Verse 16 – Then the Lord shut him in.
Why is it significant that God shuts the door?
Noah did not shut out anyones salvation… There are people dying all over…
God kept the door open until the last minute.
This is powerful – Revelation 3:7
“To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.
From Charles Spurgeon “The ark was salvation for Noah, but condemnation for the world. There were no second chances for those left out. “Yea, when the one hundred and twenty years were over, and God’s Spirit would no longer strive with men, there stood the great ark with its vast door wide open, and still Noah continued to preach and to declare that all who would pass within that open portal into the ark of safety should be preserved from the coming destruction. Outside that door death would reign universally, but all would be peace within” (Spurgeon).
Verse 17-24 – Many non believers will say this is not a global flood. Many people will say there was no flood. Many will say it was local. But God’s word makes it clear it is a global flood.
Read Psalm 104:5-9
Psalm 104:5-9 5 He set the earth on its foundations; it can never be moved. 6 You covered it with the watery depths as with a garment; the waters stood above the mountains. 7 But at your rebuke the waters fled, at the sound of your thunder they took to flight; 8 they flowed over the mountains, they went down into the valleys, to the place you assigned for them. 9 You set a boundary they cannot cross; never again will they cover the earth.
Read 2 Peter 3:5-6
- But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. 6. By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed.
From Babylonian history:
Literally, hundreds of people groups have their own accounts and legends of the flood. One of the most remarkable is the Babylonian account, which is similar to the Genesis account in many ways and is clearly drawn from it. Since all mankind came from Noah’s sons, all mankind remembers the flood.
How do we know it is not a local flood according to the bible?
If this were not a global flood:
The ark would not be necessary
God’s promise to not flood again is false
All humanity is traced back to Noah – false
There are more than 200 people groups that have a flood as part of their history including: Indians of America, the Papago Indians of Arizona, Brazilian tribes, Peruvian Indians, African Hottentots, natives of Greenland, native Hawaiian islanders, Hindus, Chinese, Egyptians, Greeks, Persians, Australian natives, the Welsh, Celts, Druids, Siberians, and Lithuanians.
iv. Of the more than 200 cultures that have their own account of the flood the following aspects of the story are common:
· 88% describe a favored family.
· 70% attribute survival to a boat.
· 95% say the sole cause of the catastrophe is a flood.
· 66% say that the disaster is due to man’s wickedness.
· 67% record that animals are also saved.
· 57% describe that the survivors end up on a mountain.
· Many of the accounts also specifically mention birds being sent out, a rainbow, and eight persons being saved.
Verse 19-20 – This took a lot of water, but we have a lot of water. If the oceans were flat, the water would cover the earth to a depth of 2.5 to 3 miles.
Verse 21-23 – We discussed early in this study if the fish were included in the ark. The answer is here. Only animals with the “breath of life in its nostrils” died.
Verse 24 – This does not mean the water was gone in 150 days. The water was rising for 150 days.
The chapter ends “with an awe-inspiring picture of the mighty waters covering the entire earth. We see water everywhere, as though the world had reverted to its primeval state at the dawn of Creation, when the waters of the deep submerged everything. Nothing remained of the teeming life that had burst forth upon the earth. Only a tiny point appears on the face of the terrible waters: the Ark that preserves between its planks the seeds of life for the future. But it is a mere atom and is almost lost in the endless expanse of water that was spread over the face of the whole earth. A melancholy scene that is liable to fill the reader with despair. What will happen to this atom of life?”
Genesis (LifeGuide Bible Studies) Hummel/Hummel God’s Creative Call
The Gospel Project – https://www.gospelproject.com