Have All Things Started Newly From Noah After Adam And Eve?
Question : I just wanted to know about Noah's ark and how it relates to the very end of all things? Like what really happened? Was it the end of all mankind except Noah and family who survived? And have all things started newly from Noah after Adam and Eve?
Can you please help me to understand?
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
Noah's story is a breath taking journey in to knowing the heart of God for our humanity and how God is not afraid to punish sin and support the righteous even when it is just one person [i.e. Noah and his family] against a whole humanity that was in rebellion against God.
In today's world of liberalism, there are no moral standards to what is right and what is wrong. Everybody says, as long as something doesn't affect other people's life directly, it is ok to do anything we want. Nobody wants to care what God thinks of their life, because God is not in the picture frame of their lives at all. But it is the trap of the devil to make people think in this way because he knows that once people have no moral standard, he can make them do whatever he wants them to do. That is why the society is becoming more perverse in its existence and still people act as though evil things are not evil anymore at all.
Who Was Noah?
Noah was a human just like you and me. Very much of a normal guy, but had the fear of God within him and moved in obedience to God, and because of this character God spoke to him through a vision (Heb 11:7).
Here is what the God reveals about Noah in His Word, "9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth." (Gen 6:9-12).
When God gives a testimony about a man saying he walked with Him, there is no greater appreciation a man can get in the entire universe than this. To walk with God, Noah was just, lawful and righteous in His day to day life walk. In other words, Noah feared God rather than men who lived around him (Prov 29:25). Then the great testimony that God have about Noah is that he begot three sons, why does God give testimony of this simple thing of begetting sons? Did not all humans in his generation get children like Noah, say may be sons or daughters? Yes they all did, but it was not notable in the eyes of God because none of their children walked in the fear of God. But we know that Noah's sons got married to three women who were submissive to their husband, but we do not hear anything about those girls families being saved. What does it show to us? It shows that Noah brought up his sons whom God gave to him, in the same fear of the Lord that he had, so that even after they were married, they taught their wives to fear the Lord and walk in His way which they too learned. Noah was the living example to both his wife and sons and daughter in-laws, seeing his life they all got saved later from the flood that destroyed the whole world (1 Peter 3:1-12, 20).
The World Gone Wild And Violent!
God says in his Word, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa 5:20). Do we not hear the above verse as though it is saying about our very own generation, yes it is! Such godless attitude of calling evil as good and good as evil, produced a godless, wicked and violent generation that was corrupt before God in Noah's times. Moral relativism is the father of all godless violence, it produces selfish people who are violent to defend themselves but do not have a iota of mercy, grace or love towards their neighbors. We have produced more terrorist who are violent and selfish that any other generation before us added together.
People are more religious in our times, but are not at all spiritual enough to love their neighbors as themselves and help those in need which is the only true religion acceptable to God (Mark 12:31; Jam 1:27). God didn't just want these people of Noah's time to be religious and then act violent in their action, but to practically show mercy to one another and help each other in love and respect towards each other whenever there was any need (Luke 10:25-37).
Religious talk was very much there in Noah's time but no fear of God or obedience to God. Just talk and no real spiritual action, but rather they had strong fleshly action to hate one another and were violent to even shed blood and kill others who were different from them. Thus the whole earth was corrupt before God because terrorism [i.e. violence] was everywhere in all the earth, does it not sound like in our days, when we turn the morning news paper it is full of terrorism and violence like in Noah's days, and that our generation has also equally become corrupt before God. We must choose to walk with God like as Noah and his family to please God and get his testimony, rather than fear men and live to enjoy the world in such a time as ours. When God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. It was not just in a day or even in a year, or even in a decade, but over a period of several decades of successive violence and corruption upon earth made the earth to become like a living hell which God wanted to be a reflection of heaven. Day by day the degeneration of humanity was so perpetual that after a period of time, all his thinking was continually evil, as like we see in out times too, perversion, rape, murder, hate, foul language and all evil comes out of the heart that keeps human's thinking evil all the time (Mark 7:20-23; Gen 6:5).
Where Did It All Begin?
We know that sin came in to this world through one man our forefather Adam's disobedience to God. When God gave him a simple command to not eat of one tree but gave liberty to eat from all the trees of the garden of Eden, he disobeyed and rebelled against God under the evil influence of Satan the serpent who through his wife Eve deceived the whole of humanity to bring every one in to the bondage of sin through death [i.e. separation from God spiritually which will lead to eternal death if a human doesn't take this diseased condition of the soul seriously until his physical death] which was the curse that we all as humans have ever since inherited in Adam (Gen 2:16-17; 3:1-19; Rom 5:12; Heb 2:15). What was God's solution for humanity from that time onward? God killed an innocent animal to foreshadow the coming of His Son Jesus Christ who had already planned to come to save humanity by sacrificing his own life for all humans (Gen 3:21; Rev 13:8), and then clothed both Adam and Eve from the fear, shame and guilt of sin through clothing them with tunics of the skin of the animals representing the righteousness of Jesus with which God would clothe every one who believes him and obey his word in the future (Gen 3:10; Isa 61:10; Job 29:14).
Here we see that Adam and Eve were clothed with the tunics of righteousness symbolically and literally because they sought God's solution for their failings and sins. From this point onward, man became a being like God to choose every moment what to think and what not to think, what to do and what not to do (Gen 4:7; Rev 3:20), so God for human's own good drove them out of the garden of Eden so that by eating the tree of life he may not further be driven away from God for eternity ahead but can choose to believe God and thus come in to his embrace by further believing him and walking by faith (Gen 3:22-23; Luke 15:20), so further God placed a security of cherubim to restrict the way to tree of life so that earth may not further become a living hell (Gen 3:24).
The First Great Division In Humanity
After coming out of Eden to the dust of the ground from where he was taken (Gen 2:7, 8, 15; 3:23-24), Adam and Eve knew each other and she got conceived, it was a great day for all humanity because God had given them one more human being in Adam's likeness of the flesh (Gen 4:1), but as Eve boasted about Cain as "I have acquired" and religiously added "a man from the Lord", she brought forth an example of flesh to humanity. Whatever humans boast as "I have done it" and add no matter how many religious language by saying or adding "from God" to the end of line implying whatever has happened is because of their own strength and striving, it will bring self glory for the flesh and cannot even in a million years can truly glorify God. That is what had happened for Eve, Cain became the first murderer and did not become a messiah for mankind.
When Eve realized that Cain did not have the power of the Messiah but was rather a fleshly man who brought more sinful burden to her life, again when she bore another boy, she was very disappointed about her own strengthlessness, pride in man and labor which brought more hopelessness in her life, that she named the second boy as 'Abel' which means 'just a breath and nothing more' (Gen 4:2; Jam 4:14; Psa 39:5; 144:4). When humans realize that they are nothing, and that they can do nothing without God (John 15:5), then God becomes the very foundation of their lives to build them and lead them to a higher place in God with His very own righteousness (2 Cor 5:17, 21). Therefore Abel who was nothing in the sight of his own mother and family members, became precious in the sight of God by faith and spiritually became the sharpened knife of the Spirit of God to divide the believer and unbeliever, and judge the living and the dead because of his faith (Heb 11:4; Matt 23:35; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Cor 6:2; Rev 6:9-11).
Thus the first great division according to God had happened from the day Cain and Abel was born, one in the flesh of self boasting, the other in nothingness of self where true faith of God's hope of His promise of the Messiah of Jesus Christ was blooming over their lives with its blessings of eternal friendship with God. When man comes to nothing, there God starts His journey with him in something greater than his own striving, that is in friendship towards him as a friend (Jam 2:23). Thus Abel became the father of faith for the pre-flood generations even until Noah and his household who lived through in to the new world of post-flood days, like also Abraham became the father of faith after the flood.
So What Happened Next?
So I believe from that time onward a generation of Cain of the flesh was separated and portrayed in a separate generations who were religious but were full of godlessness and violent behavior because of their fleshly nature (Gen 4:16-26), from the godly generation that came through 'Seth' who was the 'appointed succeeding leader of the faith generation whom God gave to Eve instead of Abel who was killed by Cain' lived by faith and so the nature of God began to come out of them (Gen 4:25-26). Thus we come to know that the faith generation led by them [i.e. Abel or Seth genealogy] ended with Noah and his family in a separate category division (Gen 4:25-26; 5:1-32), who were actually separated by God from the godless to sacrificially live in this world as the sons of God through faith (Heb 11:4-7; Gal 3:26).
So where did all the believers of Noah's time go? Here is what happened according to God's testimony, "1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 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. 3 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.” 4 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 mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." (Gen 6:1-6).
Ok, so what really happened? In other words, the believers were there without doubt, but the mistake they have been involved in is mixed marriages with unbelievers. We know that in both the Old Testament and New Testament, God has clearly told the believers to completely avoid mixed marriages with unbelievers. The instruction that God gave through Moses was 'when God brings the Israelite's in to the Canaan land, God told them to conquer the nations that were there by God's strength and make no covenant with them but rather have instructed to destroy them completely, above all commanded them not to give their daughters to them nor take their daughter for their sons,' because God has chosen them as a special treasure of all the peoples on the face of the earth because of his love for them, therefore the Lord expected them to love Him and keep His commandment (Deut 7:1-5, 6-8, 9, 11). The same thing was emphasized by Jesus and explained further in details by apostle Paul in the New Covenant, who also further clearly commanded the believers not to marry with unbelievers (John 15:16, 19, 10; 14:15; 1 Cor 7:15, 39; 2 Cor 6:14, 15-16, 17-18).
So the disobedience on the part of the sons of God who were believers were mixed marriage with unbelievers, as more and more people began to multiply on earth, they began to see the unbelievers of the world in their day to day dealings with them and found them to be very fashionable and attractive compared to the women among their own who were godly and submissive but not fashionable according to the world's standard at that time. In total disobedience to God, they disobeyed God's commandments to choose the women they wanted based on their lust for their beauty rather than waiting for God to let Him guide them to the woman of His choice for them within the believing community (Prov 6:25). God through His Spirit warned them, convicted them and even must have chastised them but they became too stubborn because of their fleshly indulgence with the worldly women and got lulled in to spiritual sleep of death by their temporal beauty like the great Samson who got lulled in to sleep of death in the lap of Delilah (Jud 16:9). God gave an ultimatum for them to repent of their sins and come back to Him in obedience within one hundred and twenty years. But the mixed married couples were more interested in sex and copulation to produce kids than in loving God with all their heart. Thus they used the blessing of God to feed their families physically, as we see that they were all giants eating a lot of proteins but living in the poverty of soul and spirit. Thus we know that giants are made and were not just born like that or were fallen angels as people wrongly assume. These believer-unbeliever hybrids were mighty men who were like those of olden times before them who were very strong and gigantically special, men of renown who became violent due to their thinking which got corrupted by mixing with unbelieving ladies who were materialists, hedonists, atheists and idolaters. God hates divorce because His main goal in a godly family is to raise godly offspring who will glorify God in the next generation (Mal 2:15-16), that is why God Himself confirms that "children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit fo the womb is a reward" (Psa 127:3).
Once the succeeding generations were brought up in disobedience to the voice of the Spirit of God and in rebellion against the Lord, these humans "every intent of the thoughts of [their ...] heart was only evil continually" and therefore when the Lord saw them from heaven, the wickedness of man was great in the earth due to which the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. What a sorry state of existence the humankind have become! The earth was made in to a living hell because of the disobedience of the sons of God and it grieved God's heart because it was supposed to be a reflection of heaven under the will of God. Clearly the word of God says, "as a man thinks in his heart, so he will become" (Prov 23:7). The evil imaginations of humans made the world a evil place full of violence and terrorism in the days of Noah before the flood. Does it not look like what we hear in our generation with all sexual perversion and the streaming of it through a pipe line from hell called the world wide web in which most of the hits and searches are for nothing other than for some sex or sex related words mainly in comparison to other important things it provides humanity with. Wake up saints of God! Wake up!
What Did God Do Seeing All The Evil On Earth?
God gave a spiritual vision to Noah in response to seeing all the evil that the earth was filled with through evil wicked men among whom even believers joined in because of their fleshly life. God must have show to more disobedient sons of God these visions of Divine destruction that was coming upon the whole earth, but they were too busy doing their own thing that they had no time to even think about the message God must have given, thus Noah condemned the world because of his obedience and became heir of righteousness (Heb 11:7).
How long did Noah build the ark? People assume that Moses built the ark for 120 years or 100 years by inferring from the warning time from which God counted 120 years to judgment upon the whole earth that was coming (Gen 6:3), it doesn't take that much time for an ark like a cargo ship to be built. It might have only taken some years or even a decade or a couple of decade to build it, and we see that the Bible does not mention the time it took Noah to build the ark but do mentions that while Noah was building the ark, the Divine long suffering waited in those days and when it was over and done, God brought all the animals and birds that need to be saved through the flood to come and join Noah in the Ark, to finally close the door of mercy to all beings on earth who were judged for its evil and sin on earth (1 Peter 3:20; Gen 7:16). God brought the animals to Noah, but Noah was given the task of collecting rations and providing for them while on the Ark (Gen 6:19–21). After saying this apostle Peter also says now the Church is the ark, and God is waiting for it to get filled so that finally He will close the door of mercy with the rapture of the Church after which the whole world will go through Great Tribulation to test it and allow only those who will obey in to the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ and His saints on earth (1 Peter 3:21; Rev 3:10; 1 Thess 1:10; 2 Thess 1:5, 6-8, 9-10, 11; Matt 24:21-22; 25:31-46).
We know from the genealogy listed in the previous chapter that Noah was in the tenth generation of the human race, and his name is related to “"comfort"” and “"rest"” (Genesis 5:29). In other writings he is also described as a “"preacher of righteousness"” (2 Peter 2:5) who was motivated by faith and godly fear (Hebrews 11:7). This does not mean that Noah put a pulpit in every corner of the earth to preach a sermon to the people, but rather the strange life of Noah and the news of him building the ark along with his whole family in the earth must have been the great news of his times that must have convicted people of their wickedness and Noah of his righteousness. In other words, Noah's life was the sermon that people of his generations read clearly. In the years Noah spent building the Ark, his grandfather Methuselah and father Lamech were alive and may have even assisted Noah in some ways expecting that God might bring rest and comfort to them all through him.
Methuselah comes from muth, a root that means "death"; and from shalach, which means to bring, or to send forth. The name Methuselah means, "his death shall bring". Methuselah's father was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the flood would be brought or sent forth. (Can you imagine raising a kid like that? Every time the boy caught a cold, the entire neighborhood must have panicked!)
And, indeed, the year that Methuselah died, the flood came. It is interesting that Methuselah's life, in effect, was a symbol of God's mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the flood. Therefore, it is fitting that his lifetime is the oldest in the Bible, speaking of the extensiveness of God's mercy (Gen 5:25).
We know that when Noah was 500 years old he begot Shem, Ham and Japheth who must have been triplets [i.e. three born together] (Gen 5:32), then we know that when Noah was 600 years old the flood waters were on the earth (Gen 7:6), from which we can deduce that Shem must have been around 100 years [i.e 98 yrs ] old when the floods came (Gen 11:10), so we know that God spoke in a vision to Noah when his sons were married, they must have been around 30-40 years of age approximately at that time (Gen 6:13-14, 18), thus the time of building the ark at the max might have taken a few decades or even less than that in some few years but definitely not 100 years or more.
We know the Ark landed in the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4), but we cannot know where the Ark was built since that world which lived before the flood was completely destroyed by the flood waters (2 Peter 3:6).
So What Is God Saying To Us And Our Generation?
The reason that Noah was righteous and blameless was because Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. Our obedience proves our love for God and it is just as Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15) so it is “by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). John gives a great definition of love in writing “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 John 5:3a).
Clearly Jesus has told us all already, " 26 And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: 27 They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all." (Luke 17:26-27). Here also in the above verses as we have seen the sign of the days like that of Noah in the end will be that of hedonism [i.e. living life only for enjoyment selfishly] and mixed marriages between believers and unbelievers, so that many name sake believers who knew all the doctrines in their head but have let their heart grow cold and rebellious in their spiritual lives towards the Lord will be suddenly taken by surprise when the Rapture will take place to whisk the obedient believers suddenly out of nowhere to resurrect the dead and the living saints, and take them straight to the city of Zion in heaven from where the Church will operate forever with the Lord Jesus on earth from heaven (John 14:1-3).
The apostle Paul said that before Christ’s return the world would have perilous times, filled with pleasure-seeking, materialism, immorality, violence, idleness and a rejection of the things of God (2 Timothy 3:1-5). And all the rest of the world will go through Great Tribulation which will bring unprecedented suffering upon the planet earth which will be God made, and mad man Antichrist who will in resistance of rebellion towards God for the suffering and tribulation they will go through, will persecute the left behind saints to kill them at all cost (Rev 6:16-17; 13:7-10; 16:1-2, 11).
Clearly the apostle Paul wants all believers not to be caught off guard when the rapture happens, because he is telling us that Scripture has already revealed all the signs of the times in which the rapture will happens, so that believers should live like we have seen Noah live in godly fear and faith believing the Word of God, so that we will enjoy our future life with God through the Rapture event of the Church which is a reward for the lifestyle of obedience to God and His Word by a believer (1 Thess 5:1-11; Luke 21:36; Heb 12:14).
Yes Noah's flood was the end of all mankind except Noah and family who survived through it all and inherited the life in the new earth after the flood. Yes all things started newly from Noah after Adam and Eve, that is, the whole earth then got filled once again through Noah and his sons (Gen 10:1-32; 11:1-9). All the animals we see now have got multiplied through the animals and birds that was taken in to the ark and that which was preserved from the flood by God through Noah and His ark.
Because of Noah, his family and all those with him were saved from God's wrath, the same will happen in the end time when, because of Jesus Christ, all those who believed him within the ark of the Church will all be saved from the wrath of God which is coming upon the whole earth.
Noah was a righteous man because he obeyed God. When we love someone, we naturally want to do things that are pleasing to them and live a life of holiness and set apartness for them atleast (as much as possible in this life, e.g. Romans 7), thus such life of faith and fear of God lived in holiness allows us to receive the blessings of God, but resistance to God results in curses far worse than a flood which is eternal damnation and separation from God and His goodness forever and ever (Rev 20:12-15). Turn to God and be saved before it is too late. We can almost hear the trumpet sound of angels and the foot steps of Jesus along with the army of saints!
Much Blessings....
Can you please help me to understand?
Answer: Greetings in Jesus wonderful name!
Noah's story is a breath taking journey in to knowing the heart of God for our humanity and how God is not afraid to punish sin and support the righteous even when it is just one person [i.e. Noah and his family] against a whole humanity that was in rebellion against God.
In today's world of liberalism, there are no moral standards to what is right and what is wrong. Everybody says, as long as something doesn't affect other people's life directly, it is ok to do anything we want. Nobody wants to care what God thinks of their life, because God is not in the picture frame of their lives at all. But it is the trap of the devil to make people think in this way because he knows that once people have no moral standard, he can make them do whatever he wants them to do. That is why the society is becoming more perverse in its existence and still people act as though evil things are not evil anymore at all.
Who Was Noah?
Noah was a human just like you and me. Very much of a normal guy, but had the fear of God within him and moved in obedience to God, and because of this character God spoke to him through a vision (Heb 11:7).
Here is what the God reveals about Noah in His Word, "9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth." (Gen 6:9-12).
When God gives a testimony about a man saying he walked with Him, there is no greater appreciation a man can get in the entire universe than this. To walk with God, Noah was just, lawful and righteous in His day to day life walk. In other words, Noah feared God rather than men who lived around him (Prov 29:25). Then the great testimony that God have about Noah is that he begot three sons, why does God give testimony of this simple thing of begetting sons? Did not all humans in his generation get children like Noah, say may be sons or daughters? Yes they all did, but it was not notable in the eyes of God because none of their children walked in the fear of God. But we know that Noah's sons got married to three women who were submissive to their husband, but we do not hear anything about those girls families being saved. What does it show to us? It shows that Noah brought up his sons whom God gave to him, in the same fear of the Lord that he had, so that even after they were married, they taught their wives to fear the Lord and walk in His way which they too learned. Noah was the living example to both his wife and sons and daughter in-laws, seeing his life they all got saved later from the flood that destroyed the whole world (1 Peter 3:1-12, 20).
The World Gone Wild And Violent!
God says in his Word, "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" (Isa 5:20). Do we not hear the above verse as though it is saying about our very own generation, yes it is! Such godless attitude of calling evil as good and good as evil, produced a godless, wicked and violent generation that was corrupt before God in Noah's times. Moral relativism is the father of all godless violence, it produces selfish people who are violent to defend themselves but do not have a iota of mercy, grace or love towards their neighbors. We have produced more terrorist who are violent and selfish that any other generation before us added together.
People are more religious in our times, but are not at all spiritual enough to love their neighbors as themselves and help those in need which is the only true religion acceptable to God (Mark 12:31; Jam 1:27). God didn't just want these people of Noah's time to be religious and then act violent in their action, but to practically show mercy to one another and help each other in love and respect towards each other whenever there was any need (Luke 10:25-37).
Religious talk was very much there in Noah's time but no fear of God or obedience to God. Just talk and no real spiritual action, but rather they had strong fleshly action to hate one another and were violent to even shed blood and kill others who were different from them. Thus the whole earth was corrupt before God because terrorism [i.e. violence] was everywhere in all the earth, does it not sound like in our days, when we turn the morning news paper it is full of terrorism and violence like in Noah's days, and that our generation has also equally become corrupt before God. We must choose to walk with God like as Noah and his family to please God and get his testimony, rather than fear men and live to enjoy the world in such a time as ours. When God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. It was not just in a day or even in a year, or even in a decade, but over a period of several decades of successive violence and corruption upon earth made the earth to become like a living hell which God wanted to be a reflection of heaven. Day by day the degeneration of humanity was so perpetual that after a period of time, all his thinking was continually evil, as like we see in out times too, perversion, rape, murder, hate, foul language and all evil comes out of the heart that keeps human's thinking evil all the time (Mark 7:20-23; Gen 6:5).
Where Did It All Begin?
We know that sin came in to this world through one man our forefather Adam's disobedience to God. When God gave him a simple command to not eat of one tree but gave liberty to eat from all the trees of the garden of Eden, he disobeyed and rebelled against God under the evil influence of Satan the serpent who through his wife Eve deceived the whole of humanity to bring every one in to the bondage of sin through death [i.e. separation from God spiritually which will lead to eternal death if a human doesn't take this diseased condition of the soul seriously until his physical death] which was the curse that we all as humans have ever since inherited in Adam (Gen 2:16-17; 3:1-19; Rom 5:12; Heb 2:15). What was God's solution for humanity from that time onward? God killed an innocent animal to foreshadow the coming of His Son Jesus Christ who had already planned to come to save humanity by sacrificing his own life for all humans (Gen 3:21; Rev 13:8), and then clothed both Adam and Eve from the fear, shame and guilt of sin through clothing them with tunics of the skin of the animals representing the righteousness of Jesus with which God would clothe every one who believes him and obey his word in the future (Gen 3:10; Isa 61:10; Job 29:14).
Here we see that Adam and Eve were clothed with the tunics of righteousness symbolically and literally because they sought God's solution for their failings and sins. From this point onward, man became a being like God to choose every moment what to think and what not to think, what to do and what not to do (Gen 4:7; Rev 3:20), so God for human's own good drove them out of the garden of Eden so that by eating the tree of life he may not further be driven away from God for eternity ahead but can choose to believe God and thus come in to his embrace by further believing him and walking by faith (Gen 3:22-23; Luke 15:20), so further God placed a security of cherubim to restrict the way to tree of life so that earth may not further become a living hell (Gen 3:24).
The First Great Division In Humanity
After coming out of Eden to the dust of the ground from where he was taken (Gen 2:7, 8, 15; 3:23-24), Adam and Eve knew each other and she got conceived, it was a great day for all humanity because God had given them one more human being in Adam's likeness of the flesh (Gen 4:1), but as Eve boasted about Cain as "I have acquired" and religiously added "a man from the Lord", she brought forth an example of flesh to humanity. Whatever humans boast as "I have done it" and add no matter how many religious language by saying or adding "from God" to the end of line implying whatever has happened is because of their own strength and striving, it will bring self glory for the flesh and cannot even in a million years can truly glorify God. That is what had happened for Eve, Cain became the first murderer and did not become a messiah for mankind.
When Eve realized that Cain did not have the power of the Messiah but was rather a fleshly man who brought more sinful burden to her life, again when she bore another boy, she was very disappointed about her own strengthlessness, pride in man and labor which brought more hopelessness in her life, that she named the second boy as 'Abel' which means 'just a breath and nothing more' (Gen 4:2; Jam 4:14; Psa 39:5; 144:4). When humans realize that they are nothing, and that they can do nothing without God (John 15:5), then God becomes the very foundation of their lives to build them and lead them to a higher place in God with His very own righteousness (2 Cor 5:17, 21). Therefore Abel who was nothing in the sight of his own mother and family members, became precious in the sight of God by faith and spiritually became the sharpened knife of the Spirit of God to divide the believer and unbeliever, and judge the living and the dead because of his faith (Heb 11:4; Matt 23:35; 2 Tim 4:1; 1 Cor 6:2; Rev 6:9-11).
Thus the first great division according to God had happened from the day Cain and Abel was born, one in the flesh of self boasting, the other in nothingness of self where true faith of God's hope of His promise of the Messiah of Jesus Christ was blooming over their lives with its blessings of eternal friendship with God. When man comes to nothing, there God starts His journey with him in something greater than his own striving, that is in friendship towards him as a friend (Jam 2:23). Thus Abel became the father of faith for the pre-flood generations even until Noah and his household who lived through in to the new world of post-flood days, like also Abraham became the father of faith after the flood.
So What Happened Next?
So I believe from that time onward a generation of Cain of the flesh was separated and portrayed in a separate generations who were religious but were full of godlessness and violent behavior because of their fleshly nature (Gen 4:16-26), from the godly generation that came through 'Seth' who was the 'appointed succeeding leader of the faith generation whom God gave to Eve instead of Abel who was killed by Cain' lived by faith and so the nature of God began to come out of them (Gen 4:25-26). Thus we come to know that the faith generation led by them [i.e. Abel or Seth genealogy] ended with Noah and his family in a separate category division (Gen 4:25-26; 5:1-32), who were actually separated by God from the godless to sacrificially live in this world as the sons of God through faith (Heb 11:4-7; Gal 3:26).
So where did all the believers of Noah's time go? Here is what happened according to God's testimony, "1 Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2 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. 3 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.” 4 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 mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 5 Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart." (Gen 6:1-6).
Ok, so what really happened? In other words, the believers were there without doubt, but the mistake they have been involved in is mixed marriages with unbelievers. We know that in both the Old Testament and New Testament, God has clearly told the believers to completely avoid mixed marriages with unbelievers. The instruction that God gave through Moses was 'when God brings the Israelite's in to the Canaan land, God told them to conquer the nations that were there by God's strength and make no covenant with them but rather have instructed to destroy them completely, above all commanded them not to give their daughters to them nor take their daughter for their sons,' because God has chosen them as a special treasure of all the peoples on the face of the earth because of his love for them, therefore the Lord expected them to love Him and keep His commandment (Deut 7:1-5, 6-8, 9, 11). The same thing was emphasized by Jesus and explained further in details by apostle Paul in the New Covenant, who also further clearly commanded the believers not to marry with unbelievers (John 15:16, 19, 10; 14:15; 1 Cor 7:15, 39; 2 Cor 6:14, 15-16, 17-18).
So the disobedience on the part of the sons of God who were believers were mixed marriage with unbelievers, as more and more people began to multiply on earth, they began to see the unbelievers of the world in their day to day dealings with them and found them to be very fashionable and attractive compared to the women among their own who were godly and submissive but not fashionable according to the world's standard at that time. In total disobedience to God, they disobeyed God's commandments to choose the women they wanted based on their lust for their beauty rather than waiting for God to let Him guide them to the woman of His choice for them within the believing community (Prov 6:25). God through His Spirit warned them, convicted them and even must have chastised them but they became too stubborn because of their fleshly indulgence with the worldly women and got lulled in to spiritual sleep of death by their temporal beauty like the great Samson who got lulled in to sleep of death in the lap of Delilah (Jud 16:9). God gave an ultimatum for them to repent of their sins and come back to Him in obedience within one hundred and twenty years. But the mixed married couples were more interested in sex and copulation to produce kids than in loving God with all their heart. Thus they used the blessing of God to feed their families physically, as we see that they were all giants eating a lot of proteins but living in the poverty of soul and spirit. Thus we know that giants are made and were not just born like that or were fallen angels as people wrongly assume. These believer-unbeliever hybrids were mighty men who were like those of olden times before them who were very strong and gigantically special, men of renown who became violent due to their thinking which got corrupted by mixing with unbelieving ladies who were materialists, hedonists, atheists and idolaters. God hates divorce because His main goal in a godly family is to raise godly offspring who will glorify God in the next generation (Mal 2:15-16), that is why God Himself confirms that "children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit fo the womb is a reward" (Psa 127:3).
Once the succeeding generations were brought up in disobedience to the voice of the Spirit of God and in rebellion against the Lord, these humans "every intent of the thoughts of [their ...] heart was only evil continually" and therefore when the Lord saw them from heaven, the wickedness of man was great in the earth due to which the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. What a sorry state of existence the humankind have become! The earth was made in to a living hell because of the disobedience of the sons of God and it grieved God's heart because it was supposed to be a reflection of heaven under the will of God. Clearly the word of God says, "as a man thinks in his heart, so he will become" (Prov 23:7). The evil imaginations of humans made the world a evil place full of violence and terrorism in the days of Noah before the flood. Does it not look like what we hear in our generation with all sexual perversion and the streaming of it through a pipe line from hell called the world wide web in which most of the hits and searches are for nothing other than for some sex or sex related words mainly in comparison to other important things it provides humanity with. Wake up saints of God! Wake up!
What Did God Do Seeing All The Evil On Earth?
God gave a spiritual vision to Noah in response to seeing all the evil that the earth was filled with through evil wicked men among whom even believers joined in because of their fleshly life. God must have show to more disobedient sons of God these visions of Divine destruction that was coming upon the whole earth, but they were too busy doing their own thing that they had no time to even think about the message God must have given, thus Noah condemned the world because of his obedience and became heir of righteousness (Heb 11:7).
How long did Noah build the ark? People assume that Moses built the ark for 120 years or 100 years by inferring from the warning time from which God counted 120 years to judgment upon the whole earth that was coming (Gen 6:3), it doesn't take that much time for an ark like a cargo ship to be built. It might have only taken some years or even a decade or a couple of decade to build it, and we see that the Bible does not mention the time it took Noah to build the ark but do mentions that while Noah was building the ark, the Divine long suffering waited in those days and when it was over and done, God brought all the animals and birds that need to be saved through the flood to come and join Noah in the Ark, to finally close the door of mercy to all beings on earth who were judged for its evil and sin on earth (1 Peter 3:20; Gen 7:16). God brought the animals to Noah, but Noah was given the task of collecting rations and providing for them while on the Ark (Gen 6:19–21). After saying this apostle Peter also says now the Church is the ark, and God is waiting for it to get filled so that finally He will close the door of mercy with the rapture of the Church after which the whole world will go through Great Tribulation to test it and allow only those who will obey in to the Millennial reign of Jesus Christ and His saints on earth (1 Peter 3:21; Rev 3:10; 1 Thess 1:10; 2 Thess 1:5, 6-8, 9-10, 11; Matt 24:21-22; 25:31-46).
We know from the genealogy listed in the previous chapter that Noah was in the tenth generation of the human race, and his name is related to “"comfort"” and “"rest"” (Genesis 5:29). In other writings he is also described as a “"preacher of righteousness"” (2 Peter 2:5) who was motivated by faith and godly fear (Hebrews 11:7). This does not mean that Noah put a pulpit in every corner of the earth to preach a sermon to the people, but rather the strange life of Noah and the news of him building the ark along with his whole family in the earth must have been the great news of his times that must have convicted people of their wickedness and Noah of his righteousness. In other words, Noah's life was the sermon that people of his generations read clearly. In the years Noah spent building the Ark, his grandfather Methuselah and father Lamech were alive and may have even assisted Noah in some ways expecting that God might bring rest and comfort to them all through him.
Methuselah comes from muth, a root that means "death"; and from shalach, which means to bring, or to send forth. The name Methuselah means, "his death shall bring". Methuselah's father was given a prophecy of the coming Great Flood, and was apparently told that as long as his son was alive, the judgment of the flood would be withheld; but as soon as he died, the flood would be brought or sent forth. (Can you imagine raising a kid like that? Every time the boy caught a cold, the entire neighborhood must have panicked!)
And, indeed, the year that Methuselah died, the flood came. It is interesting that Methuselah's life, in effect, was a symbol of God's mercy in forestalling the coming judgment of the flood. Therefore, it is fitting that his lifetime is the oldest in the Bible, speaking of the extensiveness of God's mercy (Gen 5:25).
We know that when Noah was 500 years old he begot Shem, Ham and Japheth who must have been triplets [i.e. three born together] (Gen 5:32), then we know that when Noah was 600 years old the flood waters were on the earth (Gen 7:6), from which we can deduce that Shem must have been around 100 years [i.e 98 yrs ] old when the floods came (Gen 11:10), so we know that God spoke in a vision to Noah when his sons were married, they must have been around 30-40 years of age approximately at that time (Gen 6:13-14, 18), thus the time of building the ark at the max might have taken a few decades or even less than that in some few years but definitely not 100 years or more.
We know the Ark landed in the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4), but we cannot know where the Ark was built since that world which lived before the flood was completely destroyed by the flood waters (2 Peter 3:6).
So What Is God Saying To Us And Our Generation?
The reason that Noah was righteous and blameless was because Noah did all that the Lord commanded him. Our obedience proves our love for God and it is just as Jesus said, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments” (John 14:15) so it is “by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments” (1 John 2:3). John gives a great definition of love in writing “For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments” (1 John 5:3a).
The apostle Paul said that before Christ’s return the world would have perilous times, filled with pleasure-seeking, materialism, immorality, violence, idleness and a rejection of the things of God (2 Timothy 3:1-5). And all the rest of the world will go through Great Tribulation which will bring unprecedented suffering upon the planet earth which will be God made, and mad man Antichrist who will in resistance of rebellion towards God for the suffering and tribulation they will go through, will persecute the left behind saints to kill them at all cost (Rev 6:16-17; 13:7-10; 16:1-2, 11).
Clearly the apostle Paul wants all believers not to be caught off guard when the rapture happens, because he is telling us that Scripture has already revealed all the signs of the times in which the rapture will happens, so that believers should live like we have seen Noah live in godly fear and faith believing the Word of God, so that we will enjoy our future life with God through the Rapture event of the Church which is a reward for the lifestyle of obedience to God and His Word by a believer (1 Thess 5:1-11; Luke 21:36; Heb 12:14).
Yes Noah's flood was the end of all mankind except Noah and family who survived through it all and inherited the life in the new earth after the flood. Yes all things started newly from Noah after Adam and Eve, that is, the whole earth then got filled once again through Noah and his sons (Gen 10:1-32; 11:1-9). All the animals we see now have got multiplied through the animals and birds that was taken in to the ark and that which was preserved from the flood by God through Noah and His ark.
Because of Noah, his family and all those with him were saved from God's wrath, the same will happen in the end time when, because of Jesus Christ, all those who believed him within the ark of the Church will all be saved from the wrath of God which is coming upon the whole earth.
Noah was a righteous man because he obeyed God. When we love someone, we naturally want to do things that are pleasing to them and live a life of holiness and set apartness for them atleast (as much as possible in this life, e.g. Romans 7), thus such life of faith and fear of God lived in holiness allows us to receive the blessings of God, but resistance to God results in curses far worse than a flood which is eternal damnation and separation from God and His goodness forever and ever (Rev 20:12-15). Turn to God and be saved before it is too late. We can almost hear the trumpet sound of angels and the foot steps of Jesus along with the army of saints!
Much Blessings....
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