Noah's Ark

Today's reading is Genesis (Beresheet) 6-9.

Noah's Ark.

We've all heard this story a million times... God gets mad at the world, but Noah was faithful to Him, so He tells Noah to build a huge boat, and animals come in, two by two. Cue the rain. 40 days later, the boat lands and the animals file out. A rainbow shows up in the sky and all is good again. Why have we heard this story so often? It's pretty much plastered all over baby and kid stuff. That doesn't mean it's a baby and kid story though. Just about the only kid friendly part is the fuzzy animals. And not all the animals in the ark were cute and fuzzy! The other parts involve a very precise way of building this ark, the flood which killed everybody and everything (short of who was in the ark, and the fish) and having to start all over.

Let's start with Beresheet 6:5 "Then Yahuah 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."

Let this go to show that He can see not only your actions, but your heart. If you do good deeds with a bad heart, He will know, even if no one else does. It's important to make sure that your heart is good. You may have to wrestle with your subconscious, but it's worth it in the end.

Beresheet 6:6 "And Yahuah was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So Yahuah said, 'I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.' But Noah found grace in the eyes of Yahuah."

When we mess up, the very worst thing for our parents to think is that they're sorry they had us. That's what Yah was thinking right then. Yahuah wasn't mad, He was sad. Grieved in His heart. He probably couldn't bear to look at us. Then Noah showed Him that even when the world is full of evil, there's still someone with a good heart.

Beresheet 6:14-15a "Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. And this is how you shall make it:..."

Did you know that the word "ark" means box? Not boat? Think about it... What do you suppose the ark of the covenant is? A boat, or a box? Pretty sure it's a box. Yahuah was having Noah build a giant box. A container, if you will. To hold particular things of utmost importance. Things like... Noah's family and a bunch of animals. Why just them? Quite simply, in the long run, nothing else really matters.

Beresheet 6:17-19 "And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark - you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. 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."

Here, Yah is doing two things. First, he's cleaning up the mess the people made, and second, he's saving Noah, his family, and two of each kind of animal. Preparing to repopulate the earth after the clean-sweep. He also tells Noah to pack a lot of food for his family and for the animals. It'll be awhile and we can't have species dying out because the lions got hungry.

Beresheet 7:2-3 "You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth."

With the clean and unclean business comes the laws of kosher food. To be kosher, a fish has to have fins and scales (but I don't think we're too worried about fish here in this context), an animal has to have split hooves and chew its cud (which means it eats some grass or other green stuff, it goes through one of it's stomachs, comes back up, gets eaten again, and the cycle continues), and a bird... There are some very specific laws about birds that I don't recall off the top of my head. Main rule of thumb though, if it lives on land and eats meat, it's not kosher.

Beresheet 7:5-6 "And Noah did according to all that Yahuah had commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth."

Can you imagine? Nowadays, we're lucky to make it to 100, but Noah was living in an ark at 600. Not only that, but he was building a giant box during his late 500s. I can imagine his neighbors thought he was some crazy old coot. I mean, if he told them it was going to rain, they'd have no idea what he's talking about. It says earlier in Genesis that it didn't rain, instead a mist came up from the earth and watered everything. So if he says there's gonna be a sudden downpour out of the sky, and he's building the ark to save his family and all the animals, what do you think the other people would say?

Beresheet 7:11-12 "In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights."

So much for what his neighbors said. Main thing here is, when you're doing a good deed, don't worry about what people say about you. Worry more that you finish the job on time.

7:23-24 "So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days."

Can you imagine being stuck in a giant boat/box for five months? But don't worry, you're not alone, you've got your entire family with you, as well as more animals than you've ever seen in any park. It's a good thing families were really tight knit back then, but even so, they must've wanted space once in awhile. It was probably pretty interesting, but on those days when it got really frustrating and you needed time alone, you just gotta remind yourself, hanging out in a floating zoo is better than the alternative.

8:1 "Then Elohim remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And Elohim made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided."
8:4 "Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat."

It doesn't say it rested near the mountains, not next to or in, but on the mountains. That was a really deep flood to land a boat/box on top of a mountain range! If you watch the Discovery Channel (or maybe it's the History Channel), every once in a blue moon, you may find that a batch of explorers went looking for the ark. Some people have found wood where wood might not naturally be, but no one's actually found an ark yet. Do you think the ark would last this long? Or do you think it would have rotted away a long time ago? Either way, it's been the dream of more than a couple explorers and archaeologists to find it.

8:6-8 "So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. He also sent out from hinself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground."

At this point, Noah's about ready to leave the ark, but he wants to make sure that when he leaves, the first step out won't be into the giant ocean that the world became. Birds like ravens and doves naturally don't care to fly too much over open water because they catch their food and rest on land. That's probably why he didn't send out a pelican!

8:9-12 "But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf was in her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore."

Noah was essentially sending the dove out to be his scout. If the dove hadn't flown back with the olive leaf, when do you suppose Noah would've come out? Also, we probably had some either really happy or really unhappy plant life at that time; being completely covered in water isn't exactly something most plants and trees are used to.

8:13-17 "And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried. Then Yah spoke to Noah, saying, 'Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons' wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.'"

You know that feeling... When you first get home after a long camping trip, or when you go to see a relative that loves you dearly, or when you finally see your best friend whom you haven't seen in what seems like forever? That feeling of... relief, of joy, of an anticipated moment finally taking place. That's probably what Noah and his family felt like when they first stepped out of that ark.

8:20 "Then Noah built an altar to Yahuah, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And Yahuah smelled a soothing aroma. Then Yahuah said in His heart, 'I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done. While the earth remains, Seedtime and harvest, Cold and heat, Winter and summer, And day and night Shall not cease.'"

Noah gave Yah a "thank you for keeping us alive" sacrifice and Yahuah made a promise that we remember to this day via an important symbol that is coming up in just a moment.

9:12-13 "And Yah said: 'This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth."

Even to this day, the rainbow signifies that Yahuah will never kill everyone and everything with a flood again. It's more of a reminder to us than to Him, since He probably remembers it like it was yesterday.

Read on:
Tomorrow we're reading from Genesis (Beresheet) 10-11. I'd have stopped at the end of 8 today like I was supposed to, except it kinda tore the story in half.

Listen up:
"Starting Over" by Audio Adrenaline