The Final Countdown - Genesis 7:1-10

7:1-3 - In a subtle contrast to what we studied yesterday, here the Lord commands Noah to not only take animals two by two, but “of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens… And of beasts that are not clean by two.” I think this is in reference to the types of animals allowed to be sacrificed, and it would make sense if you take two animals, a breeding pair, then have to sacrifice one, that species is now extinct, so it makes sense to take several pairs. Why the discrepancy though, between the earlier two command and this one? I’m not exactly sure, but when I was reading the book about the Bible came to be by Timothy Johnson (I think), one of the things that he said was that when translating between languages, one strategy that many translators used was when there were two different ways that something could be interpreted, then they would write both and leave them both in there. That concept would fit perfectly into what we are reading here, the first translation being “The Lord said take two animals, male and female,” and then the other way the wording could be interpreted was “The Lord said take seven pair of the clean animals and two of the rest.” 7:4-7 - The Lord notes “for yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights.” I’m astounded by these specific timelines that ancient peoples seem to get about important upcoming events. For instance, with Samuel the Lamanite, he’s told specifically that Christ will be born 5 years from that day. Nephi was told that Christ would come 600 years exactly from the time that he left Jerusalem. And many prophets were told that 400 years would pass until the Nephites were destroyed completely as a people. With all these specific timelines, it seems weird that Joseph Smith and early saints were told that “the day of the Lord is at hand” or that we are at the end of the precipice of the Lord’s second coming, but then 200 years later, here we are. So it’s just interesting that some people get specific, to-the-day timelines, and we are “almost there” for centuries. I guess it’s a little frustrating, but what can I do? I can just try my best to do what I can to be righteous, and ultimately that’s all I would do even if I knew a timeline exactly. Noah does that the Lord tells him, collects the animals and gets into the ark, and “went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.” This begs the question, and we’ve talked about it before, “were any saved by means other than the Ark?” The IM asks and answers that even though translation after the time of Melchizedek was limited, between the time of Adam and Melchizedek, “it was a not uncommon occurrence for faithful members of the Church to be translated and taken into heavenly realms without tasting death.” I would speculate that this might be because after the Savior’s resurrection, simply resurrecting people to do the work God had planned for them was possible whereas previous to that it wasn’t possible. The IM notes that “Methuselah, the son of Enoch, was not translated… But during the nearly 700 years from the translation of Enoch to the flood of Noah, it would appear that nearly all the faithful members of the Church were translated, for ‘the Holy Ghost fell on many, and they were caught up by the powers of heaven into Zion.’” 7:8-10 – Even though the Lord commanded Noah to gather the animals, it appears that he had some help from the animals themselves, for all the ones that were supposed to be on the ark, “there went in two and two unto Noah.” Maybe I’m reading a little bit too much into that, but I would imagine that God’s simple command to go to Noah would be immediately obeyed by the animals, since humans are the only ones who disobey God. I’ve thought a lot about the concept we discussed yesterday of how testimony affirming it would have been for Noah to see the animals come to him in the way that the Lord had commanded. It’s like when no one else is listening to God, even though you’re strong in your beliefs, there’s still the little voice in the back of your head that says, “what if you are the only idiot falling for this stuff, and everyone else is right?” It’s hard to stand against everyone else in your beliefs, regardless of how strong your testimony is. But then animals, not humans, but creatures apparently “incapable” of higher thinking, appear to share in your beliefs and it’s fascinating to think about. I wonder if that’s what it was like for Elijah when the ravens brought him food during the famine.