I recently saw a meme that asserted that Noah did not know what rain was before the Flood. I disagree with that view.
No Rain Before the Flood?
Scripture first mentions rain in a statement that connects God’s causing it to rain with the existence of certain things of the field:
Genesis 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
The next mention of rain in Scripture is when God said the following to Noah:
Genesis 7:4 For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
God then did what He said He was going to do and made it rain on the earth:
Genesis 7:12 And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
Based on there not being any previous mention of it raining on the earth prior to the Flood (Gen. 7:12), some have concluded that there was no rain before the Flood.
Why There Was Rain Before the Flood
To understand why the conclusion that there was no rain before the Flood is wrong, we must make a key comparison. Note what God said in Genesis 2:5 with what He said after the Fall of man:
Genesis 2:5 And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.
Genesis 3:18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field.
In Genesis 2:5, God said that there were no herbs of the field then because He had not caused it to rain on the earth and because there was not a man to till the ground. In Genesis 3:18, however, He ordained that man would eat “the herb of the field.” Furthermore, after the Fall, God sent Adam out of the garden “to till the ground” (Gen. 3:23).
For man to eat of the herb of the field (Gen. 3:18), God had to make it rain on the earth and there had to be a man on the earth to till it (Gen. 2:5). We can be certain, therefore, that God did make it rain after the Fall and prior to the Flood so that man would be able to eat the herbs of the field that God ordained that He would eat!
Conclusion
God did make it rain on the earth long before the Flood. We do not have any basis to hold that Noah did not know what rain was before the Flood.
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