The scripture that we're going to cover today is Genesis 7:1-24, and we're going to learn about the flood that covered the earth. The questions that you should be considering as you listen, are… What does this mean? And how can I apply what I'm learning to my life?

I. Key Points from Pastor Dave’s perspective:

A. God’s gracious call to Noah to get into the boat along with all the animals

B.  Noah was obedient, and God shows his care for Noah and his family.

C. The flood; the causes of it, the result of it, death of everything on earth.

D.  The continuance of the floodwaters for 150 days.

I. Key Points from Scott’s perspective

A. God warns us about the consequences of our actions.

B. God also provides for us, a way out; our obedience to his instructions is what saves us.

C. God delivers on his promises.

I. How do we know the difference between right and wrong?

A. God puts within our hearts the idea of knowing the difference between right and wrong.

B. We are taught by our parents to know the difference between right and wrong.

C. It’s a conviction in our heart.

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Voiceover

You are listening to the Bible breakthrough with Pastor David Engman and Scott Brekke. In this study, we will break down the Bible from B.C to A.D. chronologically while offering historical context and real-life application for today. This series is brought to you by the Breakthrough Media Network.

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Pastor Dave

Hi, my name is Pastor Dave Engman, and this is my co-host, Scott Brekke. And we want to welcome you to the Bible Breakthrough. And we want to thank you for joining us. Ultimately, as always, our goal is to lead you into a deeper, more intimate relationship with Jesus.

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Scott

So please look for our bonus video to this episode as we discuss various topics that come up because of the scripture we will be covering today. And also make sure you look for the show notes that will be linked in the description of this episode.

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Pastor Dave

Now, in the last episode, we read Genesis 6:1 through 22 and we learned about a world gone wrong and a new beginning for humanity, starting with the flood.

00;01;08;11 - 00;01;24;25

Pastor Dave

The scripture that we're going to cover today is Genesis 7:1-24, and we're going to learn about the flood that covered the earth. The questions that you should be considering as you listen, are… What does this mean? And how can I apply what I'm learning to my life?

00;01;25;17 - 00;01;50;19

Scott

Yeah. So, before we open up and read the Bible, let's pray. So, Lord Jesus, I pray that when hearing this story that our audience would hear, not a story that just happened thousands of years ago, but it's still happening and relevant for today. I pray that they would understand that. Help us to portray and teach that in Jesus name. Amen.

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Pastor Dave

Amen. All right. So, let's open up the Bible. And let's read the passage. Genesis 7:1-24. Scott, would you read as usual?

00;02;04;07 - 00;02;33;07

Scott

The flood covers the earth. When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, go into the boat with all your family. From among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. Take with you seven pairs, male and female, of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice. And take one pair of each of the others. Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird.

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Scott

There must be a male and female in each pair to ensure that all life will survive on the earth after the flood. Seven days from now, I will make the rain rains pour down on the earth and it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.

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Scott

So, Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him. Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. He went on board the boat to escape the flood. He and his wife and his sons and their wives. With them were all the various kinds of animals those approved for eating and for sacrifice and those that were not, along with all the birds and the small animals that scurry along the ground.

00;03;22;11 - 00;03;50;25

Scott

They entered the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. After seven days, the waters of the flood came and covered the earth. When Noah was 600 years old, on the 17th day of the second month, all the underground waters erupted from the earth and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. The rain continued to fall for 40 days and 40 nights.

00;03;50;25 - 00;04;11;21

Scott

That very day, Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth and their wives with them in the boats were pairs of every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large, and small, along with the birds of every kind. Two by two they came into the boat.

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Scott

Representing every living thing that brings a male and female of each kind entered just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them. For 40 days the flood waters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. As the water rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface.

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Scott

Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, rising more than 22 feet above the highest peaks. All the living things on earth died. Birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurried along the ground and all the people, everything that breathed and lived on dry land died. God wiped out every living thing on the earth. People, livestock, small animals that scurry around the ground and the birds of the sky, all were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him in the boat. And the flood waters covered the earth for 150 days.

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Scott

All right, so, pastor, what do we got for the facts?

00;05;31;11 - 00;05;32;26

Pastor Dave

Nothing but the facts!

00;05;35;04 - 00;05;55;00

Pastor Dave

God's gracious call to Noah to get into the boat along with all the animals in preparation for this flood that's coming. Noah was obedient. He was 600 years old when he and his family entered the boat, and they brought all these animals into the boat with them.

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Pastor Dave

God repeats this story or this account, and in that, God shows his tender care as he shuts them in. Then there's the coming of the flood, the causes of it, the result of it, the death of every living creature upon the earth, except those that were in the boat or in the ark. The continuance of this at full sea before it began to recede. 150 days the water was covering the entirety of the earth. So those are the facts as far as I know it, that’s kind of what I get from this. Scott let's identify and discuss some of the main points.

00;06;47;02 - 00;07;11;09

Scott

So, some of them that I see, or God warns us about the consequence of our actions. He also provides us for a way out. We see him taking and saving Noah and his family and then the animals. Also, our obedience to his instruction is what saves us. And then God delivers on his promises. He said he was going to do this and guess what? He did it! He always comes through! So…

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Pastor Dave

That's good! So, what questions do we have? What questions come to mind?

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Scott

Well, let's start with, you know, what do you see? What do you observe from this story?

00;07;26;17 - 00;08;05;14

Pastor Dave

Yeah, you know, it's an interesting part of the story because we… up until this point, we have heard about what God’s plans were. We recognized God's anger, which would be displayed by the pouring out of his wrath. But it's here that we actually see it unfold. And what just comes to mind is the brutality, really, of the consequences to wickedness and to sin.

00;08;05;14 - 00;08;30;05

Pastor Dave

And so, we also, in the midst of that, see the beauty of God’s saving grace for humanity as he spared the one righteous man that was walking on the earth. And, so, you know, those two things combined I mean, the idea that everything would have to be wiped out and the only one spared was the one who was righteous in his family.

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Pastor Dave

Which really brings us from Adam, you know, all the way to Noah. Adam being the first man. Noah being… and the first father, with Noah also being the second Father of humanity. If you think about it. Because everything else is completely wiped out. So why do you think, Scott, the destruction of every living thing was necessary?

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Scott

I think it's just to… because that's God… that's just God's character. I mean, he sees that he's not going to put up with this sin anymore, any more of this corruption and he's going to wipe everything out that's not righteous. So that's the way he deals with sin. I mean, sin leads to death. So that's what he was going to do.

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Scott

He's holy, remember, God is holy, holy, holy, right. So, he's not going to put up with that continued sin. But I think the other quality as I'm seeing is he's… he also… he doesn’t wipe everybody out. He always saves, you know, that's always I can it's like, all right, this is what's going to happen, but I'm also going to save these people. I'm and also going to save through something. So…

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Pastor Dave

So, why didn't God just start over?

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Scott

And wipe everybody out?

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Pastor Dave

Including all.

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Scott

I don’t know. I don't know because he was found righteous. I mean, that's what it says. He was found righteous. I mean, if he wasn't found righteous, he would have done that. But that's not what he did. He found Noah to be righteous. And we know that he was found righteous in his obedience of hearing and listening and doing what God was telling him to do.

00;10;27;02 - 00;10;56;15

Scott

So, I'm going to throw a question on you, which I, I didn't come up till right now. And the question is, why did God decide to do it this way? Why did God decide to do it saying to a man, build an ark, and then he's going to flood the whole world, like just think of any way that God could have done this. Why is it that he does an ark and a great flood? You know, like, why would he do it that way?

00;10;57;00 - 00;11;00;02

Pastor Dave

Well, that's a great question!

00;11;04;16 - 00;11;47;22

Pastor Dave

What I think about, for example, is what I see in other places of Scripture where God did amazing things. Let there be no doubt, let there be no doubt who God is. Who could do what He predicted he was going to do, but God? Right? Golly, that's a big thought! God is displaying his power, over his creation, doing something that only he could do and remember, there is no rain at this time… that we know that there's water on the Earth for sure!

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Pastor Dave

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Pastor Dave

And then the people would have been, like, totally caught off guard by that. And therefore, when it happened, would have recognized, in that moment. But see, did it matter for them? When the rain came? They were destroyed!

00;12;32;06 - 00;12;32;28

Scott

It was too late. Yeah.

00;12;33;00 - 00;13;01;11

Pastor Dave

So, did it matter most to Noah and his family? I mean, here's this guy, he’s built this ark… 100 years he's working on this big boat. You know, he's got his kids and, you know, his boys are grown. And they're married, you know, and what must they have been thinking? Right? Like, what are you doing Dad? Honey, what are you doing out there? I'm working on the ark! All right, so…

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Pastor Dave

I think, just really to come back and answer that question, at least from my limited perspective, God did that because he could. And nobody else could. It's kind of like Noah. It's kind of like Moses. When he… When God split the Red Sea. You know? There was no doubt God did that. God does things like that to get everyone's attention. Now we are the benefactors of this story.

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Pastor Dave

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Scott

Do you think that OK, so in verse four, it says that Noah got this, that God told him like, hey, get on the ark seven days from now and I’m going to make it rain. Do you think anybody else at that time had got that warning or do you think it was just Noah who got that warning like get on it! Get on it now! Because in seven days from now it's going to start raining and everything's going to get wiped out.

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Pastor Dave

Yeah, I… I think God used Noah as his mouthpiece. You know, God, um, Noah was preaching a message without having to necessarily even preach it with the idea of building that ark. Yeah. Because everybody that came by would have said, what are you doing? And he would have said, hey, it's going to rain this is going to get flooded, you know, turn to God, you know, go back to God, save yourself. But what was the question?

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Scott

Oh, it was just like, do you think that it was just that Noah had got that warning? Did everybody else? And I think I think you hit it on the head like...

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Pastor Dave

Well, it comes back to the idea that, you know… What is righteousness? Why was Noah the one? God… we talked about this in previous episodes. Here's the thing… God looks into the heart of all, man. And at this stage, God sees no one. No one righteous!

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Pastor Dave

In other words, at this stage, everyone had long forgot about God, and all God saw was the wickedness in man. All he saw was the evil, every thought. Every intention, at this stage, in the heart of every human being, except Noah, was evil. Right? And here you got this guy who isn't. His name is Noah. So, go back… let's ask what is righteousness? What was it about Noah that made him righteous?

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Scott

I… I think without a doubt, it was him doing what God told him to do. Obedience. Yup, for sure. So, he heard…

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Pastor Dave

What is obedience?

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Scott

It's listening! Obedience, listening, and then doing. That's what I think obedience is. Like, think of when you tell a dog, hey, come here. Now, according to obedience, it comes to you. So…

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Pastor Dave

If it doesn't come to you, what is that?

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Scott

Disobedience.

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Pastor Dave

All right, so obedience is doing what you are told. You become submissive to the authority, in this case. Submissive, you surrender your rights for the rights of the one that's in control or in authority. You're compliant to that. So, I agree with you. These are the things that made Noah righteous… obedience, the two, you brought up one, the other one would be faith. Noah was known as a man of faith. He had complete and absolute confidence.

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Pastor Dave

Complete and utter trust in what God was telling him would come to pass. It's like a child. You know? And children tend to… when they trust their parents, a loving relationship, you know? And I know, we all know the rebellious nature of man, and children, too, but… But children tend to have a… place a great deal of faith in their parents. And why? Because they trust him! Without question! Right?

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Pastor Dave

They trust that… they trust the parents. They know the parents love them. And see, I think that's the deal with Noah. Noah didn't forget God. Noah communicated with God. Noah continued to place his faith in the… and obviously, and evidently, in the idea that God said there's going to be a great flood coming, build an ark. And Noah didn’t question him, he just went to work building the ark.

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Scott

And it took a long time. A long time to build the ark. Roughly, they say, about 75 to 100 years to build this ark. And the shocking part to me is when God tells him, go wait in it, for seven days! I'd be like sitting in that ark be like, what... he said 7 days… OK, I'm in here. When is it going to start? I get so impatient. I just would, you know, I'm thinking about even little projects that I've worked on and then waiting for something to happen after that. Oh, I get antsy, so…

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Pastor Dave

Well, look, we'll dive into that because I think that's a big part of this story that we're not really going to dive into in this episode. We’ll dive into that a lot more in the bonus episode that we're going to do with Liz Miller. Um… let's move into application because I think, you know, one of the things that we want to make sure we do is we want to be sensitive to application opportunities because again, as we say often… What good is knowing about something if you don't do something about it?

00;19;02;12 - 00;19;11;09

Pastor Dave

So, what do you recognize in this short text, this story? What do you recognize here as application principles or opportunities?

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Scott

This is… I'm just going to read what I put down because I just thought it was so impactful. There's no guarantee for tomorrow. There isn't! There's no guarantee that we're going to make it, even… It says that God holds our next breath. So, there's no guarantee for tomorrow. There's no second chances in this life after you've left this earth.

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Scott

It's not like you can come back and redo it again. And then the other one was, you know, Jesus is still available today. Still being saved is still available today. So, get on board! Don't wait because you're not guaranteed… and there's still time. So just like in this in this time of Noah, once the door shut, it's not reopening! Right. It's not reopening. It's not coming back open. So, the doors open right now with Christ. So, get on board and don't wait because you're not guaranteed.

00;20;01;04 - 00;20;19;17

Pastor Dave

So, I think that's great! I think I'd add to that. Since we know the serious nature here of sin and the consequences it's displayed in this… we’re reading about it right now, this is the wrath or the anger of God over wickedness and sin.

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Scott

Yep.

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Pastor Dave

Since we know how serious God feels about sin, the real application question, in my opinion, is what are we doing that we know is wrong? And then what are we going to do about it?

00;20;35;23 - 00;20;52;22

Pastor Dave

So, let's turn that question over to our audience. What application principles or opportunities did you see or hear, here in this particular text that we read?

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Scott

How are they going to know, though? That's what I want to know. Like, say they're kind of like… I mean, are they going to be like, will conviction come on them to know what they're doing is wrong? Like are you going to feel that or are you going to hear an audible voice? Like what's going to make that so they can recognize that in their life? Because sometimes it's hard to see those things that you… need change.

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Pastor Dave

Well, OK. So, I think that's a great point, honestly! So how… here's my response to that. How do you know that? Do you… how do you know the difference between right and wrong? Do you know when you're doing something wrong?

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Scott

Yeah. Generally. Yeah!

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Pastor Dave

Where did that come from?

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Scott

Well, I mean, it came from just my reasoning. I think sometimes a reason to get it out. I… sometimes when I do something wrong, then I'll feel something after, like oops, I shouldn't have maybe done that or said something like that? So, convictions come.

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Pastor Dave

Is it a taught thing? Where you're taught the difference between right and wrong?

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Scott

Well, as a parent, yeah.

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Pastor Dave

So as a parent, you teach your children the difference between right and wrong?

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Scott

Yeah! Don't touch the hot stove that's going to burn you. Oh, you did it. Well, you got burned. Don't do that again! So, yeah!

00;22;14;18 - 00;22;37;02

Pastor Dave

So, I think the Lord puts within our heart the idea that we know the difference between right and wrong. And it combines that… combining that with our parents’ role of raising, or rearing our children, teaching us, and encouraging us to continue down the path of right or wrong. And I think we all know, as adults at least, we know what's right and what's wrong.

00;22;37;13 - 00;22;52;00

Pastor Dave

Don't we? I think we do, in our heart of hearts. Yep. And so, the question then is, is what are you doing, if you're doing something that’s… what are you… doing something that you know is wrong? What are you going to do about it?

00;22;52;24 - 00;23;20;10

Pastor Dave

That's the application! It's the idea, God said, you know, my desire is that all would come to the knowledge, the saving grace of Jesus Christ and repent. Right? By repenting, we're turning away. We're really literally doing the opposite of what we know is wrong. We're turning and running from it and doing what is right, you know?

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Scott

So, turn and run!

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Pastor Dave

Exactly! Now, look, if you guys that are listening, and gals, or watching… if you’re wrestling with this, trust me, you are not alone! We all wrestle with this stuff and it's just a part of the process. So, it's OK! Hang in there. Keep coming back. Really, keep coming back and joining us.

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Scott

Yup! And again, just a reminder to check out the bonus video that will include our special guest, Liz Miller, the production manager of the Bible Breakthrough. Where we will dive deeper into some of the main points from this episode.

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Pastor Dave

Thank you for being a part of this, Scott.

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Scott

Yeah.

00;24;00;26 - 00;24;03;13

Pastor Dave

I appreciate you. I love doing this together with you.

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Scott

Yeah, so do I!

00;24;05;00 - 00;24;25;24

Pastor Dave

We thank you, our listening audience as well, for taking the time to tune in. And we look forward to meeting together again with you in our next episode, episode nine, as we discuss the receding flood waters in our ongoing study of the greatest story ever told. We’re in the first era of beginnings. Thank you, and God bless.

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Scott

God bless.

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Voiceover

Thank you for tuning in to the Bible breakthrough with Pastor David Engman and Scott Brekke. We hope you enjoyed today's episode and will join us again for more of the Bible from B.C to A.D. We are a volunteer driven ministry and rely on you to help us get the word out to the world. Please, like this podcast on Facebook, share it to your page and continue to listen on Apple Podcast, Spotify, YouTube, or anywhere you find your favorite podcasts. This has been a broadcast of the Breakthrough Media Network.