Thru the Bible

Steve Schwetz: Have you ever been bird watching? Maybe you’re just a casual bird watcher, noticing birds as they fly in and out of your backyard. Many birders devote hours, patiently waiting to catch a glimpse of a certain bird. Welcome to Thru the Bible where our teacher, Dr. J. Vernon McGee, explains how Noah became a bit of a bird watcher during the Great Flood.

I'm Steve Schwetz, inviting you to grab your Bible and turn to Genesis 7:23. As you do, I want to mention that May is Letter Month. Years ago, Dr. McGee began this tradition where he sets aside a special time to ask you, our beloved listeners, to write or call and tell us what God is doing in your life as we study His Word together. While we love receiving and sharing your letters all year long, each May we make a special effort to celebrate them and invite you to share how God is at work in your life through His Word.

Let’s start with this one from Robert in Northern California. He writes, "I am so excited. I made it. I started my journey on the Bible Bus five years ago, just as we began Revelation. I was flipping through my radio in my truck and heard y'all mention that you had just concluded Malachi and would begin Revelation the following day. So, I went up to the house, set up my computer with your app, and prepared everything for the study the next day.

"I have faithfully followed every weekday and recently found your Sunday sermons to be awesome. Thank you so much. You have brought me back closer to my Lord, and I just love you all so much. You have my monthly tithe, and the Lord has blessed me so that I am able to give for your gas and tires. Thank you, may our Lord hold you dear to Him." Well, Robert, you are such a valued member of our team. Thank you for your partnership as well in supporting the Bible Bus in your community and around the world today in over 250 languages.

And here’s a short but sweet note from Katie who says, "This program is perfect for my morning coffee and Jesus time." Well, Katie, it’s great to hear from you. Thanks for starting your day with us in God's Word along with that cup of coffee.

And listen to this one from Jillian. "Thank you for your ministry. Our community is filled with believers of another but smaller religion that is deeply misled. When they knock on my door and try to witness to me, as they often do, I can now share this Bible Bus pass with them." Well, that’s a terrific idea, Jillian, thanks for sharing that with us.

And how about you? How is God shaping your story as we spend time in His Word together? Wouldn't it be wonderful if the next time we're in Genesis, we get to read your letter about something you learned or something God changed in you? You can send us that note through our app, you can email us at biblebus@ttb.org, or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1.

You can also leave a voicemail at 1-800-65-BIBLE. That same number, 1-800-65-BIBLE, is how you can request a free pack of the Bible Bus passes that Jillian mentioned. Let’s pray. Lord, we praise You for Your Word and ask You to transform our lives as we listen and receive Your truth. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Dr. J. Vernon McGee: Today, friends, our study brings us to the eighth chapter of the book of Genesis. I hope you're reading along with us. We have seen last time the flood, and we were talking about the flood and saying that there were many details we were not going into. I was quoting from a book that I highly recommend titled *The Genesis Flood* by Henry M. Morris and John C. Whitcomb Jr. Both of these men are competent to write on such a subject, and they answer many questions for you today.

There has come from the press recently several books from men I consider pseudo-intellectuals and pseudo-theologians. They take the position that the flood was local—that is, it was confined to the Tigris-Euphrates Valley. In other words, they had sort of a big swimming pool there. This book absolutely demolishes that thought altogether, and I'm sure most of you realize the Scripture made it very clear that the flood covered the whole earth. God said the entire earth was to be destroyed by the flood.

He said that the earth is filled with violence through them, and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. If you say the flood was not universal, the human family had already gotten to North America, and the animals were certainly here. Nobody would argue that point for a moment. Then you have somebody except Noah starting the human family all over again, and that’s not the way the Word of God tells it. You either accept the Bible or you don't. You either have to accept what it says or you have to reject what it says. In my judgment, to attempt to make a case for a local flood is to reject the Word of God.

Scripture makes it very clear that it was universal. It says every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man and cattle and the creeping things and the fowl of the heaven, and they were destroyed from the earth. Noah only remained alive and they that were with him in the ark. That is Genesis 7:23. Verse 24 says, "And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days." For a period of approximately half a year, for five months, the waters prevailed on the earth.

Now, in chapter 8, we have the assuaging of the flood. Let's read verse 1 of chapter 8. "And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged." This book I've referred you to answers the question about whether it was a local flood. It was universal. It also answers the question of uniformitarianism. There are those who take the position that there was no such thing as a great convulsion or catastrophe like the flood.

That viewpoint is held by a great many. Peter in his second epistle makes it very clear that we could expect there'd be scoffers today walking after their own lusts. This is 2 Peter 3:3. Verse 4 says, "Where is the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation." The scoffer has always been a uniformitarian. This book makes it very clear that you couldn't very well hold that position and accept the integrity of the Word of God at this particular point. That's very important to see.

We not only have here the building up of the flood, but also the prevailing and the assuaging of the flood. We're told God made a wind to pass over the earth and the waters assuaged. It didn't happen just overnight. The buildup of the waters took 150 days. There are 261 days in the assuaging. That looks like something more than just a local flood. I'm not going to go through all the mathematics, but you find here in verses 2 and 3: "Fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated."

The waters decreased continually until the tenth month. Verse 6 says, "And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made." This is the beginning of the end of the flood. Notice what he did. He sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro until the waters were dried up from off the earth. He sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground. Noah became a bird watcher, sending out the raven and the dove.

The dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. He put forth his hand and took her and pulled her in unto him into the ark. He stayed yet another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. The dove came in to him in the evening, and in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off. Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. He stayed yet another seven days and sent forth the dove, which returned not again unto him anymore.

It came to pass in the 601st year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from the earth. That brings you to 261 days. The total time of the flood was 371 days, extending over a year. That also conforms to the statement of Scripture that the flood was universal, that it was not just the filling of a swimming pool.

There are other things that have revealed something concerning the flood. I'd like to pass that on to you. I'm quoting now from Dr. J. E. Shelly. He takes the position that the flood was universal, covering the entire earth. He says the most striking example of this is found in the case of the mammoths. These elephants are found buried in the frozen silt of the tundra in Siberia, all over the length of the continent of Asia and in the north of Alaska and Canada. They are found in herds on the higher ground, not bogged in marshes, hundreds of thousands in number.

He goes on to talk about them, noting that they've been examined and were found to have drowned. If they just got bogged up, they would have died of starvation. The farther north one goes, the more there are, until the soil of the islands of the White Sea inside the Arctic Circle consists largely of their bones mingled with those of saber-tooth tiger, giant elk, cave bear, musk ox, and with trunks of trees and trees rooted in the soil.

There are now no trees in those regions, the nearest being hundreds, almost thousands of miles away. The mammoth could not eat the stunted vegetation which now grows in this region except for three months in the year. A hundred square miles of which would not keep one of them alive for a month. The food in their stomachs is pine and hawthorn branches. These mammoths were buried alive in the silt when the silt was soft. They and the silt were then suddenly frozen and have never been unfrozen, for they show no sign of decomposition.

Mammoth ivory has been sold on the London docks for more than a thousand years. The Natural History Museum purchased a mammoth's head and tusk from the ivory store of the London docks. This head was absolutely fresh and was covered with its original fur. Explorers have saved their lives by eating the flesh of these animals which have been in cold storage for about 4,600 years. If you want evidence of the flood and that it's universal, there is an abundance of evidence if you're willing to accept it.

I will move on to see a great spiritual truth we have here in this eighth chapter concerning the dove and the raven. Noah is engaged in what we'd call bird watching. He sends out the raven, and the raven didn't come back. Why didn't that raven come back? You have to recognize what it eats. A raven eats just about anything. There was a whole lot of flesh floating around after the flood; you can think of the dead animals and all of that floating around. That's what this bird ate.

He didn't return because he was really going to a feast. He was having a very wonderful time. He's an unclean bird, by the way. Now, the dove is a clean bird. Remember that Noah took into the ark both clean and unclean. The dove brought back information; it was a regular homing pigeon. On its second trip, it brought back evidence that the dry land was appearing. Then it did not return, signifying the waters of judgment were gone.

All great truths of the Bible are germane in Genesis. The Bible teaches that the believer has two natures: an old and a new nature. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The clean and the unclean are together. You and I have these two natures. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Paul says, "I know that within my flesh dwelleth no good thing." But he says to will is present with him, but how to perform it he finds not. There was a struggle between the two natures. There's a struggle today between the old nature and the new nature of a believer.

The raven went out into a judged world, but he found a feast in a dead carcass because that's what he lived on. The bloated carcass of a dinosaur would have made him a banquet. It would have been for him a bacchanalian orgy. That's the picture of the old nature. The old nature is like that raven. It loves the things of the world and feasts on them. That's the reason so many people watch TV Sunday night and don't go to church. You've got an old nature, and that's no excuse because you ought not to be living in the old nature.

The dove went out into a judged world, but he found no rest, no satisfaction. He returned to the ark. Today it's a matter of viewpoint. One professor said to me that this matter of what's right and wrong is relative. He's right. It's what God says is right and what He says is wrong. The old raven went out in the world and loved it. Believers are told today, "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world."

You and I live in a judged world today. We're in the world, but not of it. We are to use it but not to abuse it. We're not to fall in love with it, but we are to attempt to win the lost in this world and get out the Word of God. He told us to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Let's take care of our job and get the Word out down here; that's the important thing. The dove recognized he's in that kind of a world, and he found no rest except in the ark, and that ark sets forth Christ.

Let me just ask you this very personal question. What kind of bird are you? Are you a raven or a dove? You've got both natures, but which one are you living in today? Do you love the things of God, or don't you?

Verse 18 says, "And Noah went forth, his sons, and his wife, and his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing, every fowl, and whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds, went forth out of the ark." God makes a covenant with Noah here, and we're going to see the new beginning next time in the next chapter. God made a covenant with him—he can now eat meat—and a covenant that has to do with capital punishment. When God made it with Noah, He made it with the human family that's on the earth today.

Noah built an altar unto the Lord and took of every clean beast and of every clean fowl and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Now do you see why he took seven of the clean beasts and only two of the unclean? He's offering the clean beasts now. Verse 21 says, "And the Lord smelled a sweet savor; and the Lord said in His heart, I will not again curse the ground anymore for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth."

You can just write down that that is true. What about your youth? Was your imagination evil or not? We're beginning to see in our contemporary society the rebellion of youth today. Isn't it interesting the direction they've gone? They've gone in the direction where every imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth. It doesn't improve.

I was visiting a hospital the other night, and in the next bed, the curtain was pulled, but you could hear them talking. Her husband came in, and it was a contest between those two to see who could out-cuss the other. I've never heard such profanity on the part of two human beings. The imaginations of man's heart are evil from his youth. That is an accurate statement made a long time ago.

God says He will not again smite anymore everything living. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease. It has been suggested that the flood was to the extent that it tilted the earth. As you know, the earth is not on its axis. We're off-center. The magnetic center is different from the center we're revolving on. Something happened somewhere along the line. It's the belief of many this is where it took place. That's what makes what the Word of God says regarding the harvest, the cold, the seedtime, the heat of summer, and the cold of winter. That gives us our seasons. The earth revolves sort of going around like a wobbly top.

We come now to chapter 9. Here you have the covenant which began in verse 20 of chapter 8. You're going to find out God makes a certain covenant with Noah and gives to him some tremendous things. Never again will God destroy the earth with a flood. Man now can eat flesh. God institutes capital punishment. God's never changed that. We'll get to all of that next time. I trust that you're reading along with us and using our notes and outlines. If you're not on our mailing list, be sure and write in. Until next time, may God richly bless you.

Steve Schwetz: It's true. We don't just need to hear from you; we genuinely love it, especially during Letter Month. So let me remind you how to get in touch. Send us a note through our app, you can email us at biblebus@ttb.org, or write to Box 7100, Pasadena, California, 91109. In Canada, Box 25325, London, Ontario, N6C 6B1.

To download the notes and outlines that Dr. McGee mentioned for Genesis and every study in our five-year journey, go to our app or visit ttb.org or download *Briefing the Bible*. Prefer a print copy? Just call us at 1-800-65-BIBLE. Now before we go, I want to remind you to read through Genesis 9 to get the most out of our next study. In fact, let’s read it a few times. I'm Steve Schwetz, and I'll be here next time, saving you a seat on the Bible Bus.