In this lesson looking more at the great flood, Pastor Dave Capoccia focuses on Noah’s ark itself. The Bible gives some description of the size and specifications of the ark, but is the ark believable? How would such a vessel have been able to handle the tumultuous conditions of the flood? And how did Noah fit all the land and air animals, including dinosaurs, on the ark?
The main text for this lesson is Genesis 6:13-22.
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realistic or historical thing but we can get a better sense of what the ark actually looked like by looking at the description again in Genesis 6 so let’s do that Genesis 6: 13- 16 let’s see the description of the Ark as Moses gives it by the spirit of God in this section Genesis 6: 13 13- 16 oh I’m in Exodus that didn’t that won’t help then God said to Noah the end of All Flesh has come before me for the Earth is filled with violence because of them and behold I am about to destroy them with the Earth make for yourself an ark of gopher wood you shall make the ark with rooms and shall cover it inside and out with pitch this is how you shall make it the length of the Ark 300 cubits its breadth 50 cubits and its height 30 cubits you shall make a window for the ark and finish it to a cubit from the top and set the door of the Ark and the side of it you shall make it with lower second and third decks all right as always when we’re looking to interpret a Biblical text we just start with simple observations what do we see we see here that God is the one speaking to Noah and he tells Noah to build an ark what is an arc we actually don’t know we might want to say well an ark is a box because there is another item in the Bible That’s translated as an arc and that is a box what would that be the Ark of the Covenant it basically the box that contains or holds the Covenant and the Hebrew the Hebrew word for Arc there is Aron and it can be translated box chest or coffin but the word here the Hebrew word here in this passage and used throughout the flood account is different it’s t or TBA and its origin and its meaning are uncertain the only other time TBA is used in the Bible is interestingly of the floating basket that jocked makes from Moses Exodus 2:3 but when she could hide him no longer she got him a whisker wicker basket or more literally an arc of Papyrus reads and covered it over with tar and Pitch then she put the child into it and set it among the reads by the bank of the Nile that’s Exodus 2:3 so obviously shape size and building material are different in those two instances of this Arc but in both cases no Tava refers to some kind of floating life-preserving structure therefore some interpreters have offered a translation of Tavon more in line with purpose rather than shape Tavon might mean something like Lifeboat so God tells Noah to build a Lifeboat an arc now Noah what notice what the ark was supposed to be made out of gopherwood what is gopherwood it must have been uh appropriate wood a strong enough wood a versatile enough wood for making the ark but as to what kind of wood it is precisely we don’t know the Hebrew word goair appears no other place in the Bible or in Hebrew for that matter it’s only here some would say the word indicates Cypress or Cedar Wood others say that goair indicates a process to be applied to Wood like planing or covering with pitch it’s also possible that gopher wood is a kind of wood that simply no longer exists in our world that species of tree died out cannot say what this word means for sure but we can say it has nothing to do with the animals called Gophers now notice no is told to build the ark with rooms the Hebrew word for room literally means or the word for room here literally means nest and is translated as such in many other places in the Bible notice that Noah is told to cover the ark inside and out with pitch for what is pitch used okay right exactly it’s a it’s a waterproof thing it’s a sealing mechanism you cover it with a tar or pitch and you you waterproof the wood so that makes sense if you’re going to build a boat now notice the dimensions of the art dark we have 300 cubits long 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits tall all right here’s that Cubit again we’ve encountered that before what is a cubit yeah the common Cubit is about 18 inches but it’s the length from the elbow to the end of the fingers but 18 in isn’t the only size of a cubit it varied through time and culture from 18 in to about 21 in some culturs even had two kinds of cubits there would be a short Cubit and a long cubit what Cubit which type of Cubit is meant here without getting to great detail answers the Genesis has uh explanation of this but probably we’re looking at what would be the long cubit in many cultures 20.4 in approximately 20.4 inch but we can’t say for sure probably that long Cubit we can’t say for sure but if it is indeed that measurement we could calculate the measurements of The Arc in feet again a little bit of math here if the length is 300 cubits then we just multiply 300 cubits by 20 20.4 in per cubit which gives us 6,120 in and we divide that by 12 in per foot and we get ft and using the same kind of calculation we can discover the width and height as well the width would be about 85t and the height would be about ft from these Dimensions we can see that this is a very large L vessel according to these calculations we could fit about 500 semi-trailers within the dimensions of the Ark the ark would actually be comparable to some of today’s medium-sized cargo ships this is a large vessel and notice God tells Noah to make a door and a window for the ark a term for window may actually indicate something like a closable skylight or hatch or maybe just a window but notice where the window is supposed to go it’s to be a cubit from the top or literally to a cubit from above but on which side of the Ark is the window supposed to be it doesn’t say and uh what about the door where does the door go the text says in the side of the Ark which side we don’t know how many cubits high was the door supposed to be placed we don’t know the text doesn’t say but probably was up decently High I’m not going to put it right at the bottom of the boat it would be that’ be inconvenient there that wouldn’t really work God also tells Noah to give the ark three decks how tall was each deck supposed to be again it doesn’t say how is one supposed to travel between the decks it doesn’t say though we can infer some kind of ramps because we have a bunch of animals on board they’re not going to be able to use ladders and that’s all we get that’s all we get from the text describing the ark and its construction so now let’s ask some questions of interpretation is this description of the arc an exhaustive blueprint or is it an overview of specifications it has to be an overview because there are key details that are simply not mentioned how big is the door supposed to be where exactly am I supposed to put it how am I supposed to put together the wood in such a way that the boat doesn’t leak how many rooms how many nests should I build how big should each one be what should I build so that we can move up and down between the different decks how should I prepare the Skylight or the window so that water doesn’t get inside the ark these questions and many others are simply not answered so how would Noah know what to do for these important details of the Ark either he simply had his own KN how the Lord trusted him to figure it out or right so either the Lord entrusted that Noah would be able to figure out whatever was not mentioned or he gave him other instructions that are not recorded here but it has to be one of those things because this is not exhaustive this does not give enough specific details for constructing the ark this means that while all these things in this chapter are true must have been true of the Ark there must have also been features of the Ark not mentioned in this chapter like the following the dimensions of the ark that we noted they are the dimensions of a rectangle but could the ark have been something other than a box yes it could have would Noah have been violating God’s instructions sted in chapter 6 if Noah included ship-like components in his construction such such as a front that came to a point no now again if he had other instructions that specified that then of course he had to fulfill that but based on what’s given here this is non-exhaustive list he would he would obviously have to include some things that are not specifically stated here perhaps even something that looks like a prow a front that came to a point that would not be violating the instructions given here now though Noah could have produced a boxlike Ark and God could have providentially successfully preserved such an arc it is likely that when God gave Noah these instructions Noah knew that he was building a ship and therefore he automatically knew to construct the ark like a ship after all according to the Genesis record the genealogies the time information we get there from creation to the time of Noah it’s been about 1700 years and there were already Seas on the earth it’s likely that man had learned how to build ships after all man had learned animal husbandry man had learned how to make music man had learned how to work with iron it’s likely also he made advances in being able to go on the water ship design though even that being true the ark was uniquely huge ship built with the unique challenges of the flood in mind so if not a box what did the ark look like and how how did its features help it manage the flood well probably looks something like some of the pictures I’ve already showed you today not the children’s pictures but Answers in Genesis famously has promoted a design for the ark uh hold on not not the video just yet um I have another slide to show yeah so this is what you see I’ll show a picture of the Arkham counter in just a second but this is a more basic picture this is the design promoted by Answers in Genesis you know Answers in Genesis that Christian apologetics organization so the front would be on the right side with that raised Fin and the back is is on the left side that piece sticking out at the bottom and there is a life-size version of this in Kentucky the ark encounter exhibit which you can go visit and explore uh in uh much more Hands-On way but why this shape why propose this shape as what Noah could have used even what Noah likely used for building the ark well we actually have a video we have a six to S minute video that explains why this design for the ark why this proposed design and just a couple clarifiers right at the beginning this video starts with a reference to John witcom and Henry Morris who are they well they’re the authors of the landmark Young Earth creation book The Genesis Flood so a lot of arguments that came out to say we really can trust the Bible this doesn’t cause us to be unreasonable with science those were first presented in that book you also hear a reference to Tim in this video who’s Tim that’s Tim love it and he’s a mechanical engineer and Arc specialist at the Creation Museum or at least he was all right we’re going to watch this video six and a half minutes and then we’ll come back and talk about it Wham and Morris showed the world that the biblical Arc was large enough to hold all the land dwelling air breathing animals they also established that the biblical dimensions of the Ark gave it the needed proportions to be a truly seaworthy craft while the initial box shape was certainly a step in the right direction Dr Wickham admits that the box design could be improved upon Henry Morris did the engineering part of our book and he simply took the dimensions given of course 300 cubits long for maybe 450 ft approximately the width 50 cubits the height 30 cubits and just assume from those three dimensions given that you have a rectangular shape now the refinements of that of course God didn’t record in the text and so that is left to our uh uh evaluation analysis uh as we think through the issues today we need to distinguish between holding on to items that the Bible clearly references clearly talks about you know statements the Bible clearly makes which we adhere to and we don’t change but being prepared to be flexible in regard to man’s models that are built upon the Bible the Ark in the shape of a box also gained popularity in 1976 when a documentary in search of Noah’s Ark was released this film also presented the shape of the Ark as boxlike but that conclusion came from unsubstantiated eyewitness accounts and a few blurred photographs of a structure on Mount [Music] Ararat it’s important to understand that there’s no solid evidence to support the claim that Noah’s Arc has been found and that it was indeed box shaped uh I personally don’t believe we’ve ever really found it that doesn’t bother me friend because Jesus said blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed you don’t have to find a piece of the Ark to believe that it was there some were buried deep in those mountains and if and when someday God shows it to us we’ll say Lord we’re amazed because the design of that gigantic thing that you put people into and air breathing and animals into is exactly what was needed for the catastrophism through which it passed working with two Naval Architects on the other side of the world Tim quickly discovered that the familiar box shape would not F so well at Sea the flat sides and bottom would give the passengers a very rough and even dangerous ride Tim built several 6-ft models for some open water testing one of his models was built to the specifications of a PhD Naval architect the model turned and aligned with the wind in contrast to the boxlike boat that rocked sideways on the waves he took this discovery and applied it to his proposed model of the Ark was this a logical model based on information given in the Book of Genesis the first question is what were the conditions like for Nosa was it dead Cal or were they waves wind Etc well there’s there’s a number of clues in the Bible the first the first clue is that Noah had to build something that looked like a ship it wasn’t just any old shape it looks very ship-like that 300X 50 by 30 that’s a big clue that looks like a ship so we’re expecting the water to act pretty normal it’s like the ocean because we’re building something that looks like a ship there’s other Clues as well for example in Genesis 81 God sent a wind and wind creates waves the Bible doesn’t specify a wind catching feature on the ark but it does tell you a relatively long hle and that is not exactly what you would expect if you were just designing a vessel to float in the water you wouldn’t make it so long it takes more work to build it long takes more wood and it’s more of a danger as it crosses over the waves that a good break what makes the most sense is the vessel was built for comfort as well as strength and capacity and seing so you have to balance all these factors together in order to make it comfortable you want that Ark to be running through the waves not side onto the waves which it would fall into naturally there’s a number of ways to do that all you need is any sort of wind obstruction on one end could be a sail could be a a building could be could be a a wooden fin um but I wanted something which was low maintenance I didn’t want sales that they had to look after so if we just build a wooden fin to catch the wind on one end and at the the other end I wanted something that would catch in the water and the usual way to do that is to have a thing called the skag which acts like a Rudder at the back of a ship once Tim had completed his art model he noticed a remarkable resemblance to ancient ship designs what I ended up with was something that looked familiar it looked a little bit like the designs of uh ancient ships such as the Greek Trims and more ancient ships what I noticed on the ancient designs is that had high stems and a lot of the very ancient ones had high stems on one end and and a extended uh mysterious appendage on the other were the features in these ships leftover technology from Noah’s Arc itself we can’t say for sure but it’s possible that the storm weathering design that Tim developed for his Arc is seen on some of the earliest ships historians who’ve been studying ships have found these appendages at the back of ships now some people have thought that they were prototypes of the Greek ramming Bell but this is at the back not the front this Stern appendage is is called a mystery uh if you don’t know what it’s for but if you if you view it as part of a storm keeping package in conjunction with a high stem at the other end then it makes perfect sense so maybe these ancient ship Builders knew exactly what they were doing or maybe they were just copying features from Noah’s AR which they seen their their fathers and grandfathers do [Music] all right nice so let’s summarize what we just heard from that video why does Answers in Genesis proposed shape makes sense for the ark well the ark’s proportions are the proportions of a ship and ships are not boxes actually as Tim love it testifies in a different video the proportion of the arc are extremely similar to Modern cargo ships Tim Lev even says that an engineering colleague of his came to believe the historicity of the Genesis account simply based on the remarkable proportions of the Ark he said this this is realistic this is the proportions of a ship now the long hole implies an arc designed for movement not simply floating otherwise you wouldn’t make a long hole a long hole as Tim you as you heard Tim say in the video it requires more wood and requires more labor and it lessens the overall stability of the ship actually in Genesis 7:18 when it says the ark floated on the surface of the water that Hebrew word translated floated contains the idea of movement so it was moving through the water as it floated the ark was not designed to be stationary similar features were found on Ancient ships the rear appendage has mystified modern Naval Engineers but the Ancients likely knew what they were doing this feature that skeg that pie sticking out into the water and the raised stem on the other end they were for ship safety and comfort on Ocean voyages now a box-shaped boat would not handle wind or waves very well it makes more sense to go with the waves rather than to get slapped sidewise sideways by them and this design successfully handles both wind and waves how would this design from ancestor Genesis how would it handle wind yeah what catches the wind yeah the the raised stem on the front of it like Tim says in the video any any sort of uh obstruction that sticks up into the air would function this way but an easy one that wouldn’t require maintenance would be that little th that raay stem on the front as the wind hits that fin it pushes The Arc in the same direction as the wind and therefore in the same direction as the waves this way the ark moves along the waves and not perpendicular to them getting slammed by the waves now how does this design successfully handle strong currents that’s right that skag or that fixed Rudder in the back because like the stem the the raised stem the rudder at the bottom it orients itself based on how the water pushes it so basically it’s like an underwater sail and and it turns the ark until the water flows with the ark and not against it so it’s kind of like a sail underneath the water and so these features are important for a safer and more comfortable ride especially if you have a big vessel now again we cannot say for sure that this is the way that Noah built the ark we cannot be totally dogmatic on this but Noah probably built something like this a truly seaworthy craft that was able to withstand the unique challenges of the Great flood the Bible’s not unreasonable when it gives us this flood design and says that this is the kind of waters that it faced no there is a way that we can understand that and say oh actually that’s quite reasonable God was perfect in his provision for the kind of vessel that would be the Lifeboat for man and animals and by the way as the objection that wooden boats are always leaky this is really only true of wooden boats since the Middle Ages ancient ship makers had a very labor intensive but effective way of uh a labor intensive but effective way of building Wooden Ships that not only kept out water but kept their boats light enough to carry on land now obviously you couldn’t do that with the ark but many ancients had that kind of technique and outcome this technique is called mortise and Tenon planking if you want to know what that is and find out how effective it was you can find it out from Answers in Genesis at their website answersingenesis.org or it’s in some of their book resources okay this was the first big objection we want to deal with the ark is not truly seaworthy actually it is Moses could have designed probably designed it in a way that would have made it eminently seaworthy but how did Noah cram all those animals all those animal species including those big dinosaurs on the ark I mentioned before somebody as soon as I told him I believe the Bible or is presenting the gospel he says but how did knowah fit all those animals on the ark that was his that was his defense that was his objection that discounted everything I had to say so this is not a random question well let’s look again at the text let’s look again at Genesis 6 this time the verses that come right after what we read before verses 17 to 22 Genesis 61 17-22 we read God speaking behold I even I am bringing the flood of water upon the Earth To Destroy All Flesh and which is the Breath of Life from under Heaven everything that is on the earth Shall Perish but I will establish my Covenant with you and you shall enter the ark you and your sons and your wife and your sons wives with you and of every living thing of All Flesh you shall bring two of every kind into the ark to keep them alive with you they shall be male and female of the birds after their kind of the animals after their kind and of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive as for you take for yourself some of all food which is edible and gather it to yourself and it shall be food for you and for them thus Noah did according to all that God had commanded him so he did all right we’re not going to look as in depth at this set of verses as the previous one but we do need to make one extremely important observation notice what phrase keeps repeating itself in verses 18 and 19 what phrase is that yes kind after their kind this phrase also prominently appears earlier in Genesis you remember in Genesis 1 we’re talking about creation God created the animals after their kind they were to reproduce the trees and animals were to reproduce after their kind now only needed two animals of each kind male and female and then 14 animals of each kind of clean Animal by the way why so many clean animals okay so uh Mark you mentioned sacrifices Glenda what did you say right so I think it’s both of those things now notably Before the Flood God says gather food for yourself and for the animals so whatever that men people were eating the animals were eating and up to this point people are only eating what comes from the ground so we would infer from that that so did animals animals were not meat eaters yet but after the flood it’s different God says I’m now giving you the animals for food and which animals would they they want to eat would they be inclined to eat eat would even maybe even allowed to eat according to whatever rules God had at that time it would be the clean animals so for sacrifice and perhaps for eating After the flood so God gave extra of a certain type of animal now you might remember from our previous Sunday school series studying Genesis 1 and2 the recreation accounts that kind is a very broad category it’s similar not quite the same it’s similar to the modern scientific designation of families we have species we have families for example lions tigers Bob cats house cats they’re all examples of the one cat kind or the cat family to use modern scientific terminology how many animals of the cat kind then did Noah need to take on the ark just two just two so he didn’t have to go find out all those different species of cat he just took two of the cat kind how about the various species of dog that we have today we have domesticated dogs we have wolves we have hyenas we have dingos we have coyotes we have African wild dogs how many of the dog kind did Noah need to bring on the ark just two now imagine that for every animal kind only two spiders only two beetles only two Hawks only two bats only two bears only two deer only two snakes only two frogs only two turtles Etc if that’s the way that Noah is told and actually did gather animals for the ark then that drastically cuts down on the amount of animals that Noah would have needed to support bring in and support it’s only two of each kind and this would have been true of the dinosaurs as well we classify many different species of dinosaur today as many as 700 from what we’ve gleaned so far from the fossil record but if you break them down into kinds like you see in the picture there there’re probably only about 50 dinosaur kinds and how could Noah have exercised some wisdom when it comes to fitting bigger animals like dinosaurs on the ark okay so just two of the kind but there are some pretty huge dinosaurs out there from what we can gather the Brontosaurus Brachiosaurus kind the sorod dinosaurs they’re quite huge how could he have fit two of those and two of those other huge animals on the ark right okay another all the same right right so that’s that’s a huge part of it so just getting the kinds so not necessarily getting all the species but Jonathan I think I heard you say something Coulda exactly bring the juvenile small versions of the dinosaurs there’s no reason to bring the full siiz brontosaurus when two young versions will do they could grow to full size in their years after leaving the ark meanwhile they’ll eat less and they’ll take up less space obviously Noah couldn’t take newborn animals on the ark as they would need motherly care but he most likely took younger travel-sized versions of the bigger animals with him on the ark I mean that’s just that’s a simple wisdom besides most animals actually aren’t that big even dinosaurs you may remember from something I said in the creation series but the average size from what we can tell today the average size of a full grown dinosaur was actually the size of a sheep and the average size of today’s animals is even smaller than that so animal size was probably not a big deal to Noah as he put the animals on the ark but you might be wondering just how many animal kinds are there how many pairs did Noah need to bring on the ark well if we take the number of scientifically classified families today the number would be about 5,000 to 6,000 however the kinds as the Bible describes them do not perfectly align with the family classifications that we use today in 2011 Answers in Genesis began a special research project seeking to determine the number of animal kinds if we use that term from the scriptures and we try and classify the animals today in in kinds how many would there be well according to a publication from 20 2013 based on their work up to that date the researchers estimated the number of Land and Animal Land and air animal kinds to be about 950 just 950 kinds now that means if we include the extra amount of clean animals and birds there were probably only about 2,000 animals on the ark maybe as much as 3,000 but probably about 2,000 animals on the ark now for such a large ship that is very manageable that is a very manageable number of animals so then how should we respond to those who object that Noah couldn’t possibly fit all the animal species on the ark simple he didn’t have to he was only instructed to bring pairs of different animal kinds moreover he likely exercised wisdom regarding the maturity of each kind of animal that he brought and he only took the younger versions of some of the bigger ones but someone will ask well are you saying then that all the diversity that we see within the kinds today happened in only the last 4,000 years or so I mean look at how different some of these animals within the kinds are you’re saying that that happened in such a short amount of time absolutely in fact it’s the best way to explain the rapid speciation that we see in today’s animals and we’re going to hear about this in another video short video just about three minutes also from Answers in Genesis so we’ll show that now [Music] camels and llamas so different and living on different continents yet able to breed together and produce young examples of bound of species that can be breed together zebras with horses [Music] tigers with lions potatoes with hot peppers and so on this amazes biologists based on Modern rates of change new species should quickly lose their ability to interbreed with other species so modern species that interbreed must have formed recently and rapidly it’s amazing that camels and llas though separated by oceans and thousands of miles came from the same parents in relative recent times so how could such major changes have Arisen so rapidly this is a mystery to biologists because they don’t see such widespread rapid change today and they don’t know of any natural process that can create the biological information necessary for such changes the biblical account of creation May provide the answer to this mystery readers have long known that domesticated plants and animals possess a huge reserve of information that can produce a stunning variety of shapes and functions most modern dogs for example came from just a handful of breeds in the 1600s and these dogs have a wide range of features that suit them for a wide variety of environments from sleding at the poles to hunting in the desert and none of that variety was put there by humans the information was already built into the dogs such of information can be found in cattle pheasants pigeons apples orchids and many other domesticated plants and animals if all the non-domesticated animals on the ark had this same wealth of information then we could understand how a single pair of cats could produce all known cats today cross breeding between domestic cats and wild cats between cougars and leopards between lions and tigers IND that all modern cat species are the same created kind the original cat kind carried all the information necessary to build the variety of cats we see today but where did this information come from in the first place the Bible reveals that God created all the animal and plant kinds in the beginning and we’re now learning that God placed a huge amount of information within each created kind allowing them to diversify into the Myriad of plants and animals we see today the information was there all there right from the start this is not Evolution from a lower form of life it’s creation by an all knowing all powerful infinitely wise Creator who is worthy of our worship and praise so then far from being helpless to the objections that Skeptics raise about the viability of the Ark the bible really stands unscathed there are very reasonable explanations as to what the ark probably looked like how it functioned and how it easily house all the kinds of animals on the ark including dinosaurs and as Answers in Genesis emphasizes not only did the ark accommodate all the animals but there was also still room when you calculate it all when you designate the space of the Ark there still would be more room for anyone who would repent believe God and get on the ark as I said in the beginning the Bible doesn’t need our explanations to prove its viability God has shown that his word is true every word of it is tested it cannot be broken nevertheless with these specific objections about the ark we can actually show people from the Bible and from just inferences based on the Bible that their objections are groundless we always ultimately want to point people back to the authority of scripture itself this is a word that proves itself now there are many other questions that people often raise about the ark for example how did eight people care for 2,000 plus animals for a whole year how did the animal spread out after the flood how did plants and aquatic animal Will Survive the flood we don’t have time to address those questions in full in our class but there are answers to those things answers of Genesis has many great resources in its books and on its website that address these questions and more so again I’ll point you to answersingenesis.org or to the answers and Genesis resources in our booknook and lending library you can find some specific explanations there but once more I must say even if we can’t explain specifically how God did it we know God clearly did did do it because it’s recorded in his word and we see the effects of it in our world today now that’s it for my material for today’s lesson what are some questions or comments you have based on what you heard yeah Diana yeah that’s a good question I haven’t fully thought through that Diana your question is from my own son who’s just over one now if the arc pictures are not entirely accurate how am I going to show it to my son now like I said I’m not on a campaign to say get rid of all these unrealistic desps but we we recognize that some of the things that we show kids they’re the more cut see they’re more fun just as long as we emphasize especially as they grow older that okay this is a fun version of it but it actually would have looked a little bit different than this and what what was the reason for this Arc it’s because man was uh turning against God and God sent a judgment and this is the only way to be saved now how that’s going to look for me and my son specifically I’m not entirely sure yet but it’s a matter of not so necessarily get rid of that thing but it’s more like let’s bring in the extra information along with this thing so we don’t get the wrong idea that’s my thought there good question though other questions or thoughts yeah Leela I never really thought about it until this lesson about implications of the global flood so if this were to happen right now it’s everyone that we know and love watching them perish yeah which is the reality of what is going on yeah but we don’t see it don’t always think about it and to stop and think about it you know God wants us to do yeah yeah we even as Christians who know the word of God let me repeat your comment so Le just talking about thinking about what the flood was in terms of what it would be today it’s everyone we know and love perishing including the the animals and and air creatures on the earth and we often don’t think about that even as Christians we’re aware okay there’s a judgment coming or that those who who don’t know God they they are under his wrath but think about what that looked like and what that will look like as we’ve already seen God uses what happened with the flood as a preview and as a picture of what’s going to happen in the future with the return of Christ with the fire that will come and cleanse this earth and the other judgments and it will be just like in the days of Noah Jesus says there will be people who are just going about their lives don’t believe there’s a judgment coming not ready for it at all they’re marrying and being given in marriage they eating and drinking they’re doing business following their hopes and dreams and the Judgment falls upon them suddenly now if we care about those people if we have God’s heart at all for those people and if we want to see God glorified we don’t just leave them there we say repent and be saved from this ungodly generation that answers Diana’s question too the happiness and colorfulness of the the children’s books is because those are the ones that are getting on the AR that’s right yeah so a good point Leela there is there is a certain amount of appropriateness in in the happiness and celebratory nature of the Ark because that’s for those who are saved and for even us as Christians we have a great joy when we think about how we are saved in Jesus Christ but that’s that should never be lost alongside the sobriety of what it’s like for those who are outside of God’s salvation who in one sense due to their own ignorance but in another sense due to their own willfulness saying I don’t want God and I don’t want anything to do with this salvation Glenda you add something I think serious about we look and when judg come is Jud so if we see God took the initiative to close the be the same Jud that’s true yeah yeah so Glenda again pointing out the parallel between God himself being the one who closed the door of the Ark and God himself will be the one to decide not just in a universal sense when okay here’s my time of judgment the day of the Lord has arrived but also in an individual sense when God says that’s enough time for you in your life I’ve given you enough time to repent I’ve given you enough time to turn back to me as God now it’s judgment only God’s the one who knows and decides that but because we don’t know first of all we need to make sure that we are right with God we’ve come through the only door of his salvation which is Jesus Christ but also that we are pleading and entreating and commanding those around us who don’t know God to repent and be saved we don’t know when the door is going to shut but it’s going to shut and they need to know that too anyone else good good comments and questions yeah who way I think there is also I would say some sort of divine intervention in all this process didn’t know exactly how to build the AR or know of winds yeah I mean that’s certainly true uh what hosway is bringing out that wouldn’t God have or did God also supernaturally preserve the ark along with maybe giving some wise things for Noah to do even if Noah didn’t do things perfectly didn’t God supernaturally preserve and that’s entirely possible though it’s not there is a way of thinking about this that wouldn’t require God’s extra Supernatural preservation now when you see God preserving saving rescuing in history a lot of the time it is merely providential now he does intervene in some ways that are directly miraculous but even today the way that he most often works is just Providence just my arrangement of circumstances just my working out my purposes through people through through my universe and so there’s a way of understanding what God did with Noah and the flood where he could have entirely or he could have preserved entirely Noah his family whatever God had deemed to preserve through his Providence through these wise provisions and through that that prophetic word given to Noah though it is also possible along with that or even in place of that that God supernaturally preserved it but either way the Bible is not unbelievable it’s not uh silly mythical uh ridiculous account no it’s quite reasonable and God is able to do it one way or another uh Anna just going back to how to teach the children in my experience as a teacher okay Christians through schools you cannot add anything to God’s word that’s good not to teach something that is not real but for each age you think about some truths so for for Noah’s in obedient you know that’s something because Noah was obedient he listened to God and he oby God is a a principle of Truth you know like we obedient trust in God and um and the love and the mercy of the Lord you don’t have to be add but there are some principles like that are true and you are teaching them in story and when they are getting older is when they you can add more and more there are some you can share with them they are three or four but there are things that yeah trust the Lord obey God and love and Mer right yeah so Anna is just bringing out just in simple wise pedagogy of children we know that there are there’s a certain level of understandability for the biblical text that’s going to be age appropriate now that doesn’t mean that as you said Anna that we leave out things from the Bible that are essential or that we add things to the Bible that are not uh justly to be inferred not not justly to be added but it is there are core principles and even specific truths at each age that we can emphasize and as they get older we add more but simple truth even as you said Anna with the the flood record and Noah’s Arc that God is merciful to provide a way of Salvation you must trust and obey the Lord and I think I mean I’ll see how this goes as my son gets older but there there is the basics of the Judgment of God is something that can be learned and understood even by young children it it always amazes me and I know many teachers can testify parents can Testify the understanding of children is much deeper than we expect even of some of the weighty spiritual truths of the Bible sometimes they get better than adults do actually and so we don’t want we don’t want to miss out on that opportunity and ability these are good questions and comments that’s it for our time today there are other things uh talk to me in church or send me an email at Pastor Dave calvary.org we have one more lesson on the flood and that’s next week we’re going to talk about the concept of an ice age and you say what what are you talking about the Bible doesn’t talking about an Ice Age how does that fit with the Bible’s description of Noah’s flood we’re going to talk about that next time because actually this is another way why the Bible’s flood account actually proves itself to be very reasonable and even a better explanation than what today’s celebrated scientists offer today for things like an ice age all right that’s next time let me close in prayer Lord thank you for this time thank you for your trustworthy word and thank you for your Lifeboat thank you for that original Lifeboat that’s the only reason why any of us are here today but thank you Lord for that spiritual Lifeboat who is is Jesus Christ and repentance in faith in Jesus Christ Lord that is the only salvation God I pray that we would not be foolish and miss out on that salvation ourselves nor un feeling to those around us Lord so that they would miss out Lord make us bold make us courageous make us love loving and make us zealous for you so that we would call people get on the Lifeboat go through the door embrace the only way truth in the life so that you may be saved from the Judgment that is to come in Jesus name amen thank you everyone for e e e for e e e e e for e e e e e e e e e e for e get