DWDP - Gen 6; 17-22 I am Bringing the Flood

A global flood unlike any other, a covenant that anchors hope, and a cascade of questions modern listeners still ask—this conversation moves from the text of Genesis 6:17–21 into the texture of real life. We read the passage, sit with the gravity of mabul and kataklysmos, and consider what it means for God to sit as king over catastrophic waters while preserving life through a promise.

We walk through the covenant with Noah and why its first mention shapes everything that follows. From there, we tackle the thorny logistics that critics raise and the curious love: How did the animals arrive? Why does the text say they came to Noah? Migration offers a living analogy, from birds navigating continents to a firsthand story of Yucatan flamingos that vanished days before a hurricane struck and returned after the coast cleared. The interplay of instinct, providence, and timing offers a fresh window on ancient claims.

Capacity and kinds take center stage next. We explore the difference between “kinds” and modern species counts, the role of juvenile large animals, and how genetic diversity can flow from a common ancestral pair—think dogs ranging from coyotes to Great Danes. By framing the ark’s volume in practical terms and acknowledging average animal size, the math becomes less mythic and more methodical. Finally, we consider survival across 150 days: hibernation and dormancy as built-in strategies that lower metabolic demands and point to a creation wired with contingency.

Across the hour, the thread holds: judgment does not erase mercy; authority does not cancel compassion; preparation and obedience still matter when the sky hasn’t opened yet. If you’re drawn to Scripture, science questions, or the meeting point between them, this episode offers a steady, respectful path through debates and into hope. Listen, reflect, and share with someone who’s asking the same questions. If this resonated, follow the show, leave a review, and pass it along to a friend who loves big ideas and clear answers.

Chapters

• 0:00 Setting The Scene In Genesis 6
• 2:00 The Uniqueness Of The Flood
• 5:00 God’s Covenant With Noah
• 7:20 How Did Animals Reach The Ark
• 10:10 Flamingos And Storm Sense
• 13:20 How Many Animals Fit
• 17:00 Kinds, Genetics, And Varieties
• 20:00 Hibernation And Ark Survival

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:02

Welcome to More Than Medic, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, Dr. Robert Jackson.

SPEAKER_02: 0:16

Papa, can you tell me a story? Do you really want me to tell you a story? Well, you go get your brother and your sisters, and I will tell you a story. Welcome to Devotions with Dr. Papa. Gather round, grab your Bibles, and let us look into the written word which reveals to us the living word who is our Lord Jesus Christ. Well today we're at Genesis chapter six verses seventeen through twenty one. Behold I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life from under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall enter the ark, you and your sons and your wife and your sons wives with you, and every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you. They shall be male and female, of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself, and it shall be for food for you and for them. May the Lord add his blessing to the reading of his word. So let's start with verse seventeen. In verse seventeen, for the first time God speak uh spells out exactly what he plans to do in destroying the earth and it will be a flood. Being a perceptive individual with instructions for a monstrous boat, Noah probably had already figured things out. Maybe there were other conversations not recorded in scripture. Nonetheless, this is the first mention of a coming flood of waters to destroy all flesh. The word used to describe the flood is Mabul Majim and applies only to the flood in Noah's day. Other floods mentioned in Scripture are described using other Hebrew words in the original language. The flood of Noah's day was unique in all of human history and requires a word that is unique and in fact is used only one other time in all of Scripture. When the Psalmist in Psalms twenty nine and verse ten informs us that the Lord sat as king upon the flood the Mabul. The Lord sat as king upon the Mabul. And of course he did. God is the king over all earthly events. He's king over floods and hurricanes and tornadoes, famines. He sits as king over wars and years of plenty and years of want. He is the king of all the ages. He's the king of glory, the king of all the nations, the king of all kings. He is the ruler of all the kings of all the earth. And certainly he sat as king over the Mabul. He brought the flood of waters to destroy all flesh, and he was not apologizing to anybody. In the same way, when Noah's flood is referenced in the New Testament, the Greek word used in the New Testament is cataclus, and it's always used instead of the usual Greek words for floods. And why is that? Because the flood in Noah's day was not to be compared with any other local flood. It was absolutely unique in human history. In verse seventeen it informs us that the Mabul, the flood would destroy not just humans, but all flesh in which was the ruak, the breath of life. As we learned back in Genesis one, both men and animals have the breath of life. And the phrase under heaven indicated that the destruction would apply only to land animals, as does the phrase everything that is in the earth, in other words, on the land. This excluded the marine creatures, although I suspect many sea creatures probably perished in the upheaval of the flood, because as you recall, the Bible describes the flood as opening the windows of the heaven and the floodgates of the earth. Once again, the language used Mabul and Cataclusmos aren't consistent with a local or tranquil flood. Now look at verse eighteen. God promises to establish a covenant, a promise with Noah. And this is the very first time in Scripture that this word covenant, the Hebrew word is Berith, the word covenant in the Bible. Of course, Noah is a participant in the covenant because of what? His obedience and his faith. And because of his obedience and faith, both his wife and his sons and their wives are the recipients of the blessing. They are recipients of the protection of the covenant. The details of this covenant will be discussed in chapter nine verses nine to seventeen when they emerge from the ark. God specifies that only eight people will be on the Ark. God knew long in advance that none in that generation would repent through Noah's preaching or through the preaching of his forebearers, both Lamech and Methuselah, those preachers of righteousness who died while Noah was building the ark. Now let's keep moving. Verse nineteen through twenty one. I've got questions here. Here are my questions. How did Noah round up all those animals? Have you ever wondered about that? And number two, how many animals were there really on the ark? Number three, was the ark actually big enough to hold all the animals? And what did the animals do for a hundred and fifty days, almost six months in the ark? Well let's answer those questions one at a time. Now you're gonna have to listen fast now, because I got a lot to cover here. Obviously, Noah and his sons did not round up the animals with hunting parties or cattle droves, cattle roundup activities. Many animals have migratory genes that we don't really understand or even know about that directed them to travel or fly over hundreds or maybe even thousands of miles and they do this every year in their yearly migrations. No doubt these latent genes were activated by God Himself, and the Lord God Almighty directed the animals to the ark. If your worldview does not include a God in heaven who directs the affairs of men and nations and even animals, then this biblical account will leave you sorely disappointed, because verse twenty clearly states that the animals shall come unto thee. God directed the animals to come to Noah. He and his sons didn't have to fetch them. Now I'm gonna tell you a story. This could be amazing to you. I go to Mexico once or twice a year on a mission trip. And the missionary that I worked there, well, he's 94 years old now, and he's been going to Mexico for 20 plus years. And he's in uh the Yucatan part of Mexico. And about eight or ten years ago there was a terrible hurricane that the meteorologists predicted was going to turn north and go to Galveston, Texas. But actually, it turned west and went straight into the Yucatan. None of the folks in Yucatan were prepared for this terrible disaster that took place because of that particular hurricane. But my missionary friend was there and he told me about three to five days before the hurricane struck that all the flamingos, and there are thousands and thousands of flamingos that live right there on the coast in progreso on the coast of Yucatan. He said all the flamingos just one day disappeared about three to five days before the hurricane struck. And everyone there was looking around and saying where are the flamingos? Well about three to five days later, this hurricane that was predicted to go north towards Galveston, Texas, suddenly veer to the west and it struck the entire Yucatan, and it created terrible devastation. And in fact, when it struck Yucatan, it stayed there for about three days, just hovering over the Yucatan coast and just destroying trees and houses and flooding, and it was a terrible disaster. And then after the hurricane left, about two weeks later, all the flamingos came back. And the question everybody asks is, how did the flamingos know? Who told them? And how did they know to leave? Well, nobody knows the answer to that. But somehow they knew. And they migrated away from Yucatan. Nobody knows where they went, and then after all the disaster was over, they came back. You see, animals have a inborn, latent genetic way of knowing when storms and disasters are coming. And these animals in Noah's day had an inborn latent genetic way of knowing that this flood was coming. And they went to the one place where there was safety, and it was Noah's Ark. Now how did they know that? I don't know. But God directed them to Noah's Ark. In like manner the animals sensed the coming storm, the coming flood, and they fled to the Ark of Safety. They had more wisdom than the people of planet Earth in that day, who were filled with corruption and violence and would not discern the times or heed the preaching of Lamech and Methuselah and Noah. Now let's go to my next question, my next two questions really. Creation scientists estimate that there were approximately seventy five thousand species or kinds of animals on the ark. Biological taxonomists today estimate that there are less than eighteen thousand species of animals living in the world today, including birds, reptiles, mammals, and amphibians. We could double that number to include the known extinct land animals that we know from the fossil record. So allowing two of each species, we have seventy-seven thousand animals on the ark. You could bump that number to seventy five thousand for the clean animals that came on the ark in seven pairs instead of two pairs. As we've discussed before, the ark could easily accommodate 125,000 animals the size of a sheep. The average land animal is smaller than a sheep. So we probably would only feel about 60% of the capacity of the ark. So that answers two of my questions. Could the ark accommodate all of these animals? And how many animals were there actually on the ark? Now another question people ask is what about big animals like elephants and giraffes and dinosaurs? Well, the answer to that is they'd probably come onto the ark as adolescent animals, which made them much smaller than adult animals and less likely to reproduce. Also remember, there are lots of species that are quite small, like rabbits and squirrels and mice and frogs. This left plenty of room for food for everybody. I would also remind you that all dog varieties today are descended from one dog couple, the male and female ancestors. All the varieties that we say to see today are descended from one male and female dog, from coyotes to beagles to great Danes. They're all descended from one male and female dog ancestor. Now isn't that amazing? So Noah only had to take two dogs with him, a male and a female. The same's true with cats and horses. You dog and horse breeders understand that. Now ponder this. Everyone on planet Earth, I'm talking about humans, is descended from Noah's three sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Think of all the variety of appearances and ethnicities on planet Earth. But are all come from that one family? Let me suggest a fascinating read to you. The book is traced T R A C E D traced by Nathan Jensen, spelled J E A N S O N, published by Master Books in 2022. Using genetics and supercomputers, he can trace every people group on planet Earth back to guess who? Shem Ham and J Feth. Most modern scientists reject and ignore his research. Now why would they do that? Because it doesn't validate the evolutionary model. He has challenged evolutionary scientists to debate him and his research. But he cannot get them to debate him. They refuse to debate him and they just hope he'll go away. But the truth is undeniable. If you understand the least bit about genetics and breeding, I suggest that you read his book Traced. It is a fascinating read. Now here's the last question. What did the animals do for a hundred and fifty days? You know the answer to that. They hibernated. The same thing they do when it's cold and rainy or snowing, and there's very little food available. They hibernate. They probably never had to hibernate in the tropical paradise that existed on earth prior to the flood. But the hibernation gene was present. Who placed that gene in them? Why? The creator, the grand designer, who sees the end from the beginning. He knew there would come a time and a day when the hibernation and migration genes would be necessary. Aren't you glad that our good God thinks of everything? So all the animals arrived at the ark by divine direction, ate a good meal, settled down into their own individual nest, took a six month long nap, and then at the end of that time ate another good meal and then departed the Ark to repopulate the earth. The whole story is fascinating. And when you listen to the explanation by the creation scientist, it all makes perfect sense. Well, we've come to the end of that little story, but it's not even over yet. We've still got to listen to the flood of rain and Noah's obedience. So don't go away, don't touch that dial. We'll be back next week as the rain starts to fall. Until then, remember that Jesus loves you, your doctor loves you, and until then, may the Lord bless you real good.

SPEAKER_00: 20:41

Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, Instagram, or webpage at JacksonFamily Ministry.com. Also, don't forget to check out Dr. Jackson's books that are available on Amazon, The Family Doctor's Boots, The Truth About Life, and its first book at The Family Doctor's Boots. The Truth About Equipment.