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In The Beginning Bible Study, Lesson 8

The Prehistoric Age

People weren’t the only giants in the land. We read in Scripture that there were sea monsters. Genesis 1:21 tells us, “God created the great sea monsters and every living creature that moves, with which the waters swarmed after their kind, and every winged bird after its kind; and God saw that it was good.”

When the Jewish midrashim (explanations of the Tanakh) were being composed, it was held that God originally produced a male and a female Leviathan, but lest in multiplying the species should destroy the world, He slew the female, reserving her flesh for the banquet that will be given to the righteous on the advent of the Messiah. This part, about eating Leviathan, is based on Psalm 74:14, “You broke the heads of Leviathan in pieces, and gave him as food to the people inhabiting the wilderness.”

As Rashi says in his commentary on this verse:

the…sea monsters: The great fish in the sea, and in the words of the Aggadah (B.B. 74b), this refers to the Leviathan and its mate, for He created them male and female, and He slew the female and salted her away for the righteous in the future, for if they would propagate, the world could not exist because of them. הַתַּנִינִם (hattaninim) is written. [I.e., the final “yud”, which denotes the plural, is missing, hence the implication that the Leviathan did not remain two, but that its number was reduced to one.] – [from Gen. Rabbah 7:4, Midrash Chaseroth V’Yetheroth, Batei Midrashot, vol 2, p. 225].

Psalm 104:26 says this: “There go the ships of the sea, and Leviathan (the sea monster), which You have formed to sport in it.”

But as we continue to look closer, we may see something different.

As Jeremiah 51:34 tells us, “Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon has devoured me and sucked me dry; he has made me an empty vessel; he has swallowed me like the sea monster; he has filled his belly with my delicacies; he has rinsed me.”

And Ezekiel 29:3, 

Speak, and you must say, “Thus says the Lord Yahweh: ‘Look! I am against you, Pharaoh, king of Egypt, the great sea monster, the one lying down in the midst of his Nile streams, who says to Me, “It is my Nile, and I made it for myself.”’”

And again in Ezekiel 32:2 

Son of man, raise a lament over Pharaoh, the king of Egypt, and you must say to him, “With a fierce, strong lion among nations you compared yourself, and you are like the sea monster in the seas, and you thrash about in your rivers, and you make water turbid with your feet, and you make your rivers muddy.”

According to Wikipedia, 

Leviathan (/lɪˈvaɪ.əθən/; Hebrew: לִוְיָתָן, Livyatan) is a creature with the form of a sea serpent from Jewish belief, referenced in the Hebrew Bible in the Book of Job, Psalms, the Book of Isaiah, and the Book of Amos. The Leviathan of the Book of Job is a reflection of the older Canaanite Lotan, a primeval monster defeated by the god Baal Hadad. Parallels to the role of Mesopotamian Tiamat defeated by Marduk have long been drawn in comparative mythology, as have been wider comparisons to dragon and world serpent narratives such as Indra slaying Vrtra or Thor slaying Jörmungandr, but Leviathan already figures in the Hebrew Bible as a metaphor for a powerful enemy, notably Babylon (Isaiah 27:1), and some 19th century scholars have pragmatically interpreted it as referring to large aquatic creatures, such as the crocodile. The word later came to be used as a term for “great whale”, as well as for sea monsters in general

Yes, Leviathan may have been a code name for Babylon or Pharoah, as we have seen in these Scriptures, but Leviathan was also symbolic of Satan. 

Isaiah 27:1 tells us, “On that day, Yahweh will punish with His cruel, great and strong sword Leviathan, the fleeing serpent, and Leviathan, the twisting serpent, and He will kill the sea monster that is in the sea.”

Job 26:5-14 speaks of this fleeing serpent and God’s power at creation.

The ghosts of the dead tremble beneath the water, with its creatures. Sheol is naked before Him; Abaddon lies uncovered. He stretches the north over chaos and suspends the earth on nothing. He binds up the water in His thick clouds, yet no cloud is torn apart by it. He shuts off the view of His throne by spreading His cloud across it. He fixed a circle on the surface of the water, defining the boundary between light and dark. The pillars of heaven tremble, aghast at His rebuke. He stirs up the sea with His power, and by His skill He strikes down Rahav. With His Spirit He spreads the heavens; His hand pierces the fleeing serpent. And these are but the fringes of His ways; how faint the echo we hear of Him! But who is able to grasp the meaning of His thundering power?

Revelation 12:1-4 says, 

A great sign appeared in the sky, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. She was with child and wailed aloud in pain as she labored to give birth. Then another sign appeared in the sky; it was a huge red dragon, with seven heads and ten horns, and on its heads were seven diadems. Its tail swept away a third of the stars in the sky and hurled them down to the earth. Then the dragon stood before the woman about to give birth, to devour her child when she gave birth.

And again, Revelation 13:1-2 tells us this: 

The dragon stood on the shore of the sea. And I saw a beast coming out of the sea. It had ten horns and seven heads, with ten crowns on its horns, and on each head a blasphemous name. The beast I saw resembled a leopard, but had feet like those of a bear and a mouth like that of a lion. The dragon gave the beast his power and his throne and great authority.

So we see the dragon at the sea to receive the Antichrist.

Sea monsters were not the only giant animals. What about Behemoth in the Old Testament, a powerful, grass-eating animal whose “bones are tubes of bronze, his limbs like bars of iron”? 

Job 40:15-24 says, 

Look at Behemoth, which I made along with you and which feeds on grass like an ox. What strength it has in its loins, what power in the muscles of its belly! Its tail sways like a cedar; the sinews of its thighs are close-knit. Its bones are tubes of bronze, its limbs like rods of iron. It ranks first among the works of God, yet its Maker can approach it with his sword. The hills bring it their produce, and all the wild animals play nearby. Under the lotus plants it lies, hidden among the reeds in the marsh. The lotuses conceal it in their shadow; the poplars by the stream surround it. A raging river does not alarm it; it is secure, though the Jordan should surge against its mouth. Can anyone capture it by the eyes, or trap it and pierce its nose?

Among various Jewish legends, one relates that the righteous will witness a spectacular battle between Behemoth and Leviathan in the Messianic Era and later feast upon their flesh. Again according to Wikipedia, 

Later Jewish sources describe Leviathan as a dragon who lives over the Sources of the Deep and who, along with the male land-monster Behemoth, will be served up to the righteous at the end of time. The Book of Enoch (60:7–9) describes Leviathan as a female monster dwelling in the watery abyss (as Tiamat), while Behemoth is a male monster living in the desert of Dunaydin (“east of Eden”).

We see Behemoth sometimes identified as a hippopotamus and Leviathan as a crocodile, whale, or a snake; but were these creatures dinosaurs? And if they were, why did these giant animals exist? The word “dinosaur” comes from the Greek word which means “terrible lizard.” The current names for dinosaurs have only been since the 1800’s. So we want to briefly look into these giant animals and ask, “Why did God make them, and why did they become extinct?” 

If you ever went to Jurassic theme park, you know that there are not many types of dinosaurs. There are Brachiosaurus, Apatosaurus, Allosaurus, Spinosaurus, and Stegosaurus and even a three-horned one called Triceratops. But that’s not all! We also have the Pterodactyls, which were giant flying reptiles, and Plesiosaurs, which were water reptiles, and bird-type dinosaurs known as theropods. There were also Woolly Mammoths (and their cousin Steppe Mammoth) who stood 13-15 feet tall and had giant tusks. 

So you have to ask yourself, “Was all of mankind taller then what we are today?” There is the theory out there that says these huge creatures lived before the creation of man. Well, that is partly true for the animals were created before man, but it is not true that they became extinct before man was created because they were these terrible, violent animals that could not co-exist with man. God created a world that, in His own words, was good. Everything lived in harmony. We see this in the Messianic Age when all things will be restored. We know before the flood that man and animal were plant eaters, vegetarians, as we read in Job 40. We also read in Job about Behemoth, that it ranks first among the works of God. So we know that God created these mammoth creatures and it was not just folklore. But the question still remains, “Why?” 

We also know that they co-existed with man because Adam named all the animals, and even though we first named the dinosaurs in the 1800’s, Adam gave them a name in the garden. We also know that the animals were grass or plant eaters and they were not violent against man based on what we see in the restored Eden. The end will be like the beginning, and the beginning like the end. Before the flood, man was not a threat to the animals because animals and man only ate grass and plants. But after the flood, God told Noah that they could eat the meat from animals, and at that time man would have been a threat to them, for they became prey. Animals also turned from eating grass to eating each other, though not all. After the flood, the harmony of life ended.

Genesis 9:2-4 tells us, 

The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything. But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.

Well, one thought regarding the reason that man and animal could have been taller or larger than they are today is this: before the flood, all of creation was pristine—pure air, pure water, and what we would call organic food. Because of this, life’s duration was longer. We know that before the flood Methusalah lived to be 1,000 years old. But as Genesis 6:3 tells us “Then the Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; nevertheless his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’” Life drastically changed after the flood, and with the changes we see that throughout history all kinds of animals have become extinct, mainly due to environment and man. There are many reptiles and other species of animals they believe lived during the prehistoric age, but you would not know it because their size is so considerably smaller—like Horseshoe crabs and turtles, Komodo dragons, Shoebill storks, Bactrian camels, Echidnas (which are a cross between a badger, porcupine and an anteater. It lays eggs instead of giving birth), Musk oxen, Chambered Nautilus, White Rhinoceros, and even white polar bears and sturgeons, and so many more. It makes the prehistoric age not so prehistoric.

The Flood

 As we move on, we see a very low point in history. Of course, there have been many low points in history, but not even a thousand years after Eden we hear God expressing regrets. Genesis 6:5-8 tells us, 

The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth, and His heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Genesis 6:9 tells us that God found one righteous man: “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.”

All throughout history, God always had a remnant reserved for Him. Here are just a few Scriptures:

“God sent me (Joseph) before you to preserve for you a remnant in the earth, and to keep you alive by a great deliverance” (Genesis 45:7).

“Yet I will leave 7,000 in Israel, all the knees that have not bowed to Baal and every mouth that has not kissed him” (1 Kings 19:18).

“Isaiah cries out concerning Israel, ‘Though the number of the sons of Israel be like the sand of the sea, it is the remnant that will be saved’” (Romans 9:27).

“In the same way then, there has also come to be at the present time a remnant according to God’s gracious choice” (Romans 11:5).

We see that the Scripture repeats itself in telling us about the corruption on earth. Genesis 6:11-13 says, 

Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 

The corruption multiplied after the sin of Eden. Paul tells us this about sin in Romans 5:19-21, 

For as through the one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous. The Law came in so that the transgression would increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, so that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Messiah Yeshua our Lord.

But as we saw, sin also came by way of the fallen angels. God needs to save His remnant, and to do that He needs to make a way for their salvation. 

The Story of the Two Arks: An Open and Shut Case

So we know the story, that God has Noah build an ark. In Genesis 6:14-16, God tells Noah how to make a boat—not just a little boat, but a huge boat called an ark: 

Make for yourself an ark of gopher wood; you shall make the ark with rooms, and shall cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you shall make it: the length of the ark three hundred cubits, its breadth fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. You shall make a window for the ark, and finish it to a cubit from the top; and set the door of the ark in the side of it; you shall make it with lower, second, and third decks.

We see later in history that God tells another man how to build an ark. God tells Moses how to build the Ark of the Covenant. Exodus 25:10-16 says, 

They shall construct an ark of acacia wood two and a half cubits long, and one and a half cubits wide, and one and a half cubits high. You shall overlay it with pure gold, inside and out you shall overlay it, and you shall make a gold molding around it. You shall cast four gold rings for it and fasten them on its four feet, and two rings shall be on one side of it and two rings on the other side of it. You shall make poles of acacia wood and overlay them with gold. You shall put the poles into the rings on the sides of the ark, to carry the ark with them. The poles shall remain in the rings of the ark; they shall not be removed from it. You shall put into the ark the testimony which I shall give you.

The Ark of the Covenant held the Ten Commandments. We forget that the keeping of the commandments is the keeping of the covenant agreement between us and God. But the purpose of the ark was to protect the commandments, just like the archangels protected the Tree of Life and the ark that Noah was building was to protect him and his family and all the animals. 

So why call it an ark? That is because an ark is a place of refuge, a shelter, a place of protection. You see, the Torah (commandments) is the Word of God. Yeshua is the Word of God. Yeshua means salvation. Inside the Ark of the Covenant was salvation. Noah’s ark was also salvation. “Preservation and deliverance from harm and ruin and loss” is the meaning of salvation. The ark protected them from the flood. It was salvation. 

Hebrews 11:7 tells us, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” The ark represents Yeshua the Messiah who is salvation, and the door into the ark also represents Yeshua, for He tells us in John 10:9, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.”

It took Noah one-hundred years to build the ark, and at any given moment any person could have repented and would have been able to enter the ark with Noah and his family—but not a single one did. As Psalm 32:6 says, “Therefore, let everyone who is godly pray to You in a time when You may be found; surely in a flood of great waters they will not reach him.” 

1 Peter 3:20 stresses that God patiently waited while Noah built the ark, in case any would repent: “because they formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through water.” 

2 Peter 2:5, 9 tell us that Noah was a preacher of righteousness: 

If He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly . . . then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment.

In Genesis 7:1-4, God tells Noah that he is now to enter the ark, for in seven days the flood waters will come. In the Targum Pseudo-Jonathan, we are told that these seven days functioned as one last chance for the people to repent: 

For, behold, I give you space of seven days; if they will be converted, it shall be forgiven them; but if they will not be converted, after a time of days yet seven, I will cause rain to come down upon the earth forty days and forty nights, and will destroy all bodies of man and of beast upon the earth.

Similarly, the Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer says that the purpose of the building of the ark (a lengthy project) was to increase the possibility for repentance: “Rabbi Tachanah said: Noah made the ark during fifty-two years, so that they should repent of their ways. But they did not repent.” The people didn’t listen, and only Noah’s immediate family was saved. As Yeshua says, 

In the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark. And they were oblivious, until the flood came and swept them all away. So will it be at the coming of the Son of Man. (Matthew 24:38-39)

Genesis 7:16 tells us, “Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed it behind him.”

It is interesting that God shut the door and not Noah, but when we see the parables of Yeshua, who is the door, you may understand why.

Luke 13:23-24 says, “And someone said to Him, ‘Lord, are there just a few who are being saved?’ And He said to them, ‘Strive to enter through the narrow door; for many, I tell you, will seek to enter and will not be able.’”

Matthew 25:7-13 tells us this: 

Then all the virgins woke up and trimmed their lamps. The foolish ones said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil; our lamps are going out.” 

“No,” they replied, “there may not be enough for both us and you. Instead, go to those who sell oil and buy some for yourselves.” But while they were on their way to buy the oil, the bridegroom arrived. The virgins who were ready went in with him to the wedding banquet. And the door was shut. Later the others also came. “Lord, Lord,” they said, “open the door for us!” But he replied, “Truly I tell you, I don’t know you.” Therefore keep watch, because you do not know the day or the hour.

Matthew 24:37-39 says, 

But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.

Genesis 6:17-18 goes on to tell us, 

Behold, I, even I am bringing the flood of water upon the earth, to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life, from under heaven; everything that is on the earth shall perish. But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark.

So you have to ask yourself, “Why did God totally destroy His creation?” We know that all He had to do was strike down those who were corrupt. But to destroy all the animals and the birds and even the trees? Why? Well, the answer is simple: mikvah!

The Mikvah

What is a mikvah? For one, the mikvah must be a natural flow of water. The flood certainly fits that description. In order to conform to Jewish law, a mikvah must contain 40 seahs of water. This parallels the 40 days/nights that the rain fell. 

We may better know the term as “baptism.” A person would immerse himself in a mikvah for several different reasons. The mikvah was symbolic of a spiritual cleansing. 1 Peter 3:18-22 tells us this:

For Messiah also died for sins once for all, the just for the unjust, so that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit; in which also He went and made proclamation to the spirits now in prison, who once were disobedient, when the patience of God kept waiting in the days of Noah, during the construction of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were brought safely through the water. Corresponding to that, baptism now saves you—not the removal of dirt from the flesh, but an appeal to God for a good conscience—through the resurrection of Messiah Yeshua, who is at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven, after angels and authorities and powers had been subjected to Him.

Romans 6:1-4 tells us this: 

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Messiah Yeshua have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Messiah was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

So we see that with spiritual cleansing comes a clear conscience and newness of life, spiritually being born again. Of course, the mikvah is only a symbol of this, only because it represents the womb and the grave. 

So that brings us to the next reason for the mikvah.

Symbolically, when Moses and the people went into the water, even though they crossed on dry ground, it was like a dying experience. But when they came out of the waters, it was like rising from the dead. 

So what does this have to do with anything? Well, death is considered unclean because death brings about decay, and decay is unclean. When God directed Moses about the Passover, He told him not to keep any till morning, as Exodus 12:10 tells us, “And you shall not leave any of it over until morning, but whatever is left of it until morning, you shall burn with fire.”

The people were to be in a state of holiness, for God Himself was leading Israel out of Egypt. Even in the Haggadah (the Passover service) the people acknowledge that it was God and not an angel who brought Israel out of Egypt. There are too many Torah laws about clean and unclean to get into them now, regarding the sanctuary and God ‘s presence, but death is a big one. According to the Torah, anyone who touches a corpse or is near a corpse is considered ritually unclean. One had to perform a mikvah to be considered clean. Once again, this was symbolic. 

Here are a few Scriptures which explain the association between uncleanness and touching the dead. 

Numbers 19:11 says, “If you touch a dead body, you will be unclean for seven days.”

Numbers 19:14 tells us, “If someone dies in a tent while you are there, you will be unclean for seven days. And anyone who later enters the tent will also be unclean.”

Also in Numbers 19:16, “If you touch the body of someone who was killed or who died of old age, or if you touch a human bone or a grave, you will be unclean for seven days.”

And Leviticus 21:11-12 says of the High Priest, 

He must not enter a place where there is a dead body. He must not make himself unclean, even for his father or mother, nor leave the sanctuary of his God or desecrate it, because he has been dedicated by the anointing oil of his God. I am the Lord.

We know that the garden became unclean after the sin of Adam and Eve because sin brings death. God could no longer walk with Adam and Eve in the cool of the evening. The garden was a place were they ministered to God, just like in the sanctuary (the Holy of Holies) within the Tent of Meeting the priests ministered to God. How important it is for our sanctuary, the place where we meet with God, to remain holy. 

The bottom line is that the world needed to be cleansed, and the flood was the way God was going to bring about that cleansing. God created life. That life died spiritually through sin. God needed to bring about a renewal. Creation brought about life and sin brought about death, and so going through a mikvah would bring about cleansing, a spiritual rebirth. Like Moses and the people who went into the water and were symbolically dead, now after the flood they would reemerge as clean and new and alive. God wanted once again to have a people that He could walk with. 

Animals

Genesis 6:18-21 says, 

But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife, and your sons’ wives with you. And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. As for you, take for yourself some of all food which is edible, and gather it to yourself; and it shall be for food for you and for them.

Genesis 7:1-3 says, 

Then the Lord said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time. You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth.”

Why the discrepancy? In Genesis 6, God was speaking in general about every animal, bringing them two by two; but in Genesis 7, God was speaking about how the clean animals should be gathered by sevens, because the clean animals were for sacrifices. Again we see that the people had to have had some knowledge of the sacrificial laws.

But what about these animals? How did every kind of animal know to come?

It is believed that there were 35,000 species of animals on the ark. A study done by the University of Leicester calculated that according to the dimensions of the ark, it could hold 70,000 animals. It would seem impossible for Noah to gather so many animals. The rabbis believed that God sent angels to gather together the animals. The Pirkei de Rabbi Eliezer preserves this tradition: 

Noah said to the Holy One, blessed be He: “Sovereign of all the world! Have I then the strength to collect them unto me to the ark?” The angels appointed over each kind went down and gathered them, and with them all their food unto him to the ark.

I have my own theory, and that is this: when we read about Eden, we know that God brought every animal before Adam to name, so we know that every animal lived in the garden. When Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden, the Scriptures never say anything about the animals. Could it be that these same animals were the animals that came to Noah? The mystery behind the Garden of Eden is not fully understood. We know that there could not have been time like the rest of the world in the garden, and we see that most likely there was no death in the garden, so these would have been the same animals that Adam and Eve lived among. If the garden was in Israel (Jerusalem), then it would have been straight across from where the ark was. God’s angels could have led these animals right to Noah. 

The docile behavior of the animals on the ark is a glimpse of the peace which will be normal in the Messianic Age. As it says in Isaiah 11:6, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them.” This is what happened on the ark, and this is how it will be once again when Yeshua returns and establishes His Kingdom. 

So, this causes us to question: if Adam and Eve were created on the sixth day, and then God rested on the seventh day, and if a day is like a thousand years to God, then we must assume that there was no time in the garden—at least not like we know it, because when Adam and Eve were expelled from the garden they would have been over one-thousand years old when they left Eden, and Adam would have been almost two-thousand years old when he died. But if while they were in the garden there were people living outside of the garden, where life was going on normally from the sixth day of creation, then that would change a lot of our thinking.

Or maybe before the flood, time was different. We know time as sixty seconds equals a minute, and sixty minutes equals an hour, and twenty-four hours equals a day—but was it always this way? We do know that the earth’s orbit has changed over time. The gravitational pull of the planets, like Jupiter, Mars and Venus, has affected the earth. We have had shifting and axial tilts and we have gone from circular to elliptical paths over the millennia. We also know that the planets themselves have moved over the history of creation. We also know that moons have come and gone, or even were added over time. We know that when the flood came, it came with such a violent eruption of the earth’s core, and the dome that was covering the earth was all broken up. 

Hosea writes this in Hosea 9:5-6: 

The Lord God of hosts, the One who touches the land so that it melts, and all those who dwell in it mourn, and all of it rises up like the Nile and subsides like the Nile of Egypt; the One who builds His upper chambers in the heavens and has founded His vaulted dome over the earth, He who calls for the waters of the sea and pours them out on the face of the earth, the Lord is His name.

It was this dome over the earth that was broken, and that allowed the rain to pour out over the earth. 

And again in Psalm 18:11, “He made darkness His covering, His canopy around Him, thick clouds dark with water.” Some creation scientists believe that this dome was a vapor or ice canopy that collapsed during the flood, becoming another source of the water which covered the earth. 

You must ask yourself: if the planets all shifted during the flood, could the water that was in the universe be the rain that fell to earth?

Let’s look at other scriptures that tell us about God when He is angry. Psalm 18:3-18 says,

I call upon the Lord, who is worthy to be praised, and I am saved from my enemies. The cords of death encompassed me, and the torrents of ungodliness terrified me. The cords of Sheol surrounded me; the snares of death confronted me. In my distress I called upon the Lord, and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice out of His temple, and my cry for help before Him came into His ears. Then the earth shook and quaked; and the foundations of the mountains were trembling and were shaken, because He was angry. Smoke went up out of His nostrils, and fire from His mouth devoured; coals were kindled by it. He bowed the heavens also, and came down with thick darkness under His feet. He rode upon a cherub and flew; and He sped upon the wings of the wind. He made darkness His hiding place, His canopy around Him, darkness of waters, thick clouds of the skies. From the brightness before Him passed His thick clouds, hailstones and coals of fire. The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered His voice, hailstones and coals of fire. He sent out His arrows, and scattered them, and lightning flashes in abundance, and routed them. Then the channels of water appeared, and the foundations of the world were laid bare at Your rebuke, O Lord, at the blast of the breath of Your nostrils. He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters. He delivered me from my strong enemy, and from those who hated me, for they were too mighty for me. They confronted me in the day of my calamity, but the Lord was my stay.

Matthew 27: 50-54 tells us what happened when Yeshua died. 

And Yeshua cried out again with a loud voice, and yielded up His spirit. And behold, the veil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; and the earth shook and the rocks were split. The tombs were opened, and many bodies of the saints who had fallen asleep were raised; and coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they entered the holy city and appeared to many. Now the centurion, and those who were with him keeping guard over Yeshua, when they saw the earthquake and the things that were happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this was the Son of God!”

Genesis 7:17-24 goes on to say, 

Then the flood came upon the earth for forty days, and the water increased and lifted up the ark, so that it rose above the earth. The water prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. The water prevailed more and more upon the earth, so that all the high mountains everywhere under the heavens were covered. The water prevailed fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. All flesh that moved on the earth perished, birds and cattle and beasts and every swarming thing that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind; of all that was on the dry land, all in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. Thus He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of the sky, and they were blotted out from the earth; and only Noah was left, together with those that were with him in the ark. The water prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.

The earth was now going through a death like none other. But in that ark, we see something—we see now Noah and his wife, who were like Adam and Eve, and the ark, like the Garden of Eden with all the animals around them. But also, instead of Cain and Abel and Seth who continued on after the garden, we now see Shem, Ham, and Japheth who continue on after the flood. Through the flood, God recreated as He had created in the beginning., as Genesis 1:2 tells us that there was chaos and the water covered the earth. 

Genesis 8:1-5 continues, 

But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. Also the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky were closed, and the rain from the sky was restrained; and the water receded steadily from the earth, and at the end of one hundred and fifty days the water decreased. In the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat. The water decreased steadily until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains became visible.

We see another time when people were in a boat and a storm came up. Mark 4:35-41 tells us: 

On that day, when evening came, He said to them, “Let us go over to the other side.” Leaving the crowd, they took Him along with them in the boat, just as He was; and other boats were with Him. And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Yeshua Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you afraid? Do you still have no faith?” They became very much afraid and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey Him?”

Do you think that there may have been times when Noah felt this way?

In our times of trials and tribulations, God provides an ark of safety for us, as Psalm 91:1-4 tells us, 

He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will abide in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say to the Lord, “My refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust!” For it is He who delivers you from the snare of the trapper and from the deadly pestilence. He will cover you with His pinions, and under His wings you may seek refuge; His faithfulness is a shield and bulwark.

Isaiah 43:2-5a says,

When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and through the rivers, they will not overflow you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be scorched, nor will the flame burn you. For I am the Lord your God, the Holy One of Israel, your Savior; I have given Egypt as your ransom, Cush and Seba in your place. Since you are precious in My sight, since you are honored and I love you, I will give other men in your place and other peoples in exchange for your life. Do not fear, for I am with you.

Psalm 93 reminds us that God is in control. 

The Lord reigns, He is clothed with majesty; the Lord has clothed and girded Himself with strength; indeed, the world is firmly established, it will not be moved. Your throne is established from of old; You are from everlasting. The floods have lifted up, O Lord, the floods have lifted up their voice, the floods lift up their pounding waves. More than the sounds of many waters, than the mighty breakers of the sea, the Lord on high is mighty. Your testimonies are fully confirmed; holiness befits Your house, O Lord, forevermore.

Sukkot

The ark was also a sukkah. The word sukkah is translated as “tabernacle” or “a booth,” a temporary dwelling. The people in the wilderness lived in booths (tents), sukkahs. We see that at the time of the flood it rained forty days and forty nights. We also see that Moses ascended Mount Sinai for forty days and forty nights when he received the Ten Commandments the second time. This happened after the sin of the golden calf when Moses broke the tablets in anger. The people needed atonement for this sin, and Yom Kippur is the Day of Atonement. Today we prepare forty days before Yom Kippur. This represents those days Moses spent on Mount Sinai and his descending with the second set of tablets, representing God’s forgiveness and a second chance. 

In the days of the flood, those who were in that ark—that sukkah, that temporary dwelling—were also receiving forgiveness and a second chance. The festival Sukkot follows those days to represent God’s faithfulness, His protection in the wilderness, and His provisions. Right after Moses came down the mountain, they began to build the Tabernacle (mishkan). The sukkah reminds us of the clouds of God’s glory that surrounded Israel on their journey to the Promised Land. The ark was also covered by clouds, but in those clouds came the glory of God.

The clouds also represent the chuppah, the wedding canopy. Isaiah writes in Isaiah 4:5-6, 

Then the Lord will create over all of Mount Zion and over those who assemble there a cloud of smoke by day and a glow of flaming fire by night; over everything the glory will be a canopy. It will be a shelter and shade from the heat of the day, and a refuge and hiding place from the storm and rain.

We know that the ark was a shelter. We also know that a wedding is a making of a covenant. We see that God also makes a covenant with Noah, because now he and his family will continue what God had started with His creation. 

Genesis 9:8-11 says, 

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish My covenant with you: Never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

Every covenant has a sign. In a marriage it is a ring. So too with this covenant, as Genesis 9:12-17 says, 

God said, “This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations; I set My bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember My covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

2 Samuel 22:10-17 says, 

He bowed the heavens and came down; thick darkness was under His feet. He rode on a cherub and flew; He was seen on the wings of the wind. He made darkness around Him His canopy, thick clouds, a gathering of water. Out of the brightness before Him coals of fire flamed forth. The LORD thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered His voice. And He sent out arrows and scattered them; lightning, and routed them. Then the channels of the sea were seen; the foundations of the world were laid bare, at the rebuke of the LORD, at the blast of the breath of His nostrils. He sent from on high, He took me; He drew me out of many waters.

Like the cloud, the rain also represented the feast of Sukkot. The rain represented the Holy Spirit. We saw at the time of creation that the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters. During the Sukkot, there was a ceremony called “the drawing out of water,” or “the water-drawing ceremony.” In the Talmud, we read, “Why is the name of it called the drawing out of water? Because of the pouring out of the Holy Spirit, according to what is said, ‘With joy shall ye draw out the wells of salvation.’” 

Sukkot teaches us that in the Messianic Era, the earth will experience the greatest outpouring of the Holy Spirit. Joel 2:23 tells us this, “So rejoice, O sons of Zion, and be glad in the Lord your God; for He has given you the early rain for your vindication. And He has poured down for you the rain, the early and latter rain as before.” 

Isaiah 12:3 tells us, “Therefore you will joyously draw water from the springs of salvation.” 

We see Yeshua coming to the feast on the last day. This day is called the Great Hosanna or Hoshana Rabbah, the Great Salvation. How appropriate that Yeshua, our Great Salvation, should come on this day—Yeshua, who had this conversation with the woman in John 4:7-14: 

There came a woman of Samaria to draw water. Yeshua said to her, “Give Me a drink.” For His disciples had gone away into the city to buy food. Therefore the Samaritan woman said to Him, “How is it that You, being a Jew, ask me for a drink since I am a Samaritan woman?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) Yeshua answered and said to her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, ‘Give Me a drink,’ you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water.” She said to Him, “Sir, You have nothing to draw with and the well is deep; where then do You get that living water? You are not greater than our father Jacob, are You, who gave us the well, and drank of it himself and his sons and his cattle?” Yeshua answered and said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will thirst again; but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst; but the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.”

Another significance of Sukkot is that it is considered the true time of the birth of Yeshua. 

When Noah entered the ark of salvation and the clouds came and poured out the rain of the Holy Spirit, God, Yeshua, and the Holy Spirit were there in this remaking of His creation. 

Sukkot is also called the Feast of the Ingathering. We see that this is what God did. He gathered up His remnant, including all of the animals. One day God will again gather up His people. Hosea 6:3 tells us this, “So let us know, let us press on to know the Lord. His going forth is as certain as the dawn; and He will come to us like the rain, like the spring rain watering the earth.”

Genesis 8:6-12 continues, 

Then it came about at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made; and he sent out a raven, and it flew here and there until the water was dried up from the earth. Then he sent out a dove from him, to see if the water was abated from the face of the land; but the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, so she returned to him into the ark, for the water was on the surface of all the earth. Then he put out his hand and took her, and brought her into the ark to himself. So he waited yet another seven days; and again he sent out the dove from the ark. The dove came to him toward evening, and behold, in her beak was a freshly picked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the water was abated from the earth. Then he waited yet another seven days, and sent out the dove; but she did not return to him again.

The earth was now in its rebirth, and we see once again the symbol of the Holy Spirit hovering over the waters. But the earth never returned to its original state.

Genesis 8:20-22 continues, 

Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. The Lord smelled the soothing aroma; and the Lord said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground on account of man, for the intent of man’s heart is evil from his youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.”

The earth had its mikvah, and it had its rebirth, and God now shows mercy upon the earth. He makes a covenant with Noah that is still in effect today, because God is a covenant-keeping God. He keeps His word to man.