How's your patience with God? Like, do you think sometimes if you just take a couple steps that, like, it's time? Look, as we are moving on, we're in Genesis chapter 7 today, and the very first sentence had me like, oh, Kayla.
So look, let's examine ourselves. Come on in and join me. Hey, y'all, I'm Kayla.
Welcome back to His Word, My Walk. As we continue going through the book of Genesis, examining ourselves and just... going through and just experiencing God in a fresh way.
That's truly my desire for this channel here with all the videos that I share to help you experience God in a fresh way in your own life. Okay, so look, I want to encourage you if you want, you can grab this workbook that'll help you go deeper in your own time with God. Often I get asked like, Kayla, how do you go for walks with God? Like, how do you have conversations with God? And oftentimes it's the questions in those workbooks.
Actually, every question for every chapter in that workbook came from Me spending time with God and His Word and the questions I felt like He was asking me. How I was examining myself and I've written them down to share with you. So, today we're in chapter 7 and we're continuing on because remember, Noah was building the ark.
Noah was building the boat. And here we go, chapter 7. When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you are alone. are righteous. Now, wait a minute.
I said to you before that the very first sentence had me examining myself. When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, go into the boat. How patient am I? It had me be like, when everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, now go into the boat. How long did that take?
How long did it take for Noah to build the ark? How long did it take for everything to get ready? And in my life, how long am I willing to wait? Or do I feel like, well, God, I've taken a couple steps. Clearly it's time.
Clearly it's time for this to blow up. Clearly it's time for the promotion. Clearly it's time, you know, to be married. Clearly it's time for us to have kids.
Like clearly it's time for all the blessings. It's time for a new car. It's time for a house. It's time for... When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, how patient am I?
You know, we easily say like God's timing is perfect. Yet we're like, seriously, is it time? Like I've taken the steps.
It should be time now, right? Oh, like what is it for you, right? This is truly when we examine ourselves, don't just look at my life and be like, yeah, Kayla. No, what is it for you? What are you being impatient in?
What have you been taking some steps in? But yet you think you've taken enough steps that clearly now's the time. When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, go into the boat with all your family.
For among all the people on earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. He said that in the last chapter, like you alone, you're the only one, blameless, righteous. Take with you seven pairs, male and female, of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice, and take one pair of each of the others. Have you ever considered that? See, we can picture the like kid videos, we can picture the like two by two.
Take with you seven pairs male and female of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice. Is that seven pairs for eating and seven pairs for sacrifice? How does the grammar of that sentence land? Right?
Like that's what I'm curious about. Cause is that 14 pairs in total? And what were the animals that God had approved for sacrifice?
You know, and what are the animals that God had approved for eating? A couple of chapters ago, there were some comments of being like, is this God saying that we're all supposed to be vegetarian, that we're all supposed to, you know, and my response as it often is, as we have questions is keep reading, keep reading, go into the boat with all your family. Um, take with you seven pairs, male and female of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice and take one pair of each of the others. Okay, my mind is super curious, and maybe you're right here with me since we've, like, got calculators out and we've done math before, but, like, take seven pairs of these. So does that mean one of the pair is not for sacrifice and eating?
One of the pair is included in the one pair that remains? You know? You know what I'm trying to ask? Also, take seven pairs of every kind of bird.
Why? Why seven of every bird? There must be a male and a female in each pair to ensure that... all life will survive on the earth after the flood.
Seven days from now, I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created. Now, wait a minute.
Seven days from now, I will make the rains, um, I will make the rains pour down on the earth. Do you remember, as we've been going through Genesis, it had never rained down. Everything was watered from under.
Seven days from now, I will make the rains pour down on the earth and it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created. So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him. What are other people saying? Right? Like, you've got to be crazy.
You're building this thing. So what? It's going to flood?
First of all, what's a flood? And then does Noah tell them, hey, it's going to, God said it's going to rain down from above. That has never happened.
Let's look within ourselves. Have you ever felt like, like everyone else thought it was crazy what you believed God was asking you to do? I've been there, right? Maybe it had never been done before or never been seen before, at least not in my family, at least not anyone close to me.
God's asking me to do this? How do I tell them that? How do I share that with people? They're going to think I sound crazy.
Welcome to Noah's world. Seven days from now. So does that mean Noah had seven days to get all the animals and everyone together?
Now let's actually think about that, right? Like part of me wants to picture, because I think I see like cartoons and stuff, but part of me wants to picture Noah like blew a shofar or like blew a horn. And all of a sudden, like two elephants come and two giraffes come and like, you know, two little squirrels and like all the stuff. But he had seven days.
How did he actually get these animals? And how did he get one male and one female, but also get only two? You know, like obviously God did it. Obviously God had a hand in this. But let's like, let's actually think about it, right?
Let's not just read this and be like, yep. So Noah let down the drawbridge thing and like all of a sudden two by two, male and female, they just started marching. Like it was like Lion King.
Like they just started marching. No, like how did he actually get them all? And I wonder if Noah ever thought like, did I miss any?
Did I miss any? Did I get a pair of each? Did his sons help him? Like was, what was going on?
And it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights until I have wiped from the earth. all the living things I have created. So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him. It's making me think right now. I wonder if Noah, like on the inside of the ark had like a little like cross hatch thing, like one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, 10, like how many days and nights it had been raining.
Just curious. And probably something I would do. Hey, you know, Kayla, you'll have this at this time.
If I believe the Lord said that. All right. I'm counting down.
Oh, shoot. Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. There's an answer to a question we were asking yesterday.
Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. Now I'm already like pre-curious and obviously we have to keep reading, but I'm pre-curious as to that phrase of God saying like no one's going to live more than 120 years. Remember there were like differing theological perspectives of that, but Noah's 600. So like at what point Did Noah die? At what age did Noah die?
And then like how long after? You know, all the math. I'm just curious.
Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. He went on board the boat to escape the flood. He and his wife and his sons and their wives. With them were all the various kinds of animals. Those approved for eating and for sacrifice and those that were not.
Along with all the birds and the small animals that scurry along the ground. They entered the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. After seven days, the waters of the flood came and covered the earth.
After seven days, right? He said, I'll do this in seven days. The waters of the flood came and covered the earth.
When Noah was 600 years old, on the 17th day of the second month, all the underground waters erupted from the earth. And the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. The rain continued to fall for 40 days and 40 nights.
Again, the rain fell and the underneath just like, like the dam broke, basically, is how I'm like picturing it in my mind, right? For 40 days, Noah was 600 years old. All the underground waters erupted from the earth, right?
Not just like the little like square mile that Noah was in. All the underground waters erupted from the earth. From the earth.
And the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. From the earth. Like this isn't just like, yep. this square mile. It's raining right where Noah is.
No, the earth. The rain continued to fall for 40 days and 40 nights. That very day, Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives. With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal, domestic and wild, large and small, along with birds of every kind, two by two, They came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes. A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah.
Then the Lord closed the door behind them. Hold on. See, I'm thinking as I'm reading this now, I'm thinking, okay, well, God's describing this two by two.
They came into the boat. So I'm thinking like, oh yeah, God just did it. Like you two, God separated two and God just like did what God does and he made them line up. But then it just said, a male and female of each kind entered just as God had commanded Noah. Just as God had commanded Noah.
So like, did Noah have to go out and get them? How did they get these two animals? Or these, yeah, two of each animal.
And then the Lord closed the door behind them. There was one part that Noah couldn't do. The Lord closed the door behind them.
He still did his part. Like, here's the other thing, right? I've been saying, like, we have a part to play. We have work to do and what God is asking us to do. But also there are certain parts that God will do.
The Lord closed the door behind them. Like, it wasn't like everyone's in and Noah, see what I picture, right? Everyone's in and Noah's like, close the door and like pulling the rope to like make.
Like the door come and close up. I feel like maybe that's what I even saw in cartoons when I was little, right? Like maybe I didn't because they were probably biblical.
But then the Lord closed the door behind them. God did his part. Okay, Noah, you've done it. You've done everything I commanded and I asked you to do.
All right, I got you. The final seal. Like now you're safe. Because if that part didn't happen, they're all in trouble.
The Lord closed the door behind them for 40 days. The floodwaters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface.
God doesn't mention here, like, and people were screaming and people were drowning and people were saying, let me on the boat. And people were dying. God, that's not mentioned here. But that's what happened, right? That's what happened.
Like, he wiped out the whole earth besides these eight people and the animals. For 40 days, the floodwaters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth. Rising more than 22 feet above the highest peaks.
It made me think of like how they measured it, you know. All the living things on earth died. Birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people.
Everything that breathed and lived on dry land died. God wiped out every living thing on the earth. People, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground.
And the birds of the sky, all were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him in the boat. And the flood water... And the fish?
Nothing is mentioned here about fish. Nothing is mentioned here about the fish of the sea. About the creatures of the sea. Nothing's mentioned about that.
The only people who survived were Noah and those with him on the boat. And the flood waters covered the earth for 150 days. Now, wait a minute.
Bring with you seven pairs of animals that are approved for food and sacrifice and bring all the food that you need. The floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days. 150 days?
That's five months in our time to like try to think, right? Five months. Think of how much you eat in five months. Now think of eight adults. I mean, he doesn't say like God took the fish and the loaves and like multiplied it, but how did they eat for 150 days?
eight adults and still didn't kill any other animals. You know, like let's actually be curious and recognize who God is and what God does. You know, that he made this happen.
First of all, God wasn't going to let them die. God was not going to let them die. And I don't think God was going to let any of those animals die either. Oh man. Oh, and food for the animals.
150 days food for all the animals then let's be really curious didn't like some of the animals eat the other animals like obviously they didn't on the ark or on the boat or whatever we're called like obviously they didn't there but like you know that's normally my food like just really being curious about this and not just reading it to be like oh yeah i know about noah and the ark i don't even need to read chapter seven no there's actually so much in there that we can be curious and so much more that we can know about god about who he is, about how powerful he is, about how strategic he is, about how specific he is, about how sovereign he is. Oh, Genesis chapter seven. Let me give you your walk it out challenge for this. Again, you can grab this workbook.
It's always linked in the description if you want it to help you go deeper. But you don't have to. You don't have to.
I'm still here and sharing with you as well. So here's the walk it out challenge for today. Today, It's time to recognize God. Then the Lord closed the door behind them. Wow.
Can I see and recognize God doing his part in my life? Can I recognize what he has done? The thing that I couldn't do. The thing that is important in my assignment and journey. Today, recognize and thank God for doing his part.
He didn't send you out there all alone. And the door closed. and the Lord closed the door behind them. Where can you recognize in your life that God has done his part? A part that you couldn't do, that you weren't strong enough to do.
A part that was just too big for you, but God did it. God did it. God did. Oh, let me pray for you before we go.
God, I thank you. I thank you for what you have done and I thank you for who you are. I thank you for your love and your mercy.
and your grace. Holy Spirit, help us to recognize you. Help us to recognize those moments that we feel like we've done everything we can, but that there's something else that we can't do, that we're not strong enough, that we're not big enough, that we're not worthy enough, that we're not. But God, you come in and do your part. You come in and do the part that we cannot do.
Thank you for doing your part. Thank you for showing us your love and your kindness and your grace. and your mercy.
God, I pray over the one watching right now. I pray, God, that as they recognize you in their days, that it causes them to walk closer with you, that they will not stray from you anymore, but that they will desire this closeness with you, knowing that they have work to do and knowing that you will do your part too. Thank you. Thank you for the closed doors, the doors that you have closed that we couldn't close ourselves.
Thank you for the doors that you have closed that we could not close ourselves. In Jesus'name, amen. So after 150 days, how does Noah know that things are getting better? How does he know that the waters are going down?
Oh, let's keep going to the next chapter.