Read Genesis 6
Noah and the flood is a popular Sunday School story. The truth is that children love this story because animals and boats are cool. So too is a story of an old crazy man building a boat for 100 years. And it's made of gopher wood. How cool is that? But this story is not about animals, or boats, or even Noah, who doesn't have one single thing to say in the entire story. This story is about God. What we learn about God from what the text DOES say, what it DOESN'T say, and what it probably MEANS is more important than hanging on to our preconceived notions from our childhood memories or understandings.
God is destroying the earth because of violence and corruption because of the evil thoughts and desires of humans. This is the simplest and most clear description for the reason for the flood.
All of humanity has corrupted their ways. All has been bent, perverted from God’s original design. The evil is described as violence.
Since a toldot (This is the account of . . .) occurs in verse nine, we can interpret this as a separate story from the verses before it. The oppression of the “men of renown” has been dealt with separately. This is a judgment of all of humanity for the perversion and violence of all of humanity that has become bent, not just the kings and rulers.
God is not throwing a tantrum and erupting in a fit of rage. On the contrary, he is thoughtful and intentional. He gives Noah a specific plan. He gives humanity plenty of time to repent. He is merciful and thoughtful and patient in his act of justice. His attitude is described as grief, not rage.
Noah did what God commanded.
God's plan to destroy sounds similar in language to the creation order and account.
The ark is huge, and way ahead of it's time for water vessels, which is probably why God's designs are so specific. 450 x 75 x 45 feet.
v17 - the word flood here is only used in the Bible of this particular flood. Related words outside of scripture always refer to a worldwide catastrophic water event, and sometimes refer to acts of the gods. There is no mistaking the authors’ intention to describe a worldwide, God-orchestrated catastrophic deluge.
Since humans don't eat meat, clean animals would have to do with appropriateness for sacrifice, not food.
2 Peter 2:5 shows Noah preaching righteousness to his neighbours, but it doesn’t say when or why it happened, and it isn't in the text of Genesis.
We don't necessarily know how long it took Noah to build this boat. With his family all working together full time, it may have only taken a few years. If he hired help, it may have taken less time. If he believed a flood was coming, he may have been motivated to build quickly. Or he may have taken his time and built alone in his spare time, in which case the traditional one hundred twenty years might apply. The text does not say.
The traditional added detail of Noah taking one hundred twenty years comes from a specific interpretation of Genesis 6:3. God says that he will reduce human life to one hundred twenty years. Since the genealogical record does not show human life reduced to that length immediately, some have concluded that this verse referred to the length of time God was giving for man to repent. However, the text does not indicate in any other detail that God was considering repentance of mankind as an option. God’s mind was decided. The judgment was already sure.
In the epic of Gilgamesh, another story of the flood is told. In it (and other flood epics from the same period) the boat building had to be done in secrecy so that people wouldn't all be trying to get aboard. This shows a cultural difference between ours and the original readers of this story. Ancient Mesopotamia would not think the idea of a god becoming angry and flooding the world was crazy. The other ancient accounts of the flood show a population who would have clambered to get aboard such a boat. We should be careful not to read Noah's neighbours response into the text when it is not there.
Read Genesis 7 and Genesis 8
Again- Noah did what God commanded
7:21- God said (in ch6) and it was so, just like the pattern of Genesis 1.
See 2 Peter 2 for more about Noah and the flood and judgment. Also see 3:9-13.
8:17- be fruitful and multiply (again)
God made a promise to Noah, just as he had with Adam.
The end of the flood coincides with the images of Creation in Genesis 1 and 2. For example waters, wind, animals according to their kinds, blessings, and commands to be fruitful are all part of the Creation story
8:22 – God promises that food, weather, and time will never cease as long as the world exists. These are the Creations of God in the first three days of Genesis 1.
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