Welcome to the MHB Podcast. This is Michael Baun. And welcome to my thirty fourth episode. Tonight I want to study Genesis chapter 7. This chapter is the commencement of the flood event that was promised in chapter 6. As we work through this study, I want you to think about these three questions:
- Was God cruel for destroying so much life?
- Do you think Noah wanted to survive?
- Is your faith founded on fear or on love?
In the last episode I told you that I think natural theology and trying to prove the validity of the Bible is probably not a good thing. The obvious reason is because the Bible calls us to have faith, not proof. Having said this, I don’t think we need to have blind faith. We should be happy to explore the natural record and look for evidence to support what we believe. I went over quite a bit of evidence when I laid out the positions on The Creation Account. I’m not going to go as deep into the evidence when it comes to Noah’s Flood. But there are a few pieces that seem so obvious to me that I want to touch on them.
Right now 71% of planet Earth is under water. 71% of Earth’s surface is covered in oceans or other bodies of water. The most recent ice age ended roughly 10,000 years ago. This was called the Pleistocene Epoch. At one point during the ice age, sheets of ice covered all of Antarctica, large parts of Europe, North America, South America, and small areas in Asia. This ice age ended right around the time that Noah’s Flood happened. Most people know that the biblical account says it rained for 40 days and 40 nights, but not as many people mention the verses saying that water came up out of the ground as well. This description would be consistent with aggressive ice melt causing aquifers and bodies of water to overflow.
The Bible is not the only place where this flood is recorded. Over 150 cultural and ethnic societies have passed down ancient stories about this event. The flood story has been found among all different kinds of peoples who were geographically isolated from each other. These people had no way of working together to invent a story like this.
In 2012, Robert Ballard, one of the world’s most prominent underwater archaeologists, started probing the depths of the Black Sea. Four hundred feet below the surface, his team unearthed an ancient shoreline, proving that a catastrophic event happened there 7 -10,000 years ago. Ballard and his team are the same ones who discovered the remains of the Titanic in 1985.
But the evidence doesn’t stop there. The fossil record also shows signs of what is called global dispersion. This means that there are fossils laid down at the peaks of mountains where animals could not have gone. Microbial bio-geography further supports global dispersion by showing us the same kind of bacteria in the soil everywhere on the planet. No matter where you are on Earth you can find pseudomonad bacteria in the soil. Not only can you find it, but you can show that it is cosmopolitan – meaning that it’s evenly distributed. This has to come from a global dispersion event. That is the only reasonable explanation. And guess where you can find pseudomonad bacteria being evenly distributed – in water.
Those are just a few of the many lines of evidence that point to Noah’s Flood. So why the controversy? It turns out that Scripture itself predicted that this controversy would arise.
2 Peter 3:3-7:
3 Most importantly, I want to remind you that in the last days scoffers will come, mocking the truth and following their own desires. 4 They will say, “What happened to the promise that Jesus is coming again? From before the times of our ancestors, everything has remained the same since the world was first created.”
5 They deliberately forget that God made the heavens long ago by the word of his command, and he brought the earth out from the water and surrounded it with water. 6 Then he used the water to destroy the ancient world with a mighty flood. 7 And by the same word, the present heavens and earth have been stored up for fire. They are being kept for the day of judgment, when ungodly people will be destroyed.
Whatever the reasons that people doubt the creation and the flood events, the Bible explicitly predicts that these doubts would happen. Now that we’ve taken a brief overview of how Noah’s Flood could have happened, let’s read the biblical account. Please enjoy.
Genesis 7:
The Flood Covers the Earth
7 When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. 2 Take with you seven pairs—male and female—of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice,[a] and take one pair of each of the others. 3 Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird. There must be a male and a female in each pair to ensure that all life will survive on the earth after the flood. 4 Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.”
5 So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him.
6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. 7 He went on board the boat to escape the flood—he and his wife and his sons and their wives. 8 With them were all the various kinds of animals—those approved for eating and for sacrifice and those that were not—along with all the birds and the small animals that scurry along the ground. 9 They entered the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10 After seven days, the waters of the flood came and covered the earth.
11 When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the underground waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. 12 The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights.
13 That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives. 14 With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild, large and small—along with birds of every kind. 15 Two by two they came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes. 16 A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.
17 For forty days the floodwaters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. 18 As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. 19 Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, 20 rising more than twenty-two feet[b] above the highest peaks. 21 All the living things on earth died—birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people. 22 Everything that breathed and lived on dry land died. 23 God wiped out every living thing on the earth—people, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and the birds of the sky. All were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him in the boat. 24 And the floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days.
I want to unpack this chapter by answering the three questions that I asked you to consider at the start of this study. First: Was God cruel for destroying so much life? I find it interesting that many people equate cruelty with disbelief. What I mean is, you will hear people say that God is cruel and then use that position as a segue into reasoning that He must not exist. But look around you. The world is not exactly warm and fuzzy. You could be a Nobel Peace Prize recipient and if you jump off a building, the law of gravity is still going to kill you. The tsunami that hit Sri Lanka in 2004 destroyed more than 30,000 people. We know that catastrophes happen, but we don’t disbelieve in the catastrophe because it was so horrendous. But why doesn’t God stop events like these?
I have two things to say about that. The first is that we are dealing with hopelessly inaccurate numbers. I would suggest that God does stop many, many tragedies from taking place – but since the tragedy never takes place we can’t know that he stopped it. Occasionally you will see people praising God for a miracle, but even these people are often quick to forget the miraculous nature of the event. The second thing I have to say is that human actions are almost always linked to many of these tragedies – even natural disasters. Take Sri Lanka. They had two hours to evacuate the coast following the earthquake, but the warnings never made it to the people on the ground. All of the equipment was available but it was never set up. All of the drills and the lessons to help people were developed but were never implemented. Why do these systemic failures happen? Usually it’s because someone, somewhere did not want to spend the money. And that can usually be traced back to corruption – especially in developing countries.
So, what if everyone involved did everything they could to prevent something and it still happened anyway? There’s no doubt that horrible things happen to people when it is no fault of their own. For these situations, I would ask that you consider the plot of a story. There are some stories that play out like tragedies until the twist at the end. The biblical narrative is no different. If you isolate certain passages you can easily make God look like a cruel, genocidal maniac. But if you take each verse as part of its broader context in the entire narrative, then the only conclusion is that God loves you so much that He died on a cross to save you. Here’s a thought experiment. Think back to the worst thing that you’ve ever done. Do you define yourself by your worst moment? In the same way, when we come to passages in the Bible where God is pouring out wrath – keep in mind who the people are that he’s working with and never forget the way that this story ends. God has planned everything for the best possible outcome that any of us can hope for. All we have to do is go to Him.
The second question I asked you to consider was: Do you think Noah wanted to survive? I suppose the fact that he spent such a long time laboring over the ark and that he did not decline to go on board makes the answer self evident – but it’s still worth exploring. Imagine living during one of the most evil times in human history. Imagine trying to warn people about the incoming disaster and no one is listening to you. Imagine being in the ark when the flood breaks out and knowing that everyone else has sealed their fate. Then imagine coming down out of the ark to find desolation. Noah’s life is not an enviable one. And I ask this question because I think in some cases following God can lead to a difficult life. I don’t believe that the biblical worldview is one where you intentionally seek suffering. But I do believe that if most of the people around you are lost, then following God can be a difficult proposition. In some parts of the world it gets you executed.
Does this mean you are obligated to go to the hangman’s noose or the executioner’s block for your faith? Jesus did. Many of the prominent people in Scripture and in history did this as well. I don’t think that we are meant to seek out death and suffering on behalf of God. But I can see a viable future where we will have to choose between principle and power. Where surviving means doing evil and blending in. What I would say to you is this: When you have to choose between being part of the mob as they violently rip apart the peaceful order of things. When you have to choose between that and the block – choose the block. If the world becomes locked in an escalating power struggle, there are at least two ways to work for peace. The first is to surrender your claim on the power. The second is to wipe out your enemies. I would say that this second option should be considered very, very carefully because there could be eternal consequences if the motive of your heart is power and not love.
That brings me to my third question: Is your faith founded on fear or on love? The sad reality is that many Christians believe in God because they are afraid of death, not because they love God. These people are robbing themselves of the best part of knowing God. In 18th century England John Wesley started talking about Christian Perfection. Across time, many people misread Christian Perfection into thinking that it means perfect performance at avoiding sins. But what Wesley had in mind was so much better. Christian Perfection is having perfect love for God. You are saved when you trust that God will save you. Imagine a wife and kids who are stuck on the side of the road with a flat tire. She calls her husband and he tells her to sit tight and that he’s on his way. I’m on my way. The anxiety that she and her kids felt in the moments leading up to the call is totally evaporated once they know Dad is coming.
That is what perfect love for God feels like. It is trusting Him with all of your being that He’s given you the right instructions for this life and that He’s going to save you. Take a look at the foundation of your faith. If it is built on fear, then you should know that your Father in heaven loves you more than you can imagine. That He is the only One who is the First and the Last – the Beginning and the End. That no one or no thing is strong enough to take you away from Him. You can know that in an instant and you can carry that with you forever.
Before I close, I want to address Proverbs 9:10 where it says fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. I interpret these verses to mean that if you fear the consequences of disobeying God’s commandments then you can save yourself a whole lot of pain in this life. When a doctor tells you not to mix alcohol with sleeping medication, you listen. You listen because you are afraid of the consequences of disobeying the doctors orders. In the same way, trust God that His prescriptions are the right mode of being for you. Do not flirt with the adversary. If you don’t fear God in this way, then it becomes very easy to deceive yourself into becoming your own god.
If you find this content valuable, feel free to share it and to use it in your own studies. If you’d like to support this podcast, you can do so at www.patreon.com/michaelhbaun. There is a link in the description. Your generosity goes a long way to promoting the growth of this enterprise and the cause of free speech. Thank you all for joining me this evening, and I will see you in the next episode.
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