Ge. 7: Everybody in the Pool

I can only imagine the grief Noah got from his continually-evil-all-the-time neighbors and acquaintances for essentially building a seaworthy DeVos Place on his property. I am assuming he didn't get a whole lot of positive feedback. I would assume his walk with God was rather well known, so that probably got some airplay on Gossip Radio.

So, after the ark is built, God's like, "Go on in there." God explained to Noah that, because he was found righteous in this generation, God would shed His grace on him and his family. This flood was not without its consequences, such as wiping out all life, so God had Noah bring aboard the ark seven of every clean animal, (a male and its mate, either for dinner or rituals or both, and the Bible at this point doesn't speak to God's requirement for ceremonies) and two of every unclean animal (a male and its mate). So, if it was seven pairs of every clean animal, I wonder if it was actually two pairs of every unclean animal? The words are the same in regards to clean and unclean animals. Verse 15 and 16 just says "pairs" and "were male and female." Maybe not. I don't know Hebrew. But thats not the point here, the point is, the species of each was preserved.

Clean animals: 7 pairs
Unclean animals: 2 (pairs?)
Birds: 7 pairs

Noah had a week to get all these aminals into the ark, because that's when God said he would commence a 40-day deluge of rain. A weather phenomenon apparently heretofore unseen by the planet earth (see Genesis 2:6). I wonder if this speaks to the nature of a soul with animals. God wiped out the vast majority of them. God saw fit to save more animals than people at that time. Does this say something about how important animals are to God...how innocent they are...or just how completely subhuman man had become?

Noah was no spring chicken...being 600 years old on F-Day.

The Bible describes the flood in a terrifying way. It wasn't just a steady drizzle, it was more than a heavy downpour. It says all the springs from the deep burst forth. The floodgates of the heavens were open. It doesn't just rain for forty days and forty nights. The ground erupted with great seas pouring forth from underneath. I imagine the sky shattering and literally pouring its contents forth onto the earth. I don't imagine people had time to climb high mountains and get on top of buildings. I imagine the extinction was just about instantaneous. From the Bible's description, I can't imagine people climbing into their boats or canoes or whatever, and almost making it.

God made absolutely sure He was starting clean.

For forty days the deluge continued. Presumably unrelenting. The storm probably never lightened up. There was probably no break in the clouds. Just a constant rush of water. The ark was lifted high above the earth. Hopefully Noah didn't lean over and drop his keys or his sunglasses over the side.

It was so catastrophic that the highest mountains under the entire heavens were covered. to more than twenty feet. To cover Mount Everest by twenty feet means the water would have been about 5.5 miles above sea level. The distance from my house to Yesterdog. It increased the volume of the earth by 1.2 billion cubic miles.

Verse 22 says everything with the breath of life in its nostrils perished. Doesn't mention fish. Or plesiasaurs. Pleisiosaurs...you know, swimming monsters. Just...everything died, ok?

Only Noah and those on the ark were left. Noah was legend.

It took 150 days for the waters to recede to the point where Noah could set down on dry land. So we hear about the 40 days and 40 nights bit, and then we assume Noah could bail. We don't often hear about the extra 150 days, putting Noah on a floating toilet barge for a little over 6 months.

Questions for God:
1. Did you really have to completely wipe out mankind?
2. What is the meaning of a flood? Is it that a flood reaches completely into every available space, filling it totally? Is it ... cleansing? A flood is total, it is complete...?