Friday, September 14, 2012

Noah and the Ark

Genesis 6 (almost)
 

Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose. 

And the Lord said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.  I will ask man his opinion before making this decision though.”  There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.  Those were the might men who were of old, men of renown. 

Then the Lord saw that man did some things that could be considered wicked, but God didn’t want to judge their deeds.  And the Lord was sort of sorry that He had set in motion the events that evolved into the race of mankind. 

So the Lord said, “The earth may be destroyed by a flood that I cannot control, so I had better warn someone so that all things that evolved on the earth won’t perish.”  The Lord looked and saw that Noah was a self-defined moral man and that pleased the Lord.

And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh may come about soon due to a flood.  This isn’t because of wickedness, for I don’t judge the deeds of men.  You maybe ought to build a ark out of gopherwood with some rooms inside of it.  Its length ought to be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits.  You should also make a window for the ark and it should be a cubit from above and there should be a door in the side of the ark.  You should make it with lower, second, and third decks. 

And so Noah, thinking that God might be right about a flood, decided to grace God by obeying His will.  And so Noah began to build the ark after a period of two or three years.  He went out and began to cut down large maple trees and pine trees, all of which he thought would be good for floatation.  Then Noah’s sons came and said, “Father, God said to use gopherwood, but you are using maple and pine!”  And Noah replied, “Sons, judge not that ye be not judged.  I believe that these woods are better than what God told me to use.  Besides, my personal walk with God is none of your business! You cannot judge me as not obeying the will of God!”  And so Noah’s sons were silenced and they realized how much wiser Noah was than God.

And so, Noah and his family were saved when the flood came about that God was lucky enough to guess was coming.  And God rejoiced that Noah had used his own knowledge of wood and that he had used more buoyant wood than gopherwood, because gopherwood would have sunk.   
 
Is this what Genesis 6 actually says? Absolutely not! Genesis 6:22 - "Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did."  God did not ask approval from mankind before destroying the world - God saw the wickedness of mankind.  Noah did not alter the plans for the ark!



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