Noah's Flood

I lead a weekly Bible study at my home here in Tacoma, Washington and we have been going through the "Story of God". The Story of God is basically teaching the Bible in story-form (I will write on this in the future). We started at the very beginning at the creation and we have been working our way forward. We've gone through Beginnings, the First Humans, Separation, Cain and Abel, The Flood and we just finished talking about the Covenant this past Wednesday.

While I was studying for the story of Noah I dug up some old notes and did some new research that I though I would share with the group. It was received very well by them so I thought you might like it too.

When did the Flood of Noah occur? Did you know that the Bible tells us? Let's see what Moses has to say about it; you might be very surprised!

Genesis 7:6-11

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.7 So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9 two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.

Keeping in mind that Noah was under the Civil Hebrew Calendar and not the Ceremonial, which was not instituted until the time of the first Passover; the rains started on the 17th of Cheshvan – That falls on the 15th of November this year.

Genesis 7:12

And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

40 days after the 17th day of Cheshvan (15th of November) is the 28th of Chislev – That falls on the 5th and middle day of Hanukkah. It is believed by many that Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit in Hanukkah. That is, that the Light of the World came into the world during the Festival of Lights. This year the 5th day of Hanukkah falls on December 25th, Christmas day.

Genesis 7:24- 8:4

24 And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days. 8:1 Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. 3 And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. 4 Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

This happened on the 17th day of Nissan. This is the Feast of First Fruits, the day that Jesus raised from the dead. So our new beginning in Christ was on the anniversary of the Earth's "new beginning" under Noah! The 17th of Nissan falls on the 11th of April in 2009.

Genesis 8:13

By the first day of the first month of Noah's six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth.

The first day of the first month is the 1st day of Tishrei. The 1st of Tishrei, is Rosh Hashanah and thought, by Jews, to be the anniversary of the creation of the earth. It is also Yom Teruah, the Feast of Trumpets. The 1st of Tishrei falls on the 19th of September in 2009.

Another interesting fact is that the judgment of God began with the 600th birthday of Noah and in its totality lasted through into his 601st birthday. So, the transitional event from Noah's previous 6 centuries and the beginning of his 7th was the judgment of God in the Flood. We are now closing out our 6th millennium and are on the verge of our 7th. I wonder, is there is some transitional time of judgment on our near horizon?

Interesting how God put this book together, eh?

This past Saturday was the anniversary of God's judgment in the Flood.