Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

“The flood was forty days on the earth. The waters increased, and lifted up the ship, and it was lifted up above the earth. The waters rose, and increased greatly on the earth; and the ship floated on the surface of the waters. The waters rose very high on the earth. All the high mountains that were under the whole sky were covered. The waters rose fifteen cubits higher, and the mountains were covered. All flesh died that moved on the earth, including birds, livestock, animals, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All on the dry land, in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, died. Every living thing was destroyed that was on the surface of the ground, including man, livestock, creeping things, and birds of the sky. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ship. The waters flooded the earth one hundred fifty days.”
(Genesis 7:17-24)

This was a complete and comprehensive flood. It was not in a regional valley, because the water was more than twenty-two feet above the tops of the mountains. It does not say that they were nearby mountains or even some mountains. It specifically cites all the mountains under the whole (or entire) sky. Remember that there is more than three times the amount of the water in our current oceans stored under the mantle of the Earth. If it all came up and combined with water coming down – whether from clouds or a layer of crystalline deposits around the Earth that were breaking up and falling into the atmosphere – it would be MORE than enough to cover the entire Earth from the Dead Sea (414 feet below sea level) to Mount Everest/Sagarmantha (29,032 feet above sea level). The oceans have about 321,000,000 miles³ of water in them. To flood the Earth to 22 feet above Everest, you need about 813,875,076 miles³ of water. Under our crust is about 963,000,000. There’s about another 11,500,000 miles³ in lakes, rivers, and general atmospheric content. So with just the water we can detect and measure, there is 630,500,000 miles³ MORE than is needed to flood the ENTIRE PLANET to a distance 22 feet above the highest known point. People like to use science to disprove the possibility of a world-wide flood. But science does the exact opposite. It proves not the ‘how’, but the materials needed. There is enough water available to flood the whole Earth. Completely.

Everything with breath died. There was no where to go to hide. No where to escape it. It took a hundred and fifty days (approximately five months) for the water to completely rise to their maximum level. Nothing survived. Not a bird or land dwelling animal or a human. They were all wiped out. This is because Adam and Eve sinned. They rebelled. They started the whole thing. Sin has consequences we cannot POSSIBLY imagine. Even if it seems to go well for a really long time, Sin puts things in motion that only ever lead to judgment. To destruction. To a comeuppance (Romans 6:23). God took NO pleasure in this. This grieved Him mightily. But Sin had corrupted what once was good. It had turned everything into violence, death, killing. Nothing that was meant to be. If God hadn’t judged them at this point, either Noah, his wife, his sons, or his daughter’s in law would have succumbed to it. It would not have been long before no one was seeking God. Until everyone was ungodly. And then how could Jesus come to provide salvation? So God judged in order to show overall MERCY to humanity. To make it so that we COULD come back to Him. To enjoy in Jesus the restoration of our rights and freedom in Him.

I doubt any of this was pleasant for Noah and his family. They had to hear the rushing waters. Feel them lift the ark. Hear the cries of those dying. Their terror and anger. Their desperation to get inside the ark. But God was with them. They could hold onto His words. His promises. They knew they would survive, but I am sure they grieved along with God for that which was being destroyed. If only others had made the choice to surrender themselves to God.

Only land-dwelling creatures were destroyed. Those that lived in the waters survived. I doubt they had a fun time, but they survived.

This Flood was so catastrophic that it altered the face of the world forever.

The sage Radak writes: ‘וירבו המים, when the waters had increased for forty days, and the waters of the underground wells were added to the rainwater, the latter were powerful enough to lift the ark and all the creatures inside. Due to its weight it had not risen from the ground until the force of the subterranean geysers lifted it, and the ark now floated on the waters.’

The sage Steinsaltz writes: ‘The water accumulated upon the earth one hundred and fifty days. Over the course of these one hundred and fifty days, perhaps the rain continued to fall, and the wellsprings did not stop up, but the force of the water weakened. During this period, everything flowed and intermingled: The oceans surged past the coastline and the seas broke their boundaries. For almost half a year, there was nothing in the world except for water and the ark floating somewhere upon it. Its occupants did not know where they were, and possibly they could not even know how much time had elapsed since they had shut themselves in the ark, as time calculations in those days depended on the celestial bodies. It is doubtful whether they could even distinguish between day and night.’