Every Bible school child knows that Noah took two of every kind of animal, right?

Well, read the passage below right of the Bible,

“You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth” (Genesis 7:2, 3).

Noah took at least two of every kind of animal, but with unclean animals it was limited to two, a male and a female, but as the passage above shows, he took seven of every clean animal.

There had to be an abundance of clean animals for man to eat, for after the Flood the Lord allowed man to begin to eat animals,

“Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs” (Genesis 9:3).

Therefore, three pairs of clean animals would insure that the new population of the earth had plenty to eat.

Why then did the Lord tell Noah to take seven of the clean, for that would make three pairs, plus one? Watch what Noah did after he left the ark,

“Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar” (Genesis 8:20).

Noah brought with him on that ark the provisions needed for worshiping God after the global flood had ended!