Genesis Chapter 7

A few thoughts on the Noah flood narrative...

7:5 - How would you like that to be said about your life? "And (Your name here) did everything the Lord had commanded of him (or her)." What a legacy...what a way to be known by the people around you! This is such a simple verse...such a simple way to live your life that Noah models for us. God tells Noah that the whole earth is going to be flooded. Tells him to build a huge boat (Do people even know what boats are at this point?). Tells him to pile wild animals on this thing and get ready for the entire earth to flood like a giant washing machine cleaning off all the vile sinfulness that exists. (Genesis 6:5 tells us that every single thought of the people on earth at this point was corrupt - every moment they were thinking only of ways to serve themselves and please themselves.) And how does Noah respond to these insane sounding instructions...he immediately does everything that the Lord commanded him to do. So many times it seems like the things that God is calling us to do are impossible. Bless those who curse you? It seems like the people God is calling us to be are crazy. Love your enemies? But if we have the courage to follow in the footsteps of Noah...the faith to trust that God knows what He is doing...the wisdom to believe that God's way is better - we will see God at work boldly in our lives just like Noah did. I need to stop making excuses for myself and live out the life God is calling me to live. How about you?

That was the challenging part - now on to the fun sidebar discussion...

7:11 - I like the term the English Standard Version of the Bible uses, "The windows of heaven were opened...". I think maybe there were different types of cloud layers at this point in earth's history. Maybe the clouds were insanely low and thick so that the entire earth was like a greenhouse...enabling the people to live hundreds and hundreds of years.You will notice that after the flood, the ages of people start to drastically decline. Maybe God caused the greenhouse clouds to collapse causing the flood and He didn't put them back the way they were? What do you think?