MORNING MESSAGE: John Cline
Scripture: Genesis 6:9-7:16
Reader: Linda Adutwum
A story is told of a pastor who informed his congregation in the southern United States that their Sunday evening service would be devoted to praying for rain. Their region had suffered from drought, and their farmers had lost their crops and had very little food for their livestock. Industries that depended on water had financial losses that resulted in the closure of some businesses. Word of the prayer service spread fast in the rural community. People were hoping that the planned prayers to end the drought would work. That Sunday evening, the pastor stood at the door and watched his congregation and strangers enter the sanctuary. But after the initial singing, the pastor stood and announced that he had changed his mind about praying for rain because it was clear the people were there for a show and not there because they believed in the power of praying for rain. The proof? Not one person other than him had brought an umbrella. They had come to be entertained but they did not have faith. Today, we will be looking at the faith of Noah, a man who was told rain is coming.
This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So, God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So, make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out.” (Genesis 6:9-14)
Between 250 and 300 ancient civilizations had stories of a Great Flood. From Scandinavia to Tibet to India, Africa, South America, etc., stories of a Great Flood were part of civilization’s histories. Did their stories tell of real events in the distant past, or were they simply myths rooted in imagination? With over 250 Great Flood myths from all over the world the question needing to be asked is obvious: if a worldwide Flood never happened, then why were there so many stories about it from practically every ancient civilization? The fact there are so many accounts, and that many of them are so similar, says to me that all of them have been based upon a collective experience of a Great Flood. Skeptics say that the flood stories were inventions, made up after the spread of Christianity worldwide and as knowledge was learned of the Bible’s account of Noah’s Great Flood, and people made up their own stories in response. But that approach strikes me as being arrogant, patronizing, and dismissive of the value of those people groups histories. Our daughter Rebecca was a missionary in China and Taiwan for ten years. She speaks fluent Mandarin, which uses characters, not letters, to form its words. Mandarin characters are collectively put together to draw pictures for a word. It was from Rebecca that I learned that the Bible account of the Great Flood was probably known about, in a form, in ancient China.
In Chinese Mandarin, the word “ship” is a composite of 3 characters, including one for a sailing ship, another for the number 8, and another for the word “mouths”
The question is, why would there be eight mouths or 8 people in that boat and not 7 mouths, or 6, or any other number? That precise number of 8 had to have been put there for a reason, the obvious one being they had some knowledge of a Great Flood having happened in China’s past, a knowledge mirroring the Biblical account of Noah’s family of 8 individuals being on a boat, even though the ancient Chinese didn’t have a Bible to refer to. However, one Chinese legend is in line with the Bible’s Noah story. In it, 8 people went onto a boat.
Chinese legend: Fuhi, his wife, three sons, and three daughters escaped a great flood. They were the only people alive on earth. After the Great Flood, they repopulated the world.
Moving to Hawaii, now listen to this legend of a man named Nu-u.
Hawaii: Nu-u made a great canoe with a house on it and filled it with animals. In this story, the waters came up over all the earth and killed all the people; only Nu-u and his family were saved.
As well, in India, a flood myth tells of a man, a Rishi named Manu (a Rishi being a seer or hearer and revealer of divine knowledge).
India – Manu was advised by a fish to build a ship as a means of escape from the coming flood. When it came, the fish towed the ship to a mountain top. There were eight people on board: Manu plus seven other Rishi.
It seems that ancient civilizations knew of the Great Flood but adapted them for their own culture. 19th century archaeologists found
The oldest known recording on 12 tablets of a global flood is the Babylonian “Epic of Gilgamesh” from the eighteenth-century BC.
The “Epic of Gilgamesh” is the most cited of the ancient Great Flood stories that skeptics point to in an attempt to discredit the biblical account of Noah, because it was written before Moses’ account. But, being written earlier than Moses’ 14th century B.C. Biblical account does not mean that the Epic of Gilgamesh was the original Flood story or that Moses copied it. Rather, its earlier written date merely confirms that the “Epic of Gilgamesh” was written earlier. What the 12 tablets of the “Epic of Gilgamesh” contain is an epic poem about the origins of Babylonian society, written in couplets, with most of it having nothing to do with the Great Flood. The boat in the “Epic of Gilgamesh” was built in seven days, a period of time in which animals were gathered, followed by another 7 days of rainfall which covered the earth. The flood was an act of the gods to destroy humans, though for the hero of the story, Utnapishtim, he was granted immortality. That in itself says to me it is a myth, though with some truth to it.
When I was a boy, comedian Bill Cosby came out with a very funny and not profane skit about God commanding Noah to build an ark. Noah thought he was on Candid Camera, or some such thing, as each time God spoke, Noah looked up to the sky and said, “Right!” Noah eventually realized that it was God speaking to him and accepted the task of building the ark, despite the mocking of his neighbours, who teased Noah that he had the only ark in the neighbourhood and questioned why he was building an ark in their desert land, a place with little rain and mostly sunshine. But Noah believed, “Ok, Lord, it’s you and me, right?” But really, who could’ve blamed Noah if he had initially wondered if it really was God speaking to him with such a crazy-sounding scheme? Yet Noah believed and obeyed. God told him,
“This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks.” (Genesis 6:15,16)
The material to build the boat was called in Hebrew, “gopher wood”, a word otherwise unknown to us moderns but which the New International Version of the Bible, and other translations, interprets as referring to cypress tree wood, a wood common to that area of Mesopotamia and known for being strong and light.
Now, building a box is one thing; building a ship is another thing altogether. One can’t build a ship unless one is a ship builder. It is extremely complex. There is no indication Noah was a ship builder by trade. God told him how to build the ark. Nobody had built a ship that big before. In fact, its size wouldn’t be exceeded until the 19th century AD. It wasn’t built for speed, but for floating. The ark wouldn’t have a hull or rudder, just a flat bottom so that it would rise on the flood waters and be guided by God. The ark would be a rectangle with a flat bottom, flat sides, and flat ends. The ark would have had to have been turned completely vertical before it could be tipped over, that’s how stable its shape was. Because of its immense weight, it would have been virtually impossible to turn over. Being a rectangle, it had more stability than, by comparison, the small cube-shaped boat described in the “Epic of Gilgamesh”, a shape of boat that would have been quickly swamped in a flood situation, a simple reality which again points to the “Epic of Gilgamesh” not being the original or accurate of the flood.
The ark would be 300 cubits long, about 510 feet, or half the length of a Canadian Football Leage field. In the 19th century, shipbuilders determined, if a ship is to be stable in the water, it must have a ratio of six-seven-or eight to one in length versus width. The ark was six-to one. Now, how could Noah have come up with that optimum stability without God directing him? The roof of the ark would be more than 50 feet from the ground – higher than a four-story house. At the top, underneath the roof, was to be air space for ventilation, going all around the ark, plus one door in the side. The ark was tall enough for the three extra-tall decks inside and it had the same storage capacity as about 450 standard 18-wheeler semi-trailers, which would mean it had enough capacity to hold 112,500 sheep. The building of thousands of pens of compartments for the animals is assumed. The ark was sufficiently large to carry two of every “kind” of air-breathing living creature in the world – and half the deck space would have been enough. Noah obeyed God and built the ark. The flood would be the flood of all floods, not like a sink or tub overflowing its sides in our residences or a creek or river overflowing their banks in nature.
“I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” (Noah 6:17-21)
A male and female of each “kind” of animal was for reproduction. There was no aquarium in the ark as sea creatures wouldn’t need to be in the ark as they would survive on their own in the water. Insects and acarids (spiders, etc.) are not believed to have been taken into the ark because they don’t breathe in oxygen through their nostrils and thus were not considered as “nephesh chayyay” in the Hebrew, “living creatures” in English. Oxygen-breathing creatures who lived on the land were the creatures Noah was instructed to take into the ark, and he was instructed to bring two of every “kind” of animal and creature. What was a “kind”? The biblical concept of the word “kind” corresponds to the family level used in current taxonomy, not an entire species. A good rule of thumb is that if two things can breed together, then they are of the same created kind, such as dogs or cats. Over time, variation within the “kinds: have occurred, a micro-evolution we can easily see in dogs and cats. The total number of living and extinct kinds of land animals and flying creatures is estimated to have been 1,398. This would mean that Noah cared for 6,744 animals. God didn’t tell Noah to go throughout the world bringing animals to the ark, only to bring them into the ark after God had brought the animals to the ark, as in a migratory pattern. It was as if God said to Noah, “I’ll bring the animals. Your job is to keep the door open and take them in. The purpose of all this is to restock the earth. Earth’s future hope will be huddled under a single roof in that ark. Keep everything alive.”
People ask, “Wait a minute. How did the kangaroos and the animals from Australia get there? How did they get across the ocean? Noah was in Mesopotamia.” Well, it is a well-known fact that there were once land bridges that connected the continents. Islands such as The Philippines once had land bridges connecting them to continents. We Canadians know of a land bridge way up north, across the Bering Sea, connecting Alaska to Siberia. Those land bridges are still there but have been buried by water. Thus, just as humans later spread throughout the world, so might have animals, before the land bridges were swamped with water. Following the ending of the last ice age, which most geologists say happened about 10,000 years ago but of which nobody really knows the timing, global sea levels rose by around 130 metres. As well, it is easily seen on maps, but was not determined until the early 20th century, that continents once fit into one super-continent. It was “Continental Drift” of tectonic plates below the oceans which broke up that original one large land mass into the current 7 continents and islands, but it is just not known when that happened. And, adding to the globe’s mystery, are fossilized sea creatures on mountain tops, even on the top of Mt. Everest, a fact that shows that at one time, the earth was flat, and everything was at sea level. In any case, what we are focusing on today is that…
Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Genesis 6:22)
Noah’s obedience requires a deep, abiding faith, and trust in God. Even when God’s commands don’t immediately make sense, we need to hold Noah as our role model. Noah was asked to build an ark, a massive ship, at a time when there was no sign of rain, in a hot and dry area where there was perpetual sunshine. He did as he was told. Next, we will read some verses that once made a man in our church very angry.
The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.” (Genesis 7:1-3)
I once did a Bible study in which I mentioned that Noak took 7 pairs of clean animals into the ark. At that, a man became angry and demanded that I produce proof of what I was saying. All his life, he had been told that Noah had taken only one pair of each kind of animal into the ark, not 7. After turning to this passage, I explained that, once the flood was over, Noah would be offering a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God. Those extra “clean” animals and birds were for that sacrifice. No unclean animals or birds such as pigs or crows would be suitable to sacrifice to God, only clean ones such as bulls and sheep, etc.
“Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.” And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. (Genesis 7:4,5)
Obedience is the mark of true followers of God, such as Noah.
Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:6-12)
The water that flooded the earth did not come only from above in the form of rain, but from below, as well, as the “great deep burst forth”, coming up through the earth’s crust, a known cause today of oceans warming as hot water from underground volcanoes comes out. “The Guardian” website reports, “After decades of searching, scientists have discovered that a vast reservoir of water, enough to fill the Earth’s oceans three times over, may be trapped beneath the surface.” By the way, a professor by the name of Graham Pearson at the University of Alberta is one of the scientists credited with this discovery of those deep reservoirs of water underneath the earth’s crust. The Bible says that 40 days and nights of rain as well “springs of the great deep” which “burst forth” flooded the planet.
On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in. (Genesis 7:13-16)
“Then the Lord shut him in” is a beautiful evidence of God’s care. He didn’t leave everything up to Noah. Not only did God bring the animals to the ark, but He also then finished the task by closing in Noah, his family, animals, and birds. That’s how God is: when He gives us a task, He never leaves us on our own to complete that task. He is with us.
In our text last Sunday from Genesis 6:1-8, we saw that the good world God had created had become so corrupted and sin-filled that He decided to start all over, again. Those verses we read told us why God decided to flood the earth: because the world was self-destructing. But amazingly, when God saw how bad things were, he made two decisions. He decided to judge the world and save the world. He decided to remake the world and deliver the world. The man Noah and his faith in God would be the key to saving and delivering the world. We will continue with this study next week but let’s close in prayer…
