NOTE: Some of this information was taken from Ch. 5: The Book of Jasher mentioned in (Joshua 10:13 and 2Samuel 1:18) and translated from Hebrew to English in 1840. The book of Jasher is not authorized to be a part of the KJ Bible and is considered by this writer to be a historical Hebrew document. Any information used from the book of Jasher will be noted by a # and the end of the Jasher information will be noted by a #. END OF NOTE.
Noah was 480 years old that lonely day he sat on his porch thinking about the past; thinking about how the God of Eden had quit showing up at any of the altars except the Adam altar in the secret cave. He was thinking how his society had deteriorated and he remembered when he was 366 years old his great, great grandfather, Jared, the First Born son of Mahalaleel, had told him a story while Jared lay on his deathbed; “Noah, both Enoch, my own First Born son, and I have each scribed this story on one of the many clay tablets we have added to the record of the First Born’s lifetimes here on the earth but I want you to hear it from me; “There was a baby born to (Prov. 15:5) Eviyl (fool) one of my other great, great grandsons.”
“Both Enoch and I were at the baby’s christening. When we looked at the baby we both briefly saw a bright light on its forehead that looked exactly like the Mark of Cain but it quickly faded. Both of us insisted upon the name (Hebrew words) Shaqar- (False) Owr (Light) because it went away. (2Cor. 11:14-15) I’ve never forgotten it, now I am troubled, beware of the False Light.” Jared’s voice had softened and slowed and he drifted off to an easy, peaceful sleep. Noah bent and tenderly pushed a wisp of snow white hair back, gently kissed the age lined brow and softly whispered; “Sleep well Father of my Fathers, I love you.”
The stories of the “First Borns” and the record of which he was now the keeper had told Noah how, In spite of Seth’s best efforts, the Seth-ites had started drifting away from the ways of the God of Eden out of sheer laziness, apathy and selfishness. They had chosen what Noah considered the easy way because the God of Eden demanded they live in what He called a holy way and that they meet with Him at His altar, worship Him and do what He instructed them to do in this cursed world. “We’ve got to live in this cursed world and struggle for our food, survival and entertainment; why should we also go to the trouble of having a relationship with the God of Eden? He’s the one put us here!” (Eccl. 1:9) “There is no new thing under the sun.” Just like people today!
Noah’s thoughts made him think of the First Borns who had firmly held on to their righteous ways and passed them on to their First Born sons until the day they died. “I was 84 years old when Enos the son of Seth died, 179 years old when Cainan died, 234 years old when Mahalaleel died, 366 years old when Jared died. (Gen. 5:18) Jared had lived 162 years and (Gen. 5:21) begat Enoch who was 65 years old when he begat Methuselah. (Gen. 5:22-24) Enoch had walked so close to the God of Eden that when Enoch was 365 years old the God of Eden grew tired of Enoch’s sufferings in this cursed world and took Enoch home with Him. Here I am 480 years old and all the First Borns are dead except for my father Lamech and his father Methuselah.“
Somehow time had just run away with Noah and he had not found time to pay much attention to women. Noah was pessimistic; “Even if I could find a good woman in this mess of a world I’d be stupid to get married and bring children into a wicked society like this!” Then Noah thought about the giants, the men of renown.
#5 C) A state of being: (concealed, vanishing point, out of mind) The last part of the definition of old in Part 7.
Here and there, once in a while, over the years a giant would quietly disappear. No body was ever found. No person ever came forth that had seen the giant. No explanation was ever offered. Giants cost a small fortune to produce and another small fortune to raise. With their boundless energy and endurance they were worth a large fortune for the prodigious amount of heavy work they could perform and they were worth an even larger fortune if they were a champion fighter. They were too big to disappear. But disappear they did, as if they were a puff of smoke in the wind, here and there, now and then, over the years!
The giants, in spite of their great size, were excellent hunters and woodsmen and, like any great hunter, they were like ghosts in the forest. Nobody knew the giants could communicate. Nobody knew they were sick of the insane society in which they found themselves. Nobody knew the giants loved emotional tranquility which was becoming an ever lessening reality in this hurry up and please self society. They knew they looked like men, men called them men and the giants thought they were men.
The giants did not know they were genetically only 1/4 man and that their relationship to man was only like a house dog considers itself to be “part of the family” (pack) even though they are not actually related. They did not realize they did not have souls and that they were simply extremely intelligent apes. Many of the giants sensed their packs (families who owned them) were turning against them and society no longer accepted them because, like a dog, they could sense hostility.
A very few giants remained intensely loyal to their man (pack) families regardless of the consequences. The giants were in the same quandary as a dog that will turn on a cruel master and attack him, OR run away to get away, OR become a crawling, slavering, craven dog accepting his master’s cruelties depending on the personality of the dog with the big difference being the giants did not have any crawl in them; they either fought or ran. When they fought they were killed. It was not an overnight thing, it took years for the situation to gradually develop.
The giants did have one priceless advantage over the dog, they could communicate. It was not a developed language like that of man, they had gestures that meant hurt, anger, fear, hungry, sex, happy, content, hide, run, pack gone, lonely, scared, go away and etc. The giants did realize they were in an impossible situation and it was time to find a better territory in which to live. As shown before; even coyotes know when to find a new territory so they can survive. The giant’s senses drew them toward the far north where those who had disappeared had gone and that is why they had recently started sending scouts to the north. They did not know it but they were getting ready to migrate.
Noah wondered about the time almost 7 years before on a dark and stormy night the remaining giants had simply disappeared; “What happened, did the God of Eden take them?” Noah did not know the scouts sent by the giants had found a wonderful place far, far to the north that would someday be called Siberia and the Russian Steppes. Someday, after the dividing, the Cro-Magnon humans would inhabit it but not now. To man it was an inhospitable land because a time of cold (little ice age) was upon that land but the giants loved it.
There were giant elephant like creatures there that would someday be called woolly mammoths and mastodons. There were giant ground sloth, aurochs, wolves, great cats, giant bison, woolly rhinoceros and a host of lesser animals. Those huge animals could be rather easily taken with the giant’s huge spears and great stone headed clubs wielded with their astonishing strength.
Some of the giants were wanderers and they followed that food chain to places that would be called China, Mongolia, India, across the land bridge to Canada, America and other countries all over the world in the far, far future. Noah did not know how far the giants, with their great strength, courage and astonishing endurance, could travel (Gen. 7:11 keywords: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life,” remember? Noah was 480 years old) in about 120 years. The giants had reached their vanishing point, they were concealed and would soon be out of mind except for a few ‘old legend’ stories as time passed.
When Tubal-cain’s 2 remaining giants had disappeared he was furious and he’d conducted a full scale investigation and found nothing. He knew the secret of breeding the giants but no matter what he tried he couldn’t breed another one. He knew it was somehow Noah’s fault! He was fixated on Noah. Like people would do all through the rest of time, with Satan’s help, Tubal-cain did not realize his war was with the God of Eden instead of with God’s man.
Everything bad that happened to him and his little empire was somehow Noah’s fault. If he woke up with the shakes from too little Lachryma it was Noah’s fault. If he had a backache, rash or headache it was Noah’s fault. He hated Noah with a burning passion. He prayed to every god he could think of that Noah would catch on fire right in the middle of the street and he’d be there to watch Noah slowly and painfully burn to a very small cinder.
Lamech and Methuselah supported Noah and they also preached but Noah was the main preacher. He was younger, stronger and filled with a strange, bursting, fiery endurance that never seemed to tire.
(2Pet. 2:5) Tubal-cain had managed to get laws passed so nobody could talk about the God of Eden at town meetings, at sporting events, at the elder’s government meetings, not even at their schools that taught writing, speech and sums. (Eccl. 1:9) Political correctness was being born! But there was always Noah, serene, calm, in complete control of himself preaching repentance on the street corners, in lines where people were waiting to get into some building, on farms, sheep pens and chicken coops, when people came out of meetings; Noah with his ranting was everywhere. Tubal-cain wished Noah would just fall over dead so he could rejoice, run up to his dying body and kick dirt into Noah’s dying eyes. But there was something scary about Noah too.
Tubal-cain did some ranting of his own as he stomped around his house; “Noah’s got some sort of powerful magic. It had to be. That invisible God of Eden he preached about can’t be real. If He is real why don’t He show Himself? At least I’ve got gods I can see!” Thinking; “That magic of Noah’s is scary. It seems as if there’s a circle around Noah no man can cross. Sometimes people under the influence of god Qunubu or god Lachryma have attacked Noah and they fell dead. It has to be his magic! It has to be! I’ve got to find the source of his magic!”
Tubal-cain remembered when a group plotted to burn Noah in his house but their own houses had burned down with those people in them. Another group plotted to follow Noah and when he started to preach his repentance nonsense they would sing and chant very loud and drown out Noah’s words but all their flocks and herds died and their wailing was very loud because they had lost everything. One man had stood in front of Noah and cursed Noah and the God of Eden.
(Acts 12:23) Suddenly the man grabbed his own throat, his mouth flew open, his mouth was full of worms, they rolled and crawled in his mouth and the man looked at the people with terrified eyes. He gagged, clawed at them, choked, tried to breathe, sank to his knees, fell on his side and fought spasmodically against the choking until he died. People had fled screaming many times when Noah worked his magic but this time they were frozen in place with horrified, sickened eyes. As he had watched; great terror and horror had shook Tubal-cain to his core and he was horrified; “Is this the judgment Noah is always harping about?”
(Matt. 18:10) The unseen angel who had cursed the man turned his hot spiritual eyes upward toward the God of Eden with a questioning look upon his spiritual face. He hated to see the God of Eden maligned. The God of Eden slightly shook His head in the negative and the angel departed. Satan was shaken too, his spiritual mouth was quiet and spiritual chills raced up and down his spiritual spine! People were terrified of Noah!
Satan was sure he was missing something and it nagged him unmercifully. Satan had diligently observed the humans and he had learned, oh how he had learned, and he was making grand progress in helping them worship himself instead of the God of Eden. The fact that by worshiping him they were destroying themselves delighted him because he hated the Cro-Magnons who were made in God’s image. “They are somehow special and I’m not.” Satan had become the god of hate. “There is something, something really important that has eluded me? What have I missed?”
He thought back over his relationship with man from the beginning. Suddenly he remembered the two men who had the disagreement about when the giant had raided one of their flocks <–(Part 7). It was when a giant’s master would not replace the animals his giant had taken from his neighbor. “@#%***#@ That’s his tracks right there!” “You’re a @#$%**@ liar!” And one of them had killed the other. “What is it about that situation? What am I missing?” Satan carefully remembered every part of it. When he studied the men’s faces there in his memory he suddenly saw the expression on Cain’s face when Eve had bragged on Abel’s sheep; “Anger”! <–(Part 3)
“That’s it! That’s it! Men’s emotions!” Satan remembered when Cain had left the cave in anger and Satan had whispered into his thoughts; “She loves Abel more than me and I’m the one feeding her with my corn.” Cain thought they were his thoughts and Cain had gotten angrier.
Satan thought back to when the two men had disagreed whether the first man’s giant had killed the second man’s sheep. On their way back from the first man’s house when the second man had told him to come and look for himself at what his giant had done to his sheep Satan had whispered into the first man’s thoughts; “My sheep are better than his sheep, he’s using this as an excuse to get my sheep.” The man had gotten angrier but Satan was already whispering to the second man; “He probably sent his giant over here to eat my sheep ’cause he’s too stingy to feed his own giant.” the second man had also gotten angrier. Satan kept whispering with his serpent’s hiss. “By the time they got there I had them ready to kill each other and one of them did kill the other one!”
“Emotions! I’ve been using their emotions against them without even realizing it! That’s it! That’s it! I need to diligently observe their emotions and to perfectly learn how to use their own emotions against them! WOW!” Satan the spirit did a series of spiritual back-over flips. (Rom. 7:23-24) Satan had made a discovery that in the far, far future would drive a people called Christians to frustrated tears.
When Noah was 495 years old # his father Lamech died. # Noah was glad it was an easy death. He had just slipped away in his sleep like all the other First Borns. Noah wondered if it was because they had so faithfully served the God of Eden. Now it was just Noah and Methuselah to bear the standard of the God of Eden. Noah shivered but at the same time Noah felt comforted and loved and he knew the God of Eden was near. Noah did not know the God of Eden actually had His spiritual arm around him. Noah did not know the God of Eden was getting him ready for a testing.
(2Cor. 11:13-15) Satan Prepares the False Light
Satan had diligently observed and had learned man had (Col. 1:16 & Rev. 4:11) something within him that made him want to worship something. (Gen. 1:26 & Col. 1:13-16 esp. V.16 keywords: for him) He did not realize when God gave people souls He put a God Spot in man’s soul that gave him a desire to worship. Only God could fill that place but He would not force Himself into His own God Spot and man was free to worship who or what he pleased because man must have the freedom of choice based on his values. (Mark 12:30) That is the only way for God to get what He wants most, to be loved for Who He is and What He is.
Satan had done an excellent job of giving man various gods to worship. Satan helped man worship himself by leading and goading man to expend all his efforts to fulfill his own corrupted wants. But Satan had become afraid of Noah. Noah loved the God of Eden so much nothing could shake him or frighten him. The God of Eden protected Noah and Satan was afraid Noah would turn men away from all their gods and they would turn back to Noah’s God of Eden because of his unrelenting preaching about Eden’s God and the need for repentance. “I’ll help man find a way to think they are worshipping the God of Eden without having a relationship with the God of Eden (in Part 7)!”
When Satan had that blindingly brilliant idea that nearly took his breath away he knew he had to have exactly the right man to bring it off and he went looking. He found many men that would have done alright but he had plenty of time. (2Cor. 11:14-15) He found his man in Shaqar-Owr (false light) the great, great grandson of Jared by one of his other children who did not follow the ways of Jared and the other First Borns; “I’ll inspire him. (2Cor. 11:13-15 & 1Tim. 4:1) I’ll teach him how and what to preach!”
Shaqar-Owr was clean-cut and friendly with a wide, guileless smile filled with snow white teeth. He was very handsome and affable. He was agreeable, kindly, harmless and tender. He was so easy going and confident people automatically trusted him to have their best interests in his heart. Shaqar-Owr was a brilliant speaker but totally ignorant spiritually, he did not know Satan, the god of rebellion, the god of the world, the god of death, was leading him like a young girl leads her kitten on a ribbon tether.
Shaqar-Owr’s first sermons were on the street and they caught people’s attention by their quiet, loving, confident manner. He was a beautiful person and the things he said made sense, they really did. If one could sum up the first part of his ministry it would be something like this; “You are made in the image of the God of Eden. He loves you and wants what is best for you. He has your best interests in His heart. He gave you your minds with which to think. If you are thinking the word repent you are repenting. You must have a positive attitude about yourself. You can think your way to the God of Eden. I don’t judge you and embarrass you, I want to encourage you and love you. Develop the attitude of Positive Thinking and you will be fine.”
People flocked to hear Shaqar-Owr preach and he soon had a very large building in which to hold his services. (2Tim. 4:3-4) He said what they wanted to hear. They loved his easy believism.
Satan continued to groom, inspire and teach Shaqar-Owr. Once he had a building Shaqar-Owr’s lovely woman started making appearances and she was the feminine mirror image of Shaqar-Owr with her gracious, undemanding ways.
(2Tim. 4:3-4 keywords: itching ears) The point of his preaching gradually went on to a higher plane of spiritually and the middle part of his preaching career was so gentle and soothing, so happy and kindly, so smiling and loving that people would travel many days to hear his inspired word; “I do not judge you because you are precious and dear. I want to win you by reaching out to you. Use your Positive Thinking to see and understand the God of Eden made all the things you see. He is a good God, a loving God and He loves you. He wants what is best for you. He made the world and He made your gods. So, if you worship them you are for effect worshipping Him.“
Shaqar-Owr was invited to far flung cities all over their settled world. He would preach in cities on the way there and on the way back from his invitations and he was becoming a rich man. People could hear love in his mild, non-confrontational, un-intimidating, sweet voiced preaching and they loved him in return and they drank in every word he said.
Shaqar-Owr’s preaching had gone to another, greater, higher plane of spirituality; “I’m not here to judge anybody. I love everybody. Noah is being exclusionary when he says people have to repent and let the God of Eden change you. We all know there are people who won’t change so that concept is exclusionary because it excludes those people. Noah is wrong, out of order and he needs to be rebuked. We are what we are. I want you to know the God of Eden loves all of us. We are all made in His image. He has made us to be the way we are and therefore He loves us the way we are; if not, He would have made us differently! The God of Eden is not exclusionary, He will accept you just as you are. You do not have to repent. Everybody is already saved. You just go ahead and do what you are doing, you’ll be just fine.“
(Gen. 6:5) That is how wicked people kept right on with the imagination of the thoughts of their hearts that were only on evil continually and they came to hear Shaqar-Owr every time he preached. They loved him because he always reaffirmed that everything was just fine between them and the God of Eden regardless of how they lived or what they did. Shaqar-Owr preached the unitarian universalism god named UUism, the god of feel goodism about yourself, (Heb. 12:5,6,7,8,10,11, then 16-17 keyword: chastise or a form of it) but Noah knew Shaqar-Owr was a false light, a false prophet and a liar!
Satan also attended every meeting and did everything he could to inspire Shaqar-Owr to greater efforts to preach man’s reconciliation with himself. “If it feels good, do it, the God of Eden made you what you are so accept yourself for what you are!” Satan invaded every soul of the listeners; blinding them, leading them and charming them.
After Lamech’s funeral Noah and Methuselah fasted and prayed 3 days and on the fourth day they surreptitiously followed a little path through the brush to where they left the path and went 150 feet uphill to Adam’s cave which was now overgrown and hidden by a thick screen of trees, bushes and vines. Once in a while someone would walk this little path for one reason or another and had passed within 150 feet of Adam’s hidden cave without seeing it.
A colony of (Prov. 23:29-30) siyach (babbling) birds who lived in this grove and ate the fermenting fruit of the mamcak (mixed) trees. They were contentious, easily upset and they raucously screeched their loud, bawdy, offensive, laughter like calls when anyone entered their little patch of the world. They had sounded the alarm when Noah and Methuselah had entered the forest. They would do it again if someone else came into their part of the forest. They were a great alarm system even at night and Noah and Methuselah knew to be quiet until an intruder left.
Nobody knew why they had chosen to live here, they were not a native bird but they were a good alarm system. The God of Eden smiled; “Noah knows where they came from but he won’t tell because he can’t; if he did, people would know the location of Adam’s cave.” The God of Eden liked these little arrangements. Noah did too.
They offered the sacrifice of blood and fat. They prayed. The cloud was quick to form. It rolled and folded in on itself, the sapphire lightening was a continuous flicker with bolts flashing throughout and the thunder rolled and boomed in the confines of the small cave. It looked like some kind of small, fierce, threatening, supernatural storm and they were afraid. “SPEAK!” They cast fearful looks at each other.
Noah timidly spoke; “What have we done to offend thee Oh Lord God of Eden? Why hast thou not taken our offering?” (Gen 6:3) “My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he is also flesh.” They were shocked and their bodies shrank away from the Lord God’s wrath. They knew what He meant; that man, precious, precious man, made in God’s own image, had violated and corrupted himself until the God of Eden regarded them to be the same as animals (flesh).
There on their knees with their heads bowed low to the earth they silently offered their frail, shrinking bodies as sacrifice and waited for the death stroke from the God of Eden. They waited. And waited. Finally, with a crackling sound a bolt of sapphire lightening took their offering of blood and fat from Adam’s altar with a snap. But the God of Eden did not leave, He loomed there ominously. “O Lord God what would thou have us do?” “Preach to Shaqar-Owr!” and the God of Eden was gone.
(this is a type of:–> 1Kings 18:17-38 esp. V.19 keyword: Carmel) Another battle was shaping up in the Valley of Jezreel. A great revival was called by Shaqar-Owr; his messengers were sent to every part of the kingdom to invite all who wished to come; they said his message will be; “It is Time We Take Our Place as the Gods of This World.”
In the exact center of a huge, wide, gently cuplike depression in a central part of the valley of Jezreel was a nearly house sized, beautiful, flat topped stone that had been thrust up when the world was formed. From its elevation Shaqar-Owr could see beyond the gentle rim of the 750 acre cup out to the savanna that stretched endlessly away. The configuration formed a natural outdoor amphitheatre with natural acoustics that amplified his voice so he could be heard more than a mile away. He knew that for sure because he and his lovely woman had tried it. He figured 150 people could sit in 1 acre so the slightly cupped 750 acre depression would hold over 112,000 people. The 1 mile radius surrounding his platform would hold, well, the number was staggering!
For a nearly week before the revival to “Take Our Place as Gods of This World” people poured into the Jezreel Valley in an ever increasing flood. They camped all over the Jezreel Valley but left the 1 mile radius sitting area around Shaqar-Owr’s pulpit completely empty. It was special. Shaqar-Owr was a dramatic showman, very dramatic! He liked to hold a short service at sunrise and his dramatic message was “A New day is Coming”. Then the hundreds of thousands would spend the rest of the day doing exactly what they wished.
The evening service was at the twilighting. Huge torches circled the stone pulpit, it was bright as day and the large stone image of the coiled serpent, head raised in the strike position, half the size of a man, was plainly visible. As Shaqar-Owr preached his evening sermon “We Will Take Our Place as Gods of the Earth” he encouraged the worshippers to engage in the worship of their gods as they saw fit because the God of Eden had made them what they are. If he had wanted them any different he would have made them different.
In the valley of Jezreel, in Shaqar-Owr’s church in the wilderness, there was every type of sexual liaison people could imagine, some people sliced themselves with tiny knives offering their own blood to their god, many were off in some other state of existence taken there by the gods Qunubu and Lachryma, there were 4 huge bond fires in the 4 directions of the compass and people threw their screaming babies into the flames as offerings to their gods. Is present-day America any different? We have burned the medical waste from our more than 60 million abortions! Over it all Shaqar-Owr’s beautiful, sugar voice cajoled, delighted and charmed the vast congregation. In present-day America Christians casually help elect pro-abortion candidates!
The third evening in the twilighting the exhausted audience was absolutely silent while they waited for Shaqar-Owr to make his appearance and energize them into frenzied worship with the magic of his mighty words. And there he came in all his slender, masculine, smiling beauty, the air was especially clear and they wondered if he had somehow magnified himself because he was so plainly seen. He dramatically held out his arms in a beautifully beckoning gesture and opened his mouth to speak; but suddenly the whole valley was illuminated with a breathtaking, supernatural, pale bluish light. “How’d he do that?” many voices asked. But he looked as mystified as they did! The pale bluish light had somehow dimmed the torches until they were a feeble, unnoticed glow.
The light held them speechless, spellbound and breathless for several seconds then a large, crashing, splitting, thunderous bolt of sapphire lightening exploded the image of the serpent and hurled Shaqar-Owr completely off his stone pulpit! They were stunned into silence as Shaqar-Owr dragged himself back toward his pulpit. Suddenly a dark, writhing cloud formed in the air 10 feet above the pulpit. It was filled with flickering, cracking, sapphire lightening whose bolts snapped out of the cloud several feet toward them like a sapphire bullwhip! Threatening, jarring thunder menaced them and they were terrified into breathless, speechless, motionless silence.
Suddenly Noah appeared out of the night but it was a Noah they could never have imagined. He was surrounded by 4 slender, rotating columns of fire, 2 on each side of him. They were pulsing white fire with tiny veins of sapphire lightening flickering through them. Noah climbed the carved stone steps, stood on the pulpit and slowly looked in every direction. The rotating lights reflected from his coal black eyes and they looked like white fire as he gazed out at them. His gaze focused on Shaqar-Owr, Noah raised his hand and pointed toward him. It appeared as if invisible hands lifted Shaqar-Owr, propelled him to the pulpit and stood him before Noah.
An invisible hand held Shaqar-Owr’s throat, he couldn’t speak a word and could barely breathe. None could see the blazing angel eyes that were only inches away from his face. He was limp, choking, gagging, he had wet himself and he dangled from the invisible hand choking him almost to death. He gaped for air and his eyes were terrified and pleading, then Noah’s voice boomed and echoed across the crowd; “Everything thou hast taught this people hast been a serpent’s lie! False Light, thy race is run! This night thy light is extinguished!”
Then Noah left the pulpit and raged through the crowd thundering the whole story of man’s fall from the Garden of Eden. He recounted their whole story from Adam and Eve and the lineage of their sons right up until now. The columns of fire spun and wheeled about Noah in a threatening, forbidding manner that made them shrink away as Noah walked through them. Noah said it made no difference what blood flowed in their veins from their fathers and grandfathers that they were all Cain-ites in their hearts and there were no Seth-ites left except Methuselah and him.
He condemned them for their descent into the madness of sin. Noah recounted those awful sins and told them the God of Eden was a just God and he called on them to repent. Throughout the long night Noah’s voice never wavered nor lost its intensity nor did his firm stride ever lessen as he walked and preached to them. Just as the dawning came into the valley Noah and the lights were gone. The cloud above Shaqar-Owr’s pulpit suddenly sent long, slender, streaks of sapphire lightening flickering through the crowd almost too fast for the eye to follow until it flickered threateningly right in the face of every person.
Then the cloud vanished and they stayed frozen and mute for many minutes until finally a man muttered; “I feel as if the lightening somehow examined me.” Those around him had heard and started talking. Others further away asked what was said and his words were repeated until all had heard what he’d said. Some didn’t understand, some didn’t really care and the rest were simply glad they were alive. Like a flower bed digging dog caught in the act, the people started slinking away. Soon the valley was empty.
Tubal-cain, Jabal and Jubal, being best friends with Shaqar-Owr, had gathered the shaking, sweating, preacher and took him with them. He was running a high fever and on the trip back his brain cooked in the fever until the light of conscious thought was extinguished. He would live until the dividing but his golden words were dead, he could only gibber mindlessly and the terror never left his eyes.
For the first few weeks after the spiritual war in Jezreel Valley people actually came to hear Noah preach and a very few made some feeble attempts to repent and live the way the God of Eden expected. Then the crowd started gradually getting thinner, and thinner, and thinner until the day came when no one showed up at his scheduled meeting. Noah went back to the streets and people took other streets to avoid him. If there was a line waiting at a business and Noah showed up they went home.
The business owners were outraged and took their grievances to Tubal-cain who was delighted. He obtained the proper documents from the elders that would prevent Noah from preaching on the streets, gladly served them on Noah and told him in no uncertain terms to keep his top end quiet or Noah’s bottom end would be thrown in jail. Noah went to the country but people posted their property with signs stating: “NOAH KEEP OUT! Under penalty of law.”
Noah and Methuselah were astonished that in less than 2 years man’s evil ways were even worse than they had been before their confrontation in Jezreel valley. They discussed it and decided it was because there had been no more spiritual fireworks from the God of Eden. The people didn’t want the mundane, daily grind of serving the God of Eden without the fanfare of visual and tactile stimulation given them by their idol worshipping sideshows. Methuselah summed it up with one succinct statement; “Noah, it isn’t how loud you can yell and shout; it isn’t how high you can jump; its how straight you run when you come down.”
Methuselah was tired and discouraged, he knew his life’s journey had to be almost over. He was always sad now, he felt like he had failed the God of Eden because his society had descended (Gen 6:5 & 11) into such wickedness the thoughts of mankind’s heart were continually evil. With that evil attitude pervading every aspect of society the Cro-Magnon world had become totally corrupt and was filled with violence. “Noah is 497 years old and he needs a wife to keep him company when my time here has ended.”
Within a week after Noah’s 497th birthday Noah came home one evening and Methuselah had company. Noah was surprised because Methuselah never had any company, but this evening three beautiful young women had come visiting; (Gen. 5:25-29) “Good grief! My Grandmother has been dead these many years; surely my ancient Grandfather, Methuselah, is not trying to find a young wife is he?”
As he got acquainted with the young women Noah realized Methuselah might be 966 years old and about worn out but he still had excellent vision, they were the most beautiful things he had ever seen. He was delighted they didn’t have the lip and cheek coloring and their eyes were not highlighted with charcoal. Then as they moved about and their hair shifted Noah saw the tattoos on their necks and when their sleeves pushed up he saw the bottoms of tattoos on their arms; “Methuselah, we need to talk in private.” The three resentful young women were sent packing.
Noah was an excellent farmer and herdsman and it was a good thing too because his carpentry business had dried up except for 1 or 2 now and then who would hire him for his carpentry skills and not worry about his religious beliefs; “Heck with what everybody else says or thinks, old Noah is the best carpenter around. When he starts with that God of Eden stuff I just walk off and leave him to do his job!” At least Noah and Methuselah could eat.
For some strange reason 3 local carpenters fell victim to some mysterious ailments and couldn’t work. Noah’s business picked up but he stayed in the herdsman/farmer business; “A person never knows Methuselah, we might hit hard times again.” Satan gnawed his spiritual fists in furious frustration; “I can’t do a thing with that #$%&@# Noah! The God of Eden smiled.
Noah came home late one evening and another beautiful woman was “visiting” Methuselah. (Isa. 3:16-26) Noah looked into her bold, laughing eyes then noticed the hole in the septum of her nose, the hole in her lip and the holes in her ears; “Body Piercing, places to hang jangling rings and glittering stones!” “Grandfather Methuselah, we need a private conversation.” When they came back the woman was gone and gone with her was Methuselah’s favorite lamb skin, wool lined house shoes!
A couple of months later Methuselah had another guest for dinner when Noah came home from preaching; “Well, this is more like it. I was right! My grandfather is attempting to find himself another wife because this one is more his age. I’m sure she will be a comfort to him but I must see what he has found for himself.” Methuselah was delighted with the look of amused acceptance on Noah’s face.
Methuselah introduced the woman as #Naamah#. The remembrance of Naamah, Tubal-cain’s sister, snapped Noah’s thoughts and his eyes into a razor sharp focus that startled the woman with their intensity; “I’ll wring Grandfather’s neck if he’s brought that (Lev. 21:7) ‘zanah’ (whore) into this house!”
Methuselah read Noah’s thoughts; “She is of our blood, Noah, she is the granddaughter of my father, Enoch, your great Grandfather! She is the (Lev. 21:14) ‘bethuwlah’ (virgin) daughter of my younger brother Chamac, she is my niece and I have known her since she was a child. My Son, she worships the God of Eden with her whole heart.” Noah’s eyes sharpened with an even greater intensity but this time interest also blazed there. Methuselah was delighted and soon spoke softly; “Please excuse me for I am very tired.” The old, old man slowly got up, his back was bent into a slight, permanent stoop as he stepped slowly, softly toward his bedroom.
Noah looked at him with fond, loving eyes. Methuselah had preached today, probably on some busy street corner, always ignored, just like Noah was, by the busy people who didn’t have time for or didn’t believe in the God of Eden or because they worshipped some other god. The awkward silence between them was broken when, in his room, Methuselah began his prayers to the God of Eden. Naamah quickly cleaned up their tiny kitchen and she and Noah retired to the greater living room with its window facing the lovely moonlit meadow that stretched away and became lost in the large tract of straight grained, tall, large trunked bald cypress trees that grew all through the swampy area that bordered the river which flowed through Noah’s property.
Upon looking much closer at Naamah, Noah decided she was a very beautiful woman. She gave off an air of maturity, competence and strength. Her hands showed the effects of hard work yet they were still feminine. She had a ready smile, humor and a way of looking directly at a person that plainly said she would entertain no foolishness. But most of all she radiated a wholesome goodness and honesty that were rare in their society. Noah felt himself drawn into the depths of her dark eyes and he was a willing traveler.
She had missed seeing Noah on her infrequent trips to Seth City from her outlying farm but Naamah had heard much about Noah. They said he was a firebrand preacher for the God of Eden and demanded repentance and holy living. People said Noah had strong magic and they were afraid of him because several men who had wished him dead were dead themselves. They said he had even killed Tubal-cain’s giant with a flick of his hand. She was astonished so many stories could be told about this slim, humble, plain looking man with such kind eyes.
In his room Methuselah fervently prayed for Noah and Naamah; “I thank thee beautiful, all powerful God of Eden for the wisdom thou has given to thy son Noah that he could pass the first two tests thou gave him before thou sent Naamah to him. Thou hast comforted my heart also for thou knowest I was afraid the lineage of the First Borns would end with Noah. I kneel before thee in shame and remorse and great sorrow. I ask thee all powerful God of Eden to forgive Noah and me because we have failed to turn this wicked and adulterous people back to thee. I thank thee for thy great hand of protection O great God of Eden. Amen”
A far, far voice seemed to echo in Methuselah’s soul; “When they rejected the words I gave thee to say, they chose to reject Me.” Long after Methuselah slept his tears still wetted his pillow.