Welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the Book of Genesis. This is study #22 of Genesis, chapter 7 and we are going to read Genesis 7:21-24:

And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land died. And 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: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.

Here, God is strongly emphasizing the final judgment because the flood pictures the judgment that comes at the end of the world and the Lord is showing that it will be the end of mankind and the end of creation – all will be wiped out. We can see this with the language used in these verses, beginning in Genesis 7:21:

And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man…

We see that five groups are listed. There are fowl, cattle, beasts, creeping thing and man. This goes along with the focus on the atonement as we saw in regard to the waters rising 15 cubits above the highest mountain. We saw that the number “15” is “3 x 5” and the number “3” points to the purpose of God and the number “5” points to the atonement. In the case of the waters prevailing upon the earth 150 days, the number “150” is “3 x 5 x 10” and, again, the number “5” points to the atonement. The unsaved are offering the sacrifice of themselves to atone for their own sins. As God is describing the destruction of everything with the breath of life, He picked five particular groups and the main target was mankind. Mankind was the rebel. Mankind had sinned against God and transgressed His Law and it was due to the sin of man that the entire creation became cursed. Judgment Day is the time for atonement for sin.

Of course, the insurmountable difficulty that the unsaved people have in the Day of Judgment is that they are their own sacrifice for sin but that they cannot overcome the penalty, which is death. They cannot come through it and rise from the dead after they pay the price. They have no power in the day of death, so that means that when they die they will be gone for evermore, so the annihilation of the wicked is in view in these Scriptures in Genesis, chapter 7 as the Lord is closing out the five months when the waters rose and His Word is victorious over the inhabitants of the earth.

We also read in Genesis 7:21 that “all flesh died.” The Hebrew word translated as “died” is Strong’s #1478 and it is not the typical word for “died.” The typical word is used in the next verse, in Genesis 7:22:

All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land died.

It is the same word in English, but it is a different Hebrew word and that is why we need to check the original language of the Hebrew or the Greek in the concordance because we cannot tell the difference in the English language. The word in verse 22 is the typical word and we found that word back in Genesis 2:17:

… for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

That is the typical word that is found throughout the Old Testament, but the word that is Strong’s #1478 can be translated as “died,” as it is in our verse, but it is also translated as “gave up the ghost.” It says in Genesis 35:29:

And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died, and was gathered unto his people, being old and full of days…

The word “died” in this verse is the word that is found in Genesis 7:22, where it says, “of all that was in the dry land died.” But the word translated as “gave up the ghost” is the word that is found in Genesis 7:21, where it says, “all flesh died” and we could say that all flesh died that moved upon the face of the earth. Since God uses both words to describe Isaac’s death, when He says, “And Isaac gave up the ghost, and died,” it is emphasizing death in every possible way. Of course, the wonderful thing about Isaac’s death is that even though he died physically, his soul went into heaven. As far as life on earth, his physical body died and that was it and his body went into the ground awaiting the resurrection.

Maybe a better place to look at this word “gave up the ghost” is in Job 14:10:

But man dieth, and wasteth away: yea, man giveth up the ghost, and where is he?

In this verse we, once again, see both Hebrew words. It says, “But man dieth,” and it also says, “man giveth up the ghost.” The first word is Strong’s #4191 and the second word is Strong’s #1478. Then God asked the question, “And where is he?” Once man dies he ceases to exist and his thoughts perish and it all points to the final judgment upon (unsaved) mankind that comes at the completion of Judgment Day. We are in the process of Judgment Day now, as we are still in the spiritual part of the final judgment, but there will come the conclusion of this prolonged period of judgment. At the end will the literal destruction and annihilation of the entire creation and all of the wicked that are on the earth, including the bodies of all the wicked that have ever lived. God will destroy the wicked with the creation, just as He points out in Isaiah 51, verse 6. The emphasis in our verse in Genesis is the death of man, the death of the cursed creation and its complete annihilation. That is why it goes on to say in Genesis 7:23:

And 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…

God uses the word “destroyed” twice in this verse. I mentioned that God had listed five groups of living things in verse 21, but in this verse He only listed four. He left one group out and that is because He is pointing to the universal aspect of the destruction – it is worldwide and it includes man and the creation. The final judgment will, indeed, be the utter destruction of all unsaved mankind and the entire creation that has been subjected to “vanity” and came under the curse of God. With the destruction of the animals outside of the ark, the Lord is indicating that it is the end of the creation, as well as the end of rebel sinners that have transgressed His Laws, so He says, “And every living substance was destroyed,” and then He repeats it: “and they were destroyed from the earth.”

In regard to the word “destroyed,” the Hebrew word translated as “destroyed” is also not the typical word translated as “destroyed.” This Hebrew word is Strong’s #4229 and it is better translated as we find it in Deuteronomy 29:20:

JEHOVAH will not spare him, but then the anger of JEHOVAH and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and JEHOVAH shall blot out his name from under heaven.

The words “blot out” is a translation of the same Hebrew word translated as “destroyed” in our verse and that is the usual translation for this particular word.

It also says in Psalm 9:5:

Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever.

Our word is translated here as “put out.”

The same word is used in Exodus 32:33:

And JEHOVAH said unto Moses, Whosoever hath sinned against me, him will I blot out of my book.

Repeatedly, we see that this is the way this particular word should be translated. Of course, to have your name “blotted out” of the book indicates the Book of Life from a creation standpoint, as it says in Psalm 69:28:

Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.

When we read of someone’s name being “blotted out” of the book of the living, it can only refer to the Book of Life from the vantage point of creation before Adam sinned. God created Adam “good” and, therefore, Adam was in the Book of Life and all that were in Adam’s loins (all mankind) were also included in that Book of Life, but once Adam sinned he lost his place in the Book of Life and all that were “in Adam,” likewise, became contaminated with sin and you cannot bring a clean out of an unclean. That is why the Bible says we are conceived in sin and born speaking lies. We have our own sin and it results in every individual being blotted out of the Book of Life due to sin. God blotted out all the people from the Book of Life.

We use a substance called “white-out” to blot out a mistake when we write something. We get out the “white-out” and it has a blotter and we cover over the mistake and rewrite over it and you can no longer see what was originally written. That is the idea. It is as if God recorded all the names of mankind in the Book of Life (let us call it “Adam’s Book of Life”) from a creation standpoint and then man sinned and God blotted out their names. This is all figurative. There is not an actual book, as God has no need to write the names down in order to remember them because He has perfect memory, but it is a way to describe something to us in order to help us understand what has happened to us as a result of sin; we would have lived, but because of sin we are subject to death: the wages of sin is death. We lost our place in the Book of Life.

But there is another book and it is the Lamb’s Book of Life. It is the book that records the names of all the elect that were predestinated to salvation before the foundation of the world. These are the names of everyone whose sins were cast upon the Lord Jesus and Christ atoned for those sins and, therefore, these names are recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life. We read of more than one book in Revelation 20:12:

And I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God; and the books were opened: and another book was opened, which is the book of life: and the dead were judged out of those things which were written in the books, according to their works.

In the Day of Judgment, as it has been throughout history, when a man dies it is as if they are standing before God and the first thing God wants to find out is if they have any justification to live. So God checks the Book of Life (Adam’s Book of Life) from a creation standpoint and He finds no names recorded because all men were blotted out due to sin. Then God goes to the next book, the Lamb’s Book of Life, that records all the names of the elect and He searches the multitudes of names, even though they are only a remnant of mankind. God does not find this particular individual’s name written there either and, therefore, they have no justification for life and they are subject to the second death and total destruction. God carries out that legal search of the books for each person so no one can ever say that God was unjust in condemning them and destroying them.

It says in Psalm 69, verse 28, “Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous," so the terrible judgment for the sinner is that, first of all, he loses his standing in the Book of Life, and, secondly, his name is not found in the Lamb’s Book of Life. In this book God determined to save some by His own good pleasure: “Jacob I have loved, but Esau I have hated.” In Jacob’s case, God recorded his name in the Lamb’s Book of Life, but in Esau’s case, the Lord did not. Esau was blotted out of the Book of Life from a creation standpoint and his name was also not written with the righteous in the Lamb’s Book of Life. That is the terrible situation with Esau and all the spiritual descendants of Esau that were not saved by God and, therefore, their names are blotted out and not written with the righteous.

This is the point in Genesis 7:23:

And 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…

They were “blotted out” from the earth. Again, we can see complete annihilation. It is complete punishment. This is it. It is Judgment Day and God says to the wicked, “You are not found. Your name is not included in my books. You have no standing or life.” That is why those that were outside the ark drowned and ceased to exist for evermore. They perished. This is describing the final death of all that rebelled against God and the creation itself, as typified by the animals.

After God makes this heavy emphasis upon dying and destruction, it goes on to say in Genesis 7:23:

…and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

The last part of verse 23 is almost like an afterthought. The central figure is Noah because he is a type of the Lord Jesus Christ and He is the righteous one and by the obedience of one, many are made righteous. It is all because of Christ, so Noah remained alive and those that were with him. As we read earlier, God focused on Noah entering the ark and then mentions those that went in with him. It is the same idea here. The seven souls with Noah are a figure of the body of the elect or the perfection of all the elect. Noah only remained alive. It is like Christ being the seed (singular), but we are the seed (plural) with him.

Noah only remained alive and this should sound familiar to us. Noah remains and the others remain alive. The word “alive” is italicized, but that is definitely the idea. They not only remained alive, but where did they remain alive? It was on the earth. Noah and those with him remained alive on the earth in the time of judgment. That is the clear implication and significance of what is being said here and it sounds familiar to us because the Hebrew word translated as “remain” is Strong’s #7604 and it is the same word we found in Isaiah chapter 24, a chapter whose focus is on the final judgment of the world. It says in Isaiah 24:6:

Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth, and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.

This verse accurately describes the condition of the world of Noah’s day, except it speaks of “burning” rather than “drowning,” but everything else is applicable to Noah’s day. It says, “Therefore hath the curse devoured the earth,” and that is why the first earth was faced with the deluge because the “curse” is what comes upon mankind due to their sin. Then it says, “and they that dwell therein are desolate: therefore the inhabitants of the earth are burned,” and in the case of the flood they were drowned, but in both cases they were destroyed by the judgment of God. Every statement would apply to the situation of the time of Noah and the flood. It says in the last part of the verse, “and few men left.” The word “left” is the word that is Strong’s #7604 that was translated as “remained” in the case of Noah and his family. They remained alive on the earth, going through the flood and that is the identical picture in Isaiah 24, verse 6, where it says, “the inhabitants of the earth are burned, and few men left.” The “few” relate to the elect, as the Bible says, “For many are called, but few are chosen.” They are the “electos.” These are God’s people and their names were recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life and once your name is recorded in the Lamb’s Book of Life, it can never be blotted out. That is impossible because you have received eternal life. This goes along with 1Thessalonians 4:15:

For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord…

It is repeated in 1Thessalonians 4:17:

Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds…

Why does God say this twice? Why did He not just say, “Then we which are alive shall be caught up together”? That would prove sufficient. These are not those that are dead, but they are those that are alive, but twice the Lord says that they “are alive and remain.” This is because it is the identical teaching to Noah remaining and all that were with him in the ark.