Ark Loaded – Animals, Birds and Creeping Things Come to Noah – Lesson 40
God Establishes His Covenant with Noah
Genesis 6:17-18 KJV 17 And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. 18 But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.
A total of 8 people go into the Ark and are saved from the flood of waters.
“two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive” – Male and Female “After Their Kind” Came to Noah
Genesis 6:19-22 KJV 19 And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. 20 Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. 21 And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. 22 Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he.
Moving into Chapter 7 
Genesis 7: 1-3 KJV And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. 2 Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. 3 Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
These first three verses of Chapter 7 are somewhat confusing. The idea of seven each of every clean animal and seven each of birds of the air. What is being talked about here? Reminder: Noah was to load food for his household and the animals. The 1 male and 1 female were loaded to keep each “kind” alive in order to repopulate the earth.
The extra clean animals and birds were loaded possibly for these reasons, to provide for food and to be used as sacrifices at the altar of God when they embarked from the Ark.
Mankind was not to eat meat until God allowed it, which happened right after the flood. This will be discussed more in a future lesson.
What is the meaning of after their kind (according to their kind) when God told Noah to take birds, animals creeping things “male and female” according to their kinds.
Does “kind” mean species? There are millions of species. Or does “kind” mean genus? A group of similar species is a genus. Or does “kind” mean family? A group of similar genera (plural of genus) is a family.
Canidae is a family that includes dogs, wolves, foxes, jackals, coyotes and similar animals. Biological families number in the thousands, not the millions.
If a “kind” means what we call a genus, there would have been about 16,000 animals (8,000 genera) loaded onto the Ark.
How many animals were on the ark? Perhaps as many as sixteen thousand is a popular number used? There did not have to be hundreds of thousands.
Animals may have been kept in a state of hibernation much of the time while on board. The subject of what happened on the Ark involving the feeding and care of the animals is interesting. There are a number of ideas being suggested.
Genesis 7: 4-6 KJV 4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. 5 And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.
6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
According to Chapter 5: 32 of the Genealogy of Adam 32 And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
And we read now in Genesis 7: 6 And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
100 Years
Keep in mind that based on these verses we can conclude that it took Noah nearly 100 years to complete the building of the Ark.