Manariwa

WEEK 4 (2nd to the 8th day of Shivan, the 3rd month of the Hebrew Religious Calendar)

It is now the 4^th week for Noah and his family inside the Ark and it has rained for 28 days by the end of this week. That would place our water level based on the record rainfall rate at about 50 meters. Again, this does not come anywhere close to the actual height of the flood because we said water from the sky and from underneath the Earth were the only sources of the water floods. By that, we mean, there was technically no water falling in the form of condensed water vapor in the atmosphere, as we have today.

Let us take a step backward and recall that Yah had clearly revealed to Moses that it “had not rained in those days”. (Gen. 2:4-6) The Water Cycle that we know serves the needs of living creatures on Earth depends on solar energy to evaporate water and to drive the moisture (by winds generated by the Sun’s heat), which then condenses when it reaches a certain low temperature, thus, producing water droplets in the form of rain. Then the cycle continues all over again without stop. Hence, no rain before the Flood meant there were no atmospheric evaporation and condensation, perhaps, only limited near the land surface where the so-called “mist” watered the Garden of Eden. Where then did the huge amount of water from the sky come from?

From the Water Canopy. In Gen. 1:6-8, we read that Yah separated the water into two parts: the part below that covered the Earth and the part above the Earth, that is above the atmosphere. These were bodies of water which were either liquid or, at least, one of them was, because the Water Canopy could have been liquid, gaseous or frozen. Most likely, liquid as we assume the so-called “firmament” or “vault” (which suggests a firm or solid object) was not actually a real description of the state of the water but only had the appearance thereof.

In Job 37:18, the sky is described as “strong as a cast metal mirror”. Could this have been an optical illusion referred to as the “firmament”, which was liquid but acted like a solid glass that reflected back the light from the surface of the Earth and which, therefore, may have given humans a circular, panoramic view of the world above? And that the Water Canopy did exist in primeval times and ingeniously provided the perfect, greenhouse conditions necessary for Paradise to exist?

Today, we could never have imagined — in the absence of revelation and science — how the ancient world looked like. But with a proper understanding of Scriptures and the application of basic geometry and physics, we can prove that the Water Canopy that formed the firmament after creation served to produce a homogenous, sub-tropical climate throughout the entire globe.

However, before we proceed, we must show the great possibility that the Water Canopy was liquid and not vapor or ice for the following reasons:

1.  When Moses wrote that God divided the waters, we have reason to take that to mean that the waters remained liquid (“divide the waters from the waters”).

2. At the altitude of the Ozone Layer, the atmospheric temperature remains at the level equal to the air at the Earth’s surface where much of the water exists in liquid form. Hence, water would have remained liquid if we assume the canopy formerly existed instead of the Ozone Layer.

3.  If it had been vapor or ice, much of the sunlight would have been filtered out and caused temperatures to fall below ideal levels since vapor and ice crystals would tend to diffuse or dissipate light instead of letting it through. 

4.  A liquid shell forming a shield (or “force field”) around the globe would have contained the Earth in a more homogenous climate system and also prevented harmful radiation and ions from entering, more readily, that is, than if it had been water vapor instead.

5.  Lastly, if it had been vapor, it would have been so thick or deep for enough water to drown the Earth together with the water from the fountains. If so, the nights would have been so dark and the days gloomy, a condition which would be inconsistent with God’s original design. This is the case of Jupiter whose surface is essentially covered in darkness because of the deep layer of methane in its atmosphere.         

What then did this canopy serve in the past?

From the figure above, we see how a ray of light from the Sun would bounce from the Earth’s surface and gets reflected by the Water Canopy (which serves as a curved mirror in the sky) back to the surface on the night-side of the globe. The light – now with greatly reduced intensity — will again bounce back to the mirror and gets reflected back on the Earth on the farther side. (Other rays hitting directly the surface would simply bounce back and forth and, in effect, retain some of the light energy within the Earth’s atmosphere while some of the energy will return to space.)

The angles of deflection are assumed ideal, that is, based on a perfectly smooth mirror. But in reality, the light will be diffused due to the irregularity and roughness of the Earth’s surface. We can then assume that the canopy would produce a warm glow, if not a rough mirror-image of the Earth where the light has bounced off. The brown soil, blue waters and green vegetation – or a diffused mixture of those colors — would dominate that image painted above the horizon. In short, the night would never be as pitch-black as on a moonless, cloudy evening. The whole night sky would shine with stars sparkling through this ethereal dome stretching from the East to the West and from the North to the South. Only at midnight would a slight darkness occur but would not last for more than an hour or two, perhaps. But we will show that this may not even be so because of another phenomenal effect of the canopy.

The infrared energy trapped by the Water Canopy would produce a Greenhouse Effect that will maintain the atmospheric temperatures even during night-time within comfortable levels. Talk about living in Paradise where there are no dark or cold nights. This is a fact borne by scientific evidence. 

Moreover, during the day, the canopy would have kept much of the solar heat out since the outer surface of the canopy served as a mirror to keep out so much solar energy. The ambient temperature would have been kept practically at a constant “room” temperature equivalent to that of the human body. No wonder Adam and Eve did not need any clothes, day or night! (And even after they sinned, they needed only fig leaves on – and only to keep the shame away and not the heat or cold.) 

From this simple illustration, we can then conclude that the climate during ancient times remained near perfect conditions until the time when the ways of humans led the Creator to dispose of the Water Canopy and brought it falling down as the first rain. And together with the water that came from beneath the Earth, we have the Great Flood that Noah and his family alone survived.   

In addition to the previous scenario we must highlight another aspect that made the Water Canopy serve not just a way for producing a Greenhouse Effect. It served to provide additional illumination at night not just from the East (the way it does during sunrise) or from the West (during sunset), but practically above the entire horizon up to the zenith. This surrounding reflection and radiation of the Sun behind the Earth prevented the dark nights we now have and produced a lingering dawn or dusk that disappeared only when the Sun came out again. With the Moon and the stars providing their light, we would expect the nights to have been as bright as the moment the Sun sinks on the horizon and remains so till daybreak. And with no clouds back then whatsoever, there was no possibility of those lights to be blocked off. 

This phenomenon was further enhanced by the ability of light to bend (like water flowing in a tube) in curved materials or substances such as optic-fibers. The Water Canopy was in reality a thin, transparent shell which conveyed or transmitted light from the day-side all the way to the night-side and all around as long as the energy lasted. A simple experiment will prove this: Shine a tiny pin-light or laser light into the edge of a clear glass bowl in a dark room and you will see the ray bent along the bowl toward the opposite edge. The ray actually forms a streak of light in the glass – or the canopy, for that matter. With light coming from a 360-degree circle behind the Earth at night, the whole canopy and the sky will illumine the whole night. So, even without the Moon or the stars, the night would have been still as bright as dawn or dusk with that even glow the canopy gave.

Our Creator must have made it so in this manner in spite of the light provided by the “lesser lights” – that is, the Moon and stars — for He knew that in the future, the Water Canopy would be removed and along with it its heavenly light that made the ancient nights not cold, gloomy and fearful. With human folly ruling the face of the Earth, however, He then made things entirely different in order to punish misbehavior as well as to instill fear and discipline.

In a world not stained by sin, God saw to it that the complete darkness (the complete absence of light) which existed before light came into being would still be part of His Creation merely as partial darkness (the partial lack or reduction of light). Darkness (so with chaos and voidness) then did not rule over Creation and over humans but merely existed as the possible antithesis of light. Hence, whereas light was real; darkness was not. And as long as there was light, true darkness was not possible. In the same manner, sin and death were possible in God’s world only through disobedience. Darkness and death are still choices given to humans today as they were during Adam’s or Noah’s time. 

And so, we read in Gen. 1:4-5 what Moses recorded:

And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.

The Hebrew word for evening (‘ereb) means “dusk” and that for morning (boqer) is “dawn”. We could take this to mean that the whole day seemed like dawn or dusk – not cold or hot but perfectly mild. Imagine being refreshed all day long as if you just woke up. The exhilarating feeling of waking up to bird songs and the sweet smell of the morning dew on the grass would last till sunset and maybe even into the night. Or, we could take it to mean that the evening (the nighttime) seemed like dusk — not dark or bright but just right — because of the effect that the Water Canopy provided, while the morning (the daytime) seemed like dawn because the Sun’s rays were filtered by the same canopy and kept the brightness and temperatures within comfortable levels. Hence, people did not need clothing to keep out coldness or heat. The way Paradise should be!

We must presume that such conditions prevailed that way until the time of Noah since the Water Canopy still existed right before the Flood. Alas, what we lost after the Flood would no longer return! The removal of the Water Canopy through the eventful Flood brought much darkness into the world, among other geophysical changes. The climate changed drastically, the nights became intolerably dark and cold in many parts; and the days also became oppressively hot at daytime in other parts. What previously served to control a perfect environment became an instrument to destroy life and to alter the conditions that made life once-upon-a-time very comfortable and productive.                                             

Utopian conditions did exist in the past. Only Noah and his family would witness its disappearance. Today, as we live in the “days of Noah”, we are already witnessing the gradual disappearance of this world in its many aspects. Perhaps, the changing weather patterns we now call Climate Change are indeed of our own abusive and negligent making. And that the now-degraded and thickly-polluted but once-pristine coastlands, valleys, fields and mountains are products of our failed stewardship of our Blue Planet. And most grievously, as in the previous days of Noah, our moral and spiritual values have taken such a steep slide into the abyss from which we may never recover because the forces working against us have sought from the beginning till now to bring this Planet to a place and a condition Yah never willed it should go.

Just as Noah and his family were fighting for their own lives, the life of the animals, the life of the seeds of plants they brought, and the life of the Planet itself, we must also fight. Not for the survival of the Planet and all life upon it, but for the promises that had been given back in the Garden of Eden when Elohim entered into a covenant with Adamah and Havah. The Tree of Life was the promise of Life already planted in our parents’ Garden and where Elohim walked with our parents.

Today, we thank Yah we are not inside the Ark and floating in the Great Flood. However, we still live on this Planet but floating in a virtual deluge, bringing raging currents and sweeping a big part of humanity and slowly swallowing multitudes through the wickedness and lies spread by Satan’s wicked angels at work in the nefarious worldly systems.

During the whole year they were in the Ark, we can never imagine Noah and his family raising up a party, or striking up a family band to celebrate the destruction of the Earth; while the world was going about its reckless and wicked ways. Perhaps, they prayed a lot and wept a lot because of what had come upon all humans. They still did not know what was truly happening outside and what the future would bring much later on. They had hope and assurance, true; but they must also have had great uncertainty and confusion.

How does one worship or thank Elohim under such circumstances? You probably do it silently with great relief for yourself but still with great anguish and fear. Before the final trial by Great Fire comes, how do we prepare for ourselves and our loved ones? Noah and his family have much to teach us still.