Genesis 9:13-16 “I have set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall serve as a sign of a covenant between Me and the earth. It shall come about, when I make a cloud appear over the earth, that the rainbow 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 rainbow is in the cloud, then I will look at it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”
I remember hearing the Bible story of Noah’s Ark when I was very little. Our doctor’s office always has a copy of Arthur Maxwell’s The Bible Story Volume One in the Waiting area and Noah’s Flood (Genesis chapters 6-9) was etched into my mind. Later in my adult years, I found many books and documentaries by Creation Scientists that showed overwhelming evidence in the rock and fossil record of the Earth’s Geological record as validation.
Noah’s flood was a historical, year-long, global catastrophe that took place in approximately 4500 years ago, using the genealogy provided in Genesis 5. According to this method, the time from Adam to Noah was approximately 1,056 years. So we have Noah’s birth, which occurred about 1,056 years after the creation of Adam. Then, in Genesis 7:11, we are told that the flood came in the 600th year of Noah’s life, so that would mean the Great Flood came approximately 1,656 years after Adam was created in Eden. Using a similar method places the creation of Adam and Eve at around 4004 BC. So, doing the math, Noah’s flood occurred in approximately 2348 BC. The population of the planet at that time has estimates that reach up to possibly 4 billion.
Genesis 6:5-7, 11-13 says, Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land; mankind, and animals as well, and crawling things, and the birds of the sky. For I am sorry that I have made them.” Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for humanity had corrupted its way upon the earth. Then God said to Noah, “The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth. Then the Lord said, “I will wipe out mankind whom I have created from the face of the land; mankind, and animals as well, and crawling things, and the birds of the sky. For I am sorry that I have made them.”
Yet, it was sad to think that the people of the earth at that time became so wickedly evil to grieve Creator God’s heart enough to cause Him to reset the world. The Greek word for wickedness and evil in Genesis 6:5 are the same word “raʿ”. The 1828 Webster’s dictionary defines “moral evil” as any deviation of a moral agent from the rules of conduct prescribed to him by God. Depravity; corruption of heart, or disposition to commit wickedness; malignity. Are multitudes in this world once again wickedly turning against their Maker? 2 Peter 3:3-13 explains that the next judgment shall be by fire.
The King James Version of God’s covenant with Noah after the Great Flood states: “ I do set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a token of a covenant between me and the earth ... the waters shall no more become a flood to destroy all flesh.” The Greek word for bow is “qešeṯ” meaning a rainbow, and that rainbow stands for sovereign God’s promise, not pride. Proverbs 16:18 tells us. “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall.” In God We Trust. Remember the bow in the cloud, be faithful to God and stand firm.
Hebrews 12:28-29 “Let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.”
In Christ, Brian
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