The story of Noah’s Ark and the Flood has been taught throughout the world to billions of people, most when they were very young kids. For many it’s one of the first ‘Bible Stories’ they hear. Thousands of children’s books are sold with brightly colored graphics depicting a happy Noah in a boat filled with adorable smiling animals and framed by a rainbow. What’s amazing is this is not even, in the remotest sense, a children’s story. It is a much more serious scenario that most adults, due to their first introduction to it as children, have never considered. Are you ready to consider it now?
Why Noah Built the Ark
Why is always a good place to start, and the story of Noah’s Ark is no different. Noah built the Ark because God told him to. But, why did God tell Noah to build an Ark?
“And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said to 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 6:12-13
The word “flesh” is also be translated as people. The ways of the people were corrupt or contrary to the ways of God. God specifically calls out the violence that filled the earth. This isn’t painting a very positive picture! Even so, let’s get more details from the Book of Jasher.
“And all the sons of men departed from the ways of the Lord in those days as they multiplied on the face of the earth with sons and daughters, and they taught one another their evil practices, and they continued sinning against the Lord. And every man made to himself a god, and they robbed and plundered every man his neighbor as well as his relative, and they corrupted the earth, and the earth was filled with violence.”
Jasher 4:16-17
Violence & Idolatry
To put it simply, the people of the earth turned away from God and His Ways. They instead turned towards violence and idolatry. This is why God told Noah to build the boat. He brought a remnant of righteous people through the tribulation and destruction of the wicked.
“And the Lord said, I will blot out man that I created from the face of the earth, yes from man to the birds of the air, together with cattle and beasts that are in the field, for I repent that I made them… And Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord, and the Lord chose him and his children to raise up seed from them on the face of the whole earth.”
Jasher 4:19-21
Opportunity for Repentance
God was angry. But even in His anger, he told Noah to proclaim to the people what they were doing wrong in order to give them a chance to repent, or change their ways and thereby put off the coming destruction and tribulation.
“Speak you, and proclaim to the sons of men, saying, thus says the Lord, return from your evil ways and forsake your works, and the Lord will repent of the evil that he declared to do to you, so that it shall not come to pass. For thus says the Lord, behold I give you a period of one hundred and twenty years; if you will turn to Me and forsake your evil ways, then will I also turn away from the evil which I told you, and it shall not exist, says the Lord. And Noah and Methuselah spoke all the words of the Lord to the sons of men, day after day, constantly speaking to them. But the sons of men would not hearken to them, nor incline their ears to their words, and they were stiff-necked.”
Jasher 5:7-10
Did they repent? No.
“But the sons of men would not hearken, neither would they incline their ears to all their declarations. And it was after this that the Lord said to Noah, the end of all flesh is come before me, on account of their evil deeds, and behold I will destroy the earth.”
Jasher 5:24-25
How to Build the Ark
God instructed Noah to build a very specific boat. God identified the length, width and height in precise measurements. Now, some will say this was to ensure all the animals could fit but they have, you could say, missed the boat. Throughout God’s Word there are shadows or parables that point from one thing to another and Noah’s Ark is one of those shadows. For an introduction into a shadow found in Noah’s Ark, watch the linked Proof of the Creator video. You will learn of a connection between Noah’s Ark and our Sun, a connection we could only come to understand in recent history.
Who Entered the Ark
You know this part, right? Two animals of every kind walked into the Ark. Noah, his wife and their three sons and three daughters-in-law fed, watered and refereed all the animals for one year until the flood receded. Right? Wrong.
First off, let’s put some logic to this scenario. The animals that entered the Ark were seven pairs of clean animals and two pairs of unclean animals. Depending on your definition of “kind”, there are estimates that range any where from 7,000 animals to 100,000 animals. Let’s proceed with the understanding that 50,000 animals live in one boat for a year with all of the required food and water. How did Noah keep the cats from eating the mice and the goats from eating, well, everything?
For comparison, one of worlds largest zoo’s is the Moscow Zoo with 1,226 species and 25,400 individual animals. But how big of a space houses those 25,000 animals? The Moscow Zoo is a 53-acre park which is 2.3 million square feet. That’s 12.7 times more square feet than the three floors of the Ark of Noah, housing half the estimated animals.
Most Zoo’s are laid out like parks so they can fit all the visitors and give animals sufficient space. But the Moscow Zoo, or any zoo for that matter, is not self-sufficient to last on its own for a full year with a staff of only eight people. Even if the number of animals in the Ark was as low as 7,000, this was an impossible endeavor for eight people to handle. Smell something fishy?
Animals Shadow People
The ‘animals’ in the Ark of Noah, were not animals like lions and bears, but they were people. Throughout God’s Word he refers to people as a type of animal because they have similar characteristics to those animals. We still do this today! When the Chicago Bears play the Detroit Lions, do you expect actual lions and bears to battle it out on a football field? No, and it’s the same here.
One of the clearest examples is when Jacob gathers his sons and prophesies of their future in Genesis 49. Jacob compared Judah to lion, Issachar to an ass or donkey, Dan to a serpent, Naphtali to a hind which is a stag or deer and Benjamin to a wolf. In the New Testament, Jesus said he came “for the lost sheep of the House of Israel.” This is not a flock of actual sheep, but people. Likewise, the wicked and ungodly are identified as serpents, dragons, dogs and pigs.
“As a dog returns to his vomit, so a fool returns to his folly.”
Proverb 26:11 (2 Peter 20-22)
A fool turns away from God and back to worldly foolishness. He is as a dog. It is the same with the animals in the Ark, they were people. For that matter, it is the same with most animals in the Bible. From the serpent in the garden of Eden all the way to the hateful birds in the Book of Revelation!
“And he (an angel) cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of demons, and the hold of every foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird.”
Revelation 18:2
Two of Every Flesh
“And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said to 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 6:12-13
Revisiting Genesis 6, remember we covered above that ‘flesh’ refers to people. Well this same word is used here:
“And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall you bring into the Ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.”
Gen 6:19
The “animals” that walked into the Ark were people.
A Time of Tribulation, Again
The time leading up to the Flood and the experience of going through the flood was a time of tribulation. There was a set time where the righteous warned the wicked to turn back to God. The warning was to stop all idolatrous worship practices and violence. That same warning applies now!
History is repeating itself. It is time once again, to stop all ways that are against God, His Commandments and His Instructions. Stop the idolatry, stop the violence and return to God. God’s wrath will once again come upon the earth. Peter explains that this time the destruction will come by fire.
“Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water. Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.”
2 Peter 3:1-7
Days of the Son of Man
“And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built. But the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed them all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.”
Luke 17:26-30
Just as in the time of Noah, there was a small remnant of people who made it through the flood. Similarly, there is another Remnant spoken of that will make it through this next tribulation. That is why it is the end of the world for some, but the end of an age for others. Now ask yourself, are you in the right boat and who is this Son of Man?
“…Strait is the gate, and narrow is the way (to the boat), which leads to life, and few (A Remnant) there be that find it.”
Matthew 7:14