And All Flesh Died

"And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. 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." (Genesis 7:17-24)

Now comes the moment when all flesh that moved upon the earth drowned in the flood that covered the entire earth; water that covered even the highest mountain by more than fifteen cubits (22 feet or more), allowing no refuge to be found even on the highest of high ground. God made sure that His will would be accomplished: that any living creature, whether man or beast, that lived on the dry land would die.

But note that the Word says "in the dry land" – which means that at least some of the creatures in the water (and Genesis chapter 1 tells us that God made creatures who lived in the water rather than on dry land) were not destroyed. We often think of the flood as having destroyed every living thing in the world, and it did, in fact, kill every living thing "on" the earth or "above" the earth (such as birds who eventually must have a place to rest and food to eat; of which neither was found during the 150 days of deluge), but not so for the things that lived in the sea.

Then there is the matter of the wording that says "all in whose nostrils was the breath of life." This descriptive is clearly the very thing that identified who was to die during God's judgment on the earth. There are creatures "with nostrils" who breathe the same air that man breathes. There are other creatures who have gills, living in water, and to whom being in the air (instead of water) brings death; basically all fish. Then there are still others who breathe air (having nostrils) but live for the most part in water, but not solely in water for they must have land from time to time, such as seals and walruses. Most likely then, this latter group did not survive the 150 days of the flood.

But what about the "breath of life" wording? And why was this where the line was drawn? Was it simply because God chose water to cleanse the earth and thus those who did not thrive in water must therefore die? Or was there something more to it?

Still, I can see why evil men had to die, but why were all the animals killed? I think it is perhaps because man, beast and earth are supernaturally bound together and have been since the Creation. The judgment of God must fall on all three, if it must fall at all. When man is blessed, so is all of creation. When man is cursed, so is all of creation. The results of man's sin in the garden has revealed this to us already.

When Adam and Eve sinned, God killed animals to provide a covering for them; the first animal sacrifice took place because of sin. God has just wiped possibly millions of relentless and remorseless sinners off the face of the earth. The death of how many animals would be required now?

As you can see, there is so much more I would like to know about all of this. But regardless of the lack of answers in all of this, one thing is certain: 150 days of flood was sufficient to destroy all mankind and all animal life: except for those on the ark, and those who dwelled in the waters. And God's judgment was fulfilled.