Scripture
Genesis 7:8~12
[8] Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground,
[9] there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah.
[10] It came about after the seven days, that the water 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 the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened.
[12] The rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.
Dear brothers and sisters in Christ.
This is 109th Lecture on Genesis.I had to finish the lecture while explaining Genesis 7:8~9.
All animals were basically brought into the ark by two’s, male and female, and clean animals, by sevens for the survival of species. On top off this, Noah took of unclean animals two, and of clean animals by sevens more.
How could so many animals stay together in the limited space in the ark for over a year during the flood?If the strong animals had attacked and harmed the weak, it might have been chaotic inside the ark. But the fact is that no such thing ever occurred inside the ark.It was because God surrounded Noah’s Ark with the original light until the flood was over.
Even after the flood, Noah lived in the space which was surrounded with the original light. God surrounded Noah’s ark with the original light until the flood was over.And thus, until the animals left the ark, they didn’t reveal their evil inherent natures; they obeyed Noah well. The animals gently remained in the space allotted to them.
Let me tell you more about the space allotted to the animals. God arranged the spaces for the animals so that the limited space of the ark could be used most efficiently. As you can find in Genesis 6:16, the ark had 3 decks.
God placed the animals starting from the lower desk according to their weight. For instance, the heavy animals such as elephants, hippos, lions, and tigers stayed in the lower deck. It was a necessary arrangement for the general safety of the ark. When the bottom of the ark was heavy, it was safe and balanced well. On the second deck, mid-sized animals were located, and on the third deck were birds, creeping things on the ground, and Noah’s eight family members.
Do you wonder how Noah and his family could stay on the same deck with the birds and the creeping things on the ground? Although they were on the same deck, their spaces were well separated. Noah and his family didn’t feel any inconvenience at all in managing their lives.
Additionally, the inside the ark was divided very efficiently. For example, every deck had its space to store food.If the food storage had been on only one deck, how difficult would it have been to feed the animals as they had to go up and come down between the decks?God told Noah to assign the far right corner of each deck as food storage for the animals.
And the animals were provided with food and water only once a day. Although it was not enough to fill them, it was not such a small amount they became hungry. Since the inside the ark was surrounded by the original light, food was just enough in-take per day to survive without hunger.
Even though Noah and his family fed the animals only once a day, it was not a simple job at all. The more obstinate job than feeding the animals was taking care of their waste (or – “cleaning the corral”) Even though they ate only once a day, since there were so many animals, the amount of their waste was huge. If Noah and his family had had to take care of it each and every time, how difficult a job that would have been!
Now, how did Noah and his family solve this problem?God the Father foreknew this in advance, and told Noah to install the animal waste handling system when he built the ark. When the animals excreted in a certain place in their cage, it all collected in one place. Noah and his family just dumped it out and it all collected in one place.
Noah and his family spent a great deal of their time taking care of the animals; they were so busy.So, they didn’t have time to feel bored, or to think about other things. In fact, they were physically busy with tough jobs every day.But they didn’t complain about the situation. They didn’t even sigh about it. They were rather grateful for being saved from the judgment. They didn’t do their job reluctantly. They didn’t give it a second thought. It was somewhat unpleasant tasking, but they diligently took care of the given jobs with thanks and joy during their stay in the ark.
Dear brothers and sisters, you must manage your believing life with this kind of heart and attitude as you received the grace of salvation. Many of you now understand the true meaning of faith and practice it.You voluntarily come to services and prayer meetings; so many of you take care of things by yourselves.
For example, quite a number of you volunteer for cleaning the restrooms and sanctuaries. Whether it is cold or hot, many of you help in church cafeteria, in traffic control, and in cleaning works. Although these jobs may seem tough and unpleasant in a fleshly sense, there are many of you who are doing the jobs with a grateful heart for the grace of salvation. I give my sincere thanks to all of you.
I don’t think you are doing this job with a feeling of obligation even if you start it with thanksgiving. You should never change the mind-set you had at first as you did these jobs in gratitude for the grace of the Lord. Even if you were hurt in your heart by others, or even if encounter unpleasant incidents, you should not change your heart toward the Lord because of that. It is not the Lord who makes you suffer, so why do you have to change your heart toward the Lord?If you face a difficult situation in relation with others, it is a chance to discover the untruth in your heart. You should hold onto the chance, and change your heart into a more beautiful heart that the Lord desires of you.
With thanksgiving for the grace of salvation, Noah and his family managed their lives, which were never easy at all, with diligence.I said, ‘the ark’ spiritually symbolizes ‘the word of God.’If you want to stay inside the spiritual ark, you should never change your heart of thanksgiving for the grace of salvation.
If you can hold onto this one thing, you can surely live a victorious life even in this tough world of great sea-waves. May you remember this, and give joy to God the Father and the Lord who sacrificed everything to save us, in the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, I pray!
Now, let’s take a look at Genesis 7:10.It says, “It came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth.”Previously in Genesis 7:4, God said that He would send rain on the earth “after seven more days.”I said that this “7 days” were the suspension period which perfect the justice of God.It shows how precisely, without any room for errors, He executed the judgment of flood according to the justice that He established in the spiritual realm.We can see how greatly deep thought God gave it to.
By the way, when God said He would send rain after 7 days more, He also meant that He would start the human cultivation anew through Noah and his descendants.There is a saying that goes, “Graduation is not the end, but it is another beginning,” right?Likewise, it seemed that the history of human cultivation was ended with the judgment of flood, but actually it was not the end, but a new beginning.
As the scripture says, “the water of the flood came upon the earth,” it contains a spiritual meaning.”The earth” symbolizes “darkness,” and “the water,” “the word.”So, “the water of the flood came upon the earth” means that ‘With the water, which is the word of God, God judged and subjugated the earth which was stained by the force of darkness.’
The enemy devil and Satan tried to build their world on this earth by planting darkness, evil, in people’s hearts.Their plan seemed almost successful as sins became rampant in the whole world. At this precise moment however, God the Father prepared a righteous man called Noah.And as conditions for justice were met, God subjugated the world by covering the world with the water.Yet the history of human cultivation continued.
