Chuck Larsen

The writer of Genesis steps back in verse 22 of Genesis chapter 6 to observe Noah’s response to God’s instructions regarding the building of the ark and the rescuing and caring for all the animals. It simply says, “Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. But Kissling rightly observes, “Literally this reads, ‘Then Noah did according to all that God commanded him. Thus he did.’ This is a sort of Janus parallelism (the same thought repeated in reverse order): Noah did according to all that God commanded him. According to all that God commanded him, thus he did.”^[1] We sing a song about Father Abraham sometimes, “Father Abraham had many sons, Many sons had Father Abraham.” It’s the same kind of construction and represents an emphatic statement. The Jewish commentator, Cassuto, says, “The words form a solemn conclusion to the second paragraph, and also indicate a pause in the course of events, leaving Noah at work fulfilling God’s command. This verse, which states, and reiterates that Noah did all that he was commanded, provides us with a graphic picture of Noah working devotedly, with complete faith in all that the Almighty had told him, and in absolute obedience to the word of his Creator.”^[2]

John Calvin praises Noah at great length in his commentary on Genesis. He says, “Let the reader reflect on the multitude of trees to be felled, the great labor of conveying them, and the difficulty of joining them together.” He seems to have worked on the ark for over a hundred years. How many of us could persevere on such a daunting task? Those around him most likely challenged him for claiming deliverance from God’s judgement while they would face God’s judgment. The “building an asylum for himself virtually doomed them all to destruction.” How many times over that period do you think Noah asked himself if all or any of this was really true? Do you think he worried about how he would collect all the animals? Did he worry about feeding them all? Was he concerned about how he would teach the lion to lay down with the lamb? How was he going to deal with all the animal waste? The smell would be horrendous! “But the obedience of Noah is celebrated on this account, that it was entire, not partial; so that he omitted none of those things which God had commanded.”^[3]

Like the ark, the assembly of believers in Jesus (The true church) has only one door. Jesus claimed to be the only door to salvation. Just as the means of salvation was cut from trees, so is the instrument of our salvation cut from trees upon which Christ died for our sins. There was only one ark into which one could enter to escape God’s judgment. There is also only one Christ through which our faith in Him keeps us from perishing. One last thought is that God closed the door and sealed, secured, the salvation of all who came aboard. The Greek Translation of the Hebrew Old Testament (The Septuagint) adds the phrase “from the outside” when explaining how God closed in Noah and his family. If God closes it, no one else can open it. One cannot even open it from the inside. We are sealed to eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ and are assured an eternal destiny.

^[1] Kissling, Paul J. 2004–. Genesis. The College Press NIV Commentary. Joplin, MO: College Press Pub. Co.

^[2] Cassuto, U. 1997. A Commentary on the Book of Genesis: Part II, From Noah to Abraham. Translated by Israel Abrahams. Jerusalem: The Magnes Press, The Hebrew University.

^[3] Calvin, John, and John King. 2010. Commentary on the First Book of Moses Called Genesis. Vol. 1. Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software.

I’ve argued that God created all the plants and animals “after their kind.” Men and women also reproduce after their kind, but they have an additional feature missing in the animals: God’s image. The dominion of all creation that God entrusted to man was to “care” for it all, as he said when he put that man and woman in the garden of Eden with the charge to “tend it and care for it” (See Genesis 2:15). You might say that Adam and Eve were the “shepherds” of all creation, charged with taking care of them. An essential part of caring is feeding them. God addresses this in Genesis 6:21, “Also take with you every sort of food that is eaten and store it up. It shall serve as food for you and for them.” Looking back at the creation account in Genesis 1:29-30, we read, “And God said, ‘Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food.  And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.”

One central question in this regard deals with the carnivores. Much of our scientific evidence that supports a universal flood as recorded in Genesis, also establishes that there were meat-eating animals before the flood. What did they eat on the ark? Did they eat each other? There are several reasonable solutions. First, as one website suggests, “during times of war or natural disasters when meat was unobtainable, zoos and wildlife parks have utilized meat substitutes like nuts, peanut butter, coconuts, beans, soy, and other legumes as their protein-source feed for the animals.”[1] Second, the same website argues for the possibility of hibernation or some similar state which lessened the appetite of such animals. But to me, the most reasonable answer is that even if there were pre-flood carnivores, as my source suggests, “it is still possible that the animals that God sent to Noah did not eat meat or were omnivores that could have survived for one year without meat.” Maybe this is why dinosaurs were left behind. They were either too carnivorous or ate too many plants to make their preservation on the ark possible. Or maybe they were just too big! Perhaps we’ll find out one day.

Some might argue that Noah could not have taken that much food on board to feed all the animals for a whole year. Well, maybe he planted the seeds and grew the crops he needed on the ark itself. I don’t know. I tell my grandsons that I might not have an answer to all the possible questions that could be asked about the Bible but I choose to believe in a God who loves me and has my best interest foremost in mind. If Jesus can feed five thousand men with two fish and five small loaves of bread and then retrieve 12 baskets full of leftovers, I have no problem believing that Noah had enough food for the animals on the ark.

[1] https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/feeding-carnivores-noahs-ark/

The suggestion that Noah had to trap, or catch, all the different kinds of animals is put to rest with Genesis 6:20. It says. “Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come into you to keep them alive.” The last part of the verse explains that “they will come to you.” You are just expected to receive them into the ark where they will be kept alive. But the biggest question associated with this verse is the phrase “according to their kinds.” In the earlier creation account in Genesis chapter 1, we see that this is the way God made it. It has always been that way, and it will always be that way. I like how my late friend Norm Geisler says, “Life is basically the same from generation to generation, each reproducing its own: fish producing fish, birds hatching birds, cows calving calves, and humans giving birth to humans. This has been the pattern from the very beginning and continues to the present. Life in all of its many kinds is continuous and stable.”^[1]

The phrase appears nine times in the creation account, and it refers to all kinds of plants, all kinds of birds, all kinds of wild and domestic animals, and all kinds of creepy crawling things. Baker rightly points out that creationists “…will be quick to let us know that if the animals were created ‘according to their kinds,’ then they were not evolved from other animals, and this is quite correct. If a dog was created ‘according to its kind,’ then it was not created as an amoeba which evolved.”^[2] In Genesis 6:20, the phrase “after it’s time” is repeated three times and reminds me of the nine times it was repeated in the earlier creation account. Yet, there is an awkward absence of the “according to their kinds” in the creation account. The absence is seen in the creation of man, male and female, “in the image of God.” I almost want to say, “after God’s kind.” God created all the plants and animals after their own kind, but he made man in his “kind.” God blessed the creation of plants, animals, and man with the same blessing to be “fruitful and multiply.” But man had the added responsibility of “caring for” the rest of creation. Just as God cared for His creation, so too is man to care for that creation.

God’s instructions to Noah were how Noah was to “care for” the animals. He was to keep them alive to preserve their species upon the face of the earth. Obviously, Noah was an environmentalist. He was charged with caring for God’s creation. God brought the animals to Noah. He was charged with keeping them alive for future generations. It seems that is still God’s intended charge to man in every generation.

^[1] Geisler, Norman L. 2003. Systematic Theology, Volume Two: God, Creation. Minneapolis, MN: Bethany House Publishers.

^[2] Baker, Douglas P. 2003. “The Image of God: According to Their Kinds.” Reformation and Revival 12, no. 2: 96.

The task that God gave to Noah seemed like an impossible one. In Genesis 6:19 God tells Noah, “And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every sort into the ark to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female.” There are a lot of problems related to this command. First, how did he get the animals to come? Second, how did he identify males and females? Thirdly, did this include the smallest of insects? Most conservative commentators agree that Noah did not have to go out and collect them. The Handbook for Translators seems to suggest that the command was to “catch” the animals. It says, “In some languages the two actions that are involved in bringing must be expressed separately: ‘Get [Catch] two of every kind … and take them inside.…’”^[1] That would indeed be an impossible feat. As Butler says, “The amazing thing is that they came to the ark on their own. God of course put it in the animals to come just as He puts instinct in birds to fly south or north at given times.”^[2] Thus as Leupold observes, “Consequently, all thoughts about elaborate trapping expeditions may readily be dismissed.”^[3] Now, can’t you imagine Noah’s relief when he found out that God would do the collecting?

In the same vein, we’d understand that Noah didn’t have to make the distinction between “male and female” of all kinds of animals. I often get the image of Noah turning the rabbits upside down to determine their gender. How about the turtles? Or, as Bill Cosby joked back in the ’60s: “Mosquitos, male and female.” It would have been impossible without divine intervention. Augustine dealt with this issue by suggesting that there was no need to gather those insects because they just spawn out of rotting material. Noah didn’t have to collect them. “Augustine follows the Aristotelian theory according to which insects generate spontaneously from putrid matter. This theory, technically defined as abiogenesis, was confuted in the seventeenth century by the Italian scientist and poet Francesco Redi.”^[4] No, they didn’t automatically spawn themselves, but neither did Noah collect them. God brought them!

J. Vernon McGhee adds a little story to his commentary on this issue. He writes, “Animals in danger will do that. I remember the first time that we went into Yosemite Valley when our daughter was just a little thing. She had never seen snow before, and when we put her down in the snow, she began to whimper. But she quit when she looked over and saw a little deer. I believe we could have gone over and petted that little deer, but realizing the possible danger, of course, we did not approach him any closer. When I mentioned the deer to the ranger, he laughed and said, ‘Yes, there’s snow up in the High Sierra right now, and when there is snow up there and there’s danger, they come down here and are as tame as any animal could possibly be. But the minute the snows melt in spring, they leave this area, and you couldn’t get within a country mile of any of them.’ Why? Because when an animal is in danger, he will come to man. At the time of the Flood, I do not think Noah had any problem at all, for the animals all came to him.”^[5]

^[1] Reyburn, William David, and Euan McG. Fry. 1998. A Handbook on Genesis. UBS Handbook Series. New York: United Bible Societies.

^[2] Butler, John G. 2008. Analytical Bible Expositor: Genesis. Clinton, IA: LBC Publications.

^[3] Leupold, H. C. 1942. Exposition of Genesis. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House.

^[4] Louth, Andrew, and Marco Conti, eds. 2001. Genesis 1–11. Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press.

^[5] McGee, J. Vernon. 1991. Thru the Bible Commentary: The Law (Genesis 1-15). Electronic ed. Vol. 1. Nashville: Thomas Nelson.