<p> The Noahic Covenant</p><p>Ask anyone about the story of the Great Flood and you will hear the response that Noah built an ark and the animals came on board two by two along with Noah and his family. It then rained forty days and forty nights, and all on the ark were saved. It appears to be a very simple story, and on the surface it is a simple story. But, as you delve into the details of the flood and the ark you find there is much more to the story, a story that has affected us all throughout these many generations. One detail usually missed is the affect of the flood on the transition of man’s life span from the nine hundred plus years before the flood to many years less after the flood. Another aspect of the story is the fact that only those who believed were saved – a lesson we also find in the New Testament. Then there are the details of the ark given to Noah by God, what these facts mean and their relationship to us today. Other factors relate to the environment before the flood versus the environment after the flood and its affect on mankind. And finally, there is an element of spirituality in the entire context of the story that must not be overlooked in order to understand the fullness of this transitory period in the life of man. But for the sake of time and space I will only deal with some of these subjects. </p><p>As a result of this catastrophic event God established a covenant with Noah and all mankind forever called the Noahic Covenant, which was within the confines of the Plan of God from the beginning. Although the Covenant reconfirms the conditions of the Adamic Covenant it includes the authorization to kill animals for food, instills the fear of man into animals, and confirms the seasons. It also establishes human government as a control for sin and violence, the protection of human life, and the control of the actions of others. Although on the surface it does not appear to be part of the covenant a major element of it however is the future reduction of man’s life span to one hundred twenty years. This Covenant was sealed with a rainbow as God’s promise not to ever again destroy every living thing by water. (Genesis 9:1-17). The foundation of this Covenant with Noah has its roots in Genesis 6:8, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” </p><p>The primary reason I want to get into this kind of detail is to demonstrate the attributes of God in His relationship with us. It is not our relationship with God that I wish to expand upon, but His relationship with us. Therefore, in </p><p>1 order to understand this relationship it is necessary to delve into the entire story of Noah, and specifically the ark, the flood, the ages of man, and the timing of the events before and after the period. When Scripture details major events such as the fall in the Garden of Eden, the flood and the resurrection it means a new direction in the life of man is being orchestrated by God. So, in order to understand the affect the flood had on man and his environment it is imperative that the entire perspective of that event be reviewed and analyzed. </p><p>One Hundred Twenty Years</p><p>To fully understand the story of Noah and the ark it is necessary to go back and start from the beginning, that point in time where Noah first came on the scene. “And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 5:32). The reason for establishing this date in the life of Noah is to put the entire story in perspective with God, and to clarify the statement made by Him in Genesis 6:3, “…yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” There is that group of scholars who believe this means that God said He would destroy the earth in one hundred and twenty years from the time He told Noah to begin building the ark. This definitely is not the case. Scripture does not support that interpretation. God is merely making a statement that over time He will shorten man’s life span to one hundred and twenty years as punishment for the wickedness exhibited before the flood. “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” (Genesis 6:3).</p><p>The question we need to ask is what was the purpose of decreasing the life span or accelerating the aging process? To answer this perplexing question we need to analyze some words in Genesis 6:3. The Hebrew word translated as strive in the KJV means to rule, but can mean to judge. This same word is used in Job 19:29 and means judgement. “…for wrath brings the punishment of the sword, that you may know there is a judgement.” In this case Job is stating that because of wrath there is punishment, and as a result of the punishment you will know there is judgement. In other words, the punishment is judgement. The word is also sometimes translated as contend, which means to stretch out or to strive as in combat or in argument or dispute. All these definitions point to what God is saying in Genesis 6:3; that He will bring His wrath (the flood) against man for his wickedness and </p><p>2 decrease the length of his life. The rationale for the shortened life span is to prevent the reoccurrence of the wickedness of man to the pre-flood level. Josephus, the Jewish historian who lived from AD 37 to AD 100, states the following in “The Antiquity of the Jews.” “God determined to destroy the whole race of mankind and to make another race that should be pure from wickedness; and cutting short their lives and making their years not so many as they formally lived but one hundred twenty years.” As for the rest of mankind Joseph states, “Their lives were much longer than one hundred twenty years for many generations after the flood, and gradually shortened till the days of Moses, and then fixed for some time.” This statement is supported by the data from the fragment of the Book of Enoch. The Book of Enoch was well known in Rome a few hundred years BC. </p><p>Granted on the surface it does appear that God is saying it will be one hundred twenty years before the flood, but there is another word we must analyze before taking a final position that being the word translated as yet in Genesis 6:3. It means iteration, continuance or henceforth. It is from a root word meaning to duplicate, repeat or by implication to protest. Thus, God effected His protest by destroying the wicked and shortening man’s life.</p><p>Also, Scripture tells us the flood destroyed all those who were so wicked or evil. But, is this true? In reading Genesis we find that God found Noah to be righteous. He did not say that all the family was righteous only Noah. So, what we have here is that the sin of the world still has the opportunity to exert itself in the future, which it did. So, naturally God planned to shorten man’s life span to prevent him from sinning to that level ever again. </p><p>The proof that the one hundred and twenty years does not apply to the years before the start of the flood is further substantiated in the appearance of Noah and his three sons on the Biblical scene. Noah was five hundred years old when Shem was born. (Genesis 5:32). “Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood.” (Genesis 11:10). This means that Shem was ninety-seven years old when the flood occurred. “And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.” (Genesis 9:28-29). Therefore, the flood began ninety-seven years after God told Noah to start building the ark not one hundred twenty years. The one hundred twenty years referenced in chapter 6 verse 3 is simply stating that man’s life span will be shortened to one hundred twenty years at some point in the future. Josephus was right in his analysis; man’s years were reduced to one hundred</p><p>3 twenty by the time of Moses. This fact is also depicted in Appendix C attached. (Note: the three appendices are from chapter eight of my book entitled Beyond The Oracles Of God.) </p><p>Appendix A depicts the ages of man from Adam to Noah representing a period of over sixteen hundred years. Note that the average life span was nine hundred seventeen years with the children born when the fathers were over one hundred years of age. If this chart was plotted as an age-related graph verses time it would be virtually a straight line over the specified period.</p><p>Appendix B represents the post-flood specifics of the ages of man from Noah to Moses. Note here that the average ages of the fathers when children were born to them were thirty plus years, verses one hundred plus years pre- flood.</p><p>Appendix C depicts an age related graph verses time from Noah to Moses representing a period of over eight hundred years. As opposed to the same type of graph pre-flood, which would be straight line, this post-flood graph indicates an exponential decrease in the age of man over the specified period. Also note, the age transitional affects occurring at the time of the confusion of languages at the Tower of Babel. No specific reason for this abrupt transition can be explained except that it depicts those generations born immediately after the flood. This rationale is discussed in a separate paper titled “The Transformation Of Man”, which explains in detail the cause and effect of pre/post- flood atmospheric conditions on the age of man. As you can see from the graph in Appendix C that man’s age exponentially decreased from nine hundred years plus to one hundred twenty years beginning with Moses, thus substantiating the claims cited above.</p><p>The Ark</p><p>God instructs Noah to build an ark to house himself, his family and pairs of all the animals on the earth (seven each of some animals, which were used for sacrifice). The ark was to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. Since the Hebrew cubit is 19.0515 inches, this equates to the ark being 476.29 feet long, 79.38 feet wide and 47.63 feet high. Thus, the ark contained 1,767,388 cubic feet within its three decks. (Note: there are some who define a cubic as 21 inches, but this is based on the Egyptian </p><p>4 measurement not the Hebrew.) Noah was to build the ark of gopher wood. Smith’s Bible Dictionary defines gopher wood as cypress based on the type of wood used by the Phoenicians in building their boats. Even some Bible translations state cypress as opposed to the original text, which is gopher wood. But, this is not the case at all. God said, “…make yourself an ark of gopher wood.” Gopher is not a type of wood but a process. It is the process of gopherizing, which in modern technology is called paralam.</p><p>Dr. Carl Baugh, Director of the Creation Research Museum in Glen Rose, Texas cites the following in his book “Footprints and the Stones of Time” regarding gopher wood. “What is gopher wood? We have for decades been trying to find out what it is. Some scholars have suggested it is white oak, some have suggested it is cypress, some have suggested it is acacia wood. That was the wood of which the Ark of the Covenant was made, and acacia wood has some lamination lines and variations in color. The Hebrew word for gopher means to house in, so that the structure becomes one integrated unit.”</p><p>Dr. Baugh goes on to explain the difference between wood as we know it and gopher wood. “In the normal processes almost any wood would have been replaced, or crystallized, and would be petrified to some degree. However, when used with seasoned wood, the process of gopherizing has already taken place: it is already compressed and crystallized. It is not petrified – it is already crystallized. That is part of the genius of gopher wood.”</p><p>Dr. Baugh clears up this mystery by quoting a conversation a Dr. Don Shockley had with a rabbi in Israel. “Do you have any gopher wood? The rabbi responded, ‘Certainly, we have lots of gopher wood.’ Dr. Shockley immediately asked, ‘What kind of wood do you use?’ ‘Well, said the rabbi the Hebrew word for gopher means to house in, and we use living wood – you call it grafting. You have a root stock and the basic stock which is more hardy, and of course you have the particular variation you want – you pull it together and as it grafts it all becomes one unit. The cellular structure becomes integrated and there is the flow of life’s systems. With seasoned wood we use various kinds of wood: we use a resin to glue it together, because resin is compatible with the grain and with the life system of the wood. We know that resin came from wood originally, or from plant material, and it is not exactly the same as plywood – plywood, in fact, is rather crude. Gopher wood is really a structural lamination process.’”</p><p>5 Dr. Baugh goes on to state, “That shed a great deal of light on gopher wood. This piece of paralam happens to be very superior – this particular system of laminating wood produces an extremely strong structure – much stronger than steel, yet it is resilient. A process is utilized whereby the resin penetrates the pores of the cells, and it is already unified – it is already crystallized, yet it is wood.”</p><p>Tsohar</p><p>After God gave Noah the instructions on building the ark, He gave him one additional requirement: “You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above…” (Genesis 6:16). At first glance this is a natural thing to do when building anything such as a boat or a house. One must install windows in order to see out. But, this was not the case with Noah and the ark. Noah had no reason to see what was going on outside during the flood. However, before I proceed with this analysis I want to jump ahead to another window of the ark in Genesis 8:6. “So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.” There are two differences between this passage and the one in 6:16. First, the Hebrew word used in verse 16 is tsohar whereas the Hebrew word in verse 8:6 is challown, thus different meanings. The second difference is that God instructed Noah to build the first window above, but Noah built a second window in the side of the ark on his own. Note the phrase in verse 8:6, “…Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made.” </p><p>The definition of the window in verse 8:6 is that of a typical window (Noah’s window) – a window as in perforated window. However, the definition of the window God instructed Noah to make and finish it to a cubic from above has a different application and as such great spiritual significance. This Hebrew word tsahar, which is the window God instructed Noah to build, means it is an opening for light that is twice the brightness of the noonday sun. It is from a primary root meaning to glisten as the glistening of freshly pressed olive oil. It also has a secondary meaning, which is to produce the light of oil as in anointing. Ok, you probably say, “So what!” But, before you draw any conclusions, ask yourself this question, Why would anyone put a window in the top of a boat if you were going to be</p><p>6 in a rainstorm for forty days and forty nights? Noah did not have glass for the window it was open to the sky. The answer to this odd window arrangement is that God used it to provide light for the ark and to provide His anointing on this venture. Yes in a rain- storm! This is all part of the Noahic Covenant. It is also the main spiritual element of this Biblical story.</p><p>Joseph comments on the construction of the ark. “Now this ark had firm walls, and a roof, and was braced with cross beams, so that it could not be in any way drowned or overborne by the violence of the water.” I think this adds credence to the construction as described – the window in the top. However, there are those translations (the NIV in particular) that states the window to be a one cubic high opening circumscribing the entire ark’s surface between the top of the walls and the roof. This is a most improbable design given the violence of the flood as described in other Scriptural text. To describe the ark’s construction in any other manner than depicted in Scripture is to reduce God’s oversight and anointing of the entire event. </p><p>The Animals</p><p>Another issue raised by skeptics and scientists are the numbers and types of the animals housed on the ark. One comment is that the ark was not large enough to house all the animals; therefore, it must have been only those animals that were tame. Smith’s Bible Dictionary states, “The method of speaking of the animals that were taken into the ark ‘clean’ and ‘unclean’ implies that only those that were useful to man were preserved, and that no wild animals were taken into the ark; so that there is no difficulty from the great number of different species of animal life existing in the world.” I have a number of problems with this statement. The first one is that in disregards Genesis 7:14, “…they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort.” This verse correlated with the respective verses in the creation chapter of Genesis indicates all living creatures not just the tame useful ones entered the ark. The second issue I have with this statement is that no wild animals were taken into the ark. In a sense the statement is correct – there were no wild animals before the flood. Genesis 9:2 states that animals were made wild after the flood. “And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea.” </p><p>7 However, the intent of the statement in Smith’s Bible Dictionary is that only those animals useful to man were taken into the ark. They disregard the context of verse 2, and in doing so support the theory of evolution.</p><p>The evolutionists and the non-flood or localized flood advocates use the species argument and the ark size as proof that the entire earth was not flooded. For if it had then we could not have the thousand of species on earth today. The volume of the ark was just too small. However, there are some plausible answers to these arguments.</p><p>The first is that all the animals were not full grown for if only full grown animals were to be saved then the re-population of the earth would have been a problem for aged animals. Only the young could have accomplished this feat. Therefore, many more animals could enter the ark if all were the very young and very small. The second is that many of the thousand of species of animals we have today are actually off shoots of the originals due to mixed breeding. This is not evolution, but mix breeds. There are many varieties of cattle, dogs, cats, sheep, goats, etc. but they are still cattle, they are still dogs, etc. Although I have not done the calculations, I read somewhere that calculations were made which prove that the ark was sufficient in size to house all the animals if they were small. Thus, we must take the Scripture literally if we are to believe any part of the Bible is true.</p><p>Another point I wish to make is the translation of Genesis 6:19. The NKJV states, “And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female.” The phrase “you shall bring” is translated from the Hebrew word bow, which is a primary root meaning to go or to come. When this phrase is correlated with chapter 7 verse 16 it supports the fact that God commanded the animals to enter the ark – Noah did not bring them into the ark. Verse 16 states, “So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.” The literal translation is as follows: “And those going in male and female of all flesh, went in as had commanded him God.” In each case it is indicated that all, even Noah were commanded by God to enter the ark; therefore, Noah did not round up the animals and bring them into the ark – all were commanded by God. </p><p>Then there is the food factor. How were all the animals fed for the length of time on the ark? Genesis 6:21 states that Noah gathered all the food for all his family and the animals. “And you shall take for yourself of all that is </p><p>8 eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.” There is one thing that needs to be highlighted at this point; all the animals were tame and were basically vegetarians. This is based entirely on Isaiah 66:25, “The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, the lion shall eat straw like the ox, and dust shall be the serpent’s food.” This occurs during the thousand-year reign, which is getting the earth back to the environment before the flood. Also, meat was not eaten until after the flood, “Every moving thing shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even the green herbs.” (Genesis 9:3). God is now instructing Noah that all moving things, i.e. animals, will be food for you in addition to the vegetarian diet up to this point. When commands of this nature occur in Scripture it indicates that heretofore that was not the case. This is a new element in the life of Noah and mankind – they are now meat eaters. </p><p>From our perspective it appears that the amount of food needed for Noah, his family and all the animals would be almost impossible for Noah and his three sons to accomplish. However, one can speculate that God had some element of control over the entire animal population. There is the need to maintain the animals calm under the adverse conditions of the flood, the volume of food each would consume, and the water each would drink. I don’t think the water was a problem, but the food was. Could it be possible that God controlled the state of all the animals for the period of time in question so that they did not consume normal food volume? This would answer two basic questions; one, how were all the animals fed, and two, how was the volume of animal discharge eliminated from the ark? Remember there was only one window in the side of the ark – the one that Noah built? Maybe there was not as large a problem as one might think. We must remember that God orchestrated this entire scenario. Anyway its something to think about. </p><p>I know this analysis may in some cases open a larger can of worms, but only the latter text of this paper in conjecture. The initial parts are fact that cannot be disputed – after all it is the Word of God!</p><p>Carleton Dowdle, 1-9-05 </p><p>9</p>