Prefer to listen instead? The audio version of this article is available at relateecm.com.

This audio is AI-narrated and may mispronounce some names and places.

Through the Bible with Uncle Ricky — Day 7: Genesis 7

Let’s talk about it

Uncle Ricky: Through the Bible with Uncle Ricky — Day 7: Genesis 7.

Uncle Ricky: Well, here we are — Day 7 of 1,189. Yesterday Noah built the ark exactly like God said, and the chapter ended with those quiet, powerful words: “Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.” Today the building is finished, the animals are coming, and God Himself is about to say the word that starts the flood. So let’s talk about it first — that way, when we read it, you’ll catch every detail, from the sevens to the shut door.

Uncle Ricky: The chapter opens with God speaking to Noah, and listen close to the very first word: “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.” God did not say, “Go into the ark.” He said, “Come.” That little word tells you where God is — He is calling Noah to where He is, inviting him into safety, not just sending him away from danger. Now isn’t that exciting? Even in judgment, God’s voice is an invitation.

Biscuit: Come, not go — I never noticed that, Uncle Ricky. But why does God talk about clean beasts by sevens? I thought everything came two by two.

Uncle Ricky: Good honest question, Biscuit, and you’re remembering right — most animals did come by twos, male and female. But of the clean beasts, and of the fowls of the air, Noah was to take them by sevens. Clean animals were the ones fit for sacrifice and, later, for food — so God made sure there would be more of them, enough to offer to Him and still keep the kind alive after the flood. God was thinking ahead, even while the world was ending. I’d call that a gift from God — provision tucked inside the warning.

Olive: By sevens for the clean ones, and by twos for the rest — God had a reason for every single number, didn’t He?

Uncle Ricky: He surely did, Olive. Nothing in this chapter is random. Then God gives Noah the timeline: “For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.” Seven days of grace left. Forty days and forty nights of rain coming. Think of Noah hearing that — a whole week to finish loading a floating zoo, knowing exactly when the rain would start, while the world outside went right on with life as usual.

Biscuit: Seven days left, and everybody outside just kept on living like nothing was coming? That had to be hard to watch.

Uncle Ricky: It had to break his heart, Biscuit. But notice what the Bible says about Noah in the very next verse, the same faithful sentence we heard yesterday in shorter form: “And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.” Not some of it. Not the easy parts. All that the LORD commanded. At six hundred years old, friends — six hundred! — Noah was still obeying, still trusting, still walking with God. You’re never too old to do what God says, and it’s never too late to start.

Uncle Ricky: Then Noah went in — Noah, his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives with him — into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. And the animals came: clean beasts and beasts that are not clean, fowls and every creeping thing, two and two unto Noah into the ark, male and female, exactly as God had commanded. Noah didn’t have to chase them across the countryside with a net, Biscuit.

Biscuit: They just CAME to him? Two by two, all by themselves?

Uncle Ricky: They came because God sent them, Biscuit. The same God who made them led them to the one place of safety. And then, exactly as promised, after the seven days, the waters came. The chapter gives us the date like a man writing in a journal: in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month. This is no fairy tale with “once upon a time.” This is history, with dates on it — and on that same day, something happened deep below and high above.

Olive: What happened, Uncle Ricky? I know the rain fell — was that all?

Uncle Ricky: Oh, Olive, rain from above was only half of it. Listen to the King James words: “the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” Water came down from the sky AND burst up from below the earth. The fountains of the great deep — underground waters breaking loose. This was no ordinary storm, no forty-day rain shower. The whole earth was being undone, water everywhere, until “the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” That’s the simple, deep truth of it: when God says judgment, He means it — and when God says safety, He means that too.

Uncle Ricky: And here is my favorite moment in the whole chapter, maybe in all of Genesis. After Noah and Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons, and every beast and cattle and creeping thing and fowl had gone in two by two — listen: “And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.”

Olive: THE LORD shut him in? Noah didn’t close the door himself?

Uncle Ricky: No, little lady — the LORD shut him in. Noah built the ark, Noah obeyed, Noah went in — but God closed the door. That one door God had designed into the side of the ark, and God Himself sealed His people safely inside it. They were shut in by God, kept by God, while the waters rose outside. Friend, when God shuts you in, no flood on earth can get to you. Now isn’t that a comfort worth carrying all day?

Biscuit: And the waters just kept rising after that, didn’t they? How high did they get?

Uncle Ricky: Higher than anyone outside could survive, Biscuit. The flood was forty days upon the earth, the waters increased and bare up the ark — the ark lifted off the ground and went upon the face of the waters, floating where judgment covered everything else. “And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.” Fifteen cubits — about twenty-two and a half feet — above the highest mountains. There was no hilltop left to run to. The only safety left in the whole world was inside the ark God had provided.

Uncle Ricky: And the chapter closes solemnly: all flesh died that moved upon the earth, every man, everything in whose nostrils was the breath of life — “and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.” One hundred and fifty days of water covering the earth — but eight souls alive inside, kept by the God who said “Come.” Judgment was total, friends — and so was the rescue. God does both completely.

A question to think about while you read

Uncle Ricky: When God says “Come” and opens the one door of safety, will you go in while there’s still time — or will you wait outside until the rain starts?

Biscuit: Uncle Ricky, will you read the chapter to us?

Uncle Ricky: I sure will, Biscuit. Genesis 7.

Now read the chapter — Genesis 7 (KJV)

1 And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female.

3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.

4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.

6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.

7 And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.

8 Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the earth,

9 There went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as God had commanded Noah.

10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

13 In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;

14 They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.

15 And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.

16 And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the LORD shut him in.

17 And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.

18 And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.

19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.

20 Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.

21 And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:

22 All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.

23 And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

24 And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

And that is Genesis 7 — God said “Come,” Noah obeyed all that the LORD commanded, the LORD Himself shut him in, and the fountains of the great deep broke open.

Tomorrow: Genesis 8 — the waters go down, a raven and a dove fly out, and Noah steps onto a washed-clean world. See you there.

— Uncle Ricky

If “the LORD shut him in” is the comfort you needed today, take a look at the “Safe in the Ark” family tee in the shop — a simple way to carry the reminder that God still keeps His own.