B'resheet 6:5-7 Then the L-RD saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the L-RD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. And the L-RD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them."
Why would G-d want to blot out animals too? There is documentation that the fallen ones had taught man how to intermix one animal kind with another kind. They may have done this to warp or corrupt what G-d had created. Sound familiar? That is what scientist today are doing!
JASHER 4:18 And their judges and rulers went to the daughters of men and took their wives by force from their husbands according to their choice, and the sons of men in those days took from the cattle of the earth, the beasts of the field and the fowls of the air, and taught the mixture of animals of one species with the other, in order therewith to provoke the L-rd; and G-d saw the whole earth and it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon earth, all men and all animals. And the L-rd said, I will blot out man that I created from the face of the earth, yea from man to the birds of the air, together with cattle and beasts that are in the field. (From The Book of Jasher, published by J.H. Parry & Company, 1887) [This is not a book of the Bible]
This also reminds us of the passage in Revelation 9. See our notes on this passage.
Constant violence.
The Word says there is a time for peace and a time for war etc. Does this mean that Adonai enjoys war? No, He does not. Does He like the sword?
He does not like to see mankind destroy themselves through battle because He loves mankind and mankind is also made in His image. This will be also a reason why He must return. He must stop mankind from destroying themselves again.
Yeshua said,
Matt 26:52 for all those who take up the sword shall perish by the sword. NAS
Again, man is capable of doing good but he has a propensity toward evil and eventually things spiral downward and corruption becomes rampant. Man still had a sinful nature inherited from their fathers.
B'resheet 6:8 But Noach found favor in the eyes of the L-RD.
Noach would be a temporary savior for mankind from themselves. Yeshua would be an eternal savior for mankind. The situation will be the same. Some may laugh or not believe in the coming judgment of the L-rd but it will come and come at His time. Daniel saw visions of the future time. Some of those visions are now history. The things he saw that would be coming upon us made him sick. One can have an idea and a taste of what the tribulation, the time of Jacob's trouble, will be like by watching the things that go on today- only it will continue to get worse and worse. Come Yeshua Ben David.
B'resheet 6:9-10 These are the generations of Noach: Noach was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noach walked with G-d. And Noach became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Yefet (Japheth).
Perfect in his generations. We touched on this already. Perhaps this is one of the reasons that the genealogy from Adam to Noach is listed in chapter 5. To show that his line was not corrupted.
All of mankind after the flood comes from Noach and his three sons.
B'resheet 6:11-12 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of G-d, and the earth was filled with violence. And G-d looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.
Earth was corrupt, earth was filled with violence, all flesh had corrupted - Sounds like today. All flesh has been corrupted.
B'resheet 6:13 Then G-d said to Noach, "The end of all flesh has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.
Major transformation of the earth here. Mankind would see rain for the first time and boy would they see it. The potter said to the clay-enough!
Times are again getting like the time of Noach. G-d will again in the future see what mankind is doing toward others of their same kind and say- enough! He will use the sword of His mouth. All G-d has to do is speak.
Rev 19:11-16 And I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who sat upon it is called Faithful and True; and in righteousness He judges and wages war. And His eyes are a flame of fire, and upon His head are many diadems; and He has a name written upon Him which no one knows except Himself. And He is clothed with a robe dipped in blood; and His name is called The Word of G-d. And the armies which are in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, were following Him on white horses. And from His mouth comes a sharp sword, so that with it He may smite the nations; and He will rule them with a rod of iron; and He treads the wine press of the fierce wrath of G-d, the Almighty. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written, "KING OF KINGS, AND L-RD OF LORDS." (also Daniel 7:13-28)
Water will not be the form of judgment though. See our study on Revelation.
Rev 19:17-18 And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried out with a loud voice, saying to all the birds which fly in midheaven, "Come, assemble for the great supper of G-d; in order that you may eat the flesh of kings and the flesh of commanders and the flesh of mighty men and the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them and the flesh of all men, both free men and slaves, and small and great. " NAS
He will also take out those that trust in Him away from his wrath! The flood is a type of the coming judgment. "The tribulation period" G-d spared those righteous ones at the time of the flood and will spare believers in Yeshua from His wrath in the future. We will see in the next chapter that the righteousness were safe in the Ark BEFORE the flood started. No one had to swim for it.
B'resheet 6:14-18 Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. And this is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. And behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark-- you and your sons and your wife, and your sons' wives with you.
G-d spoke to Noach and gave him detailed instructions for the ark (ship).
Gopher wood - this may have been cedar or cypress.
Pitch - Tar - This comes from oil. The Middle East is rich in oil deposits. This is more evidence to support the accuracy of the Bible. This was used to seal the ark and make it water proof.
1 cubit is about 18 inches.
Length of Ark - 300 cubits = 450 feet (135 meters)
Width of Ark - 50 cubits = 75 feet (23 meters)
Height of Ark - 30 cubits = 45 feet (13 meters)
These dimensions would make the ark extremely stable in the water and impossible to capsize. Remember the ark ONLY had to float. It did not need a steering mechanism.
Windows - 1 cubit from the top - This probably ran the length of the ark for fresh air.
Door in the side.
3 decks
The volume of space in the ark was 1.4 million cubic feet. This is about the side of 522 standard railroad box cars.
Amount of weight the ark could carry is estimated to be about 40 million pounds (15 million kilograms)
The ark probably looked like a giant cargo ship or an enclosed barge.
Noach was to make rooms (literally "nests") in the ark. These would probably been used as cages to separate the animals.
The ark would have looked like a long beam just like the one Yeshua carried to His death for our salvation.
It would have taken faith on Noach's part to believe such a strange thing when he never even saw rain before. People would have probably laughed at him working on this ark day after day. He would also have been telling them of the coming destruction the L-rd was bringing on the world. Some things never change.
It is interesting that the ARK that Noach built had a hole in it's side. Just as Yeshua's body had a hole in His when He died on the execution stake. We mentioned how the Ark of the Covenant built for the temple also pointed to Yeshua in an earlier study.
See our study on the Ark of the Covenant.
B'resheet 6:19-22 And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after THEIR KIND, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind shall come to you to keep them alive. And as for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them." Thus Noach did; according to all that G-d had commanded him, so he did. NAS
Two of every kind - male and female to reproduce. Pairs of each "Kind" or basic type of land dwelling air-breathing animal. Today there are less than 20,000 types of animals, not counting those animals that live in the sea or those that don't breathe air. Even most insects were probably not on the ark. They don't breathe air and their eggs and larvae would survive on floating logs outside the Ark. All modern types could have come from about 5,000 kinds or less that G-d originally created. The ark was big enough to haul more than 50,000 animals with room to spare.
Taken from: page 16 of "Noah's Ark and the Lost World" John D Morris. Master Books.
Example: It would not have been necessary to take all the various types of Canines (wolves, various dogs, etc on the ark. All members of the canine family that we have today could have descended from 2 canines.