“You don’t actually believed that happened, do you?” is generally the incredulous response to my mention of the record of Noah in the Bible. “There’s no way you’d get two of every animal in the world on a single boat” is usually the follow up. At this point I normally hesitate to point out that the Bible says some animals were taken in groups of seven. Otherwise it would have been pretty hard for Noah to explain his sacrifices of some of the animals once they reached dry land to the Audubon Society. (Not to mention that Noah and his family would have been the Audubon Society!)
Back to the main point. Maybe you who are reading this have the some problem as my hypothetical friend above. I mean Noah’s Ark is simply a little story to teach some Biblical lesson, isn’t it? It couldn’t really have happened? Too many animals. Too few people. Come on? OK, let’s start from the basics.
Do you believe in God? Since I can’t hear you, I’m going to assume you said, “Yes”. After all, that is usually what people say. You probably also believe that God created man, the planets and the stars. If you don’t believe this and are of the opinion that man came from a worm that crawled out of some primordial soup of inter-galactic mush – then Noah’s Ark should be a no brainer for you. We’ll assume you’re of the former school of thinking.
Now, if you believe that God created man, the planets and stars – have you taken a close look at what you actually believe? If you believe this – and again, I assume you do – then you believe that God has expert knowledge of biological chemistry, inter-planetary physics and general allknowingisics. After all, He’s the one who gave man a nervous system more complex than the lighting grid of New York City; blood vessels that put end to end would stretch four times around the earth; a heart that beats three billion times in a lifetime; a stomach that gets food even if you’re standing on your head. Did you know that 50,000,000 cells just died and were replaced in your body during the time it took you to read this sentence?
He’s the one who figured out how a single star thousands of light years away can have a gravitational pull on the earth that allows our tiny planet to maintain its orbit. He’s the one who set up black holes, red giants, dwarf stars and all the other “creatures” that inhabit the expanse of the universe.
And yet with all this, this same God couldn’t possibly figure out how to get some animals on a boat? Seems sort of foolish to even think it, doesn’t it? It Is Written,
Isaiah 55:8, 9
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.
For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Instead of trying to bring God down to the level of man, why not give Him the place He deserves? He is the Creator of the heavens and the earth. The heavens are His throne and the earth His footstool. He inhabits all of eternity and is not bounded by time or space. What sort of box are you going to try to put Him in? And when you’ve reconciled yourself to the truth of all this, please leave Noah alone.