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VIDEO TIMELINE #4
HIDDEN MESSAGE OF THE FLOOD
The great challenge that has been thrown in the face of God’s people has been the physical enormity of the worldwide flood. This, coupled with the survival of a single family and every animal type in existence today, and by living through this worldwide catastrophe in a large floating box – the ark of Noah - seems impossible to most. A flood of criticism is brought onto those who believe this story, and is used to poke fun at them. Their belief that this was an accurate historical event is something the educated of this world do not accept, and look on those who do accept this belief as uneducated boobs.
In turn, this skepticism has forced those who believe the flood account to prove it with physical evidence, such as the present structure of the ark in Kentucky. It was built as a replica of the original ark.
Many read over the biblical account of how Noah kept the passage of time that he and his family spent in the ark, not understanding its importance. He recorded an accurate account of the passage of time of the flood year. This is the hidden message of how God records and measures time, proving the historical accuracy of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. The timeline presented here places every important event of the bible in its correct date order.
It is the description of the great flood and how Noah and his family lived through it by faith that also records the exact number of days in the flood year. As already stated it is Noah’s time log which is absolutely vital to know how God tracks time. All people are amazed by the magnitude of the worldwide flood; the whole world being immersed in water, causing most to miss the important log of time preserved by Noah in this account, including the scholars and chronologist.
By accurately compiling the time elements of the flood year a most important time key is revealed, demonstrating how God marks time from Genesis through Revelation.
See what Noah recorded. Gen. 7:4. “For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” Also Genesis 7:11-12. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.” Notice how specific God is in naming the exact time elements of month, week and days.
There are two Sabbaths occurring on certain days of the second month. As pointed out in a previous presentation titled PROVING THE CALENDAR GENERATOR, the Generator tracks time in seven day increments of the creation week without losing a day of this count. Looking at the year 2386 BC it is seen that the second month has the Sabbaths on the 3rd, 10th and 17th which confirms these dates as Sabbaths. The year 2386 BC or 1661 AM duplicates the same number of days, placing them in the correct number of months. Also the week days fall on the correct numbered days of the month.
The Sabbath rotation for the flood year can now be determined as shown in the generator above. The two Sabbaths already mentioned occur on certain days of the second month, as this calendar shows.
As time is compiled from Noah’s log it presents a defining number of days for the year of the flood. The first month has 30 days, with the 17th day of the second month as the first day of the 40 days of rain, leaving 46 days from the beginning of the year to the beginning of the flood. 30 plus 16 equals 46.
Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”
The breaking up of the fountains of the deep depicts massive earthquakes releasing immeasurable quantities of water, producing incredible tsunamis and storms of violence that modern man has never witnessed. No man-made shelter could have withstood the enormity of the violence that passed over the face of the earth. Verse 12: “And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.”
This verse records that the initial length of the outpouring of water was forty days, and Genesis 7:17 confirms it: “Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.”
Note that it was the accumulation of water during the forty days that resulted in lifting the ark high above the earth. The description in Verses 17 through 23 is relating what took place as a result of the forty days of rain and the breaking up of the fountains of the deep. At the end of forty days, the ark was fifteen cubits above the highest mountain (v. 20). This was fifteen cubits from the bottom of the ark to the top of the highest mountain.
Genesis 7:24: “And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.” The basic meaning of the Hebrew word that is translated “prevailed” is to be “strong, mighty” (Brown, Driver and Briggs, p. 149). The waters did not prevail over the earth on the first or second day of the Flood. They prevailed at the end of the forty days when the Flood reached its maximum depth, making the one hundred and fifty days of prevailing consecutive to the forty days of rain. Both periods of time need to be included in order to determine the total length of time of the events of the Flood year.
As recorded in the scriptural account, God did not allow the level of the Flood waters to drop until they had prevailed for one hundred and fifty days. He prevented this by sending additional rain and by bringing up waters from the fountains of the deep. God caused the waters to continue for one hundred and fifty days to maintain the level at fifteen cubits above the highest mountains. This ensured the death of all air-breathing life on land.
Genesis 8:1-3: “Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the one hundred and fifty days the waters decreased.”
These verses describe the process by which God began to dry up the Flood waters. This process continued for an extended period of time as demonstrated by the word translated “decreased” or “abated” 2637 at the end of Verse 3. This word is used in the account to describe the removal of the waters from the flooded earth. Gesenius, a Hebrew scholar of the Old Testament, gives the following definition of this word: QUOTE “(1) to be devoid of anything, to lack, to be without, followed by an accusative.” END QUOTE. As we continue to examine the scriptural account, we will learn the exact length of time that it took for the waters of the Flood to recede and the ground to have no standing water.
Genesis 8:4: “Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.” This verse gives the impression that the ark settled down on the mountains of Ararat because the waters had started to decrease. However, for the ark to rest on the ground would have required the depth of the water to have fallen considerably. The highest mountains were covered to a depth of fifteen cubits—not a great depth until you consider that fifteen cubits of water is above the tallest mountain. Mt. Ararat at 17,000 feet is not the tallest mountain. Therefore, more than 15 cubits separated the ark from Mt. Ararat.
In addition, consider that the date given for this occurrence, the seventh month, the seventeenth day, was only 194 days into the six hundredth year (Nisan 1 through Tishri 17). However, the scriptural account records that 236 days of that year had passed before God started to dry up the Flood waters (46 plus 40 plus 150 equals 236). If you figure that the forty days of rain were part of the 150 days, the total would still be 196 days before the waters began to decrease. It was therefore impossible for the ark to have been lodged on the ground on the seventeenth day of the seventh month as the waters had not yet begun to decrease, leaving 46 days, the actual number of days from the resting to the time the water began to decrease.
What then is the meaning of the word “rested” in Genesis 8:4? The word “rested” 5117 is describing a stopping of movement or activity. The same Hebrew word is used in Exodus 20:11: “God rested on the seventh day.” His activity or movement ended.
The use of this word in Genesis 8:4 tells us that the ark remained immobile at a specific location. It was no longer rolling and plunging through churning, turbulent flood waters. The winds that had driven it ceased to blow, the waves subsided, and the waters surrounding the ark became calm and placid. The ark came to a stop as if God had anchored it above the tops of the mountains. God maintained the location of the ark at Mt. Ararat not because it was physically stuck but because God wanted it there. It did not settle upon the ground until after the waters had abated from their original depth above Mt. Ararat.
The scriptural account reveals that the decreasing of the waters took place gradually over the remaining months of the year. To determine the total passage of time in the account of the flood it is necessary to know the exact date that the last of the waters dried up. This date is recorded in Genesis 8:13: “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.”
This verse tells us that the waters were dried up on the first day of the six hundredth and first year, and Noah’s removal of the covering confirmed this fact. This state of dryness was reached exactly one hundred and fifty days from the time that the waters had ceased to prevail.
The design of the covering reveals an important feature of the construction of the ark. In addition, the window construction reveals the curious reason for Noah sending out the dove in order to determine that the flood waters were gone. He could have just opened a window and looked down at the ground. The placement of the windows was such that Noah could not look down to see the land until he had removed the covering.
The need for fresh air would have meant that the ark had many windows strategically placed to provide ventilation, which was absolutely necessary for the survival of both animals and people on the ark. The roof had a substantial overhang to prevent the rain from coming in through the ventilating windows. Therefore Noah could not look up or down, but only out at the horizon. This limited his view of both the sky and the ground showing that he could not use the celestial bodies to determine the passage of the months as he recorded under the inspiration of God. It was done by using a mathematical process by counting the number of days, which he did by observing the periods of light and dark. The 190 days of continued rain also prevented any celestial observation. This coupled with the design of the roof is what prevented them from viewing the sky above them.
It should be noted at this point that counting the initial forty days of the Flood as part of the one hundred and fifty days of the waters prevailing would make the six hundredth year only 345 days in length (46 days to the beginning of the Flood plus 150 days of the waters prevailing plus 150 days of the waters decreasing equals 346 days, minus 1 day for the first day of the 601st year equals 345 days). There is no yearly cycle, either calculated or observed, that would fit a 345-day year.
This fact confirms that the 40 days of rain and the 150 days of the waters prevailing were two separate periods of time, just as the 150 days of the waters abating were separate from the 150 days of the waters prevailing. These three periods of time extended from the second month of the six hundredth year of Noah’s life to the first day of the first month of his six hundredth and first year. Genesis 8:13: “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.” Once the covering was removed Noah could then go to the edge of the ark and look down to see the ground.
This verse states that on the first day of the first month all the Flood waters were gone and the earth was dry, but the scriptural account extends beyond this point. Genesis 8:14: “And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, (a Tuesday,) the earth was dried.”
This verse may seem to contradict the preceding verse, but the word used in Verse 13 to describe the dryness of the earth does not have the same meaning as the word used in Verse 14. The Hebrew word that is translated “dried” and “dry” 2717 in Verse 13 is chareb. However, the Hebrew word translated “dry” 3001 in Verse 14 is yabesh. Gesenius notes that these two Hebrew words represent different levels of dryness. The first denotes an absence of water, and the second represents a condition more akin to that of a lack of moisture, or withered. Verse 13 depicts a condition of no standing water, whereas Verse 14 is describing dry soil that is no longer saturated. This stage of dryness was reached 56 days after the Flood waters dried up.
The account records that Noah remained in the ark until the earth reached this second stage of dryness. There was good reason for waiting to leave the ark until the soil had dried. If Noah had released the animals before the ground was dry, the elephants and other large animals might have gotten bogged down and entrapped in mud. He also had to give vegetation a chance to grow for food for the animals.
After the withdrawal of the Flood waters and drying of the ground, the earth was prepared to receive the survivors of the Flood. They had entered the ark on the seventeenth day of the second month in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life. Below is a computation of the number of days that passed in the year of the Flood.
Gen. 7:11 Flood begins on 17th day of 2nd month
(30 days in the 1st month plus 16 days in the 2nd) 46 days
Gen. 7:12 Rain for 40 days and 40 nights 40 days
Gen. 7:24 Waters prevail 150 days
Gen. 8:3 Waters abate 150 days
Total: 386 days
Gen. 8:13 Water dried on first day of the next year -1 day
Total: 385 days
The chronological facts that are recorded in the account in the book of Genesis clearly establish a period of 385 days in the year of the Noachian Flood. This year length is significant because it is the exact number of days required for an excessive leap year in the Hebrew Calendar. This remarkable account of the Flood, which God inspired to be recorded in his Word, is indisputable evidence that the Hebrew Calendar, which is the Metonic cycle as it is known today, was God’s sacred calendar. It was put into motion in Genesis 1:17 and it bears His stamp of approval.
When God set the heavenly bodies in their orbits they became His “Timeclock.” He then set His clock on the fourth day of creation to reflect the passage of the previous three days. There can be no doubt that the calculations of the Sacred Calendar (the Metonic cycle) have been the basis of God’s true calendar from the beginning.
Just as the first presentation of this timeline of the bible pointed out, it was the Metonic cycle that God set in place to track time; or more correctly stated, God created the Metonic cycle so that time could be tracked. He put His stamp of approval on this repeating cycle of the moon about the earth as the earth circles the sun.
Now that the number of days of the flood year is known to be 385 days, and also the minimum number of years to the flood is known as 1656, the year of the flood can be established. The year 1656 contains six of the 247 year Metonic cycles with a carryover of 147 years. 1656 divided by 247 equals 6 plus 174 years. The 247 year Metonic cycle is made up of 13 segments of 19 years each. The 174 years was 9 complete segments with a carryover of 3 years.
Knowing that the flood year has 385 days, and consulting chart #5 which shows all 13 segments in their correct order, records the first year of this length to be 5 years from 1656, thus showing the flood year as 1661 AM, 2386 BC.
Matthew 13:14 supports the basic idea that the scriptures must be searched to find truth. “And in them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled which says: ‘Hearing you will hear and shall not understand, and seeing you will see and not perceive; for the heart of this people has grown dull. Their ears are hard of hearing, and their eyes they have closed, lest they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears, lest they should understand with their heart and turn, so that I should heal them.”
Having the correct year for the flood makes it possible to establish the year that Abraham left Haran, and without that year the exodus could not be placed as will be shown in subsequent presentations.