Episode 248 - "God sees the righteous" - Genesis 7:1-5

Gen. 7:1 Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

I want to point out that whenever you see the word LORD in all caps, it represents the divine name. Later, in Exodus, when God spoke to Moses in the burning bush and commissioned him to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, Moses asked him for his name in order that he could tell the Israelites the name of their God who would lead them out of bondage to a promised land of provision and protection. The transliteration of Hebrew to English for God’s response comes out most often as “Jehovah” or “Yahweh.” (Exod. 3:15) It’s unknown whether this name had been revealed before and, therefore, sounded familiar to the Hebrews. Accepting Mosaic authorship, it would seem that Moses specified the divine name here in verses one and five of chapter seven to communicate to the Hebrews that their God was with Noah and showed him compassion while also judging violence and wickedness on the earth. In other words, it should have sent them a message that they should do what God told them.

Chapter six had already ended with Noah doing all that God commanded him. Now, chapter seven begins with a repetition and emphasis on how God deemed Noah righteous. Notice that in speaking to Noah, the LORD says, “I have seen that you are righteous before me.” (Gen. 7:1) There is both repetition and contrast in this action of seeing. On one hand, Eve saw that the forbidden fruit was good for food and able to make one wise (Gen. 3:6). Through her senses and letting the serpent’s deceit influence her judgment, she ate the fruit and disobeyed the LORD. In Genesis 6:2, “the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were attractive. And they took as their wives any they chose.” This was depicted as a perverse thing that brought more wickedness among humanity. The point is that mankind is inclined to see and judge according to their own desires. God alone sees and makes righteous decisions. This is another principle the Israelites needed to understand to follow the LORD into the land he gave them. It’s a principle we need to appropriate ourselves.

Noah had already received the instruction that a male and female pair of every animal and bird that came onto the ark would be preserved. There are people who have devoted their lives to defending how a boat this size could contain representatives of every kind of animal and explain how they could have survived this ordeal. The Ark Encounter in Kentucky was created for this very reason. It’s a full-scale replica of the ark that people can tour and learn about the perspective that this event really occurred according to the description in Genesis. I’ve not been to this place myself. But I’m not in need of being convinced that this flood actually occurred in a divine act of judgment for humanity’s violence and God’s compassion to spare Noah’s family and the creatures upon the ark. Squabbles over various questions are, I think, distractions from the big picture of the meta-narrative. But now God specifies “seven” of each clean animal. Is it seven individuals of each or seven pairs of each as represented in this translation? The Hebrew doesn’t actually use a word for “pairs” here. However, the context seems to support the idea of pairs. So, I’ll go with that. Why seven of the clean and only one pair of the unclean animals? Well, for one, we’re going to see how Moses will sacrifice clean animals to the LORD once they are safely off the ark after the flood. Furthermore, the Israelites will not be allowed to eat the meat of unclean animals. There is no indication that Noah and his family ate meat on the ark. However, things will change after the flood.

I don’t know if there is anything significant about the rain starting in seven days and continuing for forty days. Some see a connection here between the forty days of rain (judgment) with the forty years of wandering (judgment) for the disobedient Israelites in the wilderness. One thing is sure, and that it denotes specificity. There is no ambiguity in what the LORD says to Noah. I am amazed when people tell me they had a dream or a word from the LORD, and it seems clear to me that the so-called word is not consistent with what the LORD has clearly revealed in his special revelation, the Bible. We need to be careful when ascribing some belief or action we are taking to the LORD. It always needs to be brought to what is apparent in the Scriptures.

This section concludes with another repeated statement, “And Noah did all the LORD commanded him.” (Gen. 7:5) If we learn nothing else from the story of Noah and the flood, it should be that we should seek to do what the LORD has commanded us. What is that? Jesus told his disciples, “Love one another!” (John 13:34) There’s a good starting point.