40 Facts About Noah and the Ark

Posted on December 30, 2014 by Troy Wagstaff

FACTS ABOUT NOAH, THE ARK AND FLOODS AND RELATED EVENTS

At the time Heavenly Father spoke to Noah about building an ark and saving the Animal Kingdom and his family from utter destruction the earth was evil and corrupt with abounding wickedness. At the same time the population of the earth was involved in their own lives like every other day in spite of Noah preaching to them. Let’s take a closer look.

Condition of the earth and the population therein:

1. “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.” (Genesis 6:11-12) There were only eight righteous people on the earth that qualified to be saved. Noah and his wife. Their three sons and their wives.

2. No was a preacher of righteousness. (2 Peter 2:5) Therein lies a safe assumption that Noah preached to the people and the people had a chance to believe the word of God.

3. “For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,” (Matthew 24:38, Luke 17:26-27)

4. God was longsuffering towards the people who live upon the earth. All the wicked had a chance for repentance while the Ark was being prepared. (1 Peter 3:20)

5. Noah was a great man, a prophet of the Lord and a man of great faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

6. Noah was a just man who walked with God. (Noah was not indecisive, he was a man of great faith and righteousness who was deliberate and confident in his relationship with God.) (Genesis 6:9)

7. In Genesis 6 verses 6 and 7 it uses the term “repenteth”. Consider the Hebrew meaning of that term. (Repenteth, Repent in Hebrew language: In the Hebrew of the Old Covenant two words are used in the concept of repentance, they are -1. NAHUM – to lament, to grieve. This word is describing the emotions that are aroused when motivated to take a different course of action. 2. SHUB – This word expresses a radical change of mind toward sin and implies a conscious moral separation from sin and a decision to forsake it and agree with God. The second meaning doesn’t apply.)

8. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. (Genesis 6:10)

9. The Ark was made with Gopher wood with pitch inside and outside of the Ark. (Genesis 6:14)

noah_meme10. The Ark had three stories and measured The length is 300 cubits. Breadth is 50 cubits and the height is 30 cubits. (Genesis 6:15-16) What is a cubit? You may want to research this one yourself. I’m not that concerned about it because it is impossible to know for certain but the average long Cubit is about 20 from a quick look on the Internet. This would mean the length of the ark was about 500 feet long or 1.7 football fields long. But then again, who knows for sure.

11. All flesh upon the earth was destroyed! Both Noah movies have people other than Noah’s family surviving. This is a flagrant error on the part of the writers of the movie, creative license or not. (Genesis 6:17)

12. Noah was commanded to store enough food for his family and for all the animals in the ark. (Genesis 6:21-22)

13. It seems all stories of the animals on the ark say “two by two”. But according to Genesis 7:2-3, it says that he needed seven of every clean beast, male and female. Unclean beasts a male and a female. Of the fowl of the air he had seven of every bird. Later on in the story one of every clean beast and one of every fowl was sacrificed by Noah to God. (Genesis 8:20)

14. Noah was 600 years old when he entered the ark before the flood. (Genesis 7:6)

15. It rained for forty days and 40 nights upon the earth. (Genesis 7:4)

16. Noah’s family and the animals were in the ark seven days before the flood. (Genesis 7:10)
17. Along with 40 days and nights of rain, fountains of water deep within the earth opened up to help flood the earth. (Genesis 7: 11)

18. HOW LONG WAS NOAH IN THE ARK? From the start of the flood their calendar says it was the 17th day of the 2nd month of the year. Noah was 600 years old. (Genesis 7:11) “And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:24). 4 And the ark rested in the 17th day of the 7th month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the 1st day of the 10th month. It was at that time the mountain tops were seen. (Genesis 8:4-5). In Genesis 8:13 it refers to the 601st year. This sounds like a comparison to Noah being 600 years old when he entered the Ark. It refers to the first day of the first year of the 601st year that the water was dried up from off the face of the land. On the 27th day of the 2nd month the earth was dry. (Genesis 8:13-14) This sounds like Noah was on the Ark one year and ten days.

19. The flood was so great that water covered every hill and mountain by at least 15 cubits. (Genesis 7:19-20)

20. It sounds like after 40 days and 40 nights of flooding the ark finally started to float. (Genesis 7:17)

21. Every living substance was destroyed by the flood. (Genesis 7:21)

22. The waters dried up in a continuous fashion, not all at once. (Genesis 8:3)

23. First a Raven was sent for to test for dry land. Then a dove was sent forth to test for dry land. The dove came back empty handed. They waited for another seven days then sent out the dove which then returned with an olive branch in its mouth. Seven days later the dove was released again to never return to the ark again. (Genesis 8:7-12)

24. After moving onto dry land, Noah built an altar and offered sacrifices of one of every clean beast and one of every fowl. (Genesis 8:21)

25. The Lord responded to the sacrifice with a promise to never destroy every living thing by water. (Genesis 8:21)

26. The Lord blessed Noah and Shem, Ham and Japheth and commanded them to multiply and replenish the earth. (Genesis 9:1)

27. The fear of man will be placed on every living animal. (Genesis 9:2)

28. The animals and vegetation are meant for the use of men. (Genesis 9:3)

29. If man commits murder then his life will be required of him. (Genesis 9:5-6)

30. In the image of God was man created. (Genesis 9:6)

31. The Lord made a covenant with men to never destroy the earth again by flood. As a token of that covenant, the Lord provided a Rainbow (bow) in the sky. (Genesis 9: 9-17)

32. Noah and his sons Shem, Ham and Japheth came off the ark, along with Noahs grandson Canaan. Ham was the father of Canaan. (Genesis 9:18)

33. The earth was populated by Shem, Ham (Canaan) and Japheth and their wives. (Genesis 9:18-19)

34. After the flood Noah became a husbandman and grew grapes and made wine. ( Genesis 9:20)

35. Noah and his family stayed together after the flood. (Genesis 9:20-29)

36. Noah was drunk from wine and was found naked in his tent by his son Ham. (Genesis 9:21-22)

37. Shem and Japheth took a garment and covered Noah without seeing Noah’s nakedness. (Genesis 9:23)

38. Noah considered Canaan his son. Noah was very upset and cursed Canaan for thing his clothes. (Genesis 9:24-25)

39. Noah lived 350 years after the flood. (Genesis 9:28)

40. Noah lived for a total of 950 years. (Genesis 9:29)

If you have seen either of the two movies about Noah, the one in 1999 or the one in 2014 and compare it to these basic facts, you can clearly see where the movies are in error and where they are true to the account in Genesis. Be aware of the errors in the movies so that you are not misled. Keep in mind the true biblical facts of the epic story of Noah and the flood.

With the successes of “Bible story” movies you can bet that more will be made. That’s a good thing if you compare it to the movies that are pornography hiding behind a r-rated movie. But a warning needs to be made about them. They are talk creative license from the Bible and they are written from someone’s perspective other than The Lord’s perspective.

I say, make the movies about great and epic bible stories but from a consumer stand point, make sure to do your homework and compare what you saw to what the Bible says about the story.

by Troy Wagstaff

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A River Of Life

Posted on December 7, 2014 by Troy Wagstaff

A River Of Life

Whithersoever The River Shall Come

Throughout the Holy Scriptures water is symbolic. The symbolism of water depends on the parable and how it is used. Water can be symbolic for healing, life, blood, cleaning, Word of God or the gospel. In this instance the symbolism of water deals primarily with the symbolism of life and healing. This imagery comes from Ezekiel 47.

In Ezekiel 43-47 an Angel is showing Ezekiel the plans for a temple or sanctuary for the Lord. The exciting part of this story culminates in chapter 47 where there is a building and from the building issues forth a River. The river measures about one thousand cubits and it flows through the wilderness or desert and then into the Dead Sea healing everything it touches.

The width of the river measures one thousand cubits wide. According to the Hebrews a cubit is a measurement from the tip of the elbow to the tip of the middle finger. Throughout the history of the ancient Hebrews a cubit could be 17.5 inches or 21.5 inches in length. If we were to consider a cubit to be 17 ½ inches, then one thousand cubits equal 486.1 yards. That means that the width of the river would be four football field lengths plus 86 yards. If we were to use the 21 ½ inch cubits then the width of the river would be 597.2 yards, or essentially the length of six football fields.

Mathematically we can say that the river that flowed from the sacred building through the desert to the Dead Sea was five to six football fields wide. We don’t know how long the river was and it doesn’t matter. What really matter is what the river symbolizes and how that applies to our lives.

river_of_lifeI believe to get the full measure of what the Bible has to teach us we need to liken each verse to ourselves and to our everyday life. Insert your name when applicable into verses and passages of Scripture so that it looks like it was referring to you. Apply the lessons of those passages to your daily life.

Symbolism
To apply the passage of Scripture found in Ezekiel 47 we need to understand the symbolism of the building, the wilderness, the Dead Sea and the river of water that comes from the building as it goes through the wilderness and into the Dead Sea.

The building, is the source of the river of water. The sanctuary could represent the Scriptures, the gospel of Jesus Christ, a temple or prophet etc.

The wilderness or the desert represents our lives and the lives of those around us. The Dead Sea is also symbolic of our lives before the healing gospel message is internalized by us.

In the Scriptures, the water issues forth from the temple going through the wilderness and into the Dead Sea. The angel takes Ezekiel to the river and he walks across the river and it goes up to his ankles. A second time Ezekiel crosses the river and it goes up to his knees. A third time Ezekiel crosses the river and it goes up to his waist. The last time Ezekiel goes to the river, the river is so deep that Ezekiel cannot cross the river unless he swims.

Let’s read a few verses from Ezekiel 47, starting with verse seven “Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other. Then said he unto me, these waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the (dead) sea: which being brought forth into the (dead) sea, the waters shall be healed. And it shall come to pass that everything that liveth, which move with, whithersoever the river shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live whether the river cometh… And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.”

When you apply water to soil, you can go from a barren ground to a fertile land teaming with all types of plant life. From the plant life comes animal life.

Ezekiel goes back to the bank of this very wide river and sees on both banks of the river a multitude of trees and vegetation. He notices fish living in the healed waters. He notes that these trees have fruit for eating and leaves for medicine. Everything needed to sustain life.

The “river of life” mentioned in this biblical metaphor creates life-sustaining substance from something that is barren.

Compare this to our life. Our lives are spiritually barren until the river of life flows through the barren spirit of our life. If we let the river of the gospel flow through our lives at ankle depth then great things can happen to a barren soul.

If we let the river of life flow through our soul at knee depth, we are blessed even more. The spiritual sides of our lives are transformed. Out of darkness our spirits are filled with the bright light of the gospel. If we let the river of life flow through us up to our waste, as it were, we notice even greater spiritual life welling up within us.

As the river of life that flows through us gets so deep we have to swim then we notice that God is making more of us than we can ever make of ourselves. All we ever had to do was open the floodgate and let the water in.

If we find ourselves swimming in the healing river of the gospel of Jesus Christ, completely submerged in these life-giving waters, we can find ourselves made whole in many different ways. If we have sinned, we can open the floodgate through repentance and be made whole again. If we are suffering trouble through no fault of our own, we can open the floodgate to the healing waters of Jesus Christ. If we need strength for the trials’ we face, we can open the floodgate of the river of life to give us strength for the burdens we face. For all of these blessings, all we have to do is open the floodgate and let the waters flow freely through our life.

Think how wonderful this is, that we can be healed by the rivers of life. Consider another point, not only can we be healed, we can become fruitful with all kinds of trees, vegetation and fish growing and developing within us. This is symbolic of our growing spirituality to becoming a source of spiritual strength and nourishment to others.

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