and all the animals.  So, he goes in and we read that "the Lord shut him in".  I guess God closed the door or sealed it or something like that.

Once again, the age of these people is kinda hard to comprehend.  Nowadays, people don't live this long so I always wonder what it's like for a person this old to be going about his life.  Even for Noah who is 600 years old at the time, how does he have the energy to build an ark and gather a whole bunch of animals?  Well, it takes a lot of help from God, that's for sure.

So, it rains for 40 days.  The waters rise so high that even the high mountains were submerged in water.  That's a lot of water!  With so much water, just about all mankind and animals died.  I assume that this doesn't include the sea creatures, since they wouldn't really be affected that much by the flood.  In any case, the ark floats and the flood remains for 150 days.

At the start of chapter 8, we read "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark".  God could've just let the flood remain and everything on the ark wouldn't have been able to survive.  However, God remembered them and made sure he took care of them.  So, he causes the waters to recede.  As mentioned in the last chapter, it takes 150 days for the waters to recede and finally the ark comes to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

The waters continue to subside and Noah sends out a dove to test whether or not it is safe to leave the ark.  The dove finds no place to land, so it returns.  After another 7 days the dove is sent out again and this time returns with a freshly plucked olive leaf.  Seeing this Noah knew it was almost time.  So, after another 7 days the dove is sent out and it does not return.

Finally, they open the doors and leave the ark.  What is the first thing that they do?  Noah builds an altar and makes a burnt offering to the Lord.  This was a pleasing aroma to the Lord and he promises to never again curse the ground because of man nor to kill everything as he has done.  The flow of time and seasons will continue.

God blesses them and tells them "be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth".  This is similar to what he says to Adam at the beginning of Genesis.  I guess this is a new start and his instruction remains the same.

God also warns them about eating flesh with its life.  I guess that means to not eat something that is still alive.  Looking into it a bit, it more has to do with the blood itself.  Part of it could be the significance of blood as well as clean/unclean issues.  Also, sacrifices play a part since blood was key to many sacrifices.  In addition, humane treatment of animals, as well as health reasons.  Does this affect the things that we eat nowadays?  Well, we read in the new testament about how all foods have been declared clean.  Also, if they're referring to ceremonial cleanliness, we know that it is Jesus' blood that cleanses us now.  That isn't to say that we don't need to fight sin, but certain laws had a purpose that no longer have a purpose because of Christ's work on the cross.  Uh... Maybe someone will come in and help correct some of what I have said... I'm a bit off my rocker perhaps...

Anyway, the covenant is established with Noah and his offspring.  The rainbow in the clouds is a sign of this covenant.  So, looking at a rainbow, remember that God has promised to not destroy all living creatures with a flood.

There is another small story about Noah and his sons.  He plants a vineyard and gets drunk from the wine.  Then, Ham does something weird and wrong to his father while he is drunk and naked.  It's not specific, so we can leave it at that.  In any case, the other two sons, Shem and Japheth do the right thing and cover their father's nakedness.  While doing so, they do it in such a way as to not look at their father's nakedness.  When Noah wakes up, he curses his son Ham for whatever it is that he did.  He then blesses Shem and Japheth.

Noah lived till he was 950 years old.  He lived 350 years after the flood.  So, apparently, people did not have a cap on their life at 120 years since Noah lived past 120 years after God had made that statement.  However, we see nowadays that people don't even come close to the lifespan that we read about in the first half of Genesis.