A NEW START

Primary Bible Passages: Genesis 8:1 - 9:17

Key Verse: Genesis 9:15

Memory Verses: Genesis 8:22

Lesson Aim: to consider a few important changes of conditions which went into effect immediately following the flood.

Preparatory Daily Bible Readings:

Monday: Genesis 8:1-22
Tuesday: Genesis 9:1-17
Wednesday: Hebrews 13:5, Joshua 1:5, Exodus 33:14, Isaiah 43:2, Matthew 28:20
Thursday: II Peter 3:7-12
Friday: Romans 10:15, Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19-20, II Timothy 2:2
Saturday: I Timothy 4:3-4, Genesis 7:11, Genesis 6:3, Genesis 1:28
Sunday: Acts 25:11, Romans 13:4

LESSON OUTLINE

I. THE END OF THE FLOOD. (Genesis 8:1-14)

A. After 371 days, the Flood was over. (Compare Genesis 7:11 with Genesis 8:14)

1. God’s process of reshaping the earth’s surface continued for more than a year. Six months from the onset of the Flood, the waters had receded sufficiently for the Ark to ground on one of the mountains of the Ararat range which is currently in Turkey near the Russian border.¹ (Genesis 8:4) The earth did not dry sufficiently for inhabitants of the Ark to disembark for an additional six months. (Genesis 8:14)

2. The statement of Genesis 8:1 that "God remembered Noah" is an encouraging reminder of God’s care and concern for those who know Him. (Hebrews 13:5, Joshua 1:5, Exodus 33:14, Isaiah 43:2, Matthew 28:20)

B. The Flood changed many conditions on earth.

1. After the Flood, the waters above the firmament, which filtered out most shortwave radiation from the sun, no longer existed. Life-spans began a consistent fall from nearly 1,000 years to just over 100 years or less. (Genesis 6:3)

2. The waters above the firmament produced the green-house effect which regulated temperatures and climates world-wide. After the Flood, radical temperature differentials occurred. Especially in the years immediately following the Flood, at which time the earth was in a most unstable state of equalization, large sheets of ice formed at the polar caps, causing the Ice Age with massive ice sheets covering most of the North American continent and most of northern Europe.² The earth became characterized by strong wind currents and violent storms which had been unknown prior to the Flood.³

3. The loss of the firmament also resulted in desert areas, which, along with the ice regions, presented a much more hostile environment with far less habitable land.

4. The Flood initiated seismic activity which produces volcanos and earthquakes. This activity continues to the present.

5. With much of the water from the fountains of the great deep remaining on earth’s surface following the Flood, along with all of the waters from above the firmament, sea level rose substantially and the land area of earth’s surface became much smaller than it had been before the Flood.

6. The greatest threat to the survival of wildlife is loss of habitat. The lost water from above the firmament with resulting increases in radiation coupled with deserts and great regions of ice resulted in the destruction of vast areas of wildlife habitat. The fossil record is testimony to the past existence of multitudes of animals and plants which are now extinct and is proof that multitudes of species perished after the Flood and were not able to survive from the pair which was on the Ark. The Ice Age may account for many extinctions.⁴ Many types of dinosaurs are extinct, probably due to the loss of the great world-wide areas of huge and lush vegetation which had existed prior to the Flood.

7. After the Flood, the earth was no longer watered by an underground system and a mist. The current hydrologic system of meteorologic activity is the result of the Noahic Flood.⁵

8. These and many other changes and conditions were brought about by the Flood. These claims are compatible with the fossil record, whereas those of the evolutionary hypothesis are not. Evolutionists do not have "the facts" on these things of the past. They have the same fossil evidence and laws of nature which creationists have. Both creationists and evolutionists attach "interpretations" to the evidence. It is a fact that the interpretations of creationists conform to the laws of nature and the evidence. In most cases, the interpretations of evolutionists do not.

II. THE RAINBOW COVENANT.

A. The rainbow symbolizes many promises made by God to man in the eighth and ninth chapters of Genesis.

1. God promised that as long as the earth "remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." (Genesis 8:22)

This is God’s promise of uniformity in physical processes. Most of the earth’s natural processes depend, in one way or another, on the constancy of the earth’s rotation and its solar orbital revolution. The new hydrologic and climatologic cycles of the post-Flood era are directly controlled by these processes. Without them, there would be no seasons, no rains and no movements of evaporated moisture on currents. God promised Noah that until the end of this current world, there will always be a regular order of nature, with a fixed sequence of seasons and a fixed cycle of day and night. This uniformity of the seasons and the daily cycle guarantees the essential uniformity of all other natural processes. This promise of God was potent, implying much.⁶

2. God also promised that He would never again destroy the world by water. (Genesis 9:15)

This promise alone is clear proof that the Noahic Flood was not a local flood. If it had been, this promise would have been meaningless in view of the multitude of local floods which have occurred since.

By leaving the waters of the firmament on earth’s surface contained in the oceans, seas and lakes, God assured that there could never be another flood sufficient to threaten the entire earth. Remember that if the entire moisture of the atmosphere were suddenly emptied to earth’s surface, sea level would only rise by about two inches, hardly sufficient to flood the entire earth.⁷

God gave the rainbow as a visible symbol of His guarantee against a repeat universal flood.

3. God also promised Noah that the fear of man would be upon all the wild animals of the earth. (Genesis 9:2)

This was a promise of protection to man against wild animals. Even today, wild animals would pose a serious threat to mankind were it not for this fear-factor. In days gone by, before the technological advances of mankind, the threat of an animal kingdom without fear of man could have threatened man’s survival.

4. It should be noted that God did not promise that He would never again destroy the world; He merely promised that He would never again destroy the world by water. He will again destroy the world. The next destruction will be by fire. (II Peter 3:7-12)

5. Genesis 8:21 and Genesis 9:13-16 are clear statements that this "Rainbow" or "Noahic" Covenant is assured by the faithfulness of God and is not conditional upon man’s behavior.

B. God established three other very important provisions at the end of the Flood.

1. He reaffirmed his command to man to "be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth." (Genesis 9:1,7)

From the beginning (Genesis 1:28), God’s intent for man, both physically and spiritually, has been that he reproduce himself. (Romans 10:15, Mark 16:15, Matthew 28:19-20, II Timothy 2:2)

2. He added meat to man’s diet. (Genesis 9:3-4)

This provision refutes the evil doctrine of the evolutionary continuity of life of all flesh, which ultimately equates man with the animals and denies the Creator, in whose image man alone was made.⁸

Vegetarians cannot use the Bible to prohibit meat in one’s diet. (I Timothy 4:3-4)

3. He formally instituted capital punishment which requires a government for its performance. (Genesis 9:5-6)

The blood, especially of man, is sacred to God. Those guilty of murder are to be executed.

The word "require" is a judicial term. It is clear that capital punishment requires an authority for its performance. If an entity has authority to exercise the function of capital punishment, it is implied that the authority also has power to establish laws governing other human activities.⁹

Thus, with the formal establishment of capital punishment, God effectively established the institution of human government. (Acts 25:11, Romans 13:4)

 

FOOTNOTES

1. Davis, J.D., Illustrated Davis Dictionary of the Bible, Nashville, Tennessee: Royal Publishers, Inc., 1973, page 50.

2. Morris, Henry, The Genesis Record, Grand Rapids: Baker, 1976, pages 215-216.

3. Ibid., pages 211-212.

4. Ibid., page 216.

5. Ibid., page 218.

6. Ibid., pages 218-219.

7. Whitcomb, John C., Jr. and Morris, Henry, The Genesis Flood, Phillipsburg, New Jersey: Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing Co., 1978, page 40.

8. Morris, pages 222-223.

9. Ibid., pages 224-225.

SUMMARY

God does not forget His people! By faith, Noah and his family were in the Ark, which is a prophetic picture of Jesus Christ and those who are "in Him" by faith. God knew where they were and "remembered" them. After six months, the Ark came to rest on one of the mountains in the Ararat range of mountains which is along the current border between Russia and Turkey. Six months and a week later, the earth was sufficiently dry and Noah and the other inhabitants of the Ark disembarked. They were in the Ark a total of 371 days.

No catastrophic event has come even close to reshaping the face of the earth as did the Flood. After the Flood, the earth’s condition had degenerated radically from what it had previously been. Before the Flood the waters above the firmament had served as a wonderful provision for earth’s benefit. They had caused the green-house effect, regulating temperatures and climates world-wide. During the Flood, those waters crashed to the earth’s surface never to be re-established. Immediately massive areas of ice formed at both poles. In the very unstable conditions following the Flood, the Ice Age occurred, extending thick ice coverings across most of North America and northern Europe.

The beautiful habitat which was so lush and uniform across the entire earth prior to the Flood vanished. Most of it never reappeared. With the vast waters from the underground system having risen to earth’s surface coupled, with the great waters from above the firmament, earth’s sea level rose dramatically, submerging millions upon millions of acres of previously dry land under earth’s new oceans, seas and lakes. Of the greatly reduced land area, much was under thick ice. Additional massive areas became deserts like the Sahara and other great areas became inaccessible mountain areas.

It is not hard to understand why so many of earth’s great animals, plus many types of flora, which had prospered abundantly prior to the Flood, soon became extinct in the post-Flood environment.

Adding to post-Flood miseries was the fact that the harmful short rays from the sun, previously filtered by the waters above the firmament, reached earth virtually unchecked after the Flood. Life spans plummeted. Within a few hundred years most men were living less than 100 years, whereas prior to the Flood, most people lived to ages exceeding 900 years. Furthermore, the sizes of plants and animals reduced dramatically in the post-Flood environment. After the Flood, the earth was watered by a different system. Whereas prior to the Flood, there was no rain and the earth was watered by an underground watering system, after the Flood the earth was watered by rain and snow. The lost firmament produced great temperature variations generating the strong wind currents which characterize the earth today. These currents pick up the evaporated waters above the great bodies of water on earth’s surface and transport them over land where they are deposited as rain and snow. These make their way through rivers and other channels back to the bodies of water where the cycle begins again.

The continuation of these cycles on a perpetual basis as long as the earth remains was one of the promises of God to Noah after the Flood. God guaranteed this uniformity of natural processes to which most other natural processes are tied. He also guaranteed the day and night cycle.

God also promised Noah that He would never again destroy the earth by water and assured it by leaving the waters of the firmament on earth’s surface in the form of oceans, seas and lakes. If all of the moisture in the entire atmosphere were suddenly deposited on the earth’s surface, sea level would barely rise two inches. No universal flood would occur. This promise is also a great testimonial that the Noahic Flood was universal. Otherwise, this promise would not only be meaningless, it would have been repeatedly broken since the Flood. God gave the rainbow as a visible sign of His promise.

Immediately following the Flood, God promised that all wildlife would have a natural fear of mankind. With the large numbers, sizes and power of wild animals on earth, this was a great safeguard for man’s preservation. If rats, squirrels, birds, monkeys, deer and all other animals were fearless of and hostile to man, even in modern times, man would be in constant peril; how much more so in previous days of more limited means of protection?

It should be noted that this covenant, which is assured by the faithfulness of God and not by the faithfulness of man, is not a guarantee that the earth will never again be destroyed at all. To the contrary, it will again be destroyed. Next time, the destruction will be by fire.

As God spoke with Noah after the Flood, He established three other very important provisions. He reaffirmed his command to man (and beast) to multiply and replenish the earth. This command has profound spiritual connotations for every child of God. God also added meat to man’s diet. Furthermore, God established formal capital punishment. It is God’s command that those who murder others be exterminated by the society as a whole. The expediting of this commandment requires a government. One man cannot exercise capital punishment against another. Carrying out capital punishment is the function of a governmental authority. Thus, with the institution of capital punishment, God established formal government.

QUESTIONS

1. How long did the Flood last?

2. What brought about the termination of the Flood?

3. Where did the Ark end its voyage?

4. Why did life spans shorten dramatically after the Flood?

5. What happened to earth’s temperature after the Flood?

6. Explain why an Ice Age followed the Flood.

7. Why did great storms develop after the Flood?

8. Why did earth’s sea level rise so much during the Flood?

9. Why did dinosaurs and many other animals become extinct following the Flood?

10. Name several ways in which the world was a far more hostile environment after the Flood.

11. Contrast the pre-and-post Flood earth watering systems.

12. To what great earth cycle are most other natural earth cycles tied?

13. Discuss God’s promise of uniformity in physical processes.

14. Discuss God’s promise to never again destroy the earth by water.

15. Discuss the importance of God’s promise of the fear of man in animals.

16. Upon whom does the continuation of the rainbow covenant depend?

17. Discuss God’s command to "be fruitful and multiply."

18. What did God add to man’s diet following the Flood?

19. State God’s position on capital punishment.