Prior Chapter | Prior Verse | Next Verse | Next Chapter | Next Book | Viewing NASB and Amplified 2015 | |
NASB | Genesis 7:1 Then the LORD said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time. |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Genesis 7:1 Then the LORD said to Noah, "Come into the ark, you with all your household, for you [alone] I have seen as righteous (doing what is right) before Me in this generation. [Ps 27:5; 33:18, 19; 2 Pet 2:9] |
Bible Question:
Genesis chapter 7: I'm a little confused. In verse 1, God says, "Come thou and all thy house into the ark". Verse 4 says, "For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth." Verse 5 says, "And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him." Verse 7 says, "And Noah went in, . . ." Then the animals came in. Okay it's seven days before the flood, right? read on. . . I always imagined Noah and his sons rounding up the animals. But as I read it this time, it looks as if Noah and his family were already in the boat when the animals came in by themselves? This is seven days before the flood came. But in verse 13, it says "In the selfsame day [as the rain came] entered Noah . . . into the ark. " " . . .And the Lord shut them in." Okay, which is it? Was Noah and family hold up in that ark full of stinky animals a week before the flood began or were they able to enter and exit at will until God finally shut them in just before the rain started? I think it has theological significance **if the ark is a type of the rapture.** I don't believe God wants us coming and going in and out of a relationship with him, etc. But the text of Genesis 7 seems to indicate that Noah entered a week earlier and now, a week later, (v.13)"In the selfsame day" he's entering it again. And the animals are getting on board again too! This is confusing. As I understand it, the late Dr. Walter Martin of the Christian Research Institute didn't believe in a pre-tribulation rapture. If the rapture happens just prior to the seven year period of trouble on the earth, is there significance that Noah and all that were being saved had to be "on the bus" seven days prior to departure? I've always been a "pre-trib" guy thinking the rapture would come prior to the tribulation. The way I'm reading this now, Maybe Dr. Martin could have been right, or I might have my imagery all wrong. Or maybe I'm reading it wrong. Maybe sitting in the ark the seven days represents the church waiting out the tribulation in the sky with the Lord, and the conclusion of the tribulation (in this case the flood), we are lifted up as the Ark was lifted up. I'm still trying to figure this out. That symbolism doesn't really work for me because I always understood we would be returning to the earth with the Lord after the seven year period. I'm not done here. I'm still thinking about it. My head hurts. I'll go get a cup of coffee and read it again in another version. I'm very fond of the KJV, but I often go to the NKJV, NASB, and NIV for a little different twist on it. |
Bible Answer: Hello rghollenbeck, Welcome to the Forum. Allow me to comment on one aspect of your post:-) You said, "I think it has theological significance **if the ark is a type of the rapture.**" I'd have to agree with brother EdB as this being "iffy"- at best. I've never heard the association being made to the rapture. I don't think the genre of Genesis- as a historical narrative lends itself to such prophetic linkage and we should be careful about doing so. More than anything, the ark typifies Christ as, "... the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me" (John 14:6) The ark was the only way to be saved from the flood and it had only one entrance! Speaking the Truth in Love, BradK |