This posting is part of the series of postings about the 7 C's in God's Eternal Plan.
This posting is the the 3rd C in God's Eternal Plan - Catastrophe which covers the global flood of Noah's time.
We saw in the last posting covering Corruption that God expelled Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden into a world totally foreign to them. They no longer had the beautiful lush surroundings with plenty of food and the loving communion with God. In the Garden they did not have a care, worry or fear in the world because they did not know what that was. But, that has now all changed. Now they have to start working hard to survive and along the way they start having children. They had Cain and Able and in Genesis 5:4 we find that " After he begot Seth, the days of Adam were eight hundred years; and he had sons and daughters. Now we have an issue discussed before and that is " who married who "? The answer is brothers married sisters. It was not until Moses time that brothers were prohibited to marry sisters. The population kept growing and the people being sinful kept getting worse.. In Genesis 6:5 it is revealed that " The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was evil constantly". Then in Genesis 6:11 we find that " The earth was also corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence". When you look you see that man was doing all sorts of violence, rape, murder, child sacrifice and every kind of perversion. This brings us to the 3rd C ( Catastrophe ) which is the global flood of Noah's day.
In Genesis 6:13 we find that " And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth ". Now we see in Genesis 6: 14 God tells Noah " Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch ". God proceeds to give Noah specific as to how to build the ark its size etc. It was large. It was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide , 45 feet high and had 3 floors in it. It had 1,518,750 Square feet of space inside. It had one door and one window. It had the capacity to hold the equivalent of 350 railroad stock cars. A couple of observations are needed at this point. First the ark only had one door. This is symbolic of of the shepherd guarding the gate/door to the sheepfold. In fact Christ said " I am the way " and " I am the door to the sheepfold " and He is the door of the ark. The ark protected Noah and his family and God closed the door not Noah. Second Noah did not go out and round up all the animals they came to him. Can you imagine the ridicule Noah and his family endured for the many many years it took to construct the ark. You do realize don't you that Noah built this vessel on dry land nowhere near water. Do you also realize that at this time it had not rained a drop so what was a flood? No one knew. So Poor Noah and his family must be a bunch of loonies. Be that as it may what the world thought but God found Noah to be a righteous person. By faith he followed God's instruction to build the ark and by this faith God saved Noah and his family.
In Genesis 6:17 we see " And, behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die." Then in Genesis 6: 18 - 20 we find " But, with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the Ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the Ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. Continuing in Genesis 6: 21 -22 It is revealed " And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be food for thee, and them. This did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he." In an earlier posting there was a discussion of exactly what is meant by " after their kind ".
Now in Genesis 7:1 we find that " the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thou house into the ark; for thee I have seen righteous before me in this generation." Then in Genesis 7: 2 and 3 we are told that God Instructed Noah " Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female; and of the beast that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth." God continues in Genesis 7: 4 " For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth"
Some skeptics question what the animals ate. Well all animals at this time were vegetarian they did not eat each other so hay, straw and perhaps seeds is he only food Noah ha to bring for the animals.
Several items are worthy of note here ( obviously that is an understatement ) 1. Those few days after Noah and his family went into the ark and before God closed the door those outside could still have entered if they would only have believed and asked God. 2. Noah did not have to go out and find and select the animals they came to him, 3. It took over 150 days for the water to build up to the deepest. It took another 261 days for the water to recede. So the total time of the flood was 371 days. 4. The raven did not come back to Noah because it found food. The raven was an unclean bird that eats carrion and I am sure he found plenty to eat. The first time the dove came back to Noah because it could not find any place to rest. The second time the dove which was a clean bird was sent out it came back to Noah with an olive branch or leaf clearly showing the water had receded and vegetation was growing. It is significant that the dove could not find any rest. The dove found rest only in the ark and the ark represents Christ where we can only find rest in Him.
Display Of Ark Under ConstructionIn Genesis 6:13 we find that " And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth ". Now we see in Genesis 6: 14 God tells Noah " Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch ". God proceeds to give Noah specific as to how to build the ark its size etc. It was large. It was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide , 45 feet high and had 3 floors in it. It had 1,518,750 Square feet of space inside. It had one door and one window. It had the capacity to hold the equivalent of 350 railroad stock cars. A couple of observations are needed at this point. First the ark only had one door. This is symbolic of of the shepherd guarding the gate/door to the sheepfold. In fact Christ said " I am the way " and " I am the door to the sheepfold " and He is the door of the ark. The ark protected Noah and his family and God closed the door not Noah. Second Noah did not go out and round up all the animals they came to him. Can you imagine the ridicule Noah and his family endured for the many many years it took to construct the ark. You do realize don't you that Noah built this vessel on dry land nowhere near water. Do you also realize that at this time it had not rained a drop so what was a flood? No one knew. So Poor Noah and his family must be a bunch of loonies. Be that as it may what the world thought but God found Noah to be a righteous person. By faith he followed God's instruction to build the ark and by this faith God saved Noah and his family.
In Genesis 6:17 we see " And, behold I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and everything that is in the earth shall die." Then in Genesis 6: 18 - 20 we find " But, with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the Ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt thou bring into the Ark, to keep them alive with thee; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive. Continuing in Genesis 6: 21 -22 It is revealed " And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be food for thee, and them. This did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he." In an earlier posting there was a discussion of exactly what is meant by " after their kind ".
Now in Genesis 7:1 we find that " the Lord said unto Noah, come thou and all thou house into the ark; for thee I have seen righteous before me in this generation." Then in Genesis 7: 2 and 3 we are told that God Instructed Noah " Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female; and of the beast that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth." God continues in Genesis 7: 4 " For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth"
Some skeptics question what the animals ate. Well all animals at this time were vegetarian they did not eat each other so hay, straw and perhaps seeds is he only food Noah ha to bring for the animals.
From the Bible we learn that Noah was 600 years old when the flood of water came upon the earth and he and his family went into the ark along with all the creatures that God had commanded be saved. We learn in Genesis 7:11 and 12 that " In the six hundredth year of Noah's life in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights. Then in Genesis 7: 16 and 17 we see again " And that they went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in. And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the water increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lifted up above the earth."
Genesis 7: 23 and 24 indicate " And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth; and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days."
We get all out of sorts when we are stuck in the house for a few days due to bad weather. Some folks call it " cabin fever ". Whatever you call it just think of Noah and his family stuck in the ark where certainly the aroma must have been ripe from all the animals but they were not bored from lack of any thing to do because they had to feed, water and clean up after all the " passengers " God put on board under their care. Finally the rains cease as we see in Genesis 8: 1-4. " And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark; and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged. The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually; and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month upon the mountains of Ararat."
The water is receding from the earth as we find in Genesis 8; 5 and 6, " And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made." I am sure you remember that Noah sends out a raven which did not come back and later a dove to see if it could find a resting place. I can just imagine the relief Noah and his family felt to have that window opened to see the sun and the mountaintops and to get some fresh air. But the earth is still drying and in Genesis 8: verse 13 it is revealed " And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry."
Several items are worthy of note here ( obviously that is an understatement ) 1. Those few days after Noah and his family went into the ark and before God closed the door those outside could still have entered if they would only have believed and asked God. 2. Noah did not have to go out and find and select the animals they came to him, 3. It took over 150 days for the water to build up to the deepest. It took another 261 days for the water to recede. So the total time of the flood was 371 days. 4. The raven did not come back to Noah because it found food. The raven was an unclean bird that eats carrion and I am sure he found plenty to eat. The first time the dove came back to Noah because it could not find any place to rest. The second time the dove which was a clean bird was sent out it came back to Noah with an olive branch or leaf clearly showing the water had receded and vegetation was growing. It is significant that the dove could not find any rest. The dove found rest only in the ark and the ark represents Christ where we can only find rest in Him.
The following photograph depict scenes of how the ark was made, life on the ark and what happened to the earth during the flood and how things changed during and after the flood.
Information About Pitch
Enlargement Of Trunnels ( Wood ) Nails
Continuation Of Description Of Planking
Example Of Trunnels And Wedges
Women Making Baskets For The Ark
Noah Giving Instruction
Construction Tools
Cross Section Of Ark Model
Inside Ark Model
Ark Model
The Ark Has Finally Come To Rest As The Waters Flow From The Mountain
God Instructs Noah To Build A Door In The Ark
Sources Of Water
Continuation Of The Ark Had No Rudder To Steer It.
The Ark Is Alone
A Young Lad Looks At Cut Away Of Ark Model
God's Promises
Canyons And Layers Of Sediment
County Scale-County-Sized Flood Observed
Fossilized Skull Of Allosaurus
What Happened To The Dinosaurs?
Enlargement Of What Happened To Ebenezer?
Enlargement Of The Earth Dries
Bear
In addition to the wonderful explanation set forth above we need to take a look at the world view as compared to the biblical view relating to the flood. My comments and observations are derived from materials I saw or heard at the Creation Museum.All sort of explanations have been set forth saying the flood was very localized, regional etc but not global. This argument follows along the line that the different rock layers and fossilization of bones happened over millions of years as opposed to the biblical view that it was a global flood and the earth is roughly 6,000 years old. We have seen that the earth crust opened up and vast amounts of water rushed out coupled with the heavens opening up and rain to create the water to cover the earth. In the process of all this happening and even during the flood great changes were taking place under the water as the earths crust was rising, falling and shifting. In this process tremendous amounts of rock and sediments were being shifted around the globe. Now just imagine when the water started receding back into the earth what great forces were exerted with all that water rushing to a lower. I can just imagine some of the greatest waterfall the world has ever seen were happening an human eye saw any of them. This great rush of water cut gashes in the earths surface much of which at that time was huge deposits of sediments. All this brings us to the rock layers with all sorts of fossils encased in them. Over the last two years I have had the privilege of traveling all over these United States and visiting many of our National Parks and seeing the beautiful layers of rocks and sediments that were created by the flood as God brought judgement upon the earth. I have seen the Grand Canyon several time from both sides and I am more amazed each time I see it at the same time I am sorry to say that throughout the parks they display various rocks found in the walls of the Grand Canyon with signs telling us that these rocks are one to several million years old.
Canyonland National Park Showing The Different Layers And Different Thickness Of Layers
Arch National Park Showing The Different Layers And Different Thickness Of Layers
Grand Staircase Showing The Different Layers And Different Thickness Of Layers
Bryce Canyon National Park Showing The Different Layers And Different Thickness Of Layers
How were these marvelous canyons and rock formations created? You see there are two different schools of thought in play here. One is a " lot of time " and a " little water " which is the secular view. The creationist view is a " lot of water " and a " little amount of time ". The secular view is that it took millions of years to form these rock layers but you know there has never any experiment conducted over millions of years to prove this point so these times are just guesses and estimates. The Creation Museum has an example of a piece of clock encased in a rock that obviously took a shorter period. The same is true of fossils as they have been found that were buried suddenly as opposed to millions of years. As stated earlier people look at the same facts and come to different conclusions. I am sure each of you recall in school your material gave you some sort of Geologic Time Scale Chart which assigned different period and name of the period as well as millions of years for a particular period. For example I will give just example. The MESOZOIC era contained the period of CRETACEOUS, 73 million years and the JURASSIC PERIOD, 46 million years and the TRIASSIC period 49 millions years ago. During this era it is claimed the dinosaurs lived.
Now when you compare the fossils found the rock and sediments you know they were deposited there a little over 4,000 years ago according to the Word of God. One of the big questions that always is asked is where did all the water come from to come the entire earth to include the highest mountains. People say there isn't enough water to cover the earth. The answer is that if the mountains are lowered and raise the water of the oceans the earth could be covered to a depth of 1,6 miles. I mentioned earlier about the earth's mountains shifting. In Psalms 104: verses 8 and 9 it tells us " The mountains rose, the valleys sank down to a place which you established for them. You set a boundary that they may not pass over, so that they will not return to cover the earth". Cross reference this to Genesis 9: verse 11 which says, "And I will establish my covenant with you; neither shall all flesh be cut off any more by the waters of a flood; neither shall there any more be a flood to destroy the earth." This refers back to God setting a rainbow as a covenant that he would never again destroy the earth with a flood. he summation of the Catastrophe tells us " why there are fossil layers and why there are high mountains and explains the geological features such as the Grand Canyon and Ice age features that followed the flood. It also explains that God does judge sin and further that God does provide a way of salvation.
So the water recedes, the ark settles on dry land and Noah and his family leave the ark so now what? God told them to replenish the earth and they and over many years the population grew and grew. Here again, man defied God's command. When he told them to replenish the earth he meant for them to spread out over the earth but they stayed in one area and this is where they got into trouble. As they moved they were of one language and a common speech.They said lets build a tower up into the heavens so we wont be scattered. In Genesis 10 verse 5, 6 and 7 indicate that the " Lord came down to see the city and the tower that the men were building. The Lord said, If as one people speaking the same language they have begun to do this, then nothing they plan to do will be impossible for them. Come, let us go down and confuse their language so they will not understand each other." The work on the great tower was stopped. This brings us to the 4th " C " which is CONFUSION which will be covered in the next posting.
Until then remember That God Loves you so much that he sent His Son Jesus to live a sinless life and to die on the cross for each of us so that if we will confess our sins and receive him as our saviour we will live with Him in Heaven for ever and I also love you.
Grandpa Bill
This is just an amazing museum! Love you
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