Noah and Me, Spirit and Logic…
Interpreting the Bible is not my forte, at least not the logistical and genealogy details. Noah to Abram to Lot. Then Lot’s choice left or right and he takes the watered green land of the Jordan and Abram gets Hebron.
Part of my problem is that I have been trained to be an engineer, to think like an engineer.
Once the ark was all button up it rained and rained and rained so that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered and the water was fifteen cubits higher than the mountains which it covered.
So of course I had to back calculate how hard it rained in terms of how many inches per hour of rain that fell.
Mount Everest is the earth’s highest mountain with a peak of 29,029 feet above sea level. The surface area of the earth is 196,940,000 square miles.
The cubit is an ancient unit based on the forearm length from the middle finger tip to the elbow bottom. The ancient Egyptian royal cubit is the earliest attested standard measure. A number of these rods have survived in the tombs of Maya and Kha. They averaged about 20.7 inches in length. Mine measures about 20 and one half inches. Perhaps, as we have evolved, we have grown more foot to head than elbow to finger?
Utilizing Mr. Lee’s “Factor Label Method” from 11th grade chemistry and a bunch of feet to inches and days to hours conversion factors and the average rainfall comes out to be 363 inches per hour which dumbfounds the engineer in me. Maybe it was a bit less water accounting for the volume of mountains themselves and the fact that the average elevation of land above sea level is 950 meters.
Suffice it to say that the new metric system versus the American inch-foot-yard has reared its head once again. Eyeballing it at a 10% impact, it still won’t make a difference in the 300-plus inches per hour of rainfall. Instead of saying “it’s raining like crazy,” maybe we should say “it’s crazy but nothing like the deluge in Noah’s day!”
Here’s where my creative and want-to-be-inspired mind takes over reasoning, knowing that it is time to move on.
Whatever the rainfall, all flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth.
After Noah and his family survived the flood, he built an altar and offered a burnt offering to his God out of gratitude and a thankful heart.
God was pleased and said:
“I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done. All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.”
The rainbow is the sign of the covenant God gave us between him, us and every living soul for perpetual generations. God shall see the bow he set in the clouds and remember not to flood the earth again.
Another question, this one for the bible writers. Why aren’t God’s spoken words in quotations? Jesus’ spoken words are in quotations plus they are colored in red.
Moving on again, I realize that the drowning experience of all of humanity, except Noah and family, is quite the opposite of Moses, and later Jesus’ desert experience.
Where have I experienced the flood and desert experience in my life?
I need to stop thinking like an engineer when it comes to life and spiritual matters.
Can I remove my personal sinful life experiences to develop a new covenant with the Lord?
I realize that there is hope in the Old Testament as bright and promising as with Jesus’ presence and resurrection in the New Testament.
I turn from the past sins of my life and enter into a fresh and hopefully flesh-less start with God the Father Above, with Jesus Christ, my Personal Savior, in my heart and The Holy Spirit throughout my being, my spirit, my mind, my emotions and my body.
Al-le-lu-ia as my Saved and Sober father would say.
TROML Baby as I would say!
Day 3: Reading The Bible with a TROML Perspective; Noah and Me, Spirit and Logic.
Read and inspired by the Old Testament, The Book of Genesis Chapters 7-13
Bible Notes:
Genesis, the genesis or origin of the world, the history of Creation.
Noe and the Deluge, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph
Closes with the deaths of Jacob and of Joseph in Egypt, whither Joseph had called his father and brothers.
Genesis Chapter 7: Noah, his family, and the animals go into the ark; the deluge; intensity and duration of the deluge.
Seven and seven
Beasts that are unclean two and two
Rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights
Now and his wife, three sons and their wives, eight people
Every thing that moveth upon the earth
Now 600 years old
*** human beings four and four
*** covenant of Adam and Eve did not work, second covenant with Noah
After seven days the water overflowed the earth
Noah, Sem, Cham, and Japeth
And all that fly
And the Lord shut him in on the outside
All the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered
Fifteen cubits higher than the mountains which it covered.
All flesh was destroyed that moved upon the earth
And all things wherein there is the breath of life on earth died
And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days
Genesis Chapter 8: The waters abate; Noah send forth a raven and a dove; the earth dries; Noah leaves the ark; Noah builds an altar.
Waters began to be abated after 150 days
And the ark rested upon the mountains of Armenia
Armenia a land of rugged mountains and extinct volcanoes, its highest point is Mount Aragats, 13,435 ft. (4,095 m). Armenia is a sovereign state in the South Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located in Western Asia on the “Armenian Highlands“, it is bordered by Turkey to the west, Russia and Georgia to the north and Azerbaijan to the east, and Iran and Azerbaijan’s exclave of Nakhchivan to the south. In the 1st century BC the Kingdom of Armenia reached its height under Tigranes the Great. Armenia became the first state in the world to adopt Christianity as its official religion. In between the late 3rd century to early years of the 4th century, the state became the first Christian nation. The official date of state adoption of Christianity is 301 AD. (Wiki)
Raven did not return
Dove returned a second time carrying a bough of an olive tree, with green leaves, in her mouth.
Set forth the dove a third time and did not return.
Go ye upon the earth: increase and multiply upon it.
And Noe built an altar unto the Lord
Offered holocausts upon the altar.
*** a sacrifice completely consumed by fire; burnt offering.
*** (usually initial capital letter) the systematic mass slaughter of European Jews in Nazi concentration camps during World War II (usually preceded by the).
The Lord smelled a sweet savor and said:
I will no more curse the earth for the sake of man: for the imagination and thought of man’s heart are prone to evil from his youth: therefore I will no more destroy every living soul as I have done. All the days of the earth, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, night and day, shall not cease.
*** there is good news in the Old Testament
Genesis Chapter 9: God blesses Noah; God’s covenant with Noah; The Rainbow as a sign; Sons of Noah; Noah curses Cham; God blesses Sem and Japheth; Death of Noah (at age 950 years).
Increase and multiply, and fill the earth.
I will establish my covenant with you.
The rainbow is the sign of the covenant God gave us between him, us and every living soul for perpetual generations. God shall see the bow he set in the clouds and remember not to flood the earth again.
Cham the father Chanaan, son of Noe
Planted a vineyard, drinking wine was made drunk and uncovered in his tent.
Cham had seen, Sem and Japheth covered it without seeing it.
Cursed Chanaan, son of Cham
Noe lived 950 years, 350 years after the flood.
Genesis Chapter 10: Sons of Noah; Sons of Japeth; Sons of Cham; Sons of Sem.
Genesis Chapter 11: The tower of Babel; The confusion of tongues; Sons of Sem; Sons of Thare.
Genesis Chapter 12: The call of Abram; Abram journeys to Chanaan; A famine drives Abram to Egypt; Pharao takes Sarai; God punishes Pharao.
The call of Abram, to Chanaan, with Sarai his wife and Lot, his brother Aran’s son.
Abram built altars; famine drove Abram to Egypt.
I know that thou are a beautiful woman, pretend to be my sister so the Egyptians won’t kill me.
God scourged Pharao for taking Abram’s wife.
Pharao to Abram, why did you lie to me?
Lot watered land of the Jordan
Abram Hebron.
Genesis Chapter 13 Abram and Lot return from Egypt; Abram and Lot separate; God’s promise to Abram; Abram builds an altar in Hebron.
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