Fountains and Windows – Genesis 7

The Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary of the Old Testament describes the contrast between other ancient accounts of the flood and the Biblical account: 

In the biblical flood story, God is distressed with the behavior of the people whom he has created. In the monotheistic setting of Genesis, it is his decision alone to send the flood and to preserve Noah and his family alive. He is portrayed as resigned to this course of action, which is sadly the only appropriate response. The Mesopotamian versions derive from a polytheistic culture and therefore portray the gods deliberating in a council. The decision to send the flood is portrayed as a reaction of angry frustration. As the story progresses the gods are duplicitous, shortsighted, and absorbed in petty squabbles.

Genesis documents the downward slide of humanity from the idyllic garden to the chaotic anarchy that introduces the flood story. Violence has become an incorrigible way of life, and the waters are sent as an act of justice. The Atrahasis Epic preserves most clearly the reasons for the flood in the Mesopotamian tradition. People had been created to do the work that the gods were tired of doing. But the growing population and the inevitable internal strife that resulted had made even more work for the gods, for people were constantly disturbing them with their troubles, demands, and requests. All of this is captured as the “noise” of humankind led the gods to embark on a course of total destruction.

[1] Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. [2] Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, [3] and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. [4] For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” [5] And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

[6] Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. [7] And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. [8] Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, [9] two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. [10] And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

[11] In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. [12] And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. [13] On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, [14] they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. [15] They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. [16] And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.

[17] The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. [18] The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. [19] And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. [20] The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. [21] And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. [22] Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. [23] He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. [24] And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. (Genesis 7, ESV)

We are reminded again that the reason for this flood is the corruption of the entire human race, but because of his righteousness, Noah and his family are being preserved from judgment.  Were Noah’s sons and their wives equally righteous?  We don’t know, but if not, for Noah’s sake, they too are saved (apparently none of Noah’s sons yet have children).

Whereas in the first message God gives Noah, he is to take pairs of each animal, in this message God specifies that of the clean animals he is to take seven pairs.  This is the first mention in Scripture that there are certain animals acceptable for sacrifice (their acceptability for eating is not an issue yet, because the diet to this point does not include animals).

God seals Noah and family and the animals in the ark, then the flood comes, and they remain in the ark about a year before it is done.  The mention of specific dates for the flood emphasizes that this is nothing but a literal flood.  Two sources of the flood waters are the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven.  Did the waters cover the entire earth or just the area of the middle east?  It is not uncommon for the Bible to use terms like “all” and “whole” in less than universal senses.  One of the most striking is Exodus 9 where despite “all” the livestock of Egypt being destroyed by plagues God sends on Egypt, there are still horses to pull the chariots of Egypt to the Red Sea, where they are drowned.  Deuteronomy 2:25 says, “This very day I will begin to put the terror and fear of you on all the nations under heaven.”  But this could not mean nations in China or Greece were included.  The same may be said for Genesis 41:57, which says, “all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the world.”

There is conflicting evidence of a universal flood debated by geologists and theologians (see here and here).  That same Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds notes: No convincing archaeological evidence of anything approaching the size of the biblical flood has been uncovered.  Walton notes in his commentary that “if the sea level rose to the 16,946 foot peak of “Mount Ararat” for 150 days, the sea would have had to rise approximately 16,946 feet all over the planet earth. That would require about 630 million cubic miles of additional water weighing 3,000,000,000,000,000,000 tons, or three quintillion tons. That is an enormous volume of water. The oceans would have to triple in volume in only 150 days and then quickly shrink back to normal. Where would the 630 million cubic miles of water go during the second 150 days? There is nowhere an ocean can drain to, because the oceans already fill the lowest places.”  A regional flood would satisfy the Biblical data.  A truly worldwide flood would require divine action to restore earth to a habitable place, which, of course, God could do, but the Scripture does not suggest this kind of miraculous work, but rather a natural residing of the waters.