God kept his Covenant with Noah

For the past few months, instead of participating in an organized Precept study at church, I've been doing a study with my husband, daughter and son-in-law.  We Facetime every Friday night and do our discussion.  This has been such an unexpected wonderful blessing during this coronavirus season.

We decided to start at the beginning with Genesis.  It's been more than 20 years since I studied this book in depth and thought it was time.

We are currently studying Genesis Part 2 and are on Lesson 4.   My daughter made an interesting observation about Genesis 7:16:   Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.

My daughter observed that God commanded him.  But the Lord closed the door.  Why the difference in names? In the Old Testament, the authors have revealed that God is called by many names, each with its own significance.  Let's look at the Hebrew words for these two names - God and Lord.

God =אֱלֹהִים    'elohiym = Strongs # H430.  This means The true and supreme God.  If we look back at Genesis 1:1 - In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.  This reference to God is also Elohiym.  We can say that Elohiym is the name for The Creator God.  In Genesis 7:16, it's the Creator God Elohiym who commands male and female of all flesh to enter the ark. 

Lord = יְהֹוָה Yehovah =  Strongs #3068.  This means (the) self-Existent or Eternal; Jeho-vah, Jewish national name of God:—Jehovah, the Lord. The personal name of God to the Hebrew people.  

This was the "A-HA" moment for me. A-HA -  The Lord closed the door.  The Lord, who made a Covenant with Noah to enter the ark.  We saw that in:  Genesis 6:18: "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."

Here, God, Yehovah, shows Himself to be The One who kept His covenant promise to Noah to enter the ark and be saved.   (Abraham, father of the Hebrew people, was later descended from Noah's son Shem).

Lesson 6 is all about the Covenant with Noah, so I'm looking forward to studying this more.