01-33 Yahweh Closed the Door
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Genesis 7:1-16
Genesis 7:1-16
Encyclopedia of 7700 Illustrations 405 Standard Equipment on Pony Express
405 Standard Equipment On Pony Express
The pony express was a thrilling part of early American history. It ran from St. Joseph, Missouri, to Sacramento, California—a distance of 1,900 miles. The trip was made in ten days. Forty men, each riding 50 miles a day, dashed along the trail on 500 of the best horses the West could provide.
To conserve weight, clothing was very light, saddles were extremely small and thin, and no weapons were carried. The horses themselves wore small shoes or none at all. The mail pouches were flat and very conservative in size. Letters had to be written on thin paper, and postage was $5.00 an ounce (a tremendous sum those days).
Yet, each rider carried a full-sized Bible! It was presented to him when he joined the pony express, and he took it with him despite all the scrupulous weight precautions.
There was a time when owning a Bible was truly a treasure. In our country, access to the Scriptures has never been greater than today. And there is a very large variety of translations you can find in the English language (I’ve counted 47 of the more prominent versions). There is 1 version that was published late last year (Legacy Standard Bible “endeavored to follow through on the NASB’s stated intent to be true to the original Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek”). Many Bible apps have this now for download—I’d recommend it.
According to Wycliffe Bible Translators…there are at least 7300 languages spoken or signed around the world. At least 1.5 billion people do not have the full Bible in their language. At least 1600 languages are still in need of a Bible translation to be started. Currently work is being done in more than 2800 languages worldwide.
Recognizing the blessing and importance of having the Scriptures in our own language, there are many who devote themselves (labors and giftedness) to helping others receive God’s Word. And there’s a great deal of scholarship that goes into creating a quality/accurate translation of the Bible (visit with Jan G). Sometimes that scholarship is more self-promoting and produces a version that the world is better off without.
a little over 100 years ago there was 1 such version “Polychrome Bible.” Polychrome means many colors. Its intent was to take the scholarship of the day and print a Bible in many colors that represented a growing theory of the OT in the late 19th C. That theory came to be known as the “Documentary Hypothesis” and was popularized by Johannes Wellhausen (German scholar). The idea is that much of the OT (particularly the Pentateuch) was not written by a single author (Moses) but that editors wove together different sources (at least 4 sources) to produce the OT—or specific books like Genesis. The documentary hypothesis is easily recognized by the letters JEPD (Jehovah source, Elohim source, Priestly source, Deuteronomist) source). If you’re reading a commentary and the author insists that this is his understanding of the book you might be studying—toss it aside.
The developer of the Polychrome Bible asked the scholars of his day to tell him who wrote what. He color-coded different sections of the OT according to what the “scholars” told him: JEPD—each a different color). (Similar to more recent efforts of Jesus Seminar—red pink, grey, black).
Beginning in Gen 7—the colors began to change more frequently, indicating the belief that this section was more of a composite of the Jehovah and Priestly sources which some editor brilliantly assembled and only a more brilliant scholar can untangle it. They reason that b/c the names for God reveal the different sources, there must have been 2-3 sources used for the flood narrative (Elohim and Jehovah/YHWH).
16 Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.
So all these scholars begin to pat themselves on the back—congratulating each other for their brilliance. You might think that the work of some—150 years ago—might be obsolete today but this is the leading theory of Genesis presented in commentaries that you might read. I believe however, that Moses wrote Genesis (thru Dt) and we can have great confidence in all that he describes b/c he wrote under the inspiration of HS.
That’s the nature of your Bible in its entirety (regardless of your translation). You can trust your Bibles and further, it ought to be something we cherish since God’s truth is the means of our sanctification—being conformed to image of Christ.
Even though there are changes between the names used for God (you see them in your Bibles) there is good reason why Moses chose to use the terms he did. This is explained in one of the literary devices found in Hebrew called a “chiasm” where a sequence of ideas is presented and then repeated in reverse order. It has been compared to a mirror...
Example: Gen 7-8
C The Lord commands the remnant to enter the ark (7:1–9)
D The flood begins (7:10–16)
E The flood prevails 150 days, and the mountains are covered (7:17–24)
F God remembers Noah (8:1a)
E1 The flood recedes 150 days, and the mountains are visible (8:1b–5)
D1 The earth dries (8:6–14)
C1 God commands the remnant to leave the ark (8:15–19)
Its a beautiful picture of the structure of these verses but it also explains why sometimes Moses uses the name “God” and other times “LORD/YHWH.” The difference is seen where God relates to His creation (Elohim) and when He relates to humans as redeemer (YHWH—the personal covenant name God reveals of Himself in relation to His people).
16 Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.
In a very special way YHWH closed the door. In our passage today, God’s character is on full display. There are at least four attributes of God highlighted beginning with:
1. God’s Righteousness
1. God’s Righteousness
vv 1, 11-12
The Lord (YHWH—the covenant name of the redeemer, drawing on the special relationship He has toward the redeemed) is speaking directly to Noah with the command to enter the ark. By this time, the ark has been completed (about 100 years after 6:13-16). Then the YHWH explains why He is going to save them “for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this generation” (LSB). Thru Moses God already revealed Noah to be a righteous man. And we’ve seen that is attributed directly to Noah’s faith, believing God. In fact, the only way for a person to righteous is thru faith.
One has to be careful though b/c this could give the impression that Noah’s obedience in building the ark is the direct reason for his salvation (this would make righteousness works-based—contrary to the entirety of God’s revealed Word).
God says “you alone I have seen to be righteous”. The key to understanding this is the word “seen.” Let me take you to 2 places where this same word is used:
1 Now the Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons.”
Several dif. translations:
1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you grieve over Saul, since I have rejected him from being king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil, and go. I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have provided for myself a king among his sons.”
1 The Lord said to Samuel, “How long will you mourn for Saul, since I have rejected him as king over Israel? Fill your horn with oil and be on your way; I am sending you to Jesse of Bethlehem. I have chosen one of his sons to be king.”
1 And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.
1 Then Yahweh said to Samuel, “How long will you be grieving over Saul? I have rejected him from being king over Israel. Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I see among his sons a king for Me.”
Gen 22:8,14;
To see to something (even in our language) is to provide it. When God tells Noah I have seen you righteous—it means He provides for that righteousness—the only righteousness He accepts. Thus God saves Noah, not b/c he was living a better life than all his contemporaries (which was certainly true), but only b/c God provided the righteousness that made Noah acceptable before God.
Before us, then, is the revelation of God’s righteousness. Wayne Grudem (Systematic Theology) defines God’s righteousness (justice) “Righteousness means that God always acts in accordance with what is right and is himself the final standard of what is right.” This means that He infinitely, perfectly, and independently does exactly what He wants to do and how He wants to do it. Since He defines the standard whatever He does is right/just.
William Perkins “We must not think that God doeth a thing because it is good and right, but rather is the thing good and right because God willeth and worketh it.”
4 “The Rock! His work is perfect, For all His ways are just; A God of faithfulness and without injustice, Righteous and upright is He.
25 “Far be it from You to do such a thing, to slay the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous and the wicked are treated alike. Far be it from You! Shall not the Judge of all the earth deal justly?”
Isaiah 45:19 (NASB95)
19 I, the Lord, speak righteousness, Declaring things that are upright.
7 “Righteousness belongs to You, O Lord, but to us open shame, as it is this day—to the men of Judah, the inhabitants of Jerusalem and all Israel, those who are nearby and those who are far away in all the countries to which You have driven them, because of their unfaithful deeds which they have committed against You.
2 Clouds and thick darkness surround Him; Righteousness and justice are the foundation of His throne.
3 And they sang the song of Moses, the bond-servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, “Great and marvelous are Your works, O Lord God, the Almighty; Righteous and true are Your ways, King of the nations! 4 “Who will not fear, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy; For all the nations will come and worship before You, For Your righteous acts have been revealed.”
God’s righteousness/justice means that it is necessary to deal with people according to what they deserve—So God justly punishes sin.
This is what Gen 7:11-12 is expressing—the final point when God determines to act “all the fountains of the great deep...” Water to flood the earth (as an act of judgment) comes from the sky but also subterranean bodies of water exploded to the surface in unimaginable power. Later we’ll look at some of the physical properties that produced and resulted from the flood.
God’s righteousness is on full display as the earth floods with water, destroying “all flesh.” In Noah’s case…he too deserved to be destroyed (he was a sinner). But God’s salvation and forgiveness of Noah’s sin might appear at first to be unjust (all sin must be punished), however, Paul explains:
24 being justified as a gift by His grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus; 25 whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in His blood through faith. This was to demonstrate His righteousness, because in the forbearance of God He passed over the sins previously committed; 26 for the demonstration, I say, of His righteousness at the present time, so that He would be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
So, Noah’s sin is dealt with as it was also placed on the LJC (just like ours) and the righteousness of LJC was put on Noah, just like it is for anyone who has faith in JC.
2. God’s Patience
2. God’s Patience
vv 2-4
Earlier God indicated that there would be a reprieve of divine justice that would end after 120 years (6:3). So Noah and his sons begin the process of building the ark, preaching righteousness to that generation. The ark is finished and the final countdown begins—and yet still giving men time to repent.
God’s patience could be described as being perfectly at peace and undisturbed in Himself and toward sinners in spite of their continual disobedience and disregard for His warnings of coming judgment. God does not “lose His temper” but acts calmly with perfect affection according to His eternal sovereign plan.
6 Then the Lord passed by in front of him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in lovingkindness and truth; 7 who keeps lovingkindness for thousands, who forgives iniquity, transgression and sin; yet He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, visiting the iniquity of fathers on the children and on the grandchildren to the third and fourth generations.”
15 But You, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, Slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness and truth.
2 He prayed to the Lord and said, “Please Lord, was not this what I said while I was still in my own country? Therefore in order to forestall this I fled to Tarshish, for I knew that You are a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, and one who relents concerning calamity.
In Noah’s time:
20 who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water.
And today:
4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and tolerance and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
15 and regard the patience of our Lord as salvation; just as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given him, wrote to you,
God doesn’t shrink from being responsible for the upcoming cataclysm. “I will…I Will” This is indeed a judgment, before which God extends great patience.
During this time, God also revealed to Noah that he was to take 7 pairs of all the clean animals (not explaining why). Later we see Noah offering a sacrifice to God (ch 9). God’s command to bring 7 clean pairs is not a command to bring sacrifices but to make is possible for Noah to make sacrifices after the flood.
3. God’s Supremacy
3. God’s Supremacy
In the 16th century, after he nailed the 95 theses to the church door at Wittenberg, Martin Luther would enter into discussion with a notable Dutch philosopher and Catholic theologian Erasmus. Erasmus believed that a person could be saved merely by efforts of their own free will and Luther responded with a monumental work “On the Bondage of the Will”—maintaining that a person could be saved only by God’s grace. In that work he told Erasmus “Your thoughts about God are all too human.”
This could be said of our world today, and yet it is a problem in every generation. God told Israel:
Psalm 50:21 (NASB95)
21 You thought that I was just like you; I will reprove you and state the case in order before your eyes.
Noah did not have this problem.
vs 5 (see 6:22)
Noah obeyed the command of God b/c he understood the supremacy of God. He understood that God was the Almighty Creator and he was but a creature.
Arthur Pink “were all the denizens of heaven and all the inhabitants of the earth to combine in revolt against Him, it would occasion Him no uneasiness, and would have less effect upon His eternal and unassailable Throne than has the spray of Mediterranean’s waves upon the towering rocks of Gibraltar. So puerile and powerless is the creature to affect the Most High.”
What Scripture says about God’s supremacy:
11 “Yours, O Lord, is the greatness and the power and the glory and the victory and the majesty, indeed everything that is in the heavens and the earth; Yours is the dominion, O Lord, and You exalt Yourself as head over all. 12 “Both riches and honor come from You, and You rule over all, and in Your hand is power and might; and it lies in Your hand to make great and to strengthen everyone.
“You rule over all”
6 and he said, “O Lord, the God of our fathers, are You not God in the heavens? And are You not ruler over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand so that no one can stand against You.
2 “I know that You can do all things, And that no purpose of Yours can be thwarted.
3 But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.
The inanimate creation always responds to the Creator’s will. Those, like Noah, who believe God is what He reveals Himself to be will do the same…to do according to all that God commands. It is easy to say—but live as though God is supreme.
vv 6-10, Noah does what God says (v 9—keeps on stressing obedience), and God Himself does what He says (vs 10).
4. God’s Sovereignty
4. God’s Sovereignty
vv 11-15—specific information regarding the timing of the flood. It begins in Noah’s 600th year. Rain fell for 40 days/nights. Noah and his family, and the animals entered the ark on the same day the rains fell (vs 13).
And we come to vs 16—a critical verse ending with this statement: YHWH closed (the door) behind him.
This really does emphasize the sovereignty of God, which AW Tozer explains “is the attribute by which He rules His entire creation, and to be sovereign He must be all-knowing, all-powerful, and absolutely free…free to do whatever He wills, to do anywhere at any time to carry out His eternal purpose in every single detail without interference.”
By closing the door of the ark—we can grasp 3 related aspects of His sovereignty:
A. Perfect Security
A. Perfect Security
Because God closed the door, Noah and his family were completely and totally safe. Spurgeon said “Noah fell down many times on the ark but he never fell out of the ark.” This is b/c God kept him safe. There is a parallel for all those in Christ—we too are held eternally secured b/c God is the one who saves and He is the one who keeps you saved—safe.
Rom 8:31-39;
B. Marvelous Grace
B. Marvelous Grace
It is apparent from the fact that Noah and his family entered the ark on the same day that the rains began, that God was gracious to the very end. Noah preached righteousness and the offer from God (as has always been the case):
13 for “Whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.”
The door to the ark remained open till the very last and then it was shut. God is a gracious God and savior to all who respond by faith. What does it say about the nature of man’s heart that no one called upon Him? Still God is sovereign in saving those whom He sets His affection upon (foreknowledge)—drawing them to Christ for eternal life.
C. There is Limited Time to Repent
C. There is Limited Time to Repent
In Gen 7—closing the door effectually seals the fate of all those who weren’t the 8 inside the ark. From the 120 years and the 7 days God’s great grace would come to an end.
You have images in Scripture of God being the only one who controls the open and shut doors:
7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: He who is holy, who is true, who has the key of David, who opens and no one will shut, and who shuts and no one opens, says this: 8 ‘I know your deeds. Behold, I have put before you an open door which no one can shut, because you have a little power, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name.
22 And He was passing through from one city and village to another, teaching, and proceeding on His way to Jerusalem. 23 And someone said to Him, “Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?” And He said to them, 24 “Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able. 25 “Once the head of the house gets up and shuts the door, and you begin to stand outside and knock on the door, saying, ‘Lord, open up to us!’ then He will answer and say to you, ‘I do not know where you are from.’ 26 “Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in Your presence, and You taught in our streets’; 27 and He will say, ‘I tell you, I do not know where you are from; depart from Me, all you evildoers.’ 28 “In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets in the kingdom of God, but yourselves being thrown out.
The invitation is made:
1 “Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; And you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk Without money and without cost.
28 “Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest.
17 The Spirit and the bride say, “Come.” And let the one who hears say, “Come.” And let the one who is thirsty come; let the one who wishes take the water of life without cost.
Much more could be said about God’s sovereignty but let it suffice to say that our salvation is all about God.
36 For from Him and through Him and to Him are all things. To Him be the glory forever. Amen.