Do not forget: This commentary is based on scripture because these scriptural people lived. Their lifestyle is very skimpy in the scripture SO based on inspiration, research, Biblical definitions and imagination their lifestyle had to happen some way that is not given so why not this way or something similar? AND:
(Eccl. 1:9) “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
All through this article Satan will have his spiritual nose in everybody’s business he can but his thought planting and deceiving will only be illustrated here and there with the main characters.
More of Your Questions Will be Answered Here
It is tough when an eternal angel must suffer the waiting for the passing of time and the Lord God forced Satan to feel every agonizing second of the ark trip drag on, and on, and on. With that agony of waiting, empty and alone, Satan had been delighted when the ark had landed and people had finally started coming out. Satan was glad to see somebody even if it was his hated enemy that %$#@&$# Noah and his $#%&#@ family; “Well, I’ll get another shot at corrupting Noah! He’s exhausted from what he’s been through, maybe I can get him to try Qunubu or some strong wine.”
While watching the small encampment Satan was taking stock of himself and what he had learned. He had diligently observed and learned all he could about people. He was startled when he realized what a wealth of information he had gathered without really realizing it. He did not yet realize a much larger shock of realization was lurking in his busy mind. He remembered the people he had known and what it had taken to blind, lead, teach and charm them.
As he contemplated how to get Noah’s family to worship him he suddenly fully realized music was one of his greatest weapons against man because through music he could promote, control and adjust man’s emotions. He thought about how strait-laced God was about sex and how people were insatiably curious about sex and how people craved the excitement, domination and sensation of sex, especially forbidden sex.
He remembered how man liked to have a visible god and how easy it was to talk to people when they were under the influence of mind altering drugs. His cold gaze fixed itself upon Ham and his wife; “That’s where I’ll start because they’ve already experienced it; I’ll show that #$@&*% Noah! I lost my first one world kingdom but I’ll build a second one world kingdom right here, starting right now!”
Then suddenly, almost like a slap in the face, it hit him broadside; “The vast majority of the people before the flood did not believe the old stories about me when I was named Lucifer. They didn’t believe the story Adam told about how God cast me out of Eden and named me Satan (adversary).” Satan danced a fair spiritual jig all around the encampment; “Waaagh, yipeeee, yahoooo! That’s it! That’s it!”
“They don’t have to believe in me to serve me! If they don’t believe in me they’ll never know I’m talking to them! They’ll never know I’m teaching, leading, blinding and charming them. (Heb. 11:4-6) They do have to believe in the God of Eden to serve Him BUT they don’t have to believe in me to serve me! I’ve already won, I’ve won, its just a matter of time, I’ve won. (Isa. 14:13-14) “I will be like the most High!” He took stock of his arsenal; “Drugs, music, sex, visible gods, man’s emotions and unbelief!” (Eccl. 1:9, 2Cor. 4:4 & your news media) Sound familiar?
#4) How Many Animals Entered the Ark and How Many Animals Exited the Ark
It is amazing how educated, opinionated, aggressive people will take imagined, dug up, or dreamed up data, use wild speculations and wilder formulas, to come up with some answers that at are best speculations and prepare to die on the verbal battlefield defending their “scientific data”. Everybody scrambles to find “proof” that defends their personal belief or politico/religious agenda.
It is a verbal and written madhouse, possibly even a bigger madhouse than the ark with all its chirping, squeaking, squealing, quacking, roaring, whistling, howling, snarling, mooing, braying, trumpeting, screaming and chattering! You either believe or you do not believe. (Rom. 14:11-12) But all people will believe when they meet God because every knee shall bow to Him and every tongue shall confess to God (Rev. 20:10-15) but for the vast majority it will be too late because they did not accept Jesus’ offer of salvation in this life!
Here are some ideas that will help us realize the reality of conditions on the ark. It will also help us realize the foolishness of unbelievers who say they can “scientifically prove” the ark was an impossibility. (Matt. 19:26, Mark 10:27 & Luke 18:27) All things are possible with God.
There is no way to accurately measure who or what had how much space on the ark. The accepted measurement for a cubit is 18 inches, so the ark (Gen. 6:15 keyword: cubit) was roughly 450′ long, 75′ wide and 45′ high with 3 stories which gives 1,518,000 cubic feet, we’ll call it 1.5 million cu. ft. Huge freight barge and battleship design engineers say the ark’s 6 to 1 ratio is the perfect ratio for a boat that cannot be capsized.
(Gen. 6:14 keyword: rooms: defined: chamber, nest, dwelling) Of course the small animals and birds were kept in cages stacked on shelves in rooms, the large animals had small rooms (chambers) of their own and the food was stored in rooms (chambers). There had to be order.
In Part 10 was shown how animals are classified; 1)Kingdom, 2)Phylum, 3)Class, 4)Order, 5)Family, 6)Genus and 7)Species, Example: the eastern grey squirrel is a species in the genus sciurus, you take it from there. Examples that all dogs descended from one pair of wolves in central Asia and the great number of horse breeds were developed by man over several millennia of time prove that only basic species of animals were needed on the ark. AND:
Ask the internet to trace any animal through the 7 steps of classification given above and you will see that relatively few pairs of basic “root stock” animals were needed on the ark. ALSO: Check the internet, there are hundreds of thousands of types of animals that live in water (Gen. 7:22 keyword: nostrils) or do not have nostrils. It is obvious there were far fewer animals on the ark than one would think.
John Woodmorappe credibly demonstrated and recorded that as few as 2,000 animals might have been on the ark, check the internet info. That seems rather thin so lets say there were 10,000 animals on Noah’s Ark. To illustrate how the space was utilized think about how animals are of drastically different sizes. The below does not illustrate there was a huge number of animals of any specified species on the ark but it does illustrate that the various types of small animals far outnumbered the species of large animals on the ark.
Bull elephants average weighing 11,000 pounds which equals 5,500 two pound cottontail rabbits, 2,200 five pound woodchucks, 367 thirty pound bobcats, 110 one hundred pound wolves, 44 average size male black bears, 27 four hundred pound African lions and 22 five hundred pound elk. A chipmunk averages 4 ounces. It would take 44,000 chipmunks to equal the average weight of an elephant! All these weight ratios are given so we can understand that possibly only 20-25% of the ark’s 1.5 million cubic feet space divided into 3 stories was used as living space for the original 10,000 animals.
That left 75-80% of the 1.5 million cu. ft. for storage. I’m from farming country and old enough to have participated in old fashioned crop storage, no hay bailers and etc. Forage, any grass fit for hay, can be crammed wall to wall, floor to ceiling into a room. Using a sectioned door the grain in a storage room can also be crammed wall to wall, floor to ceiling into a room. Example: One ark deck was possibly 14ft. floor to ceiling per deck. That design would permit a sectioned door composed of 8 sections with the top 2 being 1 foot wide.
Open the top door, shovel out 1 foot of grain, shovel out the grain to clear the next door down, open that next door, shovel it out the same way, follow the same procedure one door at a time with all the other doors being 2 ft. wide. A room on the ark that measured 14′ X 14′ X 14′ will hold 2,205 bushels of grain. A string of 14′ rooms down the center of one deck of the 45 feet wide, 450 feet long ark would have held 67,693.5 bushels of grain.
(Gen. 6:21) Do not forget that God ordered Noah to gather food for everything on the ark so it is obvious those animals did not eat each other. The predators obviously ate dried or smoked meat. Dried or smoked meat can be hung from the ceiling on heavy strings of different lengths until the room is floor to ceiling, wall to wall full and there will be adequate ventilation between the sides, shoulders and haunches of meat. There was plenty of fresh water all around them.
The salinity of the oceans had been diluted by the liquefied vapor in the air and the tremendous amount of fresh water from the fountains of the deep until it was very drinkable. Yes, those 8 adults worked their butts off but they lived. What choice would you have made? Would you have just given up and died or would you have dug in your heels and went to work?
(Gen. 6:20 keywords: shall come unto thee, to keep them alive.) God brought the animals to Noah. In most cases there were such great distances to be covered it is obvious the angels had a roundup of world wildlife restocking species. However God brought the animals to Noah it is obvious He redistributed the animals around the world in the same manner. God helped with one thing to outfit the ark, why not all of them?
The people and other life forms were on the ark for a total of 14 months. (Gen. 7:1-3) Scripture tells us the clean animals and all the birds that went on the ark were male and female in 7 pairs. This is what 1 pair of whitetail deer can produce. The scripture does not say how many animals came off the ark.
Example: I have personally observed whitetail does produce triplet fawns. Does can be impregnated at 6 to 8 months old, their gestation period is 6.5 to 7 months and they have been known to bear 4 fawns. If the doe was almost ready to give birth when she and the buck (male) entered the ark she almost immediately birthed 3 or even 4 fawns= 6 deer. If she was impregnated again when she came into heat she gave birth a second time= 10 deer. At this time the first 4 does are impregnated. SO:
It was possible the ten whitetail deer that exited the ark was the original buck and doe, 4 yearling offspring already impregnated and possibly 4 new fawns. Think about goats, sheep, elk, caribou, bison and other small, medium and large prey (food for predators) animals. Multiply the clean animals by 7 pairs.
Good grief there must have been a mini-flood of mice, voles, moles, shrews, lemmings, rats, chipmunks, squirrels, muskrats, rabbits and other small prey species. The Laboratory Mouse-National University of Singapore, 3rd paragraph down in the introduction states that 1 pair of mice can produce 1,000,000 descendants in 425 days (Gen. 7:16 thru 8:13) which is the approximate time they were on the ark; SO we will use the number 425 days in this calculation but the time on the ark was a little less. You can count it all up and arrive at your conclusion if you wish. (Gen. 7:3) Multiply this result of the birds by 7 pairs.
Turkeys lay about 15 eggs. It takes 28 to 31 days to hatch and 6 to 7 months to reach sexual maturity. Seven turkey pairs X 15 eggs = 105 young + 2 adults = 107 turkeys exiting the ark. If they produced two hatches on the ark it would have been 107 + 105 more = 214 turkeys exiting the ark with the first hatch ready to breed. Think about partridge, grouse, ducks, songbirds, pheasant, quail and other birds.
Where would one put a million mice? Obviously Noah fed some of the various rodents to cats, wolves and etc. to bolster their stored meat. Obviously Noah would have had a small store of wood aboard for repair and new building projects. Take a 14 cu. ft. room, fill it full of shelves 2” apart from floor to ceiling. Leave narrow walk ways as needed. Construct the shelves so they will tilt so manure can be removed and food can be added, fast propagating rodent problem solved!
I watched a documentary on the Discovery Channel as biologists were filmed living in the wild while they scientifically proved by direct observation a family of wolves that flourished in the wild by feeding only on lemmings and mice because larger, slower propagating animals such as muskoxen were not available. You’ve got the idea, why elaborate more? The beauty of God’s plan is that as food was consumed rooms were emptied and more room was made for the new residents of the ark.
(Gen. 9:24-25) Why did Noah curse Ham’s son Canaan? (2Pet. 2:5) God had given man an opportunity to repent through Noah’s preaching. They refused to repent and Jude tells us the people before the flood acted just like (Gen. 18:20 thru 19:25) the people at Sodom and Gomorrah. (Jude 6-11) (V.6) Evil angels had followed Satan and helped Satan deceive and lead fallen, pre-flood man’s carnal inclination (V.10 keywords: brute beasts) into (V.7 keyword: example) sexual perversions, the worship of self’s wants and the worship of Satan through the worship of false gods. (V.6) These particular angels had been bound until judgment.
The proof Jude is writing about the pre-flood people is given in (V.11) because they are tied to Cain who lived before the flood. Ham and his wife must have been tainted by that lifestyle and brought the memories of it on the ark. (1Chron. 21:1) The helper angels were bound but Satan was obviously left free to do his work among men.
Shem, Ham, and Japheth had grown into manhood surrounded by an ocean of idolatry, sexual perversion, drugs and murder even though Noah and Naamah provided an island of righteousness for them. Had Ham been exposed to the wickedness of the world before the flood? We’ll see.
Satan was overjoyed to see some people when the Noah family exited the ark and he went right back to work; “Noah, remember how well you liked Naamah’s grape jelly?” “Hmmm, I think I’ll plant a vineyard pretty soon.”
(Gen. 9:20-21) With grape jelly in mind Noah found the proper soil, the right exposure to the sun and a water source that would support a vineyard. He planted the vineyard and tended the young plants until they became mature enough to produce a good crop. “Noah, you’ve had a tough time the last few years, remember how people used to say a little bit of wine would relax you? They even told you how they made it!”
Noah picked the fruit, crushed the grapes, added sweetener and yeast, waited until the fermentation process was finished, strained the particles out and had a fine batch of wine. This proves 2 things. #1) Several years had passed since they gotten off the ark so Canaan was a large child. #2) The fermentation process had been used before the flood for Noah to know how to do it. To make wine contain enough alcohol to get drunk Noah had to use sweetener and yeast.
Yeast is a type of bacteria that eats sugar and defecates alcohol. Wine strong enough to get drunk cannot be made from grapes without this fermentation process. Grapes will ferment naturally but the alcohol content is so low and the taste so sour a person will get sick and vomit before they can consume the volume of weak wine needed to become intoxicated. Alcohol is just another drug that befuddles the brain and its chemical number is CH3CH2OH.
(Gen. 9:20-21) Innocent Noah must have liked the taste very well, then he got a little buzz on, felt great, then he guzzled too much and became drunk. Its a process. Can you see Noah stagger off to his tent? Alcohol gives the illusion of cooling but in reality it’s a heater. Noah was sweaty and burning up, he pulled off his clothes and passed out, naked as the day he was born, in the privacy of his tent.
Satan was whispering ideas and thoughts into Ham’s brain; “Ham, you’re sick and tired of old sourpuss tellin’ you ‘n your family what to do all the time. Remember the other day when Noah really blew up on you when he caught you and your wife smoking Qunubu? It embarrassed the $%#@ out of you when he did it in front of Canaan didn’t it? He criticizes you every time you start tellin’ Canaan about the good old days on the other side of the flood.”
“Remember how hard Noah made you work building the ark? (Gen. 6:14 keywords: gopher wood) Remember how Shem and Japheth made fun of you and wore that old joke out; “Hey Ham, Daddy says for you to go-fer wood lumber, we gotta get this ark done.” After it floated you had to clean the dung out of the elephant, hippo, buffalo and rhino rooms more than anybody else! He’s managed to get himself drunk. He sure don’t look like God’s righteous servant now, does he? That old hypocrite is probably burning up and had to take his clothes off. Remember how Tubal-cain had a fine talent to put somebody down by mocking their sexual organs?”
(Gen. 9:22) And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. (Nakedness- nudity, especially the pudenda- the external sex organs, to make ashamed, to disgrace). (Ex. 20:26 and 28:42 then Lev. 18:6 thru 20:21) The God of Eden considers it a great sin to look upon another person’s nakedness beyond the bounds of marriage. He is God, He can feel however He wants to feel about whatever He decides is right or wrong!
There are some outrageous speculations by theologians based on (Lev. 18:6 thru 20:21) that Ham raped Noah, or that Ham castrated Noah and that caused Noah to father no more children, or that Ham had sex with his mother, Noah’s wife, Naamah. Those are foolish speculations for the simple fact God didn’t use Shem and Japheth to kill Ham. It is not scriptural but it is possible Ham even took Canaan into Noah’s tent and let him look at his grandfather’s nakedness before Shem and Japheth came on the scene.
(Gen. 9:18) As said before, it is obvious Ham’s son, Canaan, was born on the ark. That makes one wonder if Ham’s wife was pregnant, out of wedlock, when Noah married them. It is also obvious Ham expected his brothers to share in his delight as he sarcastically made some ribald, demeaning comments about Noah’s nakedness to them. “It ain’t as big as yer little finger!” Their respect for their father is very obvious. They must have awakened Noah while covering him, Noah asked what was going on and they either told him or Noah had heard Ham talking outside the tent or Noah found out by a combination of both situations.
SO
“Oh Lord God; I’m worn out with Ham’s grouchiness, hot temper, dung attitude, smart mouth, vulgar deportment and the way he’s raising Canaan.” “Put a curse on Canaan!” “Oh Lord God, tell me what to say!” (Gen. 9:22-27) From the severity of Noah’s curse on Ham’s son, Canaan, it is obvious Ham had been influenced by and had participated in the unrighteous activities before the flood. It is obvious Ham and his wife brought idolatry, drug use, the offering of children to the fires of Moloch and sexual perversion in their knowledge across the flood and thus their lifestyle after the flood influenced their son Canaan. (Gen. 10:6) Ham fathered 4 sons but only Ham’s oldest son Canaan was cursed.
(Gen. 9:25 & 15:16) God knew Canaan would be the founding father of the Canaanite tribes who would commit the same sins as the people did before the flood. (Ex.23:20-33 & Deut. 20:16-18) Israel was God’s instrument of judgment on the Canaanite tribes because of their sins and then Israel would inhabit their land of Canaan. The Canaanites whom Israel did not kill (Gen. 9:25) became servants to Israel and, just as God had prophesied, they led Israel into sin (Dan. 9:7) and in the far future God would use other nations as instruments of judgment against Israel. So, in the process of time:
#5) Who, What and When was Nimrod
At the 2nd beginning of man after the flood the animals outnumbered people and it got worse as time went on because animals produced young faster than humans. Once again, just like when Adam and Eve had started bearing children, men married their sisters, aunts and cousins and the generations of man began to develop.
****Nimrod as a Hebrew noun is defined (mighty hunter, strong, powerful, giant, warrior, chief, tyrant) but the noun word Nimrod is extracted from the Hebrew verb nimrodh which is defined (let us revolt). Nimrod is a name set up by its grammar to grow from one thing into another.****
(Gen. 10:6-9) Nimrod, son of Cush, grandson of Ham, was a large child, the 3rd generation from Noah, the 4th if you count Noah. Nimrod was fascinated by his grandfather Ham’s stories about pre-flood society and as a child he started experimenting with the bow. He tinkered and practiced with bigger and better bows and arrows as he grew. Hunting seemed to be in his nature, he became deadly accurate with his bow and as soon as he was old enough he started hunting.
He killed a rabbit and he liked it! People started counting on him because he became a welcome source of much needed meat protein from the wild game he brought in and their meager flocks didn’t need to be butchered for food. He was teenage proud of his prowess as a mighty hunter and he loved the chase (hunting animals). People appreciated Nimrod.
When Nimrod was grown he was an astonishing head and shoulders taller than the next biggest man among them and they considered him a giant. This proves the genetics of the giants had crossed the flood in the genome of Ham’s wife. Nimrod was very proud of his size and strength and he was able to pull his powerful bow to full draw and the next strongest man among them could only bend it a little bit when he pulled the bow string.
He lost none of his accuracy and when a marauding lion attacked their pitifully small herd, warrior tough Nimrod the hunter killed it. Wolves almost caught a child down by the small stream. Nimrod tracked them to their den, killed the Alpha male and female and all their pups except one. He tamed it and man had his forerunner of the dogs. Nimrod was a hero and they called him their warrior.
People admired Nimrod, he coveted their admiration and took every opportunity to prove himself better, greater, stronger, smarter and if he had to shove some lesser man around to get his way, well, that was just too bad. Nimrod became a leader, a chief, and was on his way to becoming a tyrant. The people discovered if you really, really wanted Nimrod to do something for you just ask his mother to put in a good word for you.
Nimrod had a soft spot for his Mother and she could intercede for a person. She became their intercessor and people naturally started to venerate Nimrod’s mother, the wife of Cush, for being so blessed in giving birth to their protector and provider. The worship of the queen mother of heaven had made it across the flood and was starting to grow. With Satan’s oily, deceptive, charming, tender suggestions Uncle Canaan and Grandpa Ham fostered the idea.
He had been taught well by his grandfather Ham and his uncle Canaan and Satan had found his willing slave; “Ham, who needs a God you can’t see.” Ham; (Gen. 1:14-18) “Nimrod let me teach you the facts of life, who needs a God you can’t see.” “Ham, remember how great it was before the flood? Remember the beautiful constellations of the gods in the stars and the signs of the zodiac that were discovered that involved the sun and the moon? Ham kept on teaching; “Nimrod let me tell you about the gods in the sky, they’re there day or night. They tell us the signs and seasons, the days and years.”
“The sun and moon gods are in a constant war to rule the sky. The moon is the god of the night and he makes sex better and easier to get. The sun god is the god of hunting and war. He drives the moon god away but moon god always gradually comes back.” Uncle Canaan also taught Nimrod and Satan was right there to help; “Did you see the look that beauty gave Nimrod? I’ll bet he could have her if he wanted too!” “Nimrod some of these girls really have the hots for you!”
Nimrod’s elders taught him well and he began to resent his great grandfather Noah’s constant stories about the Lord God whom he sometimes called the God of Eden. “Nimrod, it was our sins that brought on the flood, the Lord God judged us and He destroyed everything. You must worship the Lord God when I offer up the sacrifice and pray at our altar.” Nimrod was somehow afraid of Noah, there was a strange power glowing in his eyes and he never confronted Noah but he gradually drew away from Noah and avoided him when he could.
“#@%$@#& who needs a cruel God who kills everything just because we did what feels good?” Because of his fame, magnetic personality and renown Nimrod started teaching everyone who would listen, especially the younger ones; “Let me tell you about the old gods, the visible gods, the gods you can see, the gods who are real.” (Nimrod had become a nimrodh– let us revolt– see name definition 11th paragraph above identified by ****) Nimrod the tyrant had become a mighty hunter of people’s souls and he was leading the revolt against what God wanted for people. Satan was delighted.
#6) When was the Tower at Shinar Built
(Gen. 11:10-16 add the years 2+35+30+34=101) Peleg, Shem’s great, great grandson, was born 101 years after the flood. (Gen. 10:25) The earth was divided during the life of Peleg. (Gen. 11:18-19) Peleg lived 239 years and if you divide Peleg’s lifetime of 239 years by 2 it equals 119.5 years which is the mid-point of Peleg’s life. So, add that 119.5 years to the years from the flood until Peleg’s birth, 101 years, and it equals 220.5 years.
So God’s scattering (dividing) at the tower at Babel took place about 220 years after the flood. If you give or take 50 years each direction it could have been about 170 to 270 years after the flood. Remember this: It took time for the population to grow, the revolt religion to get established and for construction on the worship tower to get started.
#7) What was the Census When People Migrated From the East to Shinar and What was the census When God Scattered the People at Babel
(Gen. 10:6-8) Nimrod was Ham’s grandson through Cush and Canaan was his uncle, Nimrod was the 6th son of Cush, Nimrod was the 6th son of the 3rd generation from Noah. (Gen. 11:10-16) Peleg was Shem’s great, great grandson, Peleg was the 5th generation from Noah, 5 generations that were producing children and (Gen 10:25) during Peleg’s lifetime the earth was divided which obviously took place as a result of God’s scattering the earth’s tiny population at Babel. As shown in the paragraph below the average age of a father when he produced his first child was 33 years. Obviously Nimrod was 2 generations, possibly 60-70 years, older than Peleg.
The generations after the flood started producing children at a much younger age than those before the flood. Shem’s son Arphaxad was born 2 years after the flood, Arphaxad was 35 when he produced Salah who produced Eber when he was 30 and Eber produced Peleg when he was 34; SO 2+35+30+34=101 years until Peleg was born, the 5th generation from Noah. And the average age when a father produced a son was 33 years.
The other generations were also producing children so, without going through the agony of nearly endless calculations and genealogies again like we did with the pre-flood generations it is probably safe to say the whole earth’s population was between 800 to 1,000 people of all age groups (Gen. 11:2) when they journeyed from the east, settled in the land of Shinar and started working on the tower of Babel AND it is probable Peleg was about 30 years old and Nimrod was about 90 years old at that time.
The midlife age of Peleg was 119.5 subtract 30, Peleg’s age when they arrived at Shinar, from that 119.5 = 88.5 years to work on the tower to reach Peleg’s mid-life age which was about the time (Gen.11:6-9) God scattered (disperse, break up, to divide) the people at Babel. And taking into consideration that in 88.5 years about three more generations would be produced to the midpoint of Peleg’s life if the various father’s followed the average age of 33 years when they started producing children.
Of course all the older couples in the first generations had kept producing children all the time even as these new generations were being added and their generations produced new generations so the population could have possibly been 4,500 to 6,000 people when God confounded their language and scattered the people.
(Gen. 11:26 & 32:26-32 keyword: Israel then Ezek. 37:1-12 and Rev. 20:1-9) None of them could have ever imagined God was going to narrow down the spiritual warfare between Him and Satan into a physical struggle between Satan’s physical tribes and God’s single, selected, physical tribe consisting of 12 parts. Read the above scriptures and check your news media.
SO
As these 900 or so people journeyed from the east with proud Nimrod, their Chief, leading the way they came to a large beautiful plain in a land they named Shinar. They had “worn out” the fertility of the ground where they had settled in an ever-expanding community and Nimrod following Satan’s suggestion ordered them to start heading west (Gen. 11:2 keywords: from the east) toward they knew not what. When they saw the beautiful, well-watered, fertile plain they knew they were home. Of course Nimrod pranced, strutted and bragged before them and they looked at him with admiring eyes. None of them could see Satan prancing and strutting right along with Nimrod.
Had Nimrod known who was strutting with him he would have been deeply offended because he felt he was a great leader, after all he was the king of the world. It was good enough for Satan. Not all of them looked at Nimrod with admiring eyes. (Gen. 10:21) Noah, Shem and the other First Borns looked on with sour, doubtful eyes. They had discussed how Nimrod had become a tyrant in spite of their preaching and teaching. And they had a premonition of impending trouble. The Lord God drifted invisibly, silently along with them, (Heb. 4:12 & John 1:1-2) watching, listening, reading the thoughts and intents of their hearts.
(Gen. 10:8-10 then 11:1-4 esp. V.4 keyword: name) Nimrod thought big because he felt big. He planned a big tower that would make a big name for himself because his tower would reach into the heavens. He felt big because he felt he was in control of all he could see and he was in control of his own destiny. “Nimrod, don’t forget the music.” “I’d better see if Ham and Canaan remembers how to make music. We’ll need to liven this bunch up.” Satan had worked like the devil to help them remember the music.
And soon weird, catchy, thudding, wild, heart racing, pagan music accompanied their worship services. (Gen. 11:10-18) It was sooo much more exciting, lively and uplifting than Noah’s dull prayers, chants of submission and high keenings of praise and joy he and Shem, Arphaxad, Salah. Eber, Peleg, his young son Reu, the men’s wives and their few followers wailed before their altar to their unseen God.
All? No, not all. Noah had been through all this before the flood. He had not bent then and he was not going to bend now. (2Pet. 2:5) Like any good fighter he tucked in his chin and dug in his heels. AND: He preached his heart out with his message of righteousness and, like sand dribbling through his fingers, he watched more and more of the people become attracted to the big name, the big new thing and the big visible god. Noah knew judgment was coming, (Gen. 8:15 thru 9:18) he knew it would not be a flood but he did not know what it would be. He preached that too (2Tim. 3:13 keywords: worse and worse) but Nimrod had the biggest show in town and people kept joining his cult.
(Eccl. 1:9) “The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.”
Nimrod was a great organizer. He was a tireless worker, he worked hard and he expected his people to work hard. He laid out their tent town when they got there. He organized a group of the best farmers and told them where, how and how much produce was required to feed the community. He organized the herdsmen to care for the livestock and instead of twiddling their thumbs while their charges grazed he told them to clear the forest from more and more grazing land and every log, every twig and every chip was saved for the kilns.
Nimrod was thrifty and practical too. He was organizing an efficient, communal society. Every thing and every effort was for the good of the whole society. It was along about this time that Nimrod accidentally found a large, naturally occurring, thick viscosity oil seep and he could not get it off his mind.
They needed more than tents in which to live so Nimrod organized builders to start building permanent 1 or 2 room dwellings out of sun cured mud bricks. Nimrod was religious and only the best kiln baked bricks would go into his tower. “Nimrod, don’t forget the Qunubu.” “My fathers Ham, Cush and uncle Canaan are exempt from work because of their high station in my life, I wonder if they can find enough Qunubu to dull the pain of hard work.” Satan had worked like the devil there too. He had shown them a few small patches of wild growing Qunubu they had been using. Now he redoubled his efforts and led them to larger patches and reminded them how to cultivate it.
There were mothers who watched large groups of children so their mothers could go to work with the childless women in the farming and food processing enterprise. All the people took communal meals cooked by dedicated cooks, 50 people at a time, at efficiently scattered dining places. He culled the very best builders who understood structures and started making plans for their tower of worship; (Gen. 11:4) “Men, we’ll make a name for ourselves.” Satan loved communal living.
(Gen. 11:3) Nimrod didn’t believe in coddling children. They liked to play in the mud? Well, let them carry that mud to the kilns where an endless supply of empty, reused brick forms waited to be filled with mud, dried in the sun, forms removed and then bake the brick in the kilns. It was a slow process because men had to use caravans to travel further and further to find wood to burn in their kilns to bake the brick. But build they did. Sometimes a man became reluctant from all the organization and ceaseless work. If Nimrod’s worship services did not galvanize them a good, teeth rattling shaking while they dangled 3 feet off the ground in Nimrod’s mighty hands turned them into willing workers.
Nimrod developed a mystery language based on the signs of the zodiac only he and a few chosen priests could decipher. He proved to the people that his god answered prayers. Every spring he led a special worship service to the gods in the lights of the sky, the spring rains would come, the nearby river would flood and their near at hand supply of mud was renewed. Nimrod was generous too. If a new blushing bride failed to conceive after a time predetermined in the mind of Nimrod he was always willing to give a helping hand at the next Pen-Vul worship service which they held 4 times a year to commemorate the changing of the seasons that were dictated by the gods in the constellations of the sky.
Satan loved the worship services. At the first he was just there among them and with them on the ground. In the process of time as the walls started up Satan pranced on top of the few rows of brick. As the walls of Nimrod’s temple went higher and higher Satan, unheard and unseen by the worshippers, pranced, danced, cavorted and shouted with wild abandon at the top of his spiritual lungs; “I am a god! I am a god! (2Cor. 4:4) I am the god of this world, and of Nimrod, and of these people.”
#8) What/When was the Origin of the Races
Anthropologists have concluded there are only 3 races and about 30 sub-racial groups in the family of mankind. The evolution theory is foolishness so that’s out of the question. Some suggest the weather in whatever part of the world in which groups of people settled caused such drastic physical changes. That’s also foolish because we have recorded history far enough back in time to prove that did not happen because it isn’t happening. Duuuhhhh!
So, in reality, according to scripture, there are only 2 perfect times for ethnic diversity to have happened. The 1st perfect time was when Noah’s sons were born one would have been Negroid (black), one Mongolian (oriental), one Caucasian (white) and their wives would have to have been of the same ethnicity as their husbands. This 1st perfect time does not appear reasonable. SO:
The 2nd perfect time was that God changed the racial profile of mankind (turned on some genetic switches) when He divided mankind at the tower of Babel. It makes sense because that really divided us! It also makes sense that the time racial profiles occurred is not mentioned in the Bible (Acts 17:24-26) because in God’s eyes all people are in the image of Him, (Gen. 2:7 & 1Thess. 5:23) body, soul and spirit, and that should be every Christian’s attitude, racial identity simply does not matter. Think about this! All the wars, genocides and ethnic cleansings that have ever happened have been because of Racism, Greed, Political Differences and Religious Differences.
#9) Why/How Was Man’s Life Span Shortened
(Gen. 9:28-29) Noah lived 950 years. (Gen. 11:10-11) Shem lived 600 years. (Gen. 11:12-32) Abram’s father Terah was the 9th generation after Noah and he lived 205 years. So what happened?
Two Scriptural Observations: (Gen. 7:22) “All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was on dry land, died.” Everything that was on dry land that had nostrils died. #1) (Gen. 1:20-25) Just think about how many creatures in the earth, on the earth, in the air and in the water that do not have nostrils such as the hundreds of thousands of various types of bacteria, virus, amoeba, encephalopathies, protozoa, amphibians, insects, various worms and etc.
#2) (Gen. 2:5-6 then 7:12) It had not rained upon the earth until the flood. A mist had covered the earth until the flood. It is obvious the mist filtered the sunlight up until the time of the flood. The key is the mist was too thick for a rainbow to form but thin enough for enough light to get through so life would flourish. It was a delicate balance and the rainbow tells the story.
After the flood the mist is still the key because the light from the sun had become much stronger and an exact thickness of mist saturation in the air at the end of a rain would produce a rainbow for as long as the required amount of mist was suspended in the air in the much stronger sunlight. God knew all this would happen and that is why He knew the conditions would be correct for Him to make the rainbow covenant with Noah.
The sun is a nuclear reactor. It spreads radiation. The much stronger sunlight causes the bacteria, virus and etc. to mutate into pathogens that attack man in ever changing (mutating) ways and those changes are still happening now in the early part of the 21st century.
Example: Man overcomes a disease like smallpox but polio comes along. Man starts overcoming polio and AIDS comes along. Man starts controlling AIDS then Ebola, Creutzfeldt-Jacob disease and other diseases come among us. It will not stop. The radiation from today’s sun also causes reaction and damage to human tissue that leads to cancer and etc. It is all part of the curse of death God placed on mankind in the Garden of Eden.