753. The symbolism of seven days as the start of their trials was demonstrated above at verse 4 [§728]. The words also suggest the same ideas discussed above — that this struggle, involving the thoughts in their intellect, was the start of their trials, or the first struggle [§§641, 652-654, 670, 734]. And the expression provides a conclusion to the passage.

Because this first trial involved the contents of the intellect, the words waters of the flood are used to describe it, as they were before at verse 7, and as a flood of water was in verse 6. In the strict sense, the term symbolizes just such a trial, which was shown there [§739].

734. Earlier sections talked about the truth in the intellect with which the Lord supplied members of the Noah church before they could regenerate (Genesis 6:13-22) and about the good in the will that the Lord also gave them (Genesis 7:1-5). ¹ Because the text deals with both, it seems to repeat itself.

The theme here, though, is the trials those people underwent, and at this point it is the first stage and so the onset of trial (verses 6-11). As anyone can see, redundancy enters in once again. The current verse says that Noah was a son of six hundred years when the Flood took place on the earth, while verse 11 says it happened in the six hundredth year of his life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day. Again, verse 7 says that Noah entered the ark with his sons and the wives, while verse 13 below says the same; and verses 8-9 say that the animals entered to Noah in the ark, while verses 14-15, and 16 say the same thing as well. So the present chapter clearly engages in the same kind of repetition of earlier material.

No one who sticks to the literal meaning alone can see any other possibility beyond the fact that some narrative element is being repeated in this way. Here as elsewhere, however, there is not a single syllable that is extraneous or frivolous, because it is the Lord's Word; so repetition never occurs unless it symbolizes something additional. At this point, as before, it means that there is a first testing, which is a testing of our intellectual side, and then a testing of our motives [§§641, 652-654, 670].

The two kinds of trial follow each other in the person who is regenerating. It is one thing, after all, to face a challenge to our intellect and quite another to face one to our motives. A challenge to the workings of our intellect is slight; a challenge to the workings of our will is serious.

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