My Thoughts on Noah's Ark and Repeating the Same Mistakes All Over Again
We could think about how the Creation led to the Fall. The fall of man was so well-detailed in Genesis 3. All it took was for Adam and Eve to break one simple rule - by eating the tree of the fruit of knowledge of good and evil. Ever since then, the world suffered and they were paying the consequences. Now we have the two lineages - one of Cain and the other of Seth. After Abel died, Seth became the new head of the godly line and out from Seth came today's mankind. But what's so sad is that we're all Seth's children but many follow the way of Cain.
Genesis 6 tells us how wickedness spread. All it took was mingling with the lineage of Cain. Genesis 6:1-2 tells us that there were the sons of God and the daughters of men. Some have taught the heresy called the Serpent Seed heresy where these sons of God are angels mingling with me. I beg the pardon of such people because we're not talking mythology here where gods and demons can produce offspring with humans. We are talking Bible here! The truth is fallen angels cannot procreate with human beings. Rather, this was the men of the line of Seth intermarried with the line of Cain thus polluting the godly line with ungodliness.
This is the problem of today's generation. How often is it that people choose to marry for beauty (in their own perspective) than for character? Beauty in itself is not wrong. Marrying an attractive woman isn't wrong. The problem was that the female descendants of Cain was not their appearance but the fact that they were ungodly. Marriage with unbelievers can create generations upon generations of unsaved descendants. Don't believe me then read more of the Bible. The unholy alliance of Solomon with heathen women or the marriage Ahab's daughter Athaliah to Jeposhaphat's eldest son Jehoram wrecked the House of David. Still think that you can evangelize by marrying unbelievers?
Just remember the giants were not the offsprings of the Sethites and the Cainites. Rather, these giants were people who were unusually tall people perhaps as tall as 7 to 9 feet because of gigantism. One could also talk argue that these may also refer to animals. Don't buy for a second that dinosaurs and men didn't once live together during this stone age era. If anything else could have killed a lot of dinosaurs - it would be the great flood and later post-Flood conditions no longer allowed dinosaurs to continue on living in a very new hostile environment. Lack of food, air and climate change would have finished off extremely huge animals.
The Earth was so desperately wicked. I can't imagine how wicked this Earth must be especially Genesis 6:5 says that the hearts of men only had evil continually. This is the consequence of that one sin Adam and Eve had. Sin came into the world. Death came into the world. People no longer wanted to follow God. People were following the way of Cain. Cain may have died at some point but there was only Methuselah who lived the longest. Methuselah spent 120 years warning people about the upcoming judgment but many laughed him off. Noah was soon tasked to build an ark with all the instructions.
Some argue that obedience and not grace brought Noah to the Ark. But here's what such people forget. Why did Noah obey God? It was because he found grace in God's eyes. God's grace teaches obedience (Titus 2:11-14). We know that in Hebrews 11:7 that by faith, Noah prepared the ark as God commanded. He did everything to prepare for the upcoming Flood. The whole world laughed and later, only eight people were saved. This is a grim picture of the world. Matthew 7:13-14 says that so few ever enter the way of life. It's not a question of majority or minority but a question of right and wrong. Noah didn't care if people were laughing at him. He did what God commanded and that's what truly mattered. It took hundreds of years to build a huge ark that would contain all animals including dinosaurs considering he was living in very primitive times.
This is the problem right now. People laughed at Noah and now judgment was truly coming. Genesis 7:17-24 tells us just how destructive the flood was. Can you imagine a worldwide flood? I could think about how it is. The whole world is covered in water and everything that wasn't in the Ark, died. I could imagine how many screaming multitudes save infants slipped into Hell. I could imagine how many fossil layers were formed as a result of this global flood. This would be a very scientific explanation concerning the fossil layers. It didn't take millions of years to form them. Instead, 40 days and 40 nights of Flood was just the start. Then the Earth's water took at least 150 days before the waters came down. What a wait it must have been!
It's time to think about how Noah was probably getting impatient. He sent out two birds - the raven and the dove. The raven only flowed to and fro until the waters were dried up. The dove found no rest. The dove is a picture of the redeemed man. There's no rest for the dove! I thought of these words by Charles H. Spurgeon on the dove's return:
2. There is one adaptation of the incident before us which seems so naturally to suggest itself, that I could not help using it this morning. The dove may well picture the believer’s soul. That soul sometimes flies elsewhere to and fro, and takes a survey of all things, but it finds no rest for the sole of its foot anywhere except in Christ Jesus; and, therefore, however long its flight, it is sure eventually to return to its own proper resting place. The child of God can never be content outside of his God: he who has once had Christ in him, the hope of glory, can never be satisfied to rest or glory except in the Lord Jesus.
The dove brought back a branch of olive to signify it was time to lower down. Soon enough it was time to go down from the Ark. It was time to offer the intended sacrifice - that was why God ordered more pairs of clean animals over the unclean. Genesis 8:21 says God smelled the savor and found it a sweet smell. He vowed not to flood the Earth anymore but this relationship was soon to be broken again. The whole reason was because of the sin that was found in Genesis 9.
Genesis 9 reveals how the Earth's conditions have drastically changed. I can't determine when the ice age occurred but it may have occurred some time after this incident. What was once a huge land mass that allowed all animals to reach the Ark was soon splitting into several nations we know today. Some have called this land as Pangaea or one huge land mass. It split into several countries. Land bridges were soon crumbling. But this was but a few early days when we find of Noah's shame and sin. Satan really had to find one weak link soon enough.
God commanded them to replenish the Earth all over again. Whether you like it or not - we're also Noah's descendants. God soon authorized people to finally meat because of the decrease of food supply. They were instructed not to eat blood at that time. God affirmed His stance on death penalty in Genesis 9:5-6 that murder would mean the murderer pays with his or her life. It was time to multiply but one thing is certain - the same erroneous ways of Satan were about to replenish again. The devils didn't die with the the destruction of the wicked in the Flood. They were simply waiting for new hosts to be born. God gave a rainbow as a promise He wouldn't flood the world again (Genesis 9:12-17). Sadly, evil people have taken the rainbow and used it for their own selfish reasons.
It's time to read that Ham was really the weak link. I wonder what Satan was probably thinking while the three families were starting to have children and marry each other's kin to replenish the Earth. We read that Noah got drunk after he drank some wine. I doubt it was intentionally done. Noah may have discounted the fact that the Earth's environment has changed. He may have decided to drink some wine without realizing that it may have fermented. This condition may be because he didn't expect it to happen. He soon fell down and humiliated himself. He was naked in the tent and worse, Ham was laughing at it. I could imagine how Satan may have decided to take advantage of the situation.
It's time to read that Ham was really the weak link. I wonder what Satan was probably thinking while the three families were starting to have children and marry each other's kin to replenish the Earth. We read that Noah got drunk after he drank some wine. I doubt it was intentionally done. Noah may have discounted the fact that the Earth's environment has changed. He may have decided to drink some wine without realizing that it may have fermented. This condition may be because he didn't expect it to happen. He soon fell down and humiliated himself. He was naked in the tent and worse, Ham was laughing at it. I could imagine how Satan may have decided to take advantage of the situation.
So why was Canaan cursed? Some suggest that Ham slept with his mother producing Canaan. Others suggest that they had a daughter named Semiramis. But where Scripture and history is silent - be silent about it. So why did it happen? Some suggest that maybe Genesis 9:24 referred to Canaan's disrespect towards his grandfather Noah. This could have resulted in the curse because of disrespect though this doesn't justify the slave trade. Rather, this was a curse that placed on the Canaanites. We would later read of how the Gibeonites were later enslaved by Joshua for their deception (Joshua 9) which was a fulfillment of this curse. Shem was blessed for his righteousness though some descendants of Shem were less than honorable such as Ishmael's line, Esau's line, Moabites, Ammonites and the Midianites were also from Shem's lineage.
The ungodliness of Ham's line manifested itself. I don't want to bring Alexander Hislop's mess of a book called The Two Babylons here. We could read of how the lineage wasn't all so good. Ham had a son named Cush. The Bible hasn't given us much of a detail with Cush and neither will I quote the so-called Book of Jasher which isn't the same Book of Jasher - which served as a historical book for the Book of Israel. Today, this so-called Book of Jasher gives convoluted mythologies than actual facts. In fact, the legends of Nimrod are sometimes confused with how often Semiramis is either his mother, his sister or even both as some say that Nimrod was a result of incest between Cush and one of his daughters. But these are but convoluted myths that I wouldn't recommend reading Hislop's unreliable document.
The ungodliness of Ham's line manifested itself. I don't want to bring Alexander Hislop's mess of a book called The Two Babylons here. We could read of how the lineage wasn't all so good. Ham had a son named Cush. The Bible hasn't given us much of a detail with Cush and neither will I quote the so-called Book of Jasher which isn't the same Book of Jasher - which served as a historical book for the Book of Israel. Today, this so-called Book of Jasher gives convoluted mythologies than actual facts. In fact, the legends of Nimrod are sometimes confused with how often Semiramis is either his mother, his sister or even both as some say that Nimrod was a result of incest between Cush and one of his daughters. But these are but convoluted myths that I wouldn't recommend reading Hislop's unreliable document.
Nimrod is described to be that mighty hunter before the LORD. The Hebrew is paniym or against. Nimrod means "let us rebel". This was the beginning of reviving the way of Cain. We read in Genesis 10:9-10 the beginning of his kingdom. His kingdom expanded from Babel, Erech, Accad and Calneh in the land of Shinar. The whole enterprise was to create the new evil religion to replace the old one that the flood destroyed. Genesis 11:1-9 reads the account of the rebellion. I don't know how Nimrod led the people to rebel. He must have been a very charismatic figure to let people leave the way of his great-grandfather Noah to follow the way of Cain. The arrogance of the people was well-displayed in the Tower of Babel. they wanted to make a name for themselves and pride was really the problem all over again.
Cain's downfall was pride and so was Nimrod. I can't imagine how things were. A new evil religion was brewed up. He instructed the people to lead it into Heaven. Back then, everyone had just one language. The truth is atheistic evolution can't account for all our well-defined multiple languages. The Holy Trinity scrambled their languages. God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit worked mightily creating new languages forcing everyone to disperse. The place is called Babel because the world confounded the languages. Today, we get the word "babble" from Babel.
This is a reflection of how often sinful men cause history to repeat itself. Sibling rivalries are as old as time. The ways of Cain and Nimrod are still practiced today. Unfortunately, technology that would have helped us lived easier can also be used to spread the ways of Cain and Nimrod. Think of how often modern technology which could be used to help understand the Bible better is also used to spread false religion. It's really a huge struggle. It's only matter of time before God says that enough is enough and He will decide to finally usher in the End of the World through the Rapture, the Seven Year Tribulation and the Seven Plagues.