Thursday and I am already looking forward to guiding with my dog on Saturday for pheasants at a game farm. I pray that you are all well. My coffee this morning is Door County German Chocolate.
I need a little chocolate to get me going today.
Yesterday we did a short trivia quiz to see what we knew about Noah. The answers will be at the end of the devotional today highlighted in red.
God gives people specific instructions when He wants them to perform a task. God is very detail oriented. This is proven through the creation of our human bodies. The hand cannot move without the brain. The brain itself cannot see yet the eye transmits vision to the brain for processing. God is a God of details. Here are some details about Noah's Ark.
II. The Design of the Ark
A. The Designer was God Himself. We do not need to assume Noah knew anything about ship-building. The instructions for design are given in Gen. 6:14ff.
B. Construction Materials
The Bible says the Ark was to be built of "gopher wood". "Gopher" is the actual Hebrew word. In early English translations the meaning of the word was unknown so it was left un-translated. The NIV translates it "cypress wood", however, this is only a guess. It was undoubtedly translated this way due to the fact that cypress wood is highly resistant to rot. What this material was is still a mystery. It could have been a pre-flood wood with which we are not familiar.
It is almost certain that Noah did not construct a standard wooden ship of the kind we are familiar. According to nautical engineers the longest wooden vessel ever built was 360 feet in length and was not seaworthy. Because of the wave action of the sea only wooden ships shorter than this will be seaworthy. Therefore, we must conclude that Noah used some other method of construction to overcome this problem.
C. The Design.
1. The Biblical word for Ark is "tebah". It is used 28 times in the OT and is only used of Noah's Ark and for the container in which Moses was hidden among the bulrushes. Because of a similar Egyptian word meaning "box", and the ultimate purpose of the Ark, we believe the Ark was not like a streamlined vessel designed to easily glide through the water. More likely it was shaped like a rectangular barge which floated rather low in the water. From the story in the Bible, it also would appear that Noah had no control over the vessel. He, and it contents were at the total mercy of God.
2. The Ark had three stories with only one door. The phrase in Gen. 6:16, "Make a roof for it and finish the Ark to within 18 inches of the top." is problematic in that the words used are obscure. Most commentators believe it means leave an 18 inch space at the top that is open all around the vessel. This then would be for ventilation, and when water entered it would drain out somewhere below, similar to the vents in cars.
3. The Ark was to be coated inside and out with pitch.
Again the Hebrew word for "pitch" is obscure. It was more likely some resinous material used not only to waterproof the vessel but also to prevent decay. If Noah was 480 years old when God told him to build an Ark and 600 when the Flood came, it is reasonable to assume that the construction of the Ark took place during this 120 year period (See Gen. 6:3 along with I Pet. 3:20). The need for this preservative was essential. It is also possible that things did not decay as rapidly in the pre-flood atmosphere.
4. The phrase in the NIV (6:14) "make rooms" is also problematic in that the word is obscure. The Hebrew is "qnm". Since Hebrew did not have any vowels when it was written, scholars speculate that the word could be either "qinnim" or "qanim". The former would mean either "rooms" or "nest", and the later, "reeds". Most English translations translate as in the former. However, some of the better and more recent commentaries, believe it should be translated "reeds" since the context is building materials. If in reality it is "reeds", then somehow reeds were part of the construction material. Large boats are still made from reeds and are very seaworthy. The Egyptians still use reeds for caulking their wooden ships.
III. The Size of the Ark
(When considering its size it obviously was not the backyard effort of a primitive river-dweller!)
A. It is given in cubits as being 300 cubits long by 50 cubits wide and 30 cubits high. A cubit in the OT was generally about 17.5 inches. However, an Egyptian royal cubit measured about 20.5 inches. Since Moses was educated in Egypt we must allow for the possibility that the longer measurement was meant here. The Ark, therefore, could have measured from 437 feet to 512 feet in length! It was not until the late 19th century that a ship anywhere near this size was built.
B. It's Ratio
The Ark had a ratio (length x width x height) of 30 x 5 x 3. According to ship-builders, this ratio represents an advanced knowledge of ship-building since it is the optimum design for stability in rough seas. The Ark, as designed by God, was virtually impossible to capsize! It would have to have been tilted over 90 degrees in order to capsize.
C. Its Volume.
With the shorter cubit the Ark would have an internal volume of 1,518,750 cubic feet, or the equivalent of 569 standard railroad boxcars. If the average sized animal was the size of a sheep it means the Ark could hold over 125,000 sheep. (Assuming the shape of the Ark to be rectangular there would have been over 100,000 sq. ft of floor space!)
IV. It's Construction
Though the Bible does not say, it seems reasonable that Noah employed a large group of workman to build the Ark. If Noah started building the Ark soon after God spoke to him, then the process of building the Ark may have taken close to 120 years.
Tomorrow I want to look into the use of a specific building material. Hang in there with me. I hope you see the miracle taking place in this ship building passages.
God bless,
Marty
This Quiz: Noah's Ark
- 1.) Who was Noah`s father?
Lamech
Enos
Jared
Methuselah
- 2.) What kind of wood did Noah use to build the ark?
gopher
cedar
pine
maple
- 3.) How long was Noah's ark?
50 cubits
100 cubits
300 cubits
500 cubits
- 4.) How many people entered into the ark?
2
8
12
24
- 5.) How many of each "unclean" animal did Noah take on the ark?
2
5
7
12
- 6.) How old was Noah when the flood began?
100
120
600
950
- 7.) For how long did the flood waters continue to get deeper?
14 days
40 days
3 months
1 year
- 8.) What kind of leaf was in the dove's mouth when it returned to the ark?
Fig
Olive
Sycamore
Gopher
- 9.) How many times did Noah send the dove from the Ark?
1
2
3
4
- 10.) On which mountains did the ark come to rest on after the flood?
Mountains of Siani
Mountains of Ararat
Mountains of Everest
Mountains of Olives
- 11.) What was the first thing Noah built when he left the ark?
Altar
House
A tower
A tabernacle
- 12.) How old was Noah when he died?
500 years
850 years
950 years
1200 years
No comments:
Post a Comment