The What if…Imaginative Adventures in Faith.
(This question was submitted by ADT)
Well, for one there won’t be a Guinness Book of Records entry of the largest cruise ship in the ancient world. Though by today’s standard Noah’s ark would be nothing more than a super yacht. It’s actually smaller than the second largest yacht in the world, the Eclipse. (2016) The Eclipse is owned by Abramovich of Chelsea Football Club fame. Noah’s ark was 450ft long, 75 feet wide. Abramovich’s yacht is 533ft long though 3ft shorter in width than Noah’s ark. The world’s largest yacht by the way is Azam. (2016) It’s 139ft longer than Noah’s ark. So the ark was entirely feasible. But let’s look at the context of Noah’s story.
You see, after the fall of man human lifespan suffered a catastrophic decline. But it continued to be artificially inflated by God, which was why people lived very long in those days. Noah’s granddad Methuselah lived for 969 years for example, whereas the new mean was only 120 years. (Genesis 6:3) The fall had great consequences. One of the unheralded aftermaths is psychological damage to humankind. The ink had barely dried on God’s judgment in Eden when the first homicide was committed. It was a fratricide. Cain killed his then only brother Abel out of envy. So damaged was Cain that when God queried him about his brother’s murder he insolently replied, “Am I his babysitter?” (Genesis 4: 9 MSG) Then he went on to ask for immunity for murder. Meanwhile Abel’s blood began to cry for vengeance. (Hebrews 12:24) And so envy and vengeance were introduced as spiritual quantities on earth. And Man as a community was alienated from God. There was no formal or communal worship of God until the birth of Adam’s grandson Enosh. That was when “men and women began praying and worshipping in the name of God.” (Genesis 4:25-26) Adam was 335 years old at this time. (Genesis 5:3-6) Meanwhile Lamech, the first polygamist in the Bible had also committed manslaughter and was insisting on immunity. (Genesis 4:19-24) And so sinners were asking for immunity from punishment as of right. Humanity was psychologically indeed damaged.
Now, the economic condition after the fall was difficult to say the least. Agric had become a tough profession. The ground was cursed. Noah was 9th generation from Adam through Seth, Adam’s third son. Noah’s father named him Noah believing, “This one will give us a break from the hard work of farming the ground that God cursed.” (Genesis 5:29) And so Noah was supposed to a harbinger of hope and new beginnings. That prophecy would come to pass but not in a way envisaged. However something else was brewing in the horizon – genetic engineering.
Eve had very strong genes. A successive stream of beautiful women had come through her gene sequence. But it wasn’t just humans who noticed these beautiful women, some angels did too – the fallen ones. (Genesis 6:1-2) These angels soon married the most beautiful of the women, bearing children by them. The children were genetic splices – half angel, half human. They were called Nephilims and they were GIANTS! (Genesis 6:4) A humanoid species was thus introduced to Planet Earth. It was at this point God determined he would no longer artificially prolong human life. (Genesis 6:3 MSG) Man was out of control. “God saw evil was out of control. People thought evil – evil, evil, evil from morning to night.” (Genesis 6:5) Earth had become a sewer. There was violence everywhere. This elicited divine lament – “God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart.” (Genesis 6:6 MSG) God decided to pack everything up – man, animal, bird, everything! (Genesis 6:7) All except a gentleman named Noah. He was different. Was a good man, a man of integrity. (Genesis 6:9-10) He was everything humanity was not.
So we do know if God had not destroyed the world a humanoid race would have thrived – the Nephilims. Judging by their strength and temperament they would have wiped out the human race. Other experimental splices of the human gene would most likely have followed. Chimeras would be created.
The existence of a half-human half-angel race would however have complicated God’s salvation agenda. The plan of God was to save descendants of Abraham not descendants of angels: “We also know that the Son did not come to help angels; he came to help the descendants of Abraham.” (Hebrews 2:16) Given the introduction of hybrids the challenge would have been: Does God save only the humans? And does he then save human mothers but ignore their Nephilim children? How about the fathers – the fallen angel husbands? And what about the grandchildren of the angels – should they be saved? They had Adam’s DNA.
Now, the Bible says Jesus became a man in order to be our merciful high priest: “Therefore, it was necessary for him to be made in every respect like us, his brothers and sisters, so that he could be our merciful and faithful High Priest before God.” (Hebrews 2:17) If there’s another race, an angelic stock, in what form then would Jesus have come – as half-angel half-man, or as a human? Yet, it’s impossible for him to be half-angel half-human. Mary would have had to mate with an angel. In which case the “holy thing” inside her would not be a “holy thing.” It would not be of God. (Luke 1:25) That product would be another Nephilim, not the Jesus we know. Jesus was 100% man, 100% God. He was a hypostatic union of both natures. This product would be half-human half-angel; essentially an angel in human flesh not God in human flesh.
Moreover, if Jesus stands as high priest to mediate for angel stock Satan would lay claim to salvation too! He’s angel stock. We must also not forget salvation changed the constitution of the Godhead. Man became a part of the Godhead in Christ Jesus. We are the body of Christ. (1 Corinthians 12:27) It’s why we’re seated with him in heavenly places. (Ephesians 2:6) If angel stock is saved then the Godhead will be composed of divinity, man and angel stock. In which case Lucifer’s original vision would be realized, indirectly. The stock of his associates would be like God! (Isaiah 14:14) Satan would rule the universe by proxy. And so this whole Nephilim thing was a mess. It was an unresolvable quagmire. It would have made man’s salvation practically impossible.
But we keep talking about Noah’s flood and Noah’s ark but what about the guy himself? What can we learn from him? He was certainly a man with character, someone with a very strong constitution. You can’t maintain a separate set of values from the rest of the world without conviction and strong constitution. He refused to be “progressive.” He refused to buy into the spirit of the age. And so when next you feel like compromising your values remember Noah.
Stand for what you believe. Have conviction. Make God proud. Remember, one with God is exclusive majority.
If you’ll like to give your life to Jesus, please pray this prayer: Father I acknowledge that I am a sinner, that Jesus Christ died for me, that you raised him from the dead. Please forgive me. I accept Jesus today as my Lord and my Saviour. Amen.
© #Illuminare Leke Alder | talk2me@lekealder.com