Old Testament - Genesis 7 - February 2, 2022

 2/2/2022 – Genesis 7

In v 4, that Lord does something He rarely does. He has given Noah instructions to construct an ark, and also instructions on bringing animals and exact numbers of their kind. And finally, I’m thinking after much work and preparation, the Lord tells Noah that he has seven days until the rains will come. The Lord also tells Noah that it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights. The Lord is usually not this precise with His instructions. Perhaps it is because Noah’s faith did not need strengthening. V 5 gives us an excellent picture of Noah: “And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.” The Lord had watched Noah and his family, as they continued to keep His commandments in a continuing wicked world. Add to that the fact that the world outside his family continually berated him and mocked him and finally wanted to kill him.

Noah and his family did as they were instructed. It had to have been an amazingly difficult task to collect and contain the proper numbers of the “clean beasts, and of beats that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepth upon the earth…” And then there was food that had to have been brought in for the people and for the animals that were in the ark for what is thought to be 370 days before they were able to exit the ark onto dry ground.

When the floods came, they came as had never been seen as “all the fountains of the great deep broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” (v’s 11-12) Enough water came that even the hills and the mountains were covered—it was like a baptism, where every part of one’s body must go under the water. The wicked earth WAS baptized, and would start again anew. 

But the new start took time, for “every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.” (v’s 23-24)

Orson Pratt spoke of this: “The first ordinance instituted for the cleansing of the earth, was that of immersion in water; it was buried in the liquid element, and all things sinful upon the face of the earth were washed away. As it came forth from the ocean floor, like the new-born child, it was innocent; it rose to newness of life. …”

Brigham Young: “The earth, in its present condition and situation, is not a fit habitation for the sanctified; but it abides the law of its creation, has been baptized with water, will be baptized by fire and the Holy Ghost, and by-and-by will be prepared for the faithful to dwell upon”

And from John Taylor: ““Now I will go back to show you how the Lord operates. He destroyed a whole world at one time save a few, whom he preserved for his own special purpose. And why? He had more than one reason for doing so. This antediluvian people were not only very wicked themselves, but having the power to propagate their species, they transmitted their unrighteous natures and desires to their children, and brought them up to indulge in their own wicked practices. And the spirits that dwelt in the eternal worlds knew this, and they knew very well that to be born of such parentage would entail upon themselves an infinite amount of trouble, misery and sin. And supposing ourselves to be of the number of unborn spirits, would it not be fair to presume that we would appeal to the Lord, crying, ‘Father, do you not behold the condition of this people, how corrupt and wicked they are?’ ‘Yes.’ ‘Is it then just that we who are now pure should take of such bodies and thus subject ourselves to most bitter experiences before we can be redeemed, according to the plan of salvation?’ ‘No,’ the Father would say, ‘it is not in keeping with my justice.’ ‘Well, what will you do in the matter; man has his free agency and cannot be coerced, and while he lives he has the power of perpetuating his species?’ ‘I will first send them my word, offering them deliverance from sin, and warning them of my justice, which shall certainly overtake them if they reject it, and I will destroy them from off the face of the earth, thus preventing their increase, and I will raise up another seed.’ Well, they did reject the preaching of Noah, the servant of God, who was sent to them, and consequently the Lord caused the rains of heaven to descend incessantly for forty days and nights, which flooded the land, and there being no means of escape, save for the eight souls who were obedient to the message, all the others were drowned. But, says the caviller, is it right that a just God should sweep off so many people? Is that in accordance with mercy? Yes, it was just to those spirits that had not received their bodies, and it was just and merciful too to those people guilty of the iniquity. Why? Because by taking away their earthly existence he prevented them from entailing their sins upon their posterity and degenerating them, and also prevented them from committing further acts of wickedness.”