52 Weeks in the Ark with Noah and Family (WEEK 1) – The Earth’s Final Week Without Rain
Introduction
Friends ask me why I dwell so much in Old Testament narratives and principles, something which I do unintentionally and which comes rather organically as I write. Besides, Yahusha Himself said “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” (John 5:39) (Yes, even in the old stories we can find eternal life and, certainly, Yahusha!) And Paul added, “Read the scriptures for they serve as the shadow of the things that will come.” (Heb. 8:4-5) At that time, the New Testament had not been compiled as part of the Gospel of the Kingdom but were either oral narratives or epistles written to believers by the apostles and disciples.
Nevertheless, the most compelling reason I write about ancient stories is because what happened in the beginning set the tone for the entire human history, as well as for the coming end-times. When Moses wrote “In the beginning . . . .” in writing about the Creation story, and when John quoted him in writing about the One Who Created all things, we see the first half of the circle of Yah’s dealing with humanity. Simply saying, Moses told a simple story of how things came into being. And John told the following story of how the One Who made all things became like us, the Created Image of Yahuah.
The final half of the circle of Creation is the coming redemption of those whom Yah called to be inheritors of the Kingdom Yahusha established through His servants the apostles and the rest of the 1st-century firstfruits. That is, His New Creation. Hence, John, in writing the last book of the Gospel, merely borrowed the words of the early prophets – from Enoch to Moses to Jeremiah to Ezekiel to Daniel – to prove that the final days had been known since the beginning of time.
There is nothing new under the Sun, as Solomon wrote. Everything we see and experience today has been seen and experienced before, whether in a parallel situation or as a vision of the prophets before they ever happened. Even the Flood that was to come, Enoch already foresaw and told Noah to prepare for it. And now, the fire that Yah told Noah would come as the final tool of judgment is, likewise, foretold and written by John in Revelation. Those who do not fear Yah and, therefore, do not believe scriptures, mock His servants about the coming judgment. For as in the times of Noah, no one believed a Great Flood would destroy the world. Today, how many believe that fire will consume all of Creation in a “fiery indignation”? (Heb. 10:26-27)
We now chronicle Noah’s and his family’s experiences during the full year – yes, 365 days or 52 weeks – that they stayed inside the Ark, in order for us to find wisdom when the final, fiery days would fall upon all humans. And we all know the time is almost ripe for the fulfillment of Yah’s promises through the prophets.
WEEK 1 (10th day to the 16th of Iyar, the second month in the Hebrew Religious Calendar)
In Gen. 8:1-10, Yah told Noah, who was now 600 years old, to take his family and all the animals into the Ark. After those 7 days, the rain and flood would come. So, it took one full week for Noah and his bold family of 7 to gather all the pairs of animals required of them to take into their assigned places inside the Ark.
Before the 11th day of Iyar, the 2nd month of the Hebrew religious calendar which means “blossoming” and a month of “tragedy and triumph”, the Ark had been completed and ready for use at Yah’s calling. The call came on that 11th day of Iyar. The Earth had never had rain since the creation of Adam and Eve. And for another final week, the Earth would remain untouched by precipitation from condensed water vapor in the atmosphere. (Jubilees 5:23) See the whole passage below in the Notes)
“And he entered in the sixth (year) thereof, in the second month, on the new moon of the second month, till the sixteenth; and he entered, and all that we brought to him, into the ark, and the Lord closed it from without on the seventeenth evening.”
The call to enter the Ark had come! While there was yet no rain, the weather was almost perfect. It had been that way since the time of Adam after the Fall. But humans had become so sinful that Yahuah had decided to destroy all life, except for 8 souls. In a way, you cannot blame the unbelievers who mocked Noah for building an Ark on a hill. Rain was never part of human consciousness and experience. At that time, there was a water canopy that surrounded the Earth and kept a perfect subtropical climate on a global scale. Yes, even the North and South Poles had such flourishing flora and fauna because the canopy produced a Greenhouse Effect that allowed life to grow and thrive from the waters flowing in the ancient rivers that produced mist so close to the ground that the dew watered the plants and filled animals, which all grew to be so gigantic in size. What we see now among plants and animals are so minute compared to the thriving life then. Even humans today are so puny compared to those super-intelligent multi-centenarians.
This means, Noah and his family took with them younglings of animals, maybe a year, more or less, in age. Seven pairs of the “clean” animals and 1 pair of the “unclean” animals. That early, Yah had taught humans to identify, through the help of Adam in the beginning, the names and nature of animals. Obviously, the most notorious “unclean” animal was the serpent because of its deceitfulness. This means, in tempting Eve to eat of the Forbidden Fruit, through the lies fed to it by the fallen angel, the serpent had connived with Satan to induce Eve to sin. The rebellion of the serpent made it not only unclean but wicked and was thus cursed accordingly to crawl on the ground. (Gen. 3:14-15) And since then, animals have become dumb and lost their ability to speak, although they have tongues so similar to ours. Their vocabulary is limited to a few vowels and consonants, enough to say meow, moo, tweet and baah!
From the time Adam and Eve had sinned, the whole of Creation gradually fell as well into moral decay and physical corruption. Death had become real and encompassed all of Creation. This global downward spiral was rapidly caused and aided when fallen angels mated with human women and produced hybrid beings who practiced the forbidden magical arts taught by those fallen angels. Their offspring (called Nephilim) learned to practice sorcery, the making of implements of murder and warfare, the use of root medicine to induce hallucination and empower people to do supernatural deeds, the study and worship celestial bodies such as the Sun, the Moon and the planets, the art of alchemy which eventually became the basis of modern chemistry and science, the practice of psychological powers such as hypnotism, and other esoteric practices meant to control humans and lead them to commit lewd and immoral acts.
Moreover, those wicked beings influenced animals to commit murder against humans and other animals. Yes, even animals had been altered genetically, not just humans, to commit abominable acts that caused Yah to be greatly enraged. Today, the animalistic spirits that once converted tame animals into wild creatures have survived, along with the human spirits that caused – and still cause — humans to commit abominable deeds. The resurgence of these wicked spirits in Creation has caused the further corruption of human civilizations throughout history. The Egyptian nation provides us a prominently clear proof of a human religion centered around the worship of celestial bodies and animals, that is, the evil spirits or fallen angelic beings dwelling in Nature and within animals. We should be thankful we do not see large dinosaurs, wild dragons and fierce sea serpents roaming around the world today.
The coming of the Flood was meant to clean the world of those corrupt human souls and animal spirits that had replaced all normal and godly life created by Yah.
We can now appreciate Yah’s decision to use Noah and his family to save and preserve a few good human and animal seeds in order to renew Creation. It required boldness to accomplish what Yah had commanded Noah and his family to do: to build an Ark for 120 years, preach righteousness to others, to gather hundreds of animals and bring them into the Ark, and, most of all, to live for a year inside the dark, musty and smelly interiors of the Ark.
Many of us would also feel a bit foolish as to enter a windowless mall-shaped wooden vessel on a clear, cloudless and cool day along with so many noisy, young animals. So many today have learned to love and treat their pet animals as if they were family members. For Noah and his crew of 7, feeding and collecting and throwing the manure of those numerous animals into the belly of the Ark took priority over petting and pampering them as pets. It was a tiring, 24/7 job. And they had a one-year contract!
For the information of many, there were 4 compartments inside the Ark. As Noah was commanded and as he himself wrote, “You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.” That meant he was to build an Ark or a box and then make or furnish (Hebrew ‘asah) it with 3 decks or floors. Hence, you end up with 4 compartments, the bottom to be used as a big cistern or tank for human and animal waste and used water. Can you imagine how smelly and unlivable the Ark would have been without the proper plumbing and waste disposal system?
The lowest deck, we presume, was for the largest and heaviest animals, such as elephants, rhinos and buffalos; while the middle was for the medium-sized animals that walked and crawled on the ground, such as frogs, squirrels, dogs and iguanas. The top floor was for the birds and fowls. In terms of sanitation, this makes sense, since larger animals ate more and produced more waste and the smaller animals ate less and made less manure, while birds ate the least and made the least amount of waste. Cleaning and washing of dirt would have also been proportionate to the water (and food) stored on the various decks. Yah was concerned about the stability of the Ark as well.
Finally, the work was assigned to Noah’s children accordingly: Shem and his wife would have been the first-deck caretakers, being older and more mature and able-bodied. Note that Shem was only about 20 and, most probably single, when Noah began building the Ark. His brothers may still have been unborn or so young at that time. Ham had the middle deck and Japheth had the top deck. Of course, Noah and his wife helped the three pairs whenever they could.
Significance in Modern Times
Before the coming of the end-times, the people of the world will live like “in the days of Noah. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be”. (Matt. 24:36-39) While in those days, there was no rain, no flood and no storms; today, there are disastrous rains, floods and super-storms. But people will continue to live as they have before, because they have become used to these disasters. There are forests fires, droughts and plagues; but people will not really mind and continue on doing what they have been doing. Technology and modern conveniences allow us to weather all these crises. We have enough control over geophysical and political chaos. So it seems.
That is, until the judgment by fire finally comes. But many will not worry about this “fervent heat” that will melt all the elements because it has never been seen or experienced by humans.
The first week that Noah and his family entered the Ark was the moment when the last call for repentance and returning to Yah’s favor ceased. Today, the warnings and the signs are many and clear. The Week 1 that Noah and his crew got ready to face the coming judgment of the Great Flood could be for us 7 days, 7 weeks, 7 years or 7 centuries that Yah has been making the call for the world to heed His mercy and grace. Or it could be 52 weeks or 1 year before the signs will suddenly turn into the real judgment to come.
The extreme sinfulness of the wicked fallen angels had come upon the world on the 10th to 16th days of the second month. The world was ripe for harvesting — the good for planting more good fruits and the bad for burning in intense fire. The time we have now is the time to prepare for the loving, saving call of Yah and for us to enter into His grace. His Ark is His blessed Kingdom in New Yerushalem, a huge foursquare city or Box where His redeemed will dwell with Him for eternity. (Rev. 21:9-27; 22:1-5)
Enoch foresaw the Ark and the Flood. John foresaw the Heavenly New Yerushalem and the judgment by fire. Whether it is by a gigantic asteroid hitting the Earth, a global nuclear holocaust, or an “atmospheric ignition” caused by a huge plant engaged in a quantum-physics experiment to search the “God Particle”, will not make any difference with respect to human life. It is not for humans to decide to destroy the whole Universe. Only the Creator can. For as Peter had warned a long time ago:
But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night, in which the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will melt with fervent heat; both the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up. (2 Pet. 3:10)
Notes:
And He said ‘My spirit shall not always abide on man; for they also are flesh and their days shall be one hundred and twenty years’.
And He sent His sword into their midst that each should slay his neighbour, and they began to slay each other till they all fell by the sword and were destroyed from the earth.
And their fathers were witnesses (of their destruction), and after this they were bound in the depths of the earth for ever, until the day of the great condemnation, when judgment is executed on all those who have corrupted their ways and their works before the Lord.
And He destroyed all from their places, and there was not left one of them whom He judged not according to all their wickedness.
And he made for all his works a new and righteous nature, so that they should not sin in their whole nature for ever, but should be all righteous each in his kind alway.
And the judgment of all is ordained and written on the heavenly tablets in righteousness — even (the judgment of) all who depart from the path which is ordained for them to walk in; and if they walk not therein, judgment is written down for every creature and for every kind.
And there is nothing in heaven or on earth, or in light or in darkness, or in Sheol or in the depth, or in the place of darkness (which is not judged); and all their judgments are ordained and written and engraved.
“The Construction of Noah’s Ark” painting By Jacopo Bassano – The Yorck Project (2002) (10.000 Meisterwerke der Malerei (DVD-ROM), distributed by DIRECTMEDIA Publishing GmbH. ISBN: 3936122202., Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=156520)
Noah and his family bring animals inside the Ark painting courtesy of https://christianfaithguide.com/how-many-wives-did-noah-have/