Daily Genesis

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†. Gen 7:1a . .Then The Lord said to Noah: Go into the ark, with all your household

The Hebrew word for go is from bow' (bo) which can mean either to go or to come; viz: to move. Since we have an option— to go, or to come— I prefer come because salvation is typically by invitation; rather than by mandate.

†. Isa 1:18 . . Come, let us reach an understanding, —testifies Yhvh. Be your sins like crimson, they can turn snow-white; be they red as dyed wool, they can become like fleece.

†. Mtt 11:28-30 . . Come to me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart; and you shall find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my load is light.

†. John 6:44-45 . . No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him; and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets: And they shall all be taught by God. Therefore everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me.

Since Noah's family, his wife, and sons, and daughters-in-law, were invited to enter the ark, does that mean they were righteous like he was? No, God said Noah alone was righteous in the antediluvian world.

†. Gen 7:1b . . for you alone have I found righteous before Me in this generation.

Noah's family was spared because of Noah's faithfulness. Just one man alone can make a huge difference in the lives of others. Adam doomed his posterity because he listened to his wife instead of listening to God. In contrast, Noah saved his family by listening to God instead of conforming to the ways of the people of his day.

There is a terrible judgment coming in the future; but "ark" passengers need not be shaken nor afraid. Jesus will bear them above it all.

†. 1Thes 1:10 . . Wait for His son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead— Jesus, who rescues us from the coming wrath.

†. 1Thes 5:9 . . For God did not appoint us to suffer wrath but to receive salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The pronoun us in that verse doesn't apply to just anybody who happens to be looking in. It specifically applies only to those assured of safety from the coming wrath; viz: the Tribulation and the Great White Throne that follows.

†. Mtt 22:14 . . Many are invited, but few are selected.

†. Zeph 1:15-18 . .That day is a day of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick darkness, a day of the trumpet and alarm against the fenced cities, and against the high towers.

. . And I will bring distress upon men, that they shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against Yhvh: and their blood shall be poured out as dust, and their flesh as the dung. Neither their silver nor their gold shall be able to deliver them in the day of Yhvh's wrath; but the whole land shall be devoured by the fire of his jealousy: for he shall make even a speedy riddance of all them that dwell in the land. (cf. Mtt 24:1-42, Rev 4:1-20:15)

NOTE: if salvation is by invitation only, then why is it that “many” of those invited will not be selected? Answer: because many of those invited have other priorities. (e.g. Mtt 22:2-14, Luke 14:6-24)

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 7:2-3 . . Of every clean animal you shall take seven pairs, males and their mates, and of every animal that is not clean, two, a male and its mate; of the birds of the sky also, seven pairs, male and female, to keep seed alive upon all the earth.

Specifications for identifying clean, and unclean animals, are located at Lev 11:1-46, and Deut 14:3-20. Those specs were written many, many centuries after Noah. So that tells me his generation had at least a sampling of The Law even before it was chipped into stone by the people of Israel— actually before there even was such a people. Our man Noah was a Gentile.

An additional classification of unclean creatures went aboard the ark: Homo sapiens— four mating pairs; Noah and his wife with Noah's three sons and their wives. Moses' covenanted law teaches that Man is inherently an unclean creature (Num 18:15-17) and therefore unsuitable for sacrificial purposes. (Ex 13:11-15, Ex 32:19-20)

Seven mating pairs of clean animals was a practical consideration because right after the flood people began including meat in their diet. Plus, many clean creatures became food for predators; which are unclean, and typically at the top of the food chain.

The specific species that Noah took aboard were limited to the ones that God said in 6:20 "shall come to you". Any, and all, species that failed to come to Noah, went extinct in the Flood. He didn't go out and hunt them down, nor take them by force against their will. No; they had to show up on their own, or be left behind; and I have a sneaking suspicion that many were.

†. Gen 7:4 . . For in seven days' time I will make it rain upon the earth, forty days and forty nights, and I will blot out from the earth all existence that I created.

The expression all existence is from yequwm (yek-oom') which means: standing (extant), i.e. a living thing. Yequwm appears in only three verses of the entire Old Testament. Two of them are here in chapter 7, and the other one is in Deut 11:6.

God's prediction didn't include vegetation; because when the Flood ended, at least one olive tree was still standing. So "all existence" only meant creatures; in particular those that live on land and need air to survive; like birds, bugs, and beasts; whether subterranean or on the surface. (Gen 7:21-23)

The time was up and the Flood was now imminent. But a seven-day final warning was issued probably just in case somebody might change their mind about going along with Noah. (cf. Rev 8:1)

†. Gen 7:5 . . And Noah did just as the Lord commanded him.

Not many religious people do "just as" the Lord commands. It is a very unusual person who is careful to comply with all of God's will.

†. Gen 7:6a . . Noah was six hundred years old

Noah died at 950. So the Flood came at roughly 63 percent of the way through his life. According to the US Department of Health, an average American born in 2002 can expect to live to about age 77. Using that as a point of reference, Noah would have been roughly the equivalent of 48 years old when the Flood started.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 7:6b . . when the Flood came, waters upon the earth.

The word for Flood is from mabbuwl (mab-bool') which means: a deluge. Mabbuwl is used twelve times in Genesis regarding Noah's worldwide cataclysm. The only other place in the entire Old Testament where that word is used again is in one of the Psalms; and even there it relates to Noah.

†. Ps 29:10 . .The Lord sat enthroned at the Flood; the Lord sits enthroned, king forever.

Sometimes during huge natural disasters, people often ask: Where was God? How could He let this thing happen? Well, I don't know about those particular disasters but I do know about the deluge of Genesis. God was on His throne during that one, and in charge of the whole thing all the way.

There's another word for flood in the Old Testament, but the Hebrew in those instances is different. Mabbuwl stands out as uniquely indicative of this one particular event.

†. Gen 7:7-9 . . Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the Flood. Of the clean animals, of the animals that are not clean, of the birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two of each, male and female, came to Noah into the ark, as God had commanded Noah.

It was right about there that I would have become very nervous had I lived next door to the Noahs. Up till then, he probably seemed like an ordinary crack pot— a nice enough guy, but kind of kooky, know what I mean? But when all those birds and animals showed up out at his place, and started boarding Noah's Folly all by themselves, in neither chaos nor confusion, and without Noah and his boys having to herd them in— that was definitely cause for alarm.

It's true that wildlife at that time was not yet afraid of Man. And it was probably a very common sight to see them mingling with people all over the place. But not on such a scale as this. People had to wonder why all those bugs, and beasties, and birdies were migrating out there to Noah’s ranch. What’s that all about? Do you think that old fool knows something after all?

†. Gen 7:10 . . And on the seventh day the waters of the Flood came upon the earth.

Back in verse 4, God gave Noah seven days to get moved into the ark. The water came right on time, just exactly when God said it would. God's word carries different force in different circumstances. Sometimes He makes predictions, sometimes He makes promises, and sometimes He even makes threats.

Threats are often negotiable; sort of like an "or else." Like when Jonah went to Ninevah and walked around town yelling in the streets that within forty days they would be overthrown. When the people changed their ways, God backed off.

But a prediction isn't negotiable; nor is it open to discussion. When God makes a prediction, you can make bank on it because The Lord is a man of His word. The Flood was predicted. He said it was coming in seven days; and sure enough it showed up. The New Testament has a few predictions of its own; e.g.

†. 1Thes 4:13-17 . . For The Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet The Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever.

The “rapture” is a prediction. Unfortunately, there’s no time element in the prediction like there was in the Flood so people will be caught totally off guard when it happens and many will be left behind to go through the Tribulation just like many were left behind in Noah’s day and went through the Flood; except they didn’t actually “go through” the Flood; but rather, it ended them.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 7:11a . . In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month,

That's an important date. I'll refer to it again later.

†. Gen 7:11b . . on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst apart,

The word for deep is from tehowm (teh-home') which means: an abyss (as a surging mass of water), especially the deep (the main sea or the subterranean water-supply). Tehowm occurred very early on in the Bible's texts.

†. Gen 1:1-2 . .When God began to create heaven and earth— the earth being unformed and void, with darkness over the surface of the deep and a wind from God sweeping over the water—

The difference in Gen 7:11b, is that this deep is the "great" deep. The word for great is rab (rab) which mean: abundant (in quantity, size, age, number, rank, quality), so that this particular deep could be thought of as the ultimate abyss— a source of water beyond human imagination.

Water was one of the very first items created in the physical cosmos. It was truly an enormous amount and no one today has ever seen it all. There are yet vast reserves of water stored somewhere.

†. Ps 33:6-7 . . By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, by the breath of His mouth, all their host. He heaps up the ocean waters like a mound, stores the deep in vaults.

The word for vaults is 'owtsar (o-tsaw') which means: a depository. Webster's defines depository as: a place where something is deposited especially for safekeeping. Examples of depositories are banks, libraries, museums, arsenals, cellars, silos, reservoirs, tanks, vats, and warehouses.

There is roughly a total of about 340 million cubic miles of water on the Earth— enough to cover the entire United States to a depth of 99 miles. But considering Earth's topographic configuration, that amount of water is nowhere near enough to cover the entire globe to a depth required for the Flood.

The atmosphere itself holds about 2,900 cubic miles of water at any given time; with the balance of Earth's water stored in oceans, rivers, lakes, ice caps, glaciers, permafrost, and the ground. Relatively little ground water is stored in subterranean voids. Most of it is soaked in tiny pores and cracks in soil and rocks. Almost all ground water resides within five to ten miles of the surface. Water below that depth is chemically bound in the rocks and minerals and not readily accessible; but can be released as a result of geologic processes such as volcanism.

There are scientists who have long suspected an abundance of water out in the cosmos. Well, it's there alright. According to Genesis and the Psalms, somewhere out in space (or perhaps beyond) God has quite a bit of water tucked away, and could easily end the world's water shortages with His reserves in no time at all— and one day, in Messiah's kingdom; that will happen.

†. Isa 35:1-7 . .The arid desert shall be glad, the wilderness shall rejoice and shall blossom like a rose. It shall blossom abundantly, it shall also exult and shout. It shall receive the glory of Lebanon, the splendor of Carmel and Sharon . .Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. Then the lame shall leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb shall shout aloud; for waters shall burst forth in the desert, streams in the wilderness. Torrid earth shall become a pool; parched land, fountains of water; the home of jackals, a pasture; the abode [of ostriches], reeds and rushes.

Lebanon's glory of old was timber; especially cedars (1Kng 4:33). Sharon was known for its flowers (Song 2:1) and Carmel for its orchards (Isa 33:9).

It should be interesting to see how God will get timber, flowers, and orchards to flourish in deserts like the Negev, Syrian, Arabian, Dasht-e Kavir, Dasht-e Lut, Simpson, Atacama, Thar, Sahara, Gobi, Kalahari, Patagonian, and Great Victoria, should be interesting.

Being an active birder, the restoration of pastures (open fields) and reeds and rushes (wetlands) means a great deal to me.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 7:11c . . and the floodgates of the sky broke open.

The sky of course being all that is visible when you look up; including the upper atmosphere and outer space. These particular floodgates are apparently cosmic restraints preventing the water that God has stored in space from entering Earth's atmosphere and coming on down to the planet's surface naturally in the form of enhanced rainfall.

†. Mal 3:10-12 . . I will surely open the floodgates of the sky for you and pour down blessings on you; and I will banish the locusts from you, so that they will not destroy the yield of your soil; and your vines in the field shall no longer miscarry— said the Lord of Hosts. And all the nations shall account you happy, for you shall be the most desired of lands— said the Lord of Hosts.

The floodgates of the sky apparently function like cofferdams or valves resembling the huge gates of the locks that control water in places like Bonneville Oregon and the Panama Canal.

†. Gen 7:12 . . (The rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.)

The rain wasn't local but fell all around the world, and all at the same time.

†. Gen 7:13-16a . .That same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, went into the ark, with Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons— they and all beasts of every kind, all cattle of every kind, all creatures of every kind that creep on the earth, and all birds of every kind, every bird, every winged thing. They came to Noah into the ark, two each of all flesh in which there was breath of life. Thus they that entered comprised male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him.

That's a prime example where a day can be longer than twenty-four hours; in fact, the day here in Gen 7:13-16 is a whole week plus forty more days and nights. Thus from the time of God's invitation to come into the ark, and up until it stopped raining, was 47 days. A scriptural day of this type is not bounded by an evening and a morning so it can be of any convenient length to specify a particular moment in history; e.g. in grandpa’s day, nobody had computers.

†. Gen 7:16b . . And the Lord shut him in.

Whump! Can't you just feel the concussion from that big ol' hatch battening down? I wonder if any of Noah's neighbors saw that happen? All by itself, the big hatch creaked shut with a powerful thud, muting all the chirps and the tweets and the snorts and the moos and the brays and the squeaks and the roars and the humming, and the growling coming from within the ark. Of a sudden, eerily, it was dead quiet as a padded cell out at Noah's ranch. No more hammering, no more sawing, no more people climbing around on scaffolding yelling to each other and passing lumber. No more pleasant aromas from Mrs. Noah's kitchen. No more wash hanging on the line. It was moving day on a grand scale.

There is a grim finality to the act of God shutting certain kinds of doors.

†. Rev 3:6-7 . . He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut, and what he shuts no one can open.

(The key of David implies Messianic authority; viz: the speaker in Rev 3:6-7 is Christ.)

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 7:17a . .The Flood continued forty days on the earth,

According to verses 10 and 11, the Flood is counted to have begun the very instant it started raining; and the date of that event is reckoned according to Noah's birthday, not according to a calendar date. Nobody knows when the second month of the six hundredth year of Noah's life occurred. It is impossible to tell. Some have construed it to be the Hebrew calendar's second month but that's highly unlikely. The Hebrew calendar is a religious time-keeping device that wasn't introduced until the book of Exodus. No, the second month of Noah's life is simply the second month of his own 600th year of age, rather than the second month of either a civil or religious calendar year.

In the next chapter, we'll define the length of a prophetic year. That kind of year is not the same as a solar year. Solar years are scientific, regulated by nature, and determined by the number of twenty-four hour days it takes the Earth to orbit the Sun. Prophetic years have nothing to do with science; and are shorter than a solar year by about five days.

†. Gen 7:17b-18 . . and the waters increased and lifted the ark so that it rose above the earth. The waters swelled and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark drifted upon the waters.

This was no week-end sailing trip. The ark "drifted" viz: it was completely at the mercy and the whims of the elements. It had no means for steering, no navigational equipment, and no means of propulsion; it floated about like flotsam.

†. Gen 7:19-20 . .When the waters had swelled much more upon the earth, all the highest mountains everywhere under the sky were covered. Fifteen cubits higher did the waters swell, as the mountains were covered.

Some people feel that the Flood was only local; not all over the entire planet. But Genesis says all the highest mountains "everywhere under the sky" were covered. It's difficult to believe that the sky existed only in the region where Noah lived.

Fifteen cubits may not seem like a lot of water but when you consider the diameter of the Earth, that is an enormous amount. If cubits were 18 inches in Noah's day, that would be about 22½ feet above the highest mountains that existed on Earth at that time. How high were the highest mountains in Noah's day? Nobody really knows. But just supposing the tallest at that time was about equal to Hawaii's Mauna Loa; 13,680 feet above sea level— about 2.6 miles.

The Earth isn't a true sphere; it's diameter being somewhat less at the poles than the equator. The equatorial radius is 3,963.4 miles and the polar radius is 3,950.1 miles. A really simple mean is 3956.75 miles. Subtracting the difference in volume between a sphere of radius 3,956.75 miles and one of 3,959.35 yields roughly 511.85 million cubic miles of water on the surface of the Earth before it swelled another 22½ feet above the highest points. That's only a guess of course because nobody really knows how deep the Flood actually was. But it does give some idea of the volume of water it took to completely inundate the planet. Those 511.85 million cubic miles of water were introduced over and above the 340 million cubic miles of indigenous water resident on the Earth to begin with.

511.85 million cubes, of one mile square each, if laid side by side like a string of children's toy blocks, would stretch from the Sun on out to Jupiter's orbit at perihelion; and still have a few left to spare.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 7:21-23a . . And all flesh that stirred on earth perished— birds, cattle, beasts, and all the things that swarmed upon the earth, and all mankind. All in whose nostrils was the merest breath of life, all that was on dry land, died. All existence on earth was blotted out— man, cattle, creeping things, and birds of the sky; they were blotted out from the earth.

Fish and other forms of aquatic life apparently were unharmed by the Flood. Just exactly how subterranean life was effected— e.g. earthworms and nematodes —is uncertain. However, I don't think it's unreasonable to assume representatives of each specie went aboard the ark with Noah. After all, they don't take up much room; and need only a pot of soil to survive.

Probably at first, people found debris to cling to so they wouldn't drown. But as time went by, they would succumb to exposure, hypothermia, and starvation. The sheer volume of rainfall alone would have surely smashed and smothered most life in a very short time. Maybe at first, survivors of the rain (if there were any) ate the bodies of dead animals that drifted their way, and maybe they even ate human remains. But after a while, no matter how strong and how tough people may have been, even a Navy SEAL would have died because God saw to it— no exceptions, and no mercy. This one act of God destroyed 99.9999% of all terra life on earth.

†. Gen 7:23b . . Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

Some people feel there is some question about where Cain got his wife because they don't believe in early day close-relative marriages. But this time there is certainly no doubt about intermarriage. The eight people aboard the ark were the only human beings left on the entire planet. If the race was to survive, then Noah's grandchildren would have to breed with their own first cousins.

†. Gen 7:24 . . And when the waters had swelled on the earth one hundred and fifty days,

Water is pretty heavy. One gallon of it weighs 8.3453 pounds. One cubic foot of water contains 7.4794315 gallons. So a cubic foot of water weighs about 62.42 pounds.

One cubic mile contains 1.47197952-11 cubic feet. So a cubic mile of water weighs 9.188096164-12 pounds; or 4,594,048,082 tons. Multiplying that by the 512 million cubic miles of water from our previous post, we get 2.361340714-18 tons of water. To see the actual number of tons, remove the decimal point, remove the hyphen and the 18, and then add nine zeroes to the right of the last 4. A number that size in America is called a quintillion. It's another six zeroes beyond the current Federal Debt.

Point being; all that water added mass to the Earth. So according to Newton, its orbit should have been be effected. I'm not all that familiar with orbital mechanics so I won't even attempt to calculate what would happen. But if nature took its course, the Earth's orbit would soon begin to decay and a danger would exist of it eventually moving too close to the Sun, since their mutual gravitational attraction would become somewhat stronger by reason of the increased mass brought on by all that additional water.

To maintain the same distance from the Sun, the Earth's orbital velocity would have to speed up. That would have the effect of shortening the solar year. But if the Earth's orbital velocity remained unchanged, then it would have to be moved further away from the sun to offset the effects of the stronger gravitation. That would have the effect of lengthening the solar year.

To complicate matters even worse, all bodies in space have a gravitational effect upon all other bodies. So when the mass of the Earth was increased by the waters of the Flood, it would have effected the orbits of all the rest of the planets; most especially the Moon's; unless God— the creator all physical laws in the first place —didn't miraculously modify those laws for a bit till the Flood ended.

The Flood was an incredible feat. There is another just as fantastic.

†. 2Ki 20:8-11 . . Hezekiah asked Isaiah, “What is the sign that the Lord will heal me and that I shall go up to the House of the Lord on the third day?” Isaiah replied, “This is the sign for you from the Lord that the Lord will do the thing that He has promised: Shall the shadow advance ten steps or recede ten steps?” Hezekiah said, “It is easy for the shadow to lengthen ten steps, but not for the shadow to recede ten steps.” So the prophet Isaiah called to the Lord, and He made the shadow which had descended on the dial of Ahaz recede ten steps.

To make the Sun's shadow go backwards, Earth's eastward rotation must first be stopped, and then reversed to westward. Just think of that. Our planet spins at approximately 1,036 miles per hour at the equator. In machinist's terms, that's called the surface speed. But the surface speed isn't constant for every place on the globe. It diminishes with each degree of latitude that we move away from the equator because the distance around the world, along a line of latitude, is quite a bit less at, say, Alaska than it is in Malaysia. If you have a globe handy, look at the size of a circle of latitude that passes through each of those locations and it's immediately apparent that Malaysia's circle of latitude is much larger in diameter than Alaska's.

So if the same amount of time elapses during a complete rotation of any given circle of latitude, then the surface speed of the smaller ones has to be slower than the bigger ones because the larger ones have more distance to travel in the same 24 hours as the little ones. Earth's rpm is fairly constant. But the surface speed at any given location on the sphere is directly proportional to the cosine of the latitude.

I don't know where Ahaz's dial was located so we'll just use Jerusalem for a point of reference. The latitude at Jerusalem is 31° 46' North. A circle of latitude at that location is roughly 21,154 miles in circumference. Dividing that by 24 hours equals 881.42 mph. That's about Mach 1.16, which is very close to the maximum air speed of an F14 Tomcat flying at sea level.

You can probably imagine what the inertia of an automobile traveling at 55 miles per hour would do if the driver were to suddenly slam on the brakes. It would put his passengers through the windshield if their seat belts aren't fastened; and every loose item in the car would fly forward; including the pet dog. Well, just imagine the force generated by an average-weight human body traveling at 881.42 mph.

If a 125-pound woman were a rifle bullet traveling at a muzzle velocity of 881.42 mph (1292.75 feet per second); the force her body would generate upon impact with a brick wall would be about equal to 3.25 million foot-pounds of energy; and totally liquefy the woman's remains so completely that you couldn't tell a breast from a blouse button. She'd just be a moist splat— a bloody stain of liquefied bone and flesh.

So God had to overrule the laws of physics for the sun-dial miracle so no one would go through the windshield when He first of all stopped, and then reversed, the world's rotation. Then He had to stop it once more, restart it, and bring it up to speed again in its original direction.

Sometimes I think people take the Bible's miracles too much for granted. Many of us have known about them since we were just little kids and don't give them a second thought. But the Flood was indeed a most remarkable event; totally contrary to nature, and would never occur all by itself.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 8:1a . . God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark,

Does that mean God forgot all about them until He realized why there was a string tied around His finger? (chuckle) No; it reaffirms that they were always on God's mind. God isn't forgetful. But what about Noah's sisters and brothers, and his aunts and uncles and nieces, and his nephews and cousins? Did God remember them too? No.

†. Prv 10:7 . .The memory of the righteous is blessed, but the name of the wicked will rot.

Noah's kin were wiped out in the Flood. The only ones who survived were the wives of his three sons. He must have felt terrible. He and Mrs. Noah may have had other children too. If so, then those also perished.

Out ahead, at the final judgment, many of us are going to have to watch as our own kin are condemned to eternal suffering; and thrown alive, wild-eyed, shrieking, yelping, and flailing, into the reservoir of liquid flame depicted at Rev 20:11-15 and Rev 21:8. We might even be called up as witnesses for the prosecution. That will be an awful ordeal.

Some people don't like that. They object and ask: How could you be happy in the new world knowing that some of your friends and relatives are suffering in a flaming substance? Answer: Heaven is a place of peace. God will see to it that no one is unhappy in the new world.

†. Isa 65:17-19 . . For behold! I am creating a new heaven and a new earth; the former things shall not be remembered, they shall never come to mind. Be glad, then, and rejoice forever in what I am creating. For I shall create Jerusalem as a joy, and her people as a delight; and I will rejoice in Jerusalem and delight in her people. Never again shall be heard there the sounds of weeping and wailing.

†. Rev 21:1-5 . .Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

. . And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying: Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away. He who was seated on the throne said: I am making everything new! Then he said: Write this down, for these words are reliable and true.

Thank God I won't remember this life nor any of my sent-to-Hell friends and relatives. When it's all over, my mind will be purged of bad memories and I'll only have happy thoughts. Even if I did remember the condemned people I knew in this life, in the next life I won't be handicapped with the feeble mortal human mind that plagues me with dark thoughts in this life. I will have a mind like Christ's, a divine mind that's well able to cope with bad tidings without it disturbing my serenity in the slightest aspect.

Recipients of redemption are going into the next world with eternal life. They are not going to remain in the grips of human life after they die. Eternal life is different than human life— with eternal life comes the Divine nature; which is a different nature than human nature. Is God unhappy and depressed? No, of course not. So then, why ever would beneficiaries of eternal life be unhappy and depressed when the nature of God's Spirit is joy and peace?

†. Gal 5:22 . . But the fruit of the Spirit is . . joy, peace,

Someone might yet still object and say: Yes but Jesus was depressed in the garden just before he was crucified, and he felt sorrow when one of his friends died. Well, do you think he's depressed and sorrowful now? Do you really think he wastes even one second pining and stewing over the life he once lived down here? I seriously doubt it.

The destiny of born again Christians is happiness and serenity; not depression and weeping. They have a glowing future out ahead of them in a whole new cosmos under entirely new circumstances. This present life, along with all the condemned friends and relatives I knew in it, is slated to be totally forgotten and no one is even going to talk about it. Absolutely nothing is going to mar my happiness in the future.

I don't know yet everything the future holds for believers. But what I do know so far is looking pretty good to me; especially as I wax older and get closer to death. Yes, I'm sure Noah felt very bad at first for his friends and relatives. But his sorrow was only temporary. And besides, the fact remains that his kin deserved to die in the flood─ it wasn’t a misfortune ─and the planet was well rid of them.

Believers on the other side have a keen sense of justice. When Abraham spoke with one of his grandsons in the netherworld of Luke 16:19-31, he cut the man no slack. Abraham pointed out that the flames were his own fault; and no one else’s.

Abraham, by the way, was God’s friend (2Chrn 20:7, Jas 2:23). There’s just no way that God’s friends are going to take sides against him with sinners: kin or no kin.

†. Heb 11:7 . . By faith Noah, being warned of God of things never seen before, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world.

†. Rev 16:5 . .You are righteous, O Lord, the one who is, and who was ,and who is to be; because you have judged these things.

†. Rev 16:7 . . And I heard another from the altar saying: Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are your judgments.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 8:1b-4 . . and God caused a wind to blow across the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were stopped up, and the rain from the sky was held back; the waters then receded steadily from the earth. At the end of one hundred and fifty days the waters diminished, so that in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.

The Flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah's life, and it rained for forty days. Then the rain stopped so the water could begin draining off and leave the ark aground. A period of exactly five months went by. Those five months are recorded as exactly 150 days. If we were to try and use the months of the Jewish calendar, the number of days would not add up to 150. Here's why.

The months of the Jewish calendar supposedly equivalent to the months of the Flood are:

2nd month: Iyar........29 days
3rd month: Sivan......30 days
4th month: Tammuz..29 days
5th month: Av...........30 days
6th month: Elul.........29 days
7th month: Tishri......30 days

Using the Jewish calendar, it would begin raining on the 17th of Iyar, thus flooding a total of 13 days during that month. Following would be 30 in Sivan, 29 in Tammuz, 30 in Av, 29 in Elul, and lastly 16 in Tishri. We can't count the 17th of Tishri because the ark would have gone aground on that day. The total number of days from the beginning of the Flood until the day the ark went aground, would have been, according to the Jewish calendar, 147; which is three days short of 150.

However, we can safely ignore the Jewish calendar, and just reckon the elapsed time relative to Noah's birthday. The 150 days then average out to five Noah-months of 30 days apiece. That doesn't really cause any problems because a dating method of that nature is not intended to mark off the actual passage of solar time in a civil calendar year; only the days-of-time elapsed during an important event such as the Flood.

So; here in Genesis, very early in the Bible, a precedent is set for specifying the length of a special kind of year: the prophetic year. Since the months in a year of this type are of thirty days apiece, then twelve such months add up to 360 days; which is 5¼ days less than a solar year.

The prophetic year is sort of like a baker's dozen. Though a baker's dozen is not a dozen of twelve; it is nonetheless a dozen in its own right. As long as students of the Bible are aware of the existence of such a thing as a prophetic year, they won't be tripped up when they run across it in prophecy, such as Daniel's prediction regarding the time of Messiah's first advent. To see how prophetic years worked in that particular prediction; click the link below.

Palm Sunday

The precise geographic location, where the ark went aground, was not really up on a specific mountain by the name of Ararat nor up on any other mountain. The Hebrew word for mountains in Gen 8:4 is haareey the plural of har (har) which doesn't always mean a prominent land mass like Everest or Mauna Loa; especially when it's plural. Har can also mean a range of hills or highlands; like the region of Israel where Miriam's cousin Elizabeth lived.

†. Lk 1:39-40 . . At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth.

In California, where I lived as a kid, the local elevation 35 miles east of San Diego, in the town of Alpine, was about 2,000 feet above sea level. There were plenty of meadows with pastures and good soil. In fact much of it was very good ranchland and quite a few people in that area raised horses and cows. We ourselves kept about five hundred chickens, and a few goats and calves. We lived in the mountains of San Diego; but we didn't live up on top of one of its peaks like Viejas, or Cuyamaca.

Another inhabited region in the continental U.S. that's elevated is the area of Denver Colorado; which is located on the western edge of the Great Plains near the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains. Denver is a whole mile above sea level— 5,280 feet. However, Denver, even though so high above sea level, isn't located on the tippy top of a mountain, nor even on the side of one; it's just located up on high ground.

The ark contained the only surviving souls of man and animal on the entire planet. Does it really make good sense to strand them up on a mountain peak where they might risk death and injury descending it?

When my wife and I visited the San Diego zoo together back in the early eighties, we noticed that the Giraffes' area had no fence around it. The tour guide told us the Giraffes' enclosure doesn't need a fence because their area is up on a plateau 3 feet high. The Giraffes don't try to escape because they're afraid of heights. There's just no way Giraffes could've climbed down off of Turkey's Mount Ararat. It's way too steep and rugged. Those poor timid creatures would've been stranded up there and died; and so would hippos and flightless birds like penguins.

The Hebrew word for Ararat is from 'Ararat (ar-aw-rat') which appears three more times in the Bible (2Kings 19:36-37, Isa 37:36-38, Jer 51:27) and always as the country of Armenia: never as a specific peak by the same name.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 8:5 . .The waters went on diminishing until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

During creation week; it took God only a day to cause dry land to rise out of the waters that covered the Earth. But no living things existed at that time, so God likely wasn't all that concerned about hurting anyone during such a sudden, violent worldwide cataclysmic activity like shaping the Earth's mantle to make it irregular and create low spots for the waters to settle into.

However, the waters of the Flood weren't indigenous. They had to go— in fact, they had to go clear on up off the planet. Gravity assists rain to fall, and evaporation assists it to rise back up into the air. But to get the Flood's waters back on out into space to their original depositories would require more power than a Saturn V rocket to overcome gravity.

†. Gen 8:6-7a . . At the end of forty days, Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out the raven;

Although the Raven is listed as an unclean bird, sometimes it's an excellent choice for assisting in a Divinely appointed task. Here's an example of Ravens on a mission from God assisting a human being in need.

†. 1Kings 17:1-6 . . Elijah the Tishbite, an inhabitant of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the Lord lives, the God of Israel whom I serve, there will be no dew or rain except at my bidding.” The word of the Lord came to him: “Leave this place; turn eastward and go into hiding by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. You will drink from the wadi, and I have commanded the ravens to feed you there.” He proceeded to do as the Lord had bidden: he went, and he stayed by the Wadi Cherith, which is east of the Jordan. The ravens brought him bread and meat every morning and every evening, and he drank from the wadi.

Hmmm. I wonder where those Ravens found bread and meat for Elijah? Were they maybe stealing it from the kitchens of Ahab's and Jezebel's palace? (chuckle) Now that would sure be poetic justice; wouldn't it? The very people who hated Elijah's guts very possibly may have been unwittingly providing him with gourmet foods from their own table.

The word for Raven is `oreb (o-rabe') which is not a specific species of bird, but a whole family of birds now classified as Corvids; which includes Crows, Jackdaws, Jays, Magpies, Nutcrackers, and Rooks.

†. Lev 11:13-15 . .The following you shall abominate among the birds— they shall not be eaten, they are an abomination: the eagle, the vulture, and the black vulture; the kite, falcons of every variety; all varieties of raven.

Ravens are classified in ornithology as song birds; although Crows don't seem to carry much of a tune. They're intelligent, sociable, and highly adaptable. Although they don't usually trust Man, they have been known to associate with him in remarkable ways.

One morning I was out in front weeding the yard when some crows down the street were raising a serious ruckus and dive-bombing back and forth across the street. One of them flew to where I was weeding and landed on a streetlight above me and cawed its fool head off; the meanwhile fluttering its wings and leaning forward and rocking as it cawed. Then it flew back and rejoined the others. Then another one, a really big barrel-chested crow, came and landed on our roof. It too cawed like mad (only louder).

Then it occurred to me they might be trying to get my attention. So I walked down to where the others were, and there in a driveway was a fledgling Crow who couldn't fly well enough to get back up in the trees from whence it fell; and a big cat was harassing it. So I brought the young Crow home and put it up on a limb in our backyard and pretty soon the others heard its cries and came to take care of it. We had to assist the fledgling back up to his limb a few more times after it soared down to the food and water we put out for its friends; but eventually its wings became strong enough to do it alone.

†. Gen 8:7b . . it went to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth.

Ravens will eat just about anything, including carrion; and there was probably plenty of that floating around out there. With all the dead stuff to feast on, the raven could spend the whole day out on its own. However, no tree tops were above the water yet and crows need to get off the ground at night so it probably returned to the ark in the evening to roost. Unfortunately it must have roosted up on the roof where Noah couldn't see it. That was no help. He needed to know if it was safe yet to get out of the ark.

†. Gen 8:8-9 . .Then he sent out the dove to see whether the waters had decreased from the surface of the ground. But the dove could not find a resting place for its foot, and returned to him to the ark, for there was water over all the earth. So putting out his hand, he took it into the ark with him.

The word for Dove is from yownah (yo-naw') which is a general term for either a Dove or a Pigeon. Pigeons are well known for their homing instincts. So why didn't the Pigeon roost up on the roof of the ark instead of letting Noah take it inside? Well . . a Pigeon's nature is different than a Raven's. The big guys are somewhat independent, but Pigeons readily take to human care. That's probably why they are so much more common in cities than Crows; where people can feed them popcorn and bread crumbs.

Pigeons and Doves don't eat carrion; but prefer to forage on the ground for seeds. But bare ground was inaccessible at this point in time. The Dove no doubt became very hungry; and certainly knew Mr. Noah had plenty of chicken feed on board with him back at the ark. Pigeons also prefer a roof over their heads; like docks and wharfs, and bridges and roadway overpasses. It almost seems they were actually made to live in coops; and what better coop than the ark?

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 8:10-11 . . He waited another seven days, and again sent out the dove from the ark. The dove came back to him toward evening, and there in its bill was a plucked-off olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the waters had decreased on the earth.

That was truly amazing. The word for plucked-off is from taraph (taw-rawf') which means: recently torn off; viz: fresh. A taraph olive leaf is alive. How in the world did that olive tree make it through the Flood?

It is just unbelievable that any trees survived. Even ordinary flooding is very destructive. Just southeast of Mount Ste. Helens is an area called the Lahar. It was a totally denuded region caused, not by the volcano's blast, but by water that poured down from the mountain's side when glacier and snow pack melted during the eruption in 1980. In the water's path, whole conifers were uprooted and swept away, like shaving a man's beard; leaving nothing but bare, scraped earth. One of the few we saw that survived was bent over and snapped like a jagged splinter. Well, Noah's flood was umpteen times more powerful than Ste. Helens' rush of water. The erosion it caused must have been beyond belief.

Another consideration of the Flood is sediment; which is inherent with flooding. A few years back, the Willamette river here in Oregon rose high enough to enter our shop buildings along the river. It wasn't a raging type of flooding by any means. Just a gentle, steady rising of the river's waters enough to come over the docks and make a pretty good mess of things. When the water receded a few days later; it left behind a layer of silt. Well, just imagine the layer of silt Noah's worldwide flood must have left behind.

If the waters were indeed deep enough to cover a mountain as high as Hawaii's Mauna Loa, then the rainfall required was beyond belief. It rained a mere forty days and forty nights yet that was enough to cover the Earth with (guessing) 13,680 feet of water plus an additional 22½ feet— if that is truly how high the water was. Nobody really knows the elevation of the highest mountain in Noah's day so I just picked Mauna Loa arbitrarily. But to reach that elevation in only forty days would require rainfall of something like 171 inches (14¼ feet) per hour. At that rate, the Flood's waters would have reached Denver in about 15½ days.

The world's heaviest average rainfall, about 430 inches, occurs at Cherrapunji, in northeastern India. That's an annual average, not hourly. Cherrapunji's average hourly rate is a mere .049 inches compared to the Flood's 171 inches. The total for Noah's forty days, counting also the additional 22½ feet, was 164,430 inches. That factors out to an average annual rainfall of approximately 1,500,423 inches; or 125,035 feet per year: which is 23.68 miles. The destruction caused by that kind of rainfall is difficult to imagine but it must have been stupendous.

Well, anyway, you can imagine how impossible it would be for an olive tree to flourish in the highlands of Armenia so soon after the Flood. There really shouldn't have been any trees growing there at all. They should have all been scoured away or at the very least buried under quite literally tons of sediment or killed by so long a time immersed in water. To Noah, that freshly plucked olive leaf was a miracle, and just had to be a sign from God that the worst was over.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 8:12 . . He waited still another seven days and sent the dove forth; and it did not return to him anymore.

Apparently the dove finally found some dry, bare ground to forage for seeds, and minute gravel for its craw.

†. Gen 8:13-14 . . In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, on the first of the month, the waters began to dry from the earth; and when Noah removed the covering of the ark, he saw that the surface of the ground was drying. And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dry.

Where in the world did all that water go? Nobody really knows. Actually, nobody really knows where it all came from in the first place. Genesis' language is just too vague. The author may not have understood it himself, but just wrote it down as best as he knew how within the language of the known science of his own day, which was pretty limited.

†. Gen 8:15-16 . . God spoke to Noah, saying: Come out of the ark, together with your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives.

It began to rain on the 17th day of the second month of the 600th year of Noah's life. The Earth was dry on the 27th day of the second month of his 601st year. So, reckoning time according to prophetic months of 30 days each, and not counting the final day, Noah's crew was aboard the ark for a total of 370 days; which is roughly 5 days over a solar year, and 10 days over a prophetic year.

†. Gen 8:17 . . Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds, animals, and everything that creeps on earth; and let them swarm on the earth and be fertile and increase on earth.

Noah had to let all the animals return to the wild. That must have been tough. By now he and his family were probably very attached to those creatures, even to the spiders and the flies. A lot of people were very upset here in Oregon when Keiko the Orca was taken from the Newport aquarium and moved to Iceland. You can't blame them. It's just a human weakness I guess. People love animals; what can you say.

†. Gen 8:18-19 . . So Noah came out, together with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives. Every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that stirs on earth came out of the ark by families.

The word for families is from mishpachah (mish-paw-khaw') and means: a family, i.e. circle of relatives; figuratively, a class (of persons), a species (of animals) or sort (of things); by extens. a tribe or people.

Verse 19 strongly suggests that already in Noah's day living things were ranked by type because they came out of the ark according to their species. How they were ranked is uncertain. It may have been according to intelligence, and then again, maybe by usefulness to Man. Some might put the primates first because they are so smart; but I would put a higher value on beasts of burden, and any other creature that best serves Man's domestic needs.

It must have been a stirring sight. Everyone soaking up the sun, stretching their legs, and feeling brisk and cheerful. Like astronauts back from a long, tedious space mission; they were all so happy to be home at last. No doubt the rats and mice probably were content to remain in the ark where it was nice and cozy, and I bet they eventually moved in with the Noahs after their new home was built. Many of the smaller creatures, like non winged insects and moles and centipedes, can't really travel very fast so it must have taken them a pretty long time to multiply and spread out; unless they found a way to hitch a ride aboard the larger animals.

The big guys would take a considerable amount of time to get back up to numbers. The gestation period of a meadow mouse is about 21 days and they can have anywhere from four to six babies at a time. At the extreme are the African elephants. Their gestation is about 660 days. So they don't multiply very fast. White rhinoceros take 480 days, cows 284, giraffes 457, zebras 365, moose 240, hippos 238, gorillas 258, and camels 406.

Most of the domestic birds— turkeys, pigeons, geese, ducks, and chickens—all incubate within a month or less. Critters with the longest gestations usually have the fewest number of babies in a litter— typically only one; and two at the most. Since many of the clean type animals are of the larger species, and therefore would take longer to multiply, it was wise to take along seven pairs of those.

So how did all the various species end up in their respective environs— e.g. arctic, rain forests, deserts, and tropical islands? Nobody really knows, but it isn't unreasonable to assume that all the visible land was connected at one time to facilitate worldwide migrations. As the planet's topography underwent continual alteration by enormous geological forces, resulting in a variety of global climatic conditions, many species became isolated and underwent some interesting genetic mutations to become the highly specialized creatures that we find living around the world today.

Evolution per se, is, I believe, an evil fantasy because it discounts the creation story. But we have to allow for a least a degree of genetic adaptations or Genesis won't make any sense at all. It is just too unreasonable to assume that the incredible variety of life existing in our world today all existed during Noah's too. After all, every known variety of Man existing today came from just eight people. If those eight are responsible for producing all the different kinds of human beings in our world today, then why couldn't the creatures aboard the ark have been the foundation for all the varieties of non human life?

So what happened to the ark? Well, the ark was shaped like what the whiz kids call a right rectangular prism; which is nothing in the world but the shape of a common shoe box. So most of the lumber used in its construction was nice and straight; which is perfect for putting together houses, fences, barns, corrals, stables, gates, hog troughs, tool sheds, mangers, and outhouses et al.

It's very likely Noah and his boys dismantled the ark and used the wood for many other purposes, including fires. Nobody cooked or heated their homes or their bath and laundry water using refined fossil fuels and electricity in those days, so everybody needed to keep on hand a pretty fair sized wood pile for their daily needs. There was probably plenty of drift wood left behind by the Flood, but most of that would be water logged at first. The ark's lumber, however, was treated. So underneath the pitch it was still in pretty good shape and should have been preserved for many years to come.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 8:20a . .Then Noah built an altar to the Lord

This is the very first mention of an altar in the Bible. I don't really know if anyone else constructed one before this. Abel and some of the others may have, but it's very difficult to be certain. At any rate, Noah's altar was dedicated to Yhvh rather than to one of the heathen deities people worshipped prior to the Flood— which were many.

†. Rom 1:22-23 . . Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles.

The tree of the knowledge of good and bad was supposed to make Man wise; or so Eve was led to believe. But in eating it, Man became a jackass; and eventually abandoned the True God and went on to invent his own. The ancient Egyptian elite, who were otherwise a very bright and well educated people, regarded Scarab beetles as sacred and somehow associated with resurrection and immortality. Their chief deity was Ra; who was nothing more than our solar system's primary source of light: the Sun. There's just no excuse for that kind of nonsense.

†. Rom 1:19-20 . . since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities— his eternal power and divine nature— have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.

†. Gen 8:20b . . and, taking of every clean animal and of every clean bird, he offered burnt offerings on the altar.

This is the very first mention of the burnt offering. The Hebrew word is 'olah (o-law') which means: a step (or collectively, stairs, as ascending); or a holocaust (as going up in smoke).

The burnt offering was the very first sacrifice of any kind involving worship in the new world; and it set the tone for Yhvh's future dealings with mankind in the years to come. How Noah knew about the 'olah can only be attributed to revelation.

Although 'olah can indicate a step (or collectively, stairs, as ascending); it's improper to construct an altar with stairs.

†. Ex 20:24-26 . .You shall make an altar of earth for Me, and you shall sacrifice on it your burnt offerings and your peace offerings, your sheep and your oxen; in every place where I cause My name to be remembered, I will come to you and bless you. And if you make an altar of stone for Me, you shall not build it of cut stones, for if you wield your tool on it, you will profane it. And you shall not go up by steps to My altar, that your nakedness may not be exposed on it.

The word for peace offerings is from shelem (sheh'-lem) which means requital— something given in return. Peace offerings are not really meant to restore peace; but actually to nurture a peace that's already doing just fine. Like in marriage for instance: when a husband vacuums the floor, does the laundry and the dishes, and drops the kids off at day care while his wife is down sick with the flu; and after she recovers, gives him a big hug and cooks his favorite meal. If she does nothing, but instead takes her husband for granted, then what you have there is a classic case of unrequited love, and the marriage is in trouble; I can assure you.

Killing and burning an animal may seem like a strange way to requite God's love, but the ritual did in fact have a spiritual value.

God felt so sorry for the world that He voluntarily traded His own next of kin's life to rescue Man from Hell and eternal suffering (John 3:14-18). It's good to requite Jesus' Father for His kindness and generosity by devoting your life to pleasing Him in every aspect. In effect then, offering your own self as a living peace offering.

†. Rom 12:1-2 . .Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God-this is your spiritual act of worship. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is— his good, pleasing and perfect will.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 8:21a . .The Lord smelled a pleasant odor,

Anyone who has ever been in the kitchen when something is burning on the stove knows that overcooked meat does not give off a pleasant odor. A scented candle smells a whole lot better. But the chemical odor of the burnt offering really has little to do with it. The expression "pleasing odor" actually regards satisfaction. God wanted those 'olahs from Noah and He was very satisfied to get them. Jesus' crucifixion is regarded as a pleasing odor too.

†. Eph 5:2 . . Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.

Because of the extraordinary large number of 'olahs Noah offered, I think it's safe to assume that Noah not only offered them for himself and his family, but also to dedicate the new world to God in a manner similar to that which Solomon dedicated Israel's fresh, new Temple. (1King 8:62-64)

†. Gen 8:21b . .Then the Lord said in His heart: I will never again curse the ground for man's sake,

True, Yhvh never again cursed the ground; but neither did He lift the original curse that was pronounced in chapter 3. The first curse remains, but at least God hasn't put additional burdens on the soil. In the future, the first curse is slated to be removed once and for all.

†. Rev 22:3 . . No longer will there be any curse.

†. Gen 8:21c . . although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth;

That statement gives the reason for withholding additional curses upon the ground. Since Man's heart is incurably wicked; what's the use of wiping him off the face of the earth over and over again and cursing the ground over and over? He would just go on being himself. Curse upon curse, and Flood upon Flood will not change Man's nature in the slightest. It's like whipping a bad, incorrigible kid. The more you whip him, the more resolved he is to rebel.

†. Jer 13:23 . . Can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots? Just as much can you do good, who are accustomed to doing evil!

I should hope no one is of the opinion that The Almighty is a totally irrational god— vengeful and anxious to punish Man for his sins. True, it is in God's heart to one day vindicate His law; but the Bible's God doesn't enjoy hurting people and destroying wildlife; and really only does those things when all else has failed.

†. Eze 18:23 . . Is it my desire that a wicked person shall die?— testifies Yhvh God. It is rather that he shall turn back from his ways and live.

†. Ps 78:38-39 . . But He, being compassionate, forgave iniquity and would not destroy; He restrained His wrath time and again and did not give full vent to His fury; for He remembered that they were but flesh, a passing breeze that does not return.

†. 2Pet 3:9 . .The Lord is: patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

†. Gen 8:21d . . nor will I ever again destroy every living being, as I have done.

According to the Bible, the bugs, the birds, and the animals aren't just living things; they are nephesh; viz: living beings. That is very humbling. They are no less living beings than humans are living beings. And Noah's 'olahs were for their benefit too.

But was every living being destroyed? No; life survived aboard the ark and made its way to the new world. So The Lord's promise has to be interpreted to mean that although all manner of life perished, it was only life on the Earth that perished. Noah and the contents of his ark were buoyed safely above the waters. And the promise is qualified by the phrase: "as I have done"— which infers a future worldwide destruction by a means other than water. (Gen 9:11)

So Gen 8:21 doesn't mean God will never again destroy all manner of life, nor that He will never again destroy the Earth— only that He won't repeat the method He employed the first time.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Mtt 24:34 . . I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.

Some people feel that Jesus lied in that passage because he made a lengthy prediction regarding the end of an age that came to pass neither in his own lifetime nor during the lifetime of the "generation" to which he spoke that prediction.

Limiting the application of the word generation, and restricting it to a particular group of human beings during a specific moment in human history; misses the scope of Jesus' discourse. The "generation" of which he spoke began in chapter 8 of the book of Genesis. It's the world as we know it that has existed since the Flood ended. In the future, there is coming yet another generation; a new heavens and a new earth; and it's called: the regeneration.

†. Mtt 19:28 . . And Jesus said to them: Truly I say to you, that you who have followed me, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne.

†. Rev 21:5 . . He who was seated on the throne said: I am making everything new! Then he said: Write this down, for these words are reliable and true.

Some people fear that Man will ultimately destroy both himself and the Earth. But not so. The current earth will not pass away nor be destroyed until all that Jesus predicted in Mtt 24:1-44 comes to pass. Then, afterwards, at an undisclosed date, God himself will completely obliterate the current cosmos and manufacture a whole new one.

†. 2Pet 3:5-7 . . For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then as, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

†. 2Pet 3:9-10 . .The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. He is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.

†. Rev 21:1 . .Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away,

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 8:22 . . So long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease.

This is the very first time that seasonal changes and temperature variations are noted. In the beginning, the man and his wife were butt naked and didn't need any clothing. And the garden where they lived wasn't irrigated by rain; but by mists, underground aquifers; and a river.

Some feel that the antediluvian world was encased in an aqueous canopy that prevented localized solar heating, and the weather was moderate all over the entire globe because of a greenhouse effect produced by the canopy. Maybe that's true, but it's really impossible to know for sure about things like that.

The promise of 8:22 was prefaced by "so long as the earth endures." So the Earth is definitely not eternal. It is in fact running out of time. But until the Day Of The Lord, everything will proceed as normal; which can be dangerous because people are easily lulled by routine and fail to look far enough ahead and get ready for the future.

†. Luke 21:33-36 . . Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away. But take heed to yourselves, lest your hearts be weighed down with carousing, drunkenness, and cares of this life, and That Day come on you unexpectedly. For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.

The existence of the cosmos is directly related to the perpetuity of David's throne and of the continuance of the people of Israel.

†. Jer 33:17-26 . . For thus said The Lord: There shall never be an end to men of David’s line who sit upon the throne of the House of Israel. Nor shall there ever be an end to the line of the Levitical priests before Me, of those who present burnt offerings and turn the meal offering to smoke and perform sacrifices.

. .The word of the Lord came to Jeremiah: Thus said The Lord: If you could break My covenant with the day and My covenant with the night, so that day and night should not come at their proper time, only then could My covenant with My servant David be broken— so that he would not have a descendant reigning upon his throne— or with My ministrants, the Levitical priests. Like the host of heaven which cannot be counted, and the sand of the sea which cannot be measured, so will I multiply the offspring of My servant David, and of the Levites who minister to Me.

. .The word of The Lord came to Jeremiah: You see what this people said: The two families which The Lord chose have now been rejected by Him. Thus they despise My people, and regard them as no longer a nation. Thus said The Lord: As surely as I have established My covenant with day and night— the laws of heaven and earth— so I will never reject the offspring of Jacob and My servant David; I will never fail to take from his offspring rulers for the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Indeed, I will restore their fortunes and take them back in love.

†. Rom 11:1 . . I say then, hath God cast away his people? God forbid.

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†. Gen 9:1 . . God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Be fertile and increase, and fill the earth.

Divine blessings should never be construed as mandates, nor as laws and commands. They're typically expressions of good will and/or empowerment. God included Noah in the blessing so that he and his wife could have more children if they wanted; but there's no record of any additional offspring.

The blessing God bestowed upon Noah's family is the very same blessing bestowed upon the Adams in the very beginning. Here in Gen 9 is the beginning of a new generation. This new generation— springing from Shem, Ham, and Japheth —has continued for a good many years and won't end until everything Christ predicted in Mtt 24:1-44 comes to pass.

The word for fill is from male' (maw-lay') and means: to fill or (intransitively) be full of. Male' was used in Gen 1:22, Gen 1:26-28, and in Gen 6:11-13. It doesn't mean refill or replenish. It just means to fill or to be full of; and can apply to a bucket that's never been used as well as to a bucket that's just been emptied.

There are some who believe other life existed on Earth prior to Genesis; so God urged Adam and the other creatures to multiply and refill the Earth because all the other life was extinct and the world was empty. Yes, Earth was void of life in the beginning, but in no way does the word male' imply there was life on Earth before Genesis any more than it implies there was life on Earth before the Flood. That's reading something back into the story that's just not there. Yes there was human life on Earth before the Flood. But here in Gen 9, God is not blessing Noah and his sons in order to rebuild the Earth's diminished populations. Noah and his sons are starting fresh and will fill the Earth with a new generation that will live under different circumstances than those of the antediluvian world.

Out ahead, past the Tribulation, and past the Millennium, is coming another heavens and Earth to be populated by a completely new generation of people that won't be patterned after Seth and Cain, nor will it be patterned after Shem, Ham, and Japheth. It will be patterned after Christ; and it is to be the last and final generation of a mankind.

†. 1Cor 15:45-49 . . So it is written: The first man Adam became a living being; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. The first man was of the dust of the earth, the second man from heaven. As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the man from heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. And just as we have borne the likeness of the earthly man, so shall we bear the likeness of the man from heaven.

New conditions effecting Shem, Ham, and Japheth's generation will be listed next; which include a change in Man's diet, alienation from the animal world, and the introduction of criminal justice. The antediluvians became overly evil because nothing stood in their way. Well that is all different now. God often overrules Man, preventing him from getting too far out of hand— at least for now. In the future, God will step aside for a while and let Man develop himself to his fullest wicked potential, as people were in the days of Noah just prior to the Flood.

†. 2Thes 2:3-7 . . Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, The Man doomed to destruction. He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God's temple, proclaiming himself to be God. Don't you remember that when I was with you I used to tell you these things? And now you know what is holding him back, so that he may be revealed at the proper time. For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the One who now holds it back will continue to do so till He is taken out of the way.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 9:2a . .The fear and the dread of you shall be upon all the beasts of the earth and upon all the birds of the sky— everything with which the earth is astir —and upon all the fish of the sea;

Most animals bite for just one reason: fear. They become frightened, and the biting response usually isn't an act of aggression; but rather, an act of self defense. Apparently, prior to the Flood, the animal world trusted human beings; but not anymore. God instilled the fear of Man in the animal kingdom and it was probably done for the animals' own good rather than Man's.

†. Gen 9:2b . . they are given into your hand.

That wasn't a new turn of events. Man was put fully in charge of the animal kingdom right from the gun (Gen 1:26-28). I believe the phrase "given into your hand" indicates that nature would no longer be a willing subject, but that Man would have to conquer it if he wished it to serve his purposes. (cf. Deut 2:24 and Josh 6:2)

The animal world is subjected to Man in a way that it cannot possibly overcome. For one thing, nature is ill equipped to organize and form a worldwide rebel alliance against Man. The animal kingdom is incredibly diverse, and each specie so totally absorbed in its own little unique sphere of life that it can never unite with the others to throw off Man's yoke, nor can they conquer Man and make humans their slaves. A planet of the apes is just simply an impossibility. It will never happen.

It's a very good thing that the animal world no longer trusts Man because if it didn't, the human race would have been wiped out very early. Without weapons like firearms, spears, and archery, Man is a very wimpy creature indeed. He's just no match for the fangs and hooves and horns and claws and poisons of nature. It's just amazing how a little panty-waisted, furless creature like Man is able to dominate the entire fearsome animal kingdom.

Nature is helpless to stop man from killing it, from burning its rain forests, from bulldozing its habitat for shopping centers, warehouses, offices, churches, and housing tracts; and from enslaving it for Man's purposes. Even the mighty redwood forests along California's coasts are utterly powerless to prevent Man from cutting down a 1,000 year-old giant in just one day with chain saws. To think that some of the original redwood trees were just seedlings when Hannibal crossed the Alps in 218BC on his way to attack Rome.

I recently saw a most pitiful sight not too far from where we live. In a community about fifteen miles south of us there used to be a magnificent wetland; maybe two hundred acres of it. For many centuries, even prior to Columbus and Balboa, that ancient wetland was a stop-over along the flyway of Canada geese and migratory waterfowl. It's gone now, recently filled in and developed for a shopping center.

Some time ago, on my way to a nearby gun club, I was astonished at what must have been at least a thousand geese in a small three to four-acre vacant lot adjacent to the new shopping center. The geese were standing practically shoulder to shoulder, very quiet, and looking towards the shopping center. Although their migratory stop-over was gone, by sheer force of habit, ingrained from the annual migrations of countless generations of Canada geese, they were attempting to rest in their vanished wetland because they knew they were supposed to. It was enough to break your heart.

People who survived the 9/11 World Trade Center disaster experienced a somewhat similar feeling when their alarm clocks woke them the morning of Sept 12 and they had nowhere to go. They weren't out of a job as if fired or laid off. No, their very place of employment itself was gone and they faced the day with a very blank feeling. Their natural impulse was to follow their normal daily routines. But it was impossible to do so.

Many of us derive strong feelings of security from routine. When those routines are interrupted, as were the routines of the Geese and of the World Trade workers, we tend to feel very insecure and thrown off balance. Not only is the Earth filled with violence because of Man, but it's filled with sorrow too.

†. Jas 3:3-4 . .When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go.

Man has always been like that. He's a fragile little pigmy who wields immense power. It always amazes me to watch an engine lathe shave strips from a spinning metal part. It peels off like skin pared from an apple. Man's frangible little finger nails could never do that. But with his ingenuity he has managed to create powerful machines that perform tasks for him that he could otherwise never do on his own.

There are very few animals on Earth that Man cannot capture and put in a zoo. But no animal yet has ever captured a human being and put one in a zoo. Come to think of it, no animal has ever beaten its wife in a drunken rage either; nor gambled away its life savings at a crap table in Las Vegas.

Noah's blessing is a little negative in one respect. Although Man dominates the animal world, he hardly gets any real respect from it. They don't trust us; and for the most part, they don't like us either; and they will not serve us unless we capture them and break their spirit. It takes a lot of patient effort to win a wild animal's trust, and even then the friendly ones are still very capable of harming people.

You can befriend an animal all you want, but they are still animals. People who visit America's national parks sometimes find out the hard way that the cute Bears roaming along the roads begging for handouts from tourists can be very dangerous at times. People with dogs often discover to their horror that their normally docile, urban pet can become incredibly vicious; and in just a momentary rampage; gnarl a child's face into a bloody unrecognizable pulp, before anyone can stop it.

While visiting a county fair one year here in Oregon, I overheard a little girl ask a man standing by the rabbit cages if the bunnies would bite. His answer was as profound as it was simple: "Anything with a mouth can bite". We once had a very lovable female Abyssinian guinea pig who, if you didn't pet her just exactly the right way, would nip your hand sharply. She weighed in at a mere 2 pounds, but judging by her demeanor, you would think she was the one in charge, not us.

C.L.I.F.F.
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†. Gen 9:3 . . Every creature that lives shall be yours to eat; as with the green grasses, I give you all these.

Right after the Flood, God decreed that every kind of creature be used for nourishment in Man's diet. However, Man doesn't have to eat them if he doesn't want to— it's optional; since Gen 9:1-3 is clearly a gift rather than a commandment.

Clark— of Lewis and Clark fame —reported that his hunters killed three hawks at the mouth of the Columbia River in the winter of 1805 which they found to be fat and delicious. And Gifford Pinchot, noted American forestry expert, conservationist, and two-term governor of Pennsylvania, was of the opinion that the best meat of all was the chicken hawk— sweeter than quail, more tender than pheasant, and more delicate than grouse. Lots of predators are tasty to eat, as well as many species of prey such as rats and mice; and deadly snakes as well. But not everyone is inclined to dine on them; nor are they required to.

Nobody really knows precisely why God modified Man's diet after the Flood. But apparently something is different about Man now; and something is different about the Earth too. The rigors of living in the post Flood world— especially without the nutritional benefits of the tree of life —requires that meat be included in Man's diet for essential nutrients that vegetable matter can't provide.

In particular, strict vegans need a source of vitamin B12 in the form of a supplement, since animal products are the only natural food sources of that vitamin. They must also be sure to get enough of vitamins B2 and B6, as well as adequate intakes of calcium, iron, zinc, selenium, and other minerals that are obtained from animal products. The ADA also recommends that infants and children on a vegetarian diet take vitamin supplements for iron, calcium, vitamins B12 and D, and other nutrients to nurture healthy growth.

The blessing to eat whatever creature is available, was decreed many years before Moses came on the scene. In point of fact, Abraham (who lived before enactment of the Ten Commandments) prepared a meal for The Lord (Gen 18:3-8) that later would be forbidden for Jews by Kosher Law as an improper mix of dairy and meat; but in Abraham's day, it was okay.

Bible students are often curious about the disparity between what was right and wrong for Noah and Abraham, and what was right and wrong for Moses. God's moral laws are absolutes and that's why they are valid in any era. But religious customs like Temple sacrifices, diet, festivals, and sacred holidays are what's known as dispensational; which means that something is in effect for only a limited time and in a specific era.

The Bible's eras can be roughly divided into four categories: 1) the age of innocence, 2) the age of conscience, 3) the age of law, and 4) the age of grace.

Neither Noah nor Abraham were restricted to kosher foods; nor were they required to observe special holidays and feasts; nor to bring their sacrifices to a central location operated by a Levitical priesthood. But I've no doubt whatsoever that both Noah and Abraham knew, and agreed with, every one of God's moral absolutes.

†. Gen 6:9 . . Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.

†. Gen 7:1 . . And Yhvh said unto Noah . . for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.

†. Gen 26:5 . . Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.

Old Testament Judaism wasn't in force during Noah's day, nor was it in force in Abraham's either. Even today, any person not under the jurisdiction of Moses' Law— e.g. Gentiles and Christians —have Almighty God's blessing to eat whatever's on their plates; and no questions asked.

According to Paul, Christians who abstain from the flesh of animals for religious reasons; are weak in faith.

†. Rom 14:1-4 . . Accept him whose faith is weak, without passing judgment on disputable matters. One man's faith allows him to eat everything, but another man, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables.

†. 1Tim 4:1-6 . .The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, whose consciences have been desensitized as with a hot iron. They forbid people to marry and order them to abstain from certain foods, which God created to be received with thanksgiving by those who believe and who know the truth.

. . For everything God created is good, and nothing is to be rejected if it is received with thanksgiving, because it is consecrated by the word of God and prayer. If you point these things out to the brothers, you will be a good minister of Christ Jesus, brought up in the truths of the faith and of the good teaching that you have followed.

According to that passage in 1Timothy; Christian religions that impose dietary restrictions upon their members, other than those stipulated at Acts 15:19-20, have: 1) abandoned the faith, 2) are currently under the influence of demons, and 3) their teachings are neither good, nor are they truth.

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†. Gen 9:4 . .You must not, however, eat flesh with its life-blood in it.

That restriction is against life-blood; so then blood that cannot support life— dead blood —is exempt.

Life-blood, is actually blood that's alive; blood that hasn't begun to spoil; viz: it's still fresh enough for a transfusion and contains enough active ingredients to carry oxygen and heal wounds.

Ancient Jews understood that verse to mean it is unlawful to eat meat that isn't dead; viz: it isn't merely uncooked; it's still viable— fresh enough for a successful graft.

T . . But flesh which is torn of the living beast, what time the life is in it, or that torn from a slaughtered animal before all the breath has gone forth, you shall not eat. (Targum Jonathan)

Over 19,000 organ transplants a year are performed in the United States. Organ transplants offer individuals who might otherwise face serious disability or death the opportunity to lead more fully functioning lives. Successfully transplanted organs include kidney, skin, heart, liver, bone marrow, cornea, pancreas, and lungs. But for transplants to have any chance of success, the organ must be implanted very soon after it's removed from a donor. Living tissue can be kept on ice for only so long.

Often doctors can save an accidentally amputated finger or arm if they can get to the victim quick enough and sew the injured part back on. But if the part has begun to die, it is too late to do anything to save it. Skin grafts work well on burn patients because surgeons generally take fresh skin, often from the victim's own body, and sew it on right away.

Man isn't forbidden to dine upon raw meat; only that it absolutely has to be dead with no chance of recovery. Same with blood. At that point in time; Man could eat blood, but it too, like meat, had to be dead beyond recovery. This law is the very first law God laid down in the new world after the Flood. It has never been overturned, and remains among the list of primary laws imposed upon Christians.

†. Acts 15:28-29 . . It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us not to burden you with anything beyond the following requirements: You are to abstain from food sacrificed to idols, from blood, from the meat of strangled animals and from sexual immorality. You will do well to avoid these things. Farewell.

A strangled animal still has all of its blood in it. The animal might be brain dead, and its heart may have stopped beating, but its flesh will remain alive for some time by reason of the viable blood still in its veins. Recent changes to CPR procedures include no longer giving victims mouth-to-mouth respiration because the blood in a victim's system still contains useful oxygen that can save their life merely by pumping the chest as before.

Noah's covenant forbids Man to eat living flesh and living blood; and Christians are no exception. Because of the danger of pathogens, it was quite possibly necessary to add this limitation to the grant of liberty to eat meat, lest, instead of nourishing his body by it, Man should inadvertently destroy himself.

The prohibition against eating living flesh and blood is neither Jewish, nor is it Christian. It's universal; because God enacted that law long before there were any Jews or Christians. All human beings are under its jurisdiction. Man can eat all the raw meat he wants; and he can eat blood too; but he has absolutely no permission to eat either blood or meat that's still alive. The animal world isn't so fussy. They routinely devour their prey alive all the time. Hopefully no one reading this will ever stoop that low. The very best way to assure that meat and its blood are dead is to cook it— thoroughly.

At issue with the prohibition against eating blood are the feelings of some that modern slaughter houses don't always kill animals properly. Many use a device called a captured-bolt to stun the animals and then workers slit their throats while they're unconscious. Sometimes the bolt kills the animals instead of knocking them out and then they can't really drain the blood out too well because the animal's heart isn't pumping to assist. So there are those who feel no one should eat common meat because you can't guarantee the animal's blood was properly drained.

Exactly what the definition of "properly drained" is I don't know because it's impossible to drain every last drop of blood out of meat no matter how you might go about it; so the prohibition against eating blood has got to be interpreted from a practical perspective rather than from a purist's perspective.

Some people get a little carried away with the language of law. The best example I've seen of a hard-core legal purist was a cartoon depicting a man stopped at a red light in the family car while massive landslide boulders hurtling down a mountainside are within seconds of crushing him and his family to death. While his wife and children and the family dog scream and bark in mortal panic, the purist calmly points out that he cannot move the car until the light turns green.

†. Gen 9:5 . . But for your own life-blood I will require a reckoning: I will require it of every beast; of man, too, will I require a reckoning for human life, of every man for that of his fellow man!

Noah's Law number 2: Criminal Justice— retribution for the unjustified death of a human being. This law is also a universal law and applies to every family of Man and Beast; no exceptions. The Bible requires an investigation into the death of a human being whenever it is caused by another human being or by a member of the animal kingdom. If the killing cannot be justified, the perpetrator has to be put on trial.

C.L.I.F.F.
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