Noah: The Flood

       This post will be about Noah just before and during the flood and can be found in chapter 7 of Genesis.. God decided to spare Noah, his family including his sons and their families, and the animals. God gave Noah very specific instructions on how to build the ark. The ark must be constructed out of cyprus wood. The ark had to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The original measurements being 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high (which is about 140 meters long, 23 meters wide, and 13.5 meters high for our international readers).I still wonder if that is large enough to house all the animals and its' human occupants.
        Anyway, God commanded Noah to take two pairs of every unclean and 7 pairs of every clean animal onto the ark. God commanded Noah to gather 7 pairs of every kind of bird. Is that because birds are clean or does it speak of the importance of birds? Further, what happened to all the trees; did they survive that year underwater? After Noah had completed what God had assigned him, he was told that he would have to wait 7 days until the flood would come. The rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights. Afterwards, the rain subsided and the entire world was covered in water, according to the text. Noah was told to take every kind of food that is designed to be eaten for Noah, his family, and the animals. However, Noah and his family were not charged with replanting the earth. In addition, weeds were not considered food yet they clearly survived the flood. How plants, aside from food, survived the flood is a mystery.
       At this point, Noah was 600 years old. This has got to be a surprise to someone of that age. Noah had to have had a lot of faith to build the ark. Noah and his family waited until the day of the flood to get on the ark. It occurred on the second month on the seventh day, according to the lunar calendar.
       The story states that the flood waters covered the mountains. I think it can be surmised that these waters were very violent. The reason for this lies in a statement made in the Bible that nothing that had breathe living on the earth survived. Since it is likely that people, even without having knowledge of the upcoming flood, could have quickly built a raft or used their boats if they had one. The boat option is a likely choice for fishermen. Since the text states that no one survived save Noah and the ark, it can be reasonably theorized that anyone who possessed boats, such as fishermen, would have had to have had dealt with severe turbulence to explain why they did not survive. The flood waters remained on the Earth for 150 days. This would be about five months. I think the waters were calm at this point. For those of you keeping count, that's about six months that Noah was on the ark with his family and all those animals. I imagine that that was not a comfortable experience and it was not yet done.
       The flood waters took five months to recede from the Earth. On the seventh month on the seventh day, the ark came to rest in the area around the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to recede until the mountains could be seen on the on the 10 month on the first day. This can be difficult to follow, so be sure, I did evaluate it before posting it. By this, I mean I made sure that the dates lined up.