Hey guys. I wanted to try something a little different for this blog. When I was at Auburn (War Eagle!) going through my preparations to be a teacher, they taught us that teaching through inquiry was the best way of instruction. Before I offend anyone, they also reiterated this idea when I attended classes at the Alabama extension in Gadsden for my Masters degree. I tend to agree. When I read accounts of Jesus' teaching it seems that he used inquiry methodology as well. More often than not, He would begin lessons with a question or illustration that made those that heard Him to question their prior knowledge.
So, here we go. Instead of telling you what I have found during my studies I'm going to ask you a few questions and see what you come up with. So play nice now and let's have some audience participation.
How long was Noah in the ark?
How many people were on the ark?
How long did it rain?
What were the three sources of water for the Flood?
How many animals were on the ark? You don't have to give me an exact total number. I want to know how many of each kind. Be careful on this one, your Sunday school teacher may have told you wrong.
How long did the waters drain from the earth?
Where do you think the waters went?
Who shut the door to the ark?
Who designed the ark?
How many windows were in it?
How many levels were in the ark?
How many chapters of Genesis are devoted to Noah and the Flood? Compare that to Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. What would that tell you about the importance of this account to God?
Did the Ark rest on the mountain of Ararat when the flood waters receded?
What did Noah do immediately after exiting the ark? What did God do at that time?
Those are "few" good starter questions. Feel free to float some of your own. Sorry, no joke meant. :( I got the idea to do this from a book that I have been recently reading called The Law of the Offerings by Andrew Jukes. In it he essentially says that we don't know the deeper truths of God because we don't take the time to find them out for ourselves. This takes hard work and a lot of time. The answers to the questions that I have posed to you are by no means the deeper truths that are here in Genesis. But, we can't go on to those truths until we lay a solid foundation with the facts of the account. Andrew Jukes wrote his book somewhere around the turn of the 19th century, where biblical knowledge was placed as a higher priority than I fear it is today. If he was saying to them that they were babes and slow of hearing, then what might we be? This is quite an indictment for me and makes me realize how little I truly know.
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I'll take a crack at it. These are all answers off the top of my head - I didn't do any research in Genesis. Let me know how I did!
ReplyDeleteHow long was Noah in the ark?
> 1 year +
How many people were on the ark?
> 8
How long did it rain?
> 40 days & nights
What were the three sources of water for the Flood?
> Melting of the polar ice caps, falling of the water from above the firmanent, rain water from the clouds, and leaky faucets
How many animals were on the ark? You don't have to give me an exact total number. I want to know how many of each kind. Be careful on this one, your Sunday school teacher may have told you wrong.
> Two of a kind (male & female), just like in cards
How long did the waters drain from the earth?
> A long time - several months.
Where do you think the waters went?
> Back to the polar ice caps, into the clouds, and maybe into crevices that opened up in the earth's surface or at the bottom of the oceans (such as the one that created a whirlpool recently in Japan).
Who shut the door to the ark?
> God
Who designed the ark?
> God
How many windows were in it?
> At least 1
How many levels were in the ark?
> 3
How many chapters of Genesis are devoted to Noah and the Flood? Compare that to Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel. What would that tell you about the importance of this account to God?
> 3
Did the Ark rest on the mountain of Ararat when the flood waters receded?
> Yes
What did Noah do immediately after exiting the ark? What did God do at that time?
> Noah built an altar, and then a vineyard.
> God created rainbow.
My man Mike! I knew that you would come through for me. You did really good man. The only problems I saw were these:
ReplyDeleteIt actually "rained" for 150 days (Genesis 7:24-8:3) The 40 days of rain that we are commonly taught is how long it took for the rain to cover "the highest hills" to 15 cubits. It continued to rain an additional 110 days. Can you imagine that much water? I know that from from 8:4 it sounds like the Ark rested on the Mountains of Ararat, but it rested over the mountains after 150 days. It took another two months and thirteen days before the waters to drain back down so that the tops of the mountains were seen again.
I don't know if there were any polar caps then, but if their were that is a good suggestion. I can see three sources for the water: rain from the water vapor in the atmosphere, the water canopy encircling the earth, and the fountains of the deep being broken up (underground water stored in the earth's crust). I belive all the water drained to become the oceans we currently see. Interestingly enough, in the New Heavens and Earth there will be no more oceans. All will be restored including the water canopy.
There were also 7 of each clean animal. Do you know why? Noah made a offering to God of every clean animal. The odd one was offered when they got off the Ark. The other 6 were there to quickly build up the stock so that they wouldn't be without a way to worship God with offerings.
And finally, I would only add this to the last answer you gave: God smelled a sweet savour from the sacrifice of the clean animal.
Man, great work!!!
Very cool. I hadn't realized several of the points you mentioned - especially the one about the restoration of the earth's water canopy. I had not thought about the "bubbling up" of underground 'wells' as a source of flood waters - would that count as 'leaky faucets'? :) If there are no more oceans in the New Heavens and Earth, I think I'll really miss going to the beach. ;) ...but on the other hand, I'm sure there will be enough 'wonders' in eternity to make the beach look like a 'drop in the bucket' (pun intended).
ReplyDeleteI registered such that hopefully your future posts will come to my email inbox, but it doesn't appear that comments/replies are sent to my email. If you know of a way to do that, let me know. Talk to you soon.