Adam’s Sorrow
All of us are familiar with the story of Noah, who built the Ark. But recently, I re-read the Biblical account, and gained new insight about that event in history.
I suddenly noticed several new details.
Genesis 5 starts out with a genealogy of Adam’s descendants. Adam lived 800 years after Eve gave birth to his third son Seth. So he saw 7 generations of sons and daughters born into his family line after being kicked out of Eden.
Adam hadn’t yet died when Noah’s grandfather Methuselah was born. In fact, he lived another 131 years. Why is this important? Because the Scriptures state that people’s longer life-spans let human evil and violence mature, corrupting everything.
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. (Genesis 6:5-6 NIV)
Adam, and perhaps Eve too, saw the horrible fruit which grew out of their first sinful choice to disobey their loving Creator. They became lifelong exiles from paradise, grieving when Cain murdered his brother. But afterwards, they saw the evil ripening in all their descendants. The purity and joy Adam and Eve had experienced with God in Eden? Their sons, daughters and great-great-grandchildren had no idea.
Scripture-based Facts about Noah
- The living creatures God wanted to save came freely to Noah. Each pair supernaturally sought him out, once the Ark was completed (Genesis 6:20-22 NIV).
- In his day, Noah was almost certainly a social outcast. Evil people always think the righteous are fools.
- Building the Ark completely disrupted Noah’s regular life. It took several years and made him a laughing stock.
- Every type of creature came to Noah in pairs. But 375 days later, the Bible says they came out of the Ark as families.
- If they became pregnant, most female creatures on the Ark would have given birth in less than a year, while still on their journey.
Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark. (Genesis 8:19 ESV)
Under Resources is an image of Noah’s Ark in Kentucky, built using the Biblical dimensions. To get a true sense of the scale, a handful of picnic tables and a few people are in front of the Ark.
Some Additional Insights
Looking at the timing of each event, I figured out how long Noah and his family floated on the floodwaters. Genesis 7:11 mentions when the flood started. Genesis 8:13 notes when the waters dried up and Noah took the Ark’s roof off.
Yet no living creature, including Noah’s family, left the Ark until almost 2 months later (Genesis 8:14-16). Noah patiently waited to get the “all-clear” from God.
Why the delay?
Perhaps to give time for the plants to grow again and start to produce the fruit and seeds the newly released animals would need to eat.
Emptying the Ark
To avoid panic, confusion and bloodshed, Noah and his people probably did a gradual release the entire day.
Of course, this is just my guess.
Freeing the smaller species, like mice, rats, chipmunks and rabbits in the early morning hours.would give the littlest creatures time to feed, dig burrows and hide from the predators. Sheep, goats, camels and other herbivores would also be set free early in the day, to munch on the fresh grass.
Later in the afternoon, the smaller meat-eaters, such as foxes, weasels and ferrets would be released, followed by the wolves, bears and mountain lions toward the evening.
My last idea? Maybe Noah’s family gave the predators one last hearty meal before opening their cages.
After all, it’s what I would have done.
All images came from Pixabay.com
Resources:
Author’s note: After several weeks, I now think that perhaps the Lord supernaturally emptied the Ark the way He loaded it, peacefully.
In Kentucky, some people built a replica of Noah’s Ark, using the measurements the Lord gave Noah in Genesis 6. Check out How Big was Noah’s Ark?
To get a true sense of the massive size of the reconstructed Ark, YouTube has an evening drone shot of the entire structure. Here’s the link.
