DWDP - Gen 7: 2-9 Noah Enters the Ark

A courtroom, a quail, and a flood: one odd New York case from 1939 becomes a surprising doorway into Genesis 7, exposing how much of our certainty rests on untested assumptions. We walk through the text on clean and unclean animals, why seven pairs mattered, and what the timing before the rain may signal about God’s patience and human sorrow. Along the way, we revisit infamous scientific misreads like Nebraska Man and ask the unsettling question the judge raised to the star witness: were you there?

From that pivot, we focus on what the text won’t let us ignore—Noah’s steady obedience. Three times the narrative says he did all that God commanded him. That pattern turns into a practical audit of our own lives. Can we love enemies and pray for those who misuse us when it costs our pride? Can we forgive and bless offenders so bitterness loses its grip? And will we take the Great Commission personally, not outsourcing mission to a select few, but carrying Christ’s presence into neighborhoods and nations where thousands remain unreached?

We frame Noah’s ark as a signpost to Jesus—the true ark of safety and deliverance. Entering Christ means stepping out of the old world’s corruption and into a life moved by grace and formed by obedience. If God could sustain a family and the seed of creation through judgment, he can sustain us through the mockery, the waiting, and the hard choices of love. Listen for the call beneath the story: Lord, where am I not obeying you? Show me, and I will obey. If this conversation strengthens your trust, share it with a friend, subscribe for more, and leave a review with one way you plan to walk in obedience this week.

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Scripture Reading
• 1:29 The 1939 Court Challenge
• 4:30 “Were You There?” And Presuppositions
• 7:18 Clean Animals And Seven Pairs
• 10:32 Timing, Methuselah, And Mourning
• 12:55 Forty Days, Canopy, And Judgment
• 15:11 Noah’s Obedience And Our Example
• 17:24 Entering The Ark And Salvation
• 20:10 The Obedience Quiz: Love Enemies
• 22:10 Forgive And Bless Offenders

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:02

Welcome to More Than Men, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by our third physician, Dr. Robert Jackson.

SPEAKER_01: 0:16

Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr. Papa. Gather round, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word which reveals to us the living word who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Today we're at Genesis chapter seven, verses two through five. You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female, and of the animals that are not clean too, a male and his female, also of the birds of the sky by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of the earth. For after seven more days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made. Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him. May God add his blessing to the reading from his word. Now before we begin, I want to tell you of an event that happened on october thirty first, nineteen thirty nine. There was a famous evangelist named Harry Rimmer. He was preaching a series of sermons at Central Baptist Church in New York City. And he put an ad in the papers in New York City offering a thousand dollars for anybody that could prove a scientific error in the Bible. He was preaching a series of sermons entitled The Harmony of Science and Scripture. Well, his ad in the paper created a no small stir in New York City. A gentleman named Mr. William Floyd came forward and demanded the money, alleging a number of scientific errors in the Bible. Well, he could not prove these errors to the satisfaction of the Central Baptist Church or to Mr. Rimmer. Ultimately he entered a lawsuit in the courts of New York City against the Central Baptist Church. As the plaintiff, he then brought with him four witnesses besides himself to establish his case. He brought a rabbi, two preachers, and the vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. The plaintiff, Mr. Floyd, based his case on Numbers chapter eleven, verse thirty-one and thirty-two. If you remember, this is the situation where God brought quail from the east to feed the people when they complained about eating manna all the time and they wanted meat. He interpreted this to mean that God deposited quail on the ground three feet deep a day's journey in every direction around the camp. Well, when he alleged that, mister Rimmer being a biblical scholar himself, he grabbed the Bible from the desk where people had to lay their hand on the Bible to promise that they would speak the whole truth, and he read the verse of scripture to the judge, and he, being a Bible scholar, explained to the judge that the verse meant that the quail were flying as it were three feet above the face of the ground, not that there were a deposit of quail three feet deep. mister Floyd had calculated the number of quail that it would take to be a deposit on the ground three feet deep, a day's journey in every direction around the camp, and he had claimed that it was an impossible number of quail and therefore the scripture could not possibly be true. When Mr Rimer explained the exact meaning of the scripture that the quail were in fact flying, as it were, three feet above the face of the ground, the judge dismissed mister Floyd. Next the rabbi came and he said that there was a contradiction in the Bible, and that in one place it says that there were two of every animal that came into the ark, and in another place there were seven pair that came into the ark. Well, if you're my listeners, you already know the answer to this question. Mr Rumer took the Bible and he read to the judge, of every clean beast you shall take unto thee by sevens the male and his female, and of beasts that are not clean by two the male and his female. And the rabbi was dismissed. Next came Reverend John Holmes. He admitted under questioning that he was not an authority on science, and his ideas were merely his own. He was also dismissed as an ineffectual witness. Next came Reverend Charles Potter, and he claimed that no such thing as the Great Flood had ever occurred. Now, here's why I'm telling you this entire story. The judge leaned over his desk and asked Mr Potter if he had been there. And of course the pastor had to say no, sir, I was not there. And the judge then said, Well, how do you know? And Reverend Potter stammered and said, Well, of course I don't know. And that's what I'm leading up to. You see, the evolutionary scientists who claim that the great flood never occurred have no way of really knowing that the flood did not occur except by their own presupposition that the flood did not occur and that God does not exist, and that the Bible is not true. But it cuts both ways because you see the scientific creationists, they were not there either. They were not there any more than the evolutionary scientists were not there, and they really don't know either. Their opinion is based on their presupposition that God does exist and that the Bible is true. And I'm telling you this entire story simply so that you can hear the question that the judge asked when he asked Reverend Potter, were you there? And he had to answer no. You see, the evolutionary scientists were not there. The scientific creationists were not there, and their opinions are merely their own, albeit based on their scientific conclusions. Well, Mr. Potter was dismissed after he had to admit that his information came from superficial reading and his own opinions. Lastly was Wolsey Teller, the vice president of the American Association for the Advancement of Atheism. He claimed to be an accredited scientist and to be liberally educated in theology. Under cross examination, he had to admit that he hadn't even gone to college and that his information was merely from superficial reading of magazines. He referenced doctor Fairfield Osbourne, who was a well known paleontologist, but doctor Osbourne had created a man, woman, child, an entire civilization from a tooth that he had discovered in northern Nebraska. It was called the Nebraska Man. It had created a great stir in the field of paleontology. However, a year or so later the rest of the animal from which that tooth had come was discovered, and it turned out to be a peccary, a wild hog that is indigenous to northern Nebraska. And he was humiliated. Well, as the courtroom began to discuss all the ramifications of a man, a woman, and an entire culture being created from the tooth of a wild hog, the case became so ludicrous that the judge threw it out of his courtroom. And no such thing as that has ever been tried again in a court of law to discredit the word of God. Now again, I tell you this whole story simply to remind you of that one question that the judge asked when he said to Reverend Potter, Were you there? When Reverend Potter said that no such thing as the great flood had ever occurred. So let me go back to our verse of Scripture today. When God said to take unto you seven pair of the clean animals, why would he take seven pair? I submit to you that it's to keep the seed alive upon the earth, which is exactly what the scripture says for the clean animals. Now this was a valid concern if the flood was a universal worldwide cataclysmic flood, but not so much of a concern if it was merely a localized regional flood. The clean animals were those suitable for domestication and some form of fellowship with mankind and suitable for sacrificial offerings in atonement for man. How did Noah know clean animals and which were the unclean animals? Have you ever thought about that? How did he know the difference? Did God just leave it up to his discretion? There was no prior listing, no prior delineation of one versus another. And the answer says we don't really know. Scripture doesn't tell us. It was much later that Moses' law spelled out the clean versus the unclean animals in Leviticus chapter 11. It's obvious that the seventh pair was later used by Noah and his sons for sacrificial purposes after they left the Ark and Genesis chapter eight and verse twenty. The other three pair allowed for greater numerical proliferation of the clean animals and the development of varieties. Now let's go to verse four and five. Why seven more days? God said in seven days the flood will come. There's speculation about this. Perhaps he needed time for last minute preparations, putting more food in the ark, the last few animals into the ark. There are some theologians who say that it was time for mourning for grandpa Methuselah. If you add up all the days of Methuselah's life, it's apparent that Methuselah died in the last few days before the flood. And it was a normal thing to have seven days of mourning after the death of notable personalities. Like when Jacob died, there was seven days of mourning after Jacob went to the grave. Both Noah and Methuselah preached simultaneously during the last years that the ark was being constructed, and still there were no converts. And it just speaks to you and me and tells us what a wicked and perverse generation. Truly that generation deserved the judgment of God and the judgment of the flood. God told Noah plainly that the rains would pummel the earth for forty days and forty nights. This would be a previously unseen phenomenon as Hebrews chapter eleven tells us. Many creation scientists believed there was a transparent water canopy above the earth that filtered out harmful radiation and provided a protective greenhouse effect on all of planet Earth. These waters somehow condensed and fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. Also, everything on the on the on the land would be obliterated, cleansing the earth in this global bath from heaven. This included all of the lush vegetation of that tropical paradise that was then buried and possibly formed the vast coal beds that we find today on planet Earth. Once again, the scripture affirms that Noah did all that God commanded him, just as he had done for a hundred plus years, trusting and obeying God. If our families could place on our gravestones that we trusted and obeyed God like Noah, that our lives would not be wasted and would be lived to the glory of God. In your prayers often ask the Lord, is there anywhere that I am not obeying you fully? Show me and I will obey you. That's a good prayer, and it's a prayer that you and I should pray regularly. Now let's move on to verse six and seven. Well, verse six through nine. Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood water came upon the earth. Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood, of clean animals and animals that are not clean, and birds and everything that creeps on the ground. There went into the ark to Noah by two males and females as God had commanded Noah. So there you have it. These verses are quite solemn in that they denote the division between the antideluvian and the postdeluvian world, which is marked by stating Noah's age, the reign yet begun, but when Noah and his family entered the Ark, they were effectively cut off from the old world, delivered from the wickedness and the violence, and saved from the judgment to come. Just like you and I, when we enter into Jesus Christ, we are delivered from the corrupting influence of the world and saved from the judgment to come. Jesus Christ is both our ark of safety and our ark of deliverance. If we trust Him and obey Him as Noah did, by grace, God chose Noah and His household, delivering them from the coming destruction. By grace through faith and even that not of yourself. God chose you and delivered you from the penalty of your sin, which is death and separation from holy God forever. To emphasize Noah's obedience, verse seven, eight and nine reiterates exactly who and what entered the ark. To emphasize Noah's explicit obedience to God's command, it concludes with as God had commanded Noah. Everything had been done as God commanded. Over and over we see these verses that are saying that Noah did everything that God commanded. Oh that that could be said about you and me, that we did all that God commanded, that we walked in obedience to God's commands. Remember, Jesus said, If you love me, you will obey me. John the Beloved tells us in first John 5 3, for this is the love of God that we keep his commandments. And his commandments are not burdensome. Three times these passages tell us that Noah did all that God commanded him, even building a giant boat and then collecting a sampling of all the animals on the earth. Would you have done that? Be honest. Would you have built a giant boat and then collected animals from all over the earth when everybody on the planet was ridiculing you? Pray every day that you and I would walk in full obedience to all of God's commands. Now let's conclude with a quiz. I call it an application quiz. It's a way to gauge our level of obedience. Jesus said love your enemies and pray for those that despitefully use you. So you have people in your life that oppose you, constantly aggravate you, and intentionally try to get under your skin. Is that right? Sure it is. And Jesus said to love them and pray for them. Trust me, only Holy Spirit in you makes that possible. Are you being obedient to that command to love your enemies and pray for those that despitefully use you, those that aggravate you and intentionally try to get under your skin? This quiz is getting difficult. Number two, Jesus went one step further and he instructed us to forgive our enemies, those who offend us, and pray a blessing over them. Do you release those who offend you, letting go of all grudges? And then pray a blessing over them and their families and their children and their business? Oh my, surely he didn't ask us to do that. Well sure he did. He said to forgive your enemies and those who offend you and to pray a blessing over them. Trust me, you'll never be free of the ill will and the carnal emotions until by the grace of God you pray a blessing over those who have offended you. And then three, Jesus said in Matthew two. twenty eight, eighteen to twenty, he said to go into all the world and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to obey all of his commands, baptizing them in the name of the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit, and he said that wherever you go in the whole world, that he would be with you. Do you know that there are thousands of unreached people groups in India alone? There are two hundred and forty unreached people groups in Alaska, and there are thousands more in China and Indonesia. Have you given any thought to being obedient to the command to make disciples in those places? Or do you just leave it to the professionals? Was that command given to you or just your church staff? You see, building a giant boat is small potatoes, comparing the reach in the world for Jesus. Will you trust and obey Jesus in fulfilling the Great Commission? I'm challenging you to pray regularly and say, Lord, I want to be fully obedient to you like Noah. I want to be fully obedient to you like Jesus commanded me. That's the quiz. Jesus says to be fully obedient. John said that the commandments of God are not burdensome, and that if we love him, we'll keep all of his commandments. Well, you're listening to devotions with Dr. Papa, and I'm still wishing you a Merry Christmas. And I pray that the Lord will bless you real good.

SPEAKER_02: 21:39

Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at JacksonFamily Ministry.com. Also, don't forget to check out Dr. Jackson's books that are available on Amazon. The Family Doctor's Peace. The truth about life. The Family Doctor's Peace. The truth about speech.