Chapter 15: Paradise Lost

Noah has three sons one hundred years before the Flood: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. God declares to Noah His intent of destroying the Earth but gives Noah instructions on how to build a barge, the Ark, to spare a representative of all living creatures with the "breath of life" - two of the "unclean" and 7 of the "clean" animals.

For 40 days and nights the rain falls as the "windows of heaven" are broken and the "fountains of the deep" are released. One hundred and fifty days after the rains began, the Ark rests atop Mt. Ararat. One hundred and twenty days later, Noah sends out the raven and dove. A week later the dove is sent and returns with the olive branch. A second week later the dove is sent again but doesn't return. Another 93 days passes before Noah can leave the Ark. A total of 371 days passed from shutting the door of the Ark to opening of it once again [or 1 year and 11 days if each month is only 30 days].

The striving of God is not with giants or unbelievers, but with the believing sons of God who have compromised their walk with God by becoming "unequally yoked" (2 Co. 6:14). God's judgment that man's days would be an hundred and twenty years is usually understood to mean that only 120 years [1] were left before the Flood would destroy the Earth. It couldn't be a limitation on lifespans because the average life lasted 907 years! If this, then, is the time of God's judgment, Noah was 480 years old - twenty years before the birth of his 3 sons.

MY THREE SONS

It is extraordinary that Noah didn't have any children until he was 500 years old. What was life like for Noah to live so long without his own family? Perhaps he developed a great love of animals just as St. Francis of Assisi had after becoming a Christian. God certainly uses the experiences of our lives before conversion for His own glory. It would be natural and sensible for Noah to have loved animals and studied them before God's call on his life. Perhaps God encouraged Noah to research his family ancestry to learn the truth of the past and the rich heritage in righteousness he owned. The longing for a family to share this information must have grown in Noah's heart. And God blessed Noah with 3 sons.

In Genesis 5:32, 6:10, 9:18, and 10:1 the three sons of Noah are listed in the same order: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. But it is commonly assumed that Japheth was the eldest, Shem the middle, and Ham the youngest, although there is nothing so stated in Scriptures. If this is so, then Shem's first listing is probably because he is in the line of the Messiah and was the ancestor of the Jews, who kept the Scriptures.

Dr. Morris suggests that they were not triplets, as might be thought since they are all listed as born when Noah was 500 years old (Gen. 5:32); and that he had other children (just as the other patriarchs "begat other sons and daughters") who perished in the Flood instead of going in the Ark [2]. These three, however, chose to go in the Ark with their wives (1 Pet. 3:20), thus became the new fathers of the race of mankind. The Scriptures make no such declaration, therefore this writer holds to a literal view that Noah only had three sons, even though it was 500 years before their births. This view is consistent with the theme throughout Scriptures of "miraculous" births which are the pattern of the Messiah. Yet the Scriptures do support the view of Dr. Morris that they were not triplets. Genesis 7:6 states that Noah was 600 years old when the Flood occurred, which would make the sons 100 years old each if they were triplets. But Genesis 11:10 says, "Shem was an hundred years old, and begat Arphaxad two years after the flood." Shem, then, had to have been born when Noah was 502 and was 98 years old when the Flood occurred. When Noah was 500 years old, then, his eldest son (assuming that it was Japheth) was born in the year 1556 AM, or 2444 BC. Two years later in the year 1558 AM, 2442 BC, Shem was born. Some time later, Ham was born. Over a billion people could easily be alive on the Earth by the time of their births.

The name of Shem .: means "name, or renown" which is fitting for the descendants in the righteous line. The name of Ham .( means "hot" which might refer to a hot headed temperament, given easily to anger and aggression. And the name of Japheth ;5* means "enlarged," upon which Noah later made a pun, "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem" (Gen. 9:27).

While many people think that Noah spent 120 years building the Ark, it is not contextually accurate. In the middle of God's instructions on how to build the Ark, verse 6:18 quotes the Lord saying to Noah, "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." So it appears that God's warning came to Noah after his sons had grown and married; which could have occurred at any time. For the sake of narration let us assume that the sons were in their twenties when married, which means at least 40 more years had elapsed, or when Noah was 520.

GOD WARNS NOAH

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. Genesis 6:13.

Make thee an ark of gopher wood. Genesis 6:14a.

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 die. Genesis 6:17.

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 & female. Genesis 6:19.

And take thou unto thee of all food that is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee; and it shall be for food for thee, and for them. Genesis 6:21.

Noah obviously told his immediate family of the disaster that was about to come. And "by faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house (Heb. 11:7). Much work faced Noah and his sons. Timber and pitch had to be cut and prepared, grain and other food had to be gathered and stored; animals herded and penned. Barns had to be temporarily built for the stored grain, corrals had to be built for the animals. God had given Noah specific instructions on how to construct the ark.

TO BUILD THE ARK

Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of; the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it

The word ark is an Old English word from the Latin, arca meaning "chest." The Hebrew word is, tebah %";, which literally means a "box." The Lord told Noah to build a large box, or a barge, in which the animals could float. Translators do not know the meaning of gopher (which is a transliteration of the Hebrew word) wood, but authorities agree that it had to be some kind of resinous wood such as a cypress, cedar, or pine. The resin was distilled to create the pitch, (in Hebrew, kaphar 95,, meaning "covering") or tar, that covered the wood inside and outside for an airtight seal.

A cubit is an old unit of measurement from the Latin word cubitum meaning "elbow" which measures from the tip of the hand to the elbow between 18 and 22 inches. Anyone who has loaded boxes for transport knows the easiest size box is forearm length which can be carried at the chest. It is interesting that the Hebrew word for cubit is, ammah %/!, which means "mother" as in a mother cradling a baby in her forearms. Unlike the cute drawings in Sunday School classes, the Ark was not a small but gigantic! A length of 300 cubits for the ark at an 18 to 22 inch measurement would by 450' long! This is about the length of a modern aircraft carrier! Furthermore, the Egyptians had a royal cubit that measured 3 feet. This writer has a forearm 20 inches long and is 6 feet 3 inches tall. The forearm is about 1/3rd the body length. A forearm that was 3 feet long would be on a small giant 9 to 10 feet tall. Noah may have been 15 feet tall which would make his forearm 4 and a half feet long, a measurement that could cause the length of the Ark to jump from 450 to 1350 feet! But we'll keep a conservative measurement of 22 inches for a cubit: the breadth of the Ark was 91 feet and it's height of 55 feet, today a 5 story building. But the Ark was 3 stories, which means each story was about 18 feet high!

It is usually assumed that Noah built the Ark by himself and the help of his 3 sons. But in considering the massive size of this project, it is more likely that he contracted out the labor. Pagans will work for religious people if the pay is high enough. He therefore probably had a large crew working with him who didn't believe in the project, but were willing to accept the wages. Trees had to be felled and planed; pitch had to be distilled; nails or pegs & twine made for binding the lumber; laborers were needed for lifting and placing cut boards; as well as food gathered and stored; and livestock herded and penned. All this would require the aid of others. Noah had to have been a wealthy man through the blessings of the Lord.

Preachers have frequently used the Ark as a type of Christ's salvation. The Ark is a picture of abiding in Christ that carries us through the storms of life. The pitch within and without the Ark has been used as a type of the sealing of the Holy Spirit in the believer until the day of redemption.

THE GREAT ROUNDUP

Of fowls after their kind, and of 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. Genesis 6:20.

Without a doubt, Noah accomplished a great task in both building the Ark and in gathering all the sample creatures to keep alive after the Flood. But there were several factors that made that task easier that don't exist today. First of all, with the land all being joined into one giant continent, there were no ocean barriers to hinder the collection process. Second of all, the canopy would have provided a uniform environment, which meant animals were not separated according to climatic needs. Hence, a sample of each species was probably nearby. Thirdly, the fear of man was not upon the animals until after the Flood when God gave mankind permission to hunt and eat animals (Gen. 9:2 & 3). And as discussed earlier, the natural state of animals was tame, not wild, which is the post-flood condition. And lastly, God said, "two of every sort shall come unto thee" (Gen. 6:20), which implies that God brought the animals to him.

Critics charge that it would be impossible to carry a sample of every species in the Ark. But the math shows that it could. Different experts cite different figures as to the total number of species on the Earth, but even with generous calculations the numbers still add up to a figure that allows ample room in the Ark. The most generous figures come from Dr. Morris who says there a total of under 18,000 types of creatures [3]. The breakdown is as follows:

These figures account for animals living today. There are as many animals extinct that we know of, so double the figure to include them.

Furthermore, there were two (male & female) of every creature, which again doubles the number of animals.

And an additional 5 animals of the "clean" species (Gen. 7:2) were to be included. Since we don't really know which animals these were (although they may be the same as the types listed in Leviticus), we'll round off our number to:

These calculations exclude fish since most would survive the Flood [4]. Insects and like creatures will be calculated in later. Sheep are an average animal size. There are larger creatures, of course, but the vast majority of animals are smaller than sheep. Therefore, they represent an appropriate average. The total volume of the Ark was 2,252,250 cubic feet (450x91x55). Considering that all the creatures were much larger than they are today [as referred to earlier in this text], we'll give the sheep a generous size of 18 cubic feet (an average sheep today is about 9 cubic feet: 3x3x1). That gives the Ark a carrying capacity of 125,000 (18.018 x 125,000 = 2,252,250) sheep. With 75,000 animals the Ark was only filled at a 60% capacity (75,000 divided by 125,000 = .60).

If one considers the addition of insects, there are, according to Dr. KellySegraves [5] 1,700,000 known species. It should be remembered that not all insects needed to be brought aboard since there are many that could have survived the storm just like the fish. But for the sake of our calculations, we'll assume all were brought aboard. Since the average insect is no more than 2 cubic inches, let's double that number to account for the gigantic size of all creatures in the antediluvian world. At 4 cubic inches, that would fit 3 per cubic foot (3 x 4 = 12). Divide 1,700,000 by 3 and get 566,666.66 cubic feet. Our giant sheep are 18 cubic feet. Divide that and you'll get the space of 31,482 sheep. Add the space of the insects to the animals:

The addition of the insect volume raises the percentage of space used in the Ark to 85% (106,482 divided by 125,000). Fifteen percent of the Ark, or 337,837.5 cubic feet (2,252,250 x .15) remained for the 8 people of Noah's family and a year's supply of grain for feed. This remaining space could be square cube 11,261.5: still the size of a small warehouse!

Another way of putting this into perspective is to compare the space to railroad cars. The Ark had a volume of 522 railroad box cars. The animals filled 292 cars and the insects another 21 cars taking a total of 313 box cars. That left Noah and his family 209 box cars worth of space for a year's supply of feed and living quarters!