Genesis 7
Theme: Prevailing Wrath
Key Text: Verse 24

            Several times in this division we are told that the waters of the terrible deluge “prevailed” (7:18, 19, 20, 24) on the earth. These definite statements are the foundation for the teaching of Jesus that “the flood came, and took them all away” (Matt. 24:39). And, along with the repeated emphasis of this alarming story in other biblical passages, they remind us that “it is a fearful thing to fall in the hands of the living God” (Heb. 10:31).

1. God’s Unconditional Wrath
            There is never the slightest hint that God might alter this course of divine retribution. When the ark was completed, He called Noah and his household to “come        . . . into the ark” (7:1) and reiterated His plan “to keep seed alive upon the face of the earth” (7:3). Then, without hesitation, He declared, “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” (7:4). It was settled! His wrath would be poured out upon the world!

2. God’s Unavoidable Wrath
            God said what He meant and meant what He said!  The day came when this unparalleled catastrophe was initiated. “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” (7:11). As Solomon said, “Though hand join in hand, the wicked shall not be unpunished” (Pro. 11:21). Nothing and no one outside the “shut” door of the ark (7:16) escaped “the fierceness and wrath of the Almighty” (Rev. 19:15).

3. God’s Universal Wrath
            The progressive revelation concerning the flood magnifies its universality. Not only does the divine narrative inform us that “the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth” (7:18), but the account indicates that eventually “all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered” (7:19). The Scriptures go on to record that the waters rose “fifteen cubits” (approximately 22 feet) above the “mountains” they submerged and “covered” (7:20). This global phenomena destroyed “every living substance” (7:23), and as Simon Peter explained, “The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished” (2 Pet. 3:6).

Illustration

            Before a hurricane turns toward land, the inhabitants are usually warned of the dangerous and prevailing winds. They are told to evacuate their homes, businesses, and communities.  Those who refuse to heed the warnings cannot help but encounter tragedy and death. Likewise, we have long been warned of “the day of wrath” (Rom. 2:5). And, those who refuse to “flee from . . . the wrath to come” (Matt. 3:7) and come to Christ must face the terrible consequences of eternal vengeance.