I was reading through the lesson that I'm going to give on Sunday on Noah and the ark, and I was surprised by some of the numbers in the chapter. I knew that most of the animals were in pairs, with some animals by sevens, and I knew that it rained for forty days and forty nights, but there were other numbers I didn't know. I didn't know that "the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days," for example (Gen 7:24). I also didn't know that "Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth" (Gen 7:6). I guess people lived a long time back then. But the number I was most surprised by wasn't a big one; it was another seven. The Lord commanded Noah and his family to enter the ark seven days before the floods came (Gen 7:4,10).
I wonder why. Maybe the Lord wanted to test Noah's faith and patience some more? Nah. His faith was pretty much proven at this point. Maybe the rain and floods took a long time to build up, and the Lord wanted Noah and his family to shut themselves up in the boat before everyone else wanted on? I'm not sure. One boat can only hold so many people (and animals). It's possible that the Lord didn't want others to overrun and sink the ark. Also, these people had been given chances to repent and had only begun to consider repenting when they saw that the judgments of God were upon them. Besides, if they truly were penitent, then they would be saved from their sins, even if they had given up their last chance to be saved from the flood.
I don't plan on going into any sort of detail or speculation about the possible reasons why Noah was on the ark so long before the floods came. Ultimately, it doesn't matter. It's just a neat piece of trivia for scholars to look into. The other numbers will be plenty interesting for the kids.
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