GOD’S WORD FOR MARCH 24 ~ ~ Genesis 7:11-24 ~
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 great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
And the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights.
In the selfsame day entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and Noah’s wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark;
They, and every beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after his kind, every bird of every sort.
And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life.
And they that went in, 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 waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.
And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters.
And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered.
Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered.
And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man:
All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.
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.”
40 days and nights of continuous deluge…. Remember, it had never rained at all before this.
From creation, the land was watered by rivers and by a mist that came up from the ground at night. The water pouring in torrents from the sky, as well as the rivers and lakes overflowing within days, must have torn the people with fear. Then they saw the animals miraculously and peacefully marching in from all over the world, but, still,………they would not repent and go into the ark!
The ark began to float, until the water at the level of the bottom of the ark was at 22’6” above the highest mountaintop, so the ark could float uninhibited. It remained at that level for 150 days, at which time God began a wind across the whole earth to dry up the waters.
On the seventh month, they landed on Mt. Ararat, and stayed in the ark, watching for the other mountains to appear, which took three more months, at which time Noah began releasing the test birds. First the raven, which would find food if there was any dry ground with all the death, then the dove, which took 14 days before there was anything green for her to eat.
That was over a year in the ark! But, they certainly weren’t cramped in there, contrary to the toy arks they make for kids. Figuring the math, it was plenty large for all the animals, plus food for all the animals and people for a year or more, and extra room in case people wanted to come, (which we can be sure the Lord allowed for, even though He knew they wouldn’t.) and still lots of room for exercise.
Remember, God brought over two of every “kind” of animal, not two of every “species”. Species developed within the kinds, but He only needed one of every kind—example, one pair of the dog kind, not a pair each of wolves, coyotes, fox, poodles, dachhunds, etc. etc. (thinking ahead here) All the information for developing different species later, was already in each kind’s DNA.
Also, only those animals that walked on land and “had breath in their nostrils” were taken. Obviously, water animals were fine, including water dwelling mammals, such as whales, dolphins, etc. They were no doubt more than a little shook up, what with the rough water, but they had food.
When we figure the size in even the smaller of the two possible cubit measurements that they could have used, it was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high, with three decks. This totals over a million and a half cubic feet of space.
Figuring the kinds of animals known, two of the unclean, and 7 of the clean ones, that would be about 30,000 animals, and figuring the average size of all land animals, including insects all the way to elephants, and the numbers of kinds of each, the average size would be smaller than a sheep.
So, using that, the ark could hold 125,800 sheep-sized animals, but they only needed room for 30,000 sheep-sized animals, so there was lots of room for food for everyone for over a year, and stretching room.
This space is equivalent to 522 railroad stock cars! That’s a lot of room.
An interesting idea is that, logically, God would have sent the smallest, youngest individuals of each animal, not the largest and oldest, which would make a big difference.
As far as food, another theory is that God could easily have had, at least the biggest eaters if not all of them, go into hibernation, to eliminate a LOT of work for Noah’s family, not to mention food storage.
I like to imagine the people and the animals, with their first steps down the ramp on their sea legs, into the bright sun, which was brighter than ever they saw before they entered it, because now the protective cloud canopy, the upper canopy, was gone, and, coming out of the dark ark, it must have been a double shock, and then deal with solid ground besides. The landscape was so different. Mountains where there were none, none where there were, little or no vegetation, …..and the SMELL! That must have been terrible! What an adventure! No wonder Noah got drunk——-(Oh, did I write that out loud?)
But then they saw the promise! The rainbow!! This will never happen again! Not by water, but judgment will always be a large part of the character of God, as we are seeing signs of coming even maybe in our day!!!
Genesis 9:8-17
“And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him, saying,
And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with your seed after you;
And with every living creature that is with you, of the fowl, of the cattle, and of every beast of the earth with you; from all that go out of the ark, to every beast of the earth.
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.
And God said, This is the token of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations:
I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth.
And it shall come to pass, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow shall be seen in the cloud:
And I will remember my covenant, which is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.
And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.
And God said unto Noah, This is the token of the covenant, which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth.”
Tomorrow, Lord willing, more about what the ark and flood means to us.