Theological Term of the Week

Flood, the
God’s judgment on humankind for its moral depravity and sinfulness by means of an historical flood which wiped out the entire population of the world except for Noah and his family, as recorded in chapters 6-8 of Genesis; also called the Great Flood, the Great Deluge, or the biblical flood. 

• From scripture:

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thingthat I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him. (Genesis 7:1-5, ESV)

And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. (Genesis 7:7, ESV)

The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days. (Genesis 7:17-24, ESV)

• From The Message of the Old Testament by Mark Dever:

Now, most everyone  knows the story of the Flood. We have told and retold it; we have sentimentalized it with our pictures and our toys. I remember once, when our children were little, my wife and I bought them a plastic ark with Noah, Mrs. Noah, and all the animals. Yet the more I have reflected on it, the more I see how poorly our little bathtub could represent the horror of this story. Surely, the Flood represents one of the four great judgments in the Bible, along with the fall of Adam, the cross of Christ, and the final judgment. Surely the Flood was a horrible calamity in which God wiped out almost the entire human race. Noah’s ark was not a plaything, and the rising waters were not a warm bath! The waters covered the earth as the expression of God’s death-dealing wrath against men whom the Lord describes with the chilling phrase “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood” ([Genesis] 8:21). Has anyone ever told you that total depravity is never taught in the Old Testament? The Lord’s words here suggest otherwise.

Learn more:

1. The Bible: Genesis 6-8
2. ESV Bible: Chronology of Noah’s Time in the Ark
3. Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology: Flood, the
4. Blue Letter Bible: What Were the Reasons for the Flood?
5. Bob Deffinbaugh: The Flood
6. S. Lewis Johnson: Great Flood and the Saving Ark; Noah Saved, World Condemned (audio and transcripts)
7. John MacArthur: The Flood of Judgment; Power of Divine Judgment in the Global Flood (audio and transcripts)

Related terms:

• creation
• Exodus, the
• fall (of man)

Filed under Old Testament History

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