Something's Fishy!
HOLD ON! WAIT A MINUTE, THEODORE! While it may seem obvious to you that all fish and aquatic creatures survived the Biblical flood, there is a great debate about whether or not that is true. Some Bible scholars believe that even though fish and other sea creatures live in water, they did not escape God’s judgment. And others believe that they did. Let’s take a closer look at this amazing historical event and both sides of this story.
Read Genesis 6-9.
Genesis 6-9 tells the story of Noah and the great flood that covered the earth. But to understand it fully we need to go a few chapters back to when Adam and Eve disobeyed God. In Genesis 2 God warns Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil or they would die. Sadly, Satan tricked Adam and Eve into disobeying God. They ate the fruit from the tree and sin entered the world bringing death, sickness, sadness, and every kind of evil. Even their own son killed his brother.
Genesis chapter 6 opens up many years later. The descendants of Adam and Eve continued to multiply on the earth. Only nothing had gotten better. In fact things were much worse. Man’s wickedness increased and it grieved God terribly. He was sorry that He had made man. Seeing no end insight, God decided to destroy every living thing He created, saving only some. Noah was one of the people God saved. Noah pleased God, for he obeyed Him. So God told Noah to build an ark for his family and for the animals that He would send. After the ark was built and Noah and the animals had boarded, God sent torrential rains that lasted forty days and forty nights. The waters rose so high that every mountain on the planet was covered. Every living thing upon the earth died, except for those on the ark. So here is where the debate begins. Those who believe that sea animals were spared base their belief on the fact that the Bible never specifically mentions marine life being destroyed, but repeatedly names man, beasts, cattle, fowls (birds) of the heaven (air), and creeping things. (Genesis 6:7,
13, 17; 7:21-23) The Scriptures further differentiate land and sea creatures by using descriptions like, “creepeth upon the earth,” “moved upon the earth,” “in dry land,” and “upon the face of the ground”.
Interestingly enough, after leaving out aquatic life in chapters 6-8, God includes the “fishes of the sea” in chapter 9 when He decrees that Noah and his descendants shall have dominion over them all. Bible scholars who believe sea animals died in great numbers cite passages where God says that He will destroy all flesh and everything with the breath of life. (Genesis 6:17, 7:4) They also base their belief on scientific studies that suggest that the conditions of the water caused by the flood would have made survival for most marine life nearly impossible. For example, the torrential rainfall would have caused powerful surges in the water and the churning of massive amounts of debris. This would have been life threatening to most aquatic animals. The flood would have upset the food supply and the delicate balance of natural habitats. For instance, the rise in sea levels would have mixed salt and fresh waters creating environments impossible for certain species to survive. Changes in the water temperature would have also proved deadly for many marine creatures. These scholars also believe the fossil records show a huge loss of sea life at once, consistent with the time frame of the flood.
One thing both sides certainly agree on is that God sent a great flood to cover the earth in an act of judgment against man’s wickedness The flood killed everything on the earth, except for those God saved. Those who were saved God allowed to repopulate the planet.
Whether all marine life were destroyed or not, God saw fit to allow His creations to live on. Even more importantly, this story is a reminder that sin leads to death, and unless God save us, we will all die. Just as God saved Noah and his family on the ark, thousands of years later, God would send His Son, Jesus the Christ, to save all humanity from sin and death for all eternity.