†. Gen 8:1a . . God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the
cattle that were with him in the ark,
Does that mean God forgot all about the ark's passengers until He realized
why there was a string tied around His finger? (chuckle) No; it reaffirms that
they were always on God's mind. He isn't forgetful. But what about Noah's
sisters and brothers, and/or his aunts and uncles? Did God think of them too?
No. Noah's kin, except those aboard the ark; were all wiped out in the Flood.
He and Mrs. Noah may have had other children too; and grand children. If so,
then those also perished: and their family pets too right along with them.
Out ahead, at the final judgment, many of us are going to have to watch as
our own kin are condemned to eternal suffering; and thrown alive, wild
eyed, shrieking, yelping, bellowing, and bawling like little children into the
reservoir of liquefied flame depicted at Rev 20:11-15 and Rev 21:8. We
might even be called up as witnesses to testify for the prosecution. That will
be an awful ordeal.
†. Gen 8:1b-4 . . and God caused a wind to blow across the earth,
and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the
floodgates of the sky were stopped up, and the rain from the sky
was held back; the waters then receded steadily from the earth. At
the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, so that
in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark
came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
That wind was very unnatural. There's no such thing as a global typhoon; in
point of fact, a wind blowing horizontally would fail to remove the waters of
the Flood from the earth anyway. It would just move the waters around and
around and around. I think what we have here is not a push, but a pull; viz:
a titanic vacuum cleaner; so to speak.
The Flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah's life,
and it rained for forty days. Then the rain stopped so the water could begin
draining off and leave the ark aground. A period of exactly five months went
by. Those five months are recorded as exactly 150 days. If we were to try
and use the months of the Jewish calendar, the number of days would not
add up to 150. Here's why.
The months of the Jewish calendar supposedly equivalent to the months of
the Flood are:
Iyar........29 days
Sivan......30 days
Tammuz..29 days
Av...........30 days
Elul.........29 days
Tishri......30 days
Using the Jewish calendar, it would begin raining on the 17th of Iyar, thus
flooding a total of 13 days during that month. Following would be 30 in
Sivan, 29 in Tammuz, 30 in Av, 29 in Elul, and lastly 16 in Tishri. We can't
count the 17th of Tishri because the ark would have gone aground on that
day. The total number of days from the beginning of the Flood until the day
the ark went aground, would have been, according to the Jewish calendar,
147; which is three days short of 150.
However, we can safely ignore the Jewish calendar, and just reckon the
elapsed time relative to Noah's birthday. The 150 days then average out to
five Noah-months of 30 days apiece. That doesn't really cause any problems
because a dating method of that nature is not intended to mark off the
actual passage of astronomical time in a calendar year; only the days of
time elapsed during an important event such as the Flood.
So; here in Genesis, very early in the Bible, a precedent is set for specifying
the length of a special kind of year: the prophetic year. Since the months in
a year of this type are of thirty days apiece, then twelve such months add up
to 360 days; which is 5 and one-fourth days less than a calendar year.
The prophetic year is sort of like a baker's dozen. Though a baker's dozen is
not a dozen of twelve; it is nonetheless a dozen in its own right. As long as
students of the Bible are aware of the existence of such a thing as a
prophetic year, they won't be tripped up when they run across it in
prophecy, such as Daniel's prediction regarding the time of Messiah's first
advent. Here's another, yet future.
†. Rev 12:6 . . And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a
place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two
hundred and threescore days.
†. Rev 12:14 . . And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished
for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Those two passages speak of a three and one-half year period of exactly
1,260 days. Well, three and one-half years on the calendar is 1,277½ days;
which is 17½ days too many. But if we reckon those three and one-half
years as prophetic years of 360 days each, then it comes out perfectly to
1,260 days.
The precise topographic location, where the ark went aground, was not
really up on a specific mountain by the name of Ararat nor up on any other
mountain for that matter. The Hebrew word for "mountains" in Gen 8:4 is
haareey which is the plural of har (har) which doesn't always mean a
prominent land mass like Everest or Mauna Loa; especially when it's plural.
Har can also mean a range of hills or highlands; like the region of Israel
where Miriam's cousin Elizabeth lived.
†. Luke 1:39-40 . . At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the
hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted
Elizabeth.
In California, where I lived as a kid, the local elevation 35 miles east of San
Diego, in the town of Alpine, was about 2,000 feet above sea level. There
were plenty of meadows with pasture and good soil. In fact much of it was
very good ranchland and quite a few people in that area raised horses and
cows. We ourselves kept about five hundred chickens, and a few goats and
calves. We lived in the mountains of San Diego; but we didn't live up on top
of one of its mountains like Viejas, Lyon's , or Cuyamaca.
Another inhabited region in the continental U.S. that's elevated is the area of
Denver Colorado; which is located on the western edge of the Great Plains
near the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is a whole mile above
sea level-- 5,280 feet. However, Denver, even though so high above sea
level, isn't located on the tippy top of a mountain, nor even on the side of
one; it's just located up on high ground.
The ark contained the only surviving souls of man and animal on the entire
planet. Does it really make good sense to strand them up on a mountain
peak where they might risk death and injury descending it?
When my wife and I visited the San Diego zoo together back in the early
1980's, we noticed that the Giraffes' area had no fence around it. The tour
guide told us the Giraffes' enclosure doesn't need a fence because their area
is up on a plateau 3 feet high. The Giraffes don't try to escape because
they're afraid of heights. There's just no way Giraffes could've climbed down
off of Turkey's Mount Ararat. It's way too steep and rugged. Those poor
timid creatures would've been stranded up there and died; and so would
hippos, elephants, and flightless birds like penguins.
The Hebrew word for "Ararat" is from 'Ararat (ar-aw-rat') which appears
three more times in the Bible: one at 2Kgs 19:36-37, one at Isa 37:36-38,
and one at Jer 51:27. Ararat is always the country of Armenia: never a
specific peak by the same name.
†. Gen 8:5 . .The waters went on diminishing until the tenth month;
in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the
mountains became visible.
Gravity assists rain to fall, and evaporation assists it to rise back up into the
air. But to get the Flood's waters back on out into space to their original
depositories required more power than a Saturn V rocket to overcome
gravity.
Cont.
/
cattle that were with him in the ark,
Does that mean God forgot all about the ark's passengers until He realized
why there was a string tied around His finger? (chuckle) No; it reaffirms that
they were always on God's mind. He isn't forgetful. But what about Noah's
sisters and brothers, and/or his aunts and uncles? Did God think of them too?
No. Noah's kin, except those aboard the ark; were all wiped out in the Flood.
He and Mrs. Noah may have had other children too; and grand children. If so,
then those also perished: and their family pets too right along with them.
Out ahead, at the final judgment, many of us are going to have to watch as
our own kin are condemned to eternal suffering; and thrown alive, wild
eyed, shrieking, yelping, bellowing, and bawling like little children into the
reservoir of liquefied flame depicted at Rev 20:11-15 and Rev 21:8. We
might even be called up as witnesses to testify for the prosecution. That will
be an awful ordeal.
†. Gen 8:1b-4 . . and God caused a wind to blow across the earth,
and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the
floodgates of the sky were stopped up, and the rain from the sky
was held back; the waters then receded steadily from the earth. At
the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, so that
in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark
came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
That wind was very unnatural. There's no such thing as a global typhoon; in
point of fact, a wind blowing horizontally would fail to remove the waters of
the Flood from the earth anyway. It would just move the waters around and
around and around. I think what we have here is not a push, but a pull; viz:
a titanic vacuum cleaner; so to speak.
The Flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah's life,
and it rained for forty days. Then the rain stopped so the water could begin
draining off and leave the ark aground. A period of exactly five months went
by. Those five months are recorded as exactly 150 days. If we were to try
and use the months of the Jewish calendar, the number of days would not
add up to 150. Here's why.
The months of the Jewish calendar supposedly equivalent to the months of
the Flood are:
Iyar........29 days
Sivan......30 days
Tammuz..29 days
Av...........30 days
Elul.........29 days
Tishri......30 days
Using the Jewish calendar, it would begin raining on the 17th of Iyar, thus
flooding a total of 13 days during that month. Following would be 30 in
Sivan, 29 in Tammuz, 30 in Av, 29 in Elul, and lastly 16 in Tishri. We can't
count the 17th of Tishri because the ark would have gone aground on that
day. The total number of days from the beginning of the Flood until the day
the ark went aground, would have been, according to the Jewish calendar,
147; which is three days short of 150.
However, we can safely ignore the Jewish calendar, and just reckon the
elapsed time relative to Noah's birthday. The 150 days then average out to
five Noah-months of 30 days apiece. That doesn't really cause any problems
because a dating method of that nature is not intended to mark off the
actual passage of astronomical time in a calendar year; only the days of
time elapsed during an important event such as the Flood.
So; here in Genesis, very early in the Bible, a precedent is set for specifying
the length of a special kind of year: the prophetic year. Since the months in
a year of this type are of thirty days apiece, then twelve such months add up
to 360 days; which is 5 and one-fourth days less than a calendar year.
The prophetic year is sort of like a baker's dozen. Though a baker's dozen is
not a dozen of twelve; it is nonetheless a dozen in its own right. As long as
students of the Bible are aware of the existence of such a thing as a
prophetic year, they won't be tripped up when they run across it in
prophecy, such as Daniel's prediction regarding the time of Messiah's first
advent. Here's another, yet future.
†. Rev 12:6 . . And the woman fled into the wilderness, where she hath a
place prepared of God, that they should feed her there a thousand two
hundred and threescore days.
†. Rev 12:14 . . And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle,
that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished
for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.
Those two passages speak of a three and one-half year period of exactly
1,260 days. Well, three and one-half years on the calendar is 1,277½ days;
which is 17½ days too many. But if we reckon those three and one-half
years as prophetic years of 360 days each, then it comes out perfectly to
1,260 days.
The precise topographic location, where the ark went aground, was not
really up on a specific mountain by the name of Ararat nor up on any other
mountain for that matter. The Hebrew word for "mountains" in Gen 8:4 is
haareey which is the plural of har (har) which doesn't always mean a
prominent land mass like Everest or Mauna Loa; especially when it's plural.
Har can also mean a range of hills or highlands; like the region of Israel
where Miriam's cousin Elizabeth lived.
†. Luke 1:39-40 . . At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the
hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted
Elizabeth.
In California, where I lived as a kid, the local elevation 35 miles east of San
Diego, in the town of Alpine, was about 2,000 feet above sea level. There
were plenty of meadows with pasture and good soil. In fact much of it was
very good ranchland and quite a few people in that area raised horses and
cows. We ourselves kept about five hundred chickens, and a few goats and
calves. We lived in the mountains of San Diego; but we didn't live up on top
of one of its mountains like Viejas, Lyon's , or Cuyamaca.
Another inhabited region in the continental U.S. that's elevated is the area of
Denver Colorado; which is located on the western edge of the Great Plains
near the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is a whole mile above
sea level-- 5,280 feet. However, Denver, even though so high above sea
level, isn't located on the tippy top of a mountain, nor even on the side of
one; it's just located up on high ground.
The ark contained the only surviving souls of man and animal on the entire
planet. Does it really make good sense to strand them up on a mountain
peak where they might risk death and injury descending it?
When my wife and I visited the San Diego zoo together back in the early
1980's, we noticed that the Giraffes' area had no fence around it. The tour
guide told us the Giraffes' enclosure doesn't need a fence because their area
is up on a plateau 3 feet high. The Giraffes don't try to escape because
they're afraid of heights. There's just no way Giraffes could've climbed down
off of Turkey's Mount Ararat. It's way too steep and rugged. Those poor
timid creatures would've been stranded up there and died; and so would
hippos, elephants, and flightless birds like penguins.
The Hebrew word for "Ararat" is from 'Ararat (ar-aw-rat') which appears
three more times in the Bible: one at 2Kgs 19:36-37, one at Isa 37:36-38,
and one at Jer 51:27. Ararat is always the country of Armenia: never a
specific peak by the same name.
†. Gen 8:5 . .The waters went on diminishing until the tenth month;
in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the
mountains became visible.
Gravity assists rain to fall, and evaporation assists it to rise back up into the
air. But to get the Flood's waters back on out into space to their original
depositories required more power than a Saturn V rocket to overcome
gravity.
Cont.
/
