Genesis 7:5 Commentary - Dr Peter Masters

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Genesis 7:5

Comments

Noah was careful to do all that God had commanded. He left nothing out. He followed the blueprint for the ark precisely. He trusted in God’s instructions. He did not add to it from his own imagination; indeed, he would have been afraid to do so, knowing that this was a work that was beyond his understanding. And he ‘was six hundred years old [that is two thirds of his life] when the flood of waters was upon the earth.’ And he went in, with his sons and his wife. You just imagine it – this ark. It was massive. It had no windows except one at the top. It was black in colour because it was covered with pitch everywhere. Well, the experts think that this time of the year was the spring, working from the information that is given in the chapters. So the green shoots were bursting forth, a beautiful time of the year, full of promise and growth, and a feeling in the air. And at such a time, they are called to get into this gigantic, black, tomb of a structure, without any windows, with all the animals, to be cooped up in there, for a flood, of which, at the moment, there is no actual, physical sign. And that they did, by faith, they obeyed God.What a picture we have here of Noah and his little family getting into that ark! He was six hundred years old. His sons: the oldest of them was at least a hundred, and the others were not far behind. None of them has had a child yet. They go into the ark and you can imagine them, leaving the home that they have been in, not for ten years, or thirty years, or forty years, but hundreds of years. Noah and his wife had had that homestead for hundreds of years; probably there was barely an original plank in it, which had not been renewed. They were familiar with every part of it, and it was absolutely ideal and to their liking; they had brought up their family there. Now they must leave it, and get into this formidable structure. You can just imagine the faith of Noah, and he had projected it into his family.

Application

Noah condemned the world (Hebrews 11:7) not only by his preaching but by his actions. He condemned an unbelieving world because it did not have the faith that he had, the faith which had made him carry out the Lord’s instructions so carefully. We are not saved by our worship, our attendance at the house of God, nor by our daily prayers and Bible reading at home, nor by our keeping ourselves separate from the world and striving against sin, nor by our witness to Christ. The world sees all these things and they are distasteful to them and they determine in their hearts that they will never follow us in these things. To do so would be to act shamefully as far as they are concerned, because it would be to make too much of the voice of conscience, to pay too much attention to God’s instructions, to risk being ostracised by the world whose fellowship they value too highly to lose.

It is a superb symbol, symbolic picture, type, of salvation. When you come to Christ, there are many discouragements, and the devil whispers in your ear – you are giving up all your pleasures, that is your sinful pleasures. You are giving up all your godless companions, and the people who do not believe and will now scorn you and abandon you. You are giving up a life of promise, and gaiety, and pleasure. All that to get into, what? What seems to be a just tomb. But you go forward in faith. I must have mercy, I must have my sins forgiven. I must have new life. Christ has suffered and died for a sinner like me. And you trust in him and yield your life.

Questions

People object to the fact that Noah’s sons are mentioned before his wife. Why are they given precedence in the narrative? Because the human race is now to be rooted through these three sons. That is just what we would expect in this account, because this is the story, the history of the generations of Noah. So it is the male line which is going to be traced, and the names of the sons all the way through. It is no disrespect to the wives, but the account is very precise. The blood royal for the promised Saviour promised in Genesis 3.15 will come through one of them, and it will turn out to be Shem who carries the blood royal for the Messiah.

Outline

Purpose

Introduction

Genesis 7:5 Commentary and Bible Study