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NOAH BUILDS THE ARK

(c. 2424–2349 B.C.)

The worldwide Flood brought a tragic end to the perfect beginning.

Family histories in Genesis reveal that the worldwide catastrophe known as Noah’s Flood was unleashed less than 2,000 years after creation.1 Although it is clear that there were many people living by that time,2 all humanity except one family followed the rebellion of Adam’s sin against God. Death, suffering, and hate filled the earth, and by the time of the Flood, the thoughts of men were evil, continually.

God loves righteousness, but He hates evil. He was not surprised when Adam sinned, or decades later when Cain killed his brother Abel.3 The Creator was ready for what would happen, and now it was time for a massive step in His plan for man’s salvation and creation’s restoration.4

Beginning when Noah was 500, this “preacher of righteousness” and his wife were blessed with three sons. The first, Japheth, was born 100 years before the Flood. Shem was born two years later, then Ham.5

As Noah and his wife trained their sons to obey and praise the Creator, the boys matured into manhood. God tells us in the Bible that Noah followed God’s ways, so it is reasonable to assume that he loved his wife and trained his children in righteousness. Japheth, Shem, and Ham must have respected their parents and followed their instructions with care.

Genesis chapters 6 through 9 document that God told Noah to build a massive ship, called an ark, and instructed him to build it 300 cubits by 50 cubits by 30 cubits, with three levels. That’s roughly 510 feet long by 85 feet wide by 51 feet high.6 God told Noah to build it out of a specific type of wood and to coat it inside and out with pitch, which was probably based on the sap of trees in order to waterproof and preserve the wood extra well. It is likely that God gave Noah many other details, too.7

Because the world was exceedingly wicked, Noah and his family were surrounded by God-haters. Surely he was scoffed as a crazy man. But he stood firm and obeyed anyway.

Considering both the immense sinfulness of his culture and the magnitude of the task before him, Noah’s obedience is perhaps the greatest example of persistent faith in all of Scripture.

It took many years to complete the huge Ark. We don’t know how many were spent warning people, or harvesting timber, or actually building. But from the day when God declared that He would destroy man from the face of the earth until the Flood started, 120 years passed.8

Noah’s oldest son, Japheth was 100 when the Flood came.9 Still young among the men of that time, Noah’s three hard-working sons were undoubtedly strong. Although researchers are confident that Noah and his family could have built the Ark on their own, it is quite possible that Noah employed and continued to warn laborers and unbelieving relatives as well.10

We know from Genesis chapter 4 that even before the Flood, skilled tradesmen were making things out of metal. They were smart! In addition, the use of strong animals and labor-saving inventions such as pulleys, cranes, and wagons for the heavy lumber, are probable. After all, the mental and physical abilities of the people of Noah’s day were much closer to the original perfection of Adam and Eve than to the sin-corrupted minds and bodies of humans today.

Moreover, because people lived considerably longer before the Flood,11 they were able to experience, recall, and put to use far more than we can now. It is likely that we vastly underestimate the abilities and inventions of Noah and the countless other pre-Flood people!

PRIMARY PASSAGES

Genesis 6–9

KEY VERSE

“Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:5–8

WRAP UP

“Our Father, thank You for telling Noah to build the ark. He was such a great example of faith and dedication! With all the sin and evil that filled the world in his time, even worse than today, it must have been incredibly easy to be drawn into sin, and not to stay faithful to You in the six hundred years he lived before the Flood. Please help me to have faith that overcomes the pressures of this world, like Noah’s.”

1 Ussher calculated about 2350 BC, which was about 1,650 years after creation.

2 A population of at least hundreds of thousands is likely, and many more are mathematically reasonable. See “What Was the Pre-Flood Population Like?” by Ken Ham, https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/pre-flood-population. Also consider “Population of the Pre-Flood World,” by Tom Pickett, www.ldolphin.org/pickett.html, and “Why Don’t We Find Human and Dinosaur Fossils Together?” by Bodie Hodge, https://answersingenesis.org/dinosaurs/humans/why-dont-we-find-human-dinosaur-fossils-together/. Dr. Henry Morris III of the Institute for Creation Research says, “If one uses a very conservative formula of six children for each family, an average generation of 100 years, and a lifespan of 500 years, there would have been over 235 million people alive at the time of the global Flood. That is probably much too low an estimate. For instance, if the average family size were eight instead of six, the generation was only 93 instead of 100, then the population at the death of Adam (930 years after creation) would have been 2.8 million. At that rate, the population at the time of the Flood would have been over 137 billion!” Henry M. Morris III, The Book of Beginnings (Dallas, TX: Institute for Creation Research, 2012), p. 219 — based on Henry M. Morris, 1970, Biblical Cosmology and Modern Science (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 1970), p. 87.

3 “When Cain killed Abel, Adam was nearly 130 years old (Seth was born when Adam was 130 years old, and Eve’s statement in Gen. 4:25 implies he was born shortly after Abel died.) So it’s possible that Cain and Abel were around 120 years old when Cain killed Abel. In 120 years, Adam and Eve must have had many children, and even grandchildren and great-grandchildren.” (from Readers Respond section in Answers magazine, volume 9.4, October–December 2014).

4 Acts 3:19–21

5 Genesis 5:32. Noah is 500 when his first son, Japheth, is born (Gen. 10:21). Shem (son 2) was born two years after Japheth. We know this because Gen. 11:10 tells us that Shem was 100 two years after the Flood, and Noah was 600 when the Flood began. Noah’s youngest son was Ham (son 3, Gen. 9:24). No time span is specified, but a logical guess is that he was born 2–3 years after Shem. This means that the three sons were probably all born by about 95 years prior to the Flood.

6 510’ x 85’ x 51’ is based on the older and longer 20.35-inch “Nippur” cubit, which is believed to be the most likely cubit length used.

7 It is extremely interesting that when God told King David that his son, Solomon, would build the Temple in Jerusalem, the Spirit placed many details in David’s mind, and directed him in creating a written set of instructions. These were passed by David to Solomon. While the Temple was ornate and of immense importance, the Ark of Noah — which had to withstand the cataclysmic Flood and convey thousands of land animals plus eight people and enough food to sustain them for a year — it seems likely that God provided even more details than he did for the Temple (see 1 Chronicles 28:11–19).

8 Genesis 6:7, 7:11, 7:23

9 Noah was apparently told of the coming Flood when he was 480. In Genesis 6:3, 120 years before the Flood, God declared, to no one in particular, that man only had 120 years before he was going to wipe things away and change the world. The Flood came when he was 600 (Gen. 7:6). Genesis 5:32 says that all three of Noah’s sons were born after he turned 500, which means that his oldest son, Japheth, was 100 when the Flood came.

10 One way or another — whether just Noah’s family, or with the help of additional laborers — Noah was able to complete the Ark within God’s 120-year timeframe. It is likely that it required about 55–75 years for preparation and build-time. See https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/how-long-did-it-take-for-noah-to-build-the-ark/, by Bodie Hodge.

11 See “Did People Like Adam and Noah Really Live Over 900 Years of Age? https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/genealogy/did-adam-and-noah-really-live-over-900-years/ by Drs. Georgia Purdom and David Menton. Consider also “Why Did People Start to Have Shorter Lives After the Flood?” https://answersingenesis.org/bible-questions/why-did-people-have-shorter-lives-after-flood/ by Bodie Hodge.