Genesis 7:1-5 - How God Meets us Where We are at
 1 The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation.
Apparently God is not referring to Noah’s extended family or relatives. He is only referring to Noah’s wife, sons, and their wives. It would seem he had no other children, and no grandchildren yet.
2 Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.
As I wrote in Genesis 7 - Generally Speaking…, God seems to have been having Noah bring extras of the sacrificial animals. But generally speaking, there were two of each kind of animal.
4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.
We have already established in Genesis 6 - Which Mankind? that the context of this statement is in reference to Adam’s descendants (except Noah and his family). We then applied this context to the earth in Genesis 6:9-12 - Destroying All Mankind… Adam’s descendants that is… except the righteous ones…
7 So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”
In other words, God was confining his plans to the amount of the earth necessary to destroy Adam’s descendants. This would also destroy the animals and birds within that region as well, but so be it.
Now, Genesis 7:4 could be read in a literal manner to be adding information to Genesis 6:7. Where Genesis 6:7 need only refer to enough of the earth’s face necessary to destroy Adam’s descendants, Genesis 7:4 looks like it refers to the entire face of the earth, lest we say that the remainder of the humans and animals that science says were alive not be created by God.
As stated in Genesis 7 - Generally Speaking…
How much of the world was flooded? Well generally speaking, it was all of the world that mattered at that time, specifically the section of the world inhabited by Adam’s descendants.
This leaves us with several possibilities:
- Gen. 7:4 refers to the entire world, adding information to Gen. 6:4, which need only refer to where Adam’s descendants lived.
- Gen. 6:7 refers to the entire world, undoing any blessing that Adam’s descendants subdue the earth.
- Gen. 6:7 sets the context for interpreting Gen. 7:4. So, whatever 6:7 means, 7:4 means the same.
Well, notice that God is speaking to Noah. What is Noah’s context? As for as Noah is concerned, the world includes what he has seen, and its extent does not reach much beyond that inhabited by Adam’s descendants. Why confuse him with the information that there are 100s of 1000s of others alive throughout the world, and they will not be destroyed, and it’s because they are not descendants of Adam (though related)? Over and over God meets us where we are at, and talks to us in a manner that we will understand. Perhaps His words would mislead someone who knows more than we, but being more strictly accurate would frankly be even more misleading. Try teaching a toddler or explaining “when” to someone mentally disabled who has no understanding beyond “now” and “later”, and I think you will understand the difficulty God has talking to us sometimes. In such cases, the raw truth will confuse; but what they do understand would sound false to an eaves-dropper. Well realize: we are the eavesdroppers. As far as Noah is concerned, the region in which he lives is the earth, and the animals and people within it are all there is. And so God states 7:4 in a way that might sound like a reference to the world to us, but it is to leave no doubt to Noah that everything in that region will be destroyed… though to call it a mere region might have been confusing to Noah, who needs to build an ark, not contemplate whether there is more to the world. Yet, in God’s infinite wisdom, the word used for earth can refer to a mere region. So, even if Noah thought God meant “the world”, God meant “the world that you know” or simply, “the region”.
And why would God do this? To confuse us? To make it difficult to agree on the meaning of scripture? To test our faith in the face of atheistic challenges? Not at all! Obviously, God knew of these effects before He spoke, but to think that God could not have meant “region”, because speaking so to Noah would confuse us, is the height of 21st-century arrogance. On the contrary, God has no problem with confusing people. It is why he had Daniel not write everything he saw in Daniel 12. It is also why Jesus taught in parables. Even more important however, Noah needed to understand precisely what God had for him to do. And we see the recording of God’s intention and success in the very next verse…
 5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.