NOAH'S ARK AND THE GREAT FLOOD

The story of Noah’s Ark and the worldwide flood has been one of my favorite Bible stories since I was a child. I’ve read it many times, and I believe it actually happened. Here are a few reasons why I believe it. History tells us that Jesus of Nazareth actually existed, and he talked about Noah and the flood. There is plenty of evidence all over our planet that there was a worldwide flood, and we have already established that the Bible IS the word of God, in the article called IS THE BIBLE REALLY GOD’S WORD? *

Many books have been written, and several movies have been made about this amazing story, but many of them are filled with error, speculation, and misinterpretation. Even in the church, there are disagreements about what actually happened. No wonder there are so many doubts and so much confusion about the flood.

You may ask, Why does it even matter? Well, the credibility of God’s word is at stake. If it didn’t really happen then the rest of the Bible can’t be trusted. Jesus said it happened, so if it didn’t, then Jesus would be a liar. Do you see now why it matters?

Jesus said, “You will know the truth, and the truth will make you free” (John 8:32). When you read, and understand the truth of this story, it will make perfect sense and it’s very believable. When you truly understand it, your faith in God’s word will increase. Please, take out your Bible and examine this wonderful story along with me.

In the beginning, God created a perfect world and two people who were perfect. You can read about that in the post called IN THE BEGINNING. **

Adam and Eve disobeyed God, and sin came into our world. Their son, Cain, was jealous of his brother, Abel, so he killed him, and from that point on their descendants became more and more evil.

Genesis 6:5-7
5 And GOD saw that the wickedness of mankind was great in the earth and that every imagination of the thoughts of their hearts were only evil continually.
6 And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart.
7 And the LORD said, I will destroy mankind, whom I have created from the face of the earth; both humans, and beasts, and the creeping things, and the fowls of the air; for it repents me that I have made them.

God saw how wicked his creation had become, and he decided to purge the earth from all the evil. Being the loving Father he is, he wanted to give the people some time to turn from their sins, and do right. That’s the case throughout the Bible. He always gives people time, and opportunity to repent. But it’s usually a certain amount of time, as it was in the days of Noah. We can see this in the next verse.

Genesis 6:3  
3 And the LORD said, My spirit will not always strive with man, for that he is also flesh: yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.

This is where the belief came from that Noah spent 120 years building the ark, but is that what the verse says? No. We’ll see in a few minutes that it did not take that long. All this verse is saying is that God’s Spirit would continue to work with mankind, and try to get them to change for 120 more years. He gave them time to repent, and to turn from their evil ways. Basically, he put them on probation for 120 years. They didn’t change, so the time came to destroy the earth.

Genesis 6:8-9  
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

God saw that one man was faithful to him. Noah had not become corrupt like the rest of the world. Look at the next three verses carefully.

Genesis 6:9  
9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

Genesis 6:10  
10 And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 5:32  
32 Noah was five hundred years old, and begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Clearly, this is the same man and the same three sons mentioned in chapters 5 and 6. The way the Bible is written, the writer gives an overview of the story, and then comes back, and gives more details. This was the way in the ancient Hebrew culture. This was done to reinforce the story in the minds of the persons reading, or hearing it. We find this principle throughout the bible, but today this sometimes leads to confusion for people who don’t understand this principle. 

Some strange teachings have come from the bible because many people don’t understand this. One such teaching is two different creations in Genesis chapters 1, 2, and 5. These two accounts are NOT two different creations. Both are the same event, involving the same two people, with the same names, but with more details added. This means that all the details are not always in chronological order in the Bible. The same story is often retold, with more details added, or sometimes there are less details. With that in mind, let’s keep going.

Genesis 5:32  
32 Noah was five hundred years old, and begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

These three sons were born to Noah, and THEN God came to him and told him to build the ark. Not before they were born, but AFTER. That’s important (Genesis 6:9-14).

Genesis 7:6  
6 Noah was six hundred years old …when the flood came.

Genesis 11:10  
10 Shem was a hundred years old, two years after the flood:

That means Shem was 98 years old the year of the flood. That’s only 98 years, or less from the time God told Noah to build the ark until the flood came. That’s proof it didn’t take 120 years to build the ark. Again, the 120 years was a period of probation for mankind. It took less than 98 years to build the ark. Probably a lot less.

Another fact we shouldn’t overlook is that when the Bible says Noah was 500 years old and begat three sons, it simply means they were born in his 500th year; not the same year, but in that 100-year period. Notice that Noah was 600 when the flood came, and Shem was 98. That means Shem was born when Noah was 502.

Genesis 10:21 says that Japheth was the oldest, and Genesis 9:24 says that Ham was the youngest. So Shem was the middle son. If we name them from oldest to youngest, we should say, Japheth, Shem, and Ham. Japheth was probably born when Noah was 500 years old. Genesis 6:18 seems to say that all three boys were already married when God told Noah to build the ark, so that knocks several more years off the building time since they would have had to be grown men to marry.

Read Genesis chapters 6 and 7 very carefully. This time, these are not the same accounts retold. Notice the order of events. In chapter 5, Noah’s three sons are born.
THEN, in chapter 6, God told Noah that he was going to destroy the earth and everything on it.
THEN, God told Noah to build an ark and told him how he should build it.
THEN, God gave Noah instructions on bringing the animals, and food onto the ark. 
THEN, Noah started building the ark. We don’t know exactly how long it took to build the ark, but we do know it was less than 98 years. Probably a lot less.

Obviously, some time went by between the end of chapter 6 and chapter 7 while the ark was under construction because, at the beginning of chapter 7, the ark is finished. God tells Noah he has seven days before the flood comes. He uses these seven days to get all the animals on the ark, and food for the animals, and for themselves.

Noah didn’t have to go out and gather the animals like most books and movies show. God said the animals would come to Noah, and that’s exactly what happened (Gen. 6:20, 7:9). He didn’t load animals from every SPECIES. There were some from every KIND. Two pigs, two dogs, two camels, etc. Seven pairs of clean animals, such as goats, sheep, deer, cows, and birds. Not nearly as many animals as some think. God is smart. He probably sent young animals. They would be smaller, so they wouldn’t take up much space, and they would live longer and produce more young to repopulate the earth.

In Genesis 7:1-4, the ark is finished. THEN God told Noah it was time to get into the ark. THEN he told Noah he had 7 days before the flood. He had to have time to get the animals and the food on the ark. He used those 7 days to do that.

THEN, at the end of the seven days, after he had done everything that God had instructed him to do, Noah and his family got on the ark.
THEN, God shut the door. 
THEN, the rain came.

The flood came the same day Noah and his family entered the ark; not seven days later. Genesis 7:4, 7:11, 7:13, and Luke 17:26-29 make this absolutely clear. Read these few verses carefully.

Genesis 7:11  
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, THE SAME DAY all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Genesis 7:13  
13 In THE SAME DAY, Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ark;

The Bible says Noah and his family got aboard the ark the same day the flood started.

Luke 17:26-29 
26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.
27 They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until THE day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.
28 Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built;
29 But THE SAME DAY that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all.

Again, the flood came the SAME DAY that Noah and his family entered the ark, not seven days later. The SAME DAY = The 17th day of the 2nd month.

Genesis 7:12 says it rained for 40 days AND 40 nights. Verse 11 says the windows of heaven were opened AND the fountains of the great deep were broken up. Strong’s Concordance says the Hebrew word used here for “broken up” means the same thing as “Split, Tear, Break, Rip, or Burst”. So the waters that were under the earth Burst out when the earth split open. This is how the fault lines were created across our planet.

Genesis 7:21
21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and EVERY man.

If it wasn’t on the ark with Noah and his family, it died (Gen. 7:21-23).

Genesis 7:24 says the water covered the earth for 150 days, then God remembered Noah and all the animals and caused the water to start receding. They continued to decrease. Then on the 10 day of the 11th month, Noah started sending out a raven and a dove to see if the water had dried up, but it wasn’t. They went back and forth until the water was dried up (Gen. 8:7-11).

In the 600th year of Noah’s life, on the 17th day of the 2nd month, Noah and his family entered the ark and the flood started (Gen. 7:11, 13).
In the 601st year of Noah’s life, on the 27th day of the 2nd month, Noah and his family left the ark with the animals (Gen. 8:14).

So they were on the ark for 1 year and 10 days. Wow! What an adventure that must have been, and what a different world it must have been to return to. What an amazing story to read and study. It never gets old.

Here Are Some Facts To Remember:

1) Noah was on the ark for 1 year and 10 days. — (Gen. 7:11, 13; Gen. 8:14) 
2) God sent the animals to the ark. Noah didn’t have to go out and gather them. — (Gen. 6:19-20)
3) 2 of each unclean animal (1 pair – a male & a female), and 7 pairs of the clean animals got on the ark. — (Gen. 7:2-3)
4) At least 2 of every KIND of land creatures and flying creatures got on the ark. That would include dinosaurs and Pterodactyls. (Probably small, young ones) — (Gen. 6:13-19; Gen. 7:2-3; Gen.14-16) 
5) The Bible says Adam was the 1st man on earth. — (1 Cor. 15:45; Gen. 1:27, 5:3; Matt. 19:4; 1 Chro. 1:1; Luk. 3:38)
6) There was no sin before Adam sinned. — (Rom. 5:12, Gen. 3:1-24). There was no death before sin because sin brought death. — (Rom. 5:14-19)
So dinosaurs could not have lived and died before Adam.
7) God created the heavens and the earth and everything in them (including Dinosaurs) in 6 literal days. — (Exodus 20:8-11) (The 4th Commandment)

There’s so much more to this story, but we have to stop somewhere. As I said, we have secular proof that Jesus was real. He talked about Noah and the flood, so Noah was real, and the great worldwide flood was real, and it WAS worldwide (Gen 8:9). This is a subject of many debates and arguments. Any confusion on any Bible subjects can usually be cleared up, just by reading and prayerfully studying God’s word.

*Is The Bible Really God’s Word? https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2017/08/is-bible-word-of-god.html

**In The Beginning
https://teddylynn.blogspot.com/2017/08/in-beginning.html

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