Noah was a righteous man who lived in ancient times. He was born at least ten generations after Adam. This can be estimated to be over a thousand years if you add up the ages of the genealogy listed of each of his ancestors recorded in Genesis 5 (Genesis 5:1-32). However, this would probably not be an accurate estimate since every other genealogy listed in the Bible is incomplete.
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The Biblical writers always mention important sons and skip less relevant ones. Since we are talking about such archaic times, there really is no way to accurately estimate how many years span the generations from Adam to Noah. Some have suggested from 1000 to 1600 years though many more years would not be out of the question. We know that Noah was 600 years old when the flood waters overcame the earth (Genesis 7:6, 11). The rain fell for 40 days and the water rose for another 110 days probably from the springs of the earth rising. This is probably when the tectonic plates shattered beneath the ocean floor and shifted the continents. When we total the rest of the time on the ark waiting for the water to recede we can estimate that it took 371 days on the ark until they left and stepped on dry ground. After the flood Noah lived 350 years. Therefore Noah lived a total of 950 years and then he died (Genesis 9:28-29). His three sons and their wives repopulated the entire earth so we can all trace our ancestry through one of them to Noah and eventually to Adam (Genesis 10:1-32). It is interesting to note that there was one godly line from Adam that led to Noah as recorded in 1 Chronicles 1:1-4. You may recognize the well known names of Seth, Enoch and Methuselah. These notable men would also be in our common ancestry.
Historical Records From Adam to Abraham
To Noah’s Sons
Adam, Seth, Enosh, Kenan, Mahalalel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech, Noah.
The sons of Noah:
Shem, Ham and Japheth.
1 Chronicles 1:1-4
Noah is said to be the only righteous man of his time and all others are described as evil. Therefore God made the just and righteous decision to destroy all mankind except for Noah and his sons and their wives. That event serves as one of the many warnings of God’s ultimate judgment that will come at the end of the world.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 6:5-8
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment. This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the flesh and despise authority.
2 Peter 2:4-10
As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark…
Matthew 24:37-38
Noah was righteous and obedient to God’s command. It took 100 years from the time he received God’s command to complete the ark. During that time he was a preacher of righteousness and an obedient builder of the ark that would bring salvation to his family and all the animals of the earth.
After Noah determined the flood waters subsided he waited for God’s order to leave the ark and stepped on dry land. Noah is repeatedly characterized as one who obeyed God (Genesis 7:5). What a great example for us to follow!
Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
Genesis 8:15-22
The Dispensation of Human Government
The flood in Noah’s lifetime marked an important change in the dispensational timeline. The first dispensation God implemented on mankind is called the Dispensation of Innocence and lasted from when Adam was created up until he sinned. When Adam chose to sin, he failed God’s test and he and all his descendants suffered the fall of mankind. When that dispensation ended, God imposed one we can call the Dispensation of Conscience. We know that Adam had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and so since then he and all mankind have a conscience. In the years from the fall of mankind up until the flood, mankind lived by their conscience alone and the result was overwhelming wickedness. Since that test was failed, God decided to wipe out the entire population except for this one righteous man and his family, eight in all (Noah and his wife and their three sons and wives). After the flood receded, God gave these instructions:
Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.
“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.
“Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.
As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”
Genesis 9:1-7
So this new dispensation with new rules came into effect and this is normally referred to as the dispensation of Human Government as mankind would establish moral codes and enforce laws including the execution of murderers.
For more on the concept of Dispensationalism you may want to check my blog post which specifically addresses these and the following four dispensations which come after these.
The Rainbow
The earth was possibly protected by a vapor canopy prior to the flood. Noah seemed to know what rain was (Genesis 7:4) but apparently had never seen a rainbow. One explanation may be the moisture barrier. This speculation is a hard phenomenon for us to imagine or explain and is not mentioned in the Bible. But if it existed, it may have accounted for the long life experienced by people of those times as noted in the early chapters of Genesis. Such a canopy could have created a greenhouse-like effect, stabilizing temperatures and filtering harmful solar radiation, thus contributing to a more hospitable environment for human longevity.
It is also likely that there was one land mass on the earth and during the flood the earth apparently experienced violent changes which broke up the landmass into the various continents we are familiar with today. The springs of the earth were opened up and water came up from below, and rain ensued for 40 days and nights. The result was that the entire earth was flooded. This was no ordinary event. We can only imagine how drastically things changed during this event. We have evidence today of how the tectonic plates, large slabs of rock that divide Earth’s crust, broke and moved rapidly causing tsunamis, earthquakes and many layers of sediment trapping sea creatures and land animals in sediment across the world. It had to have been a global catastrophe which the Bible does not attempt to explain in detail just as it doesn’t explain the miracle of creation in detail. The shifting land masses would offer explanations for various mountain ranges and other phenomena that puzzle even the best of scientists who usually fall back on the equally wild claim that millions of years caused these sediment layers that house fossils in certain areas.
Along with the incredible changes on land and water, the mysterious atmospheric canopy must have changed and that may have created a condition in which they saw a rainbow in the rain after the catastrophe calmed and the sun came out again. This was apparently the first time any of them had ever seen such a miraculous rainbow. God told them it was a sign of his covenant that he would never destroy the earth in that way again. Then he told them to be fruitful to increase their numbers on the earth (Genesis 9:7). However, Noah was the last of the patriarchs to live to such an incredible age. Perhaps the atmospheric canopy allowed for longer life and without it present, people lived only for about 120 years. Now of course, our earth has experienced more decay, pollution and deterioration and our life expectancy has lowered to an average of about 75 years. But we all still see rainbows and are reminded of God’s covenant with Noah many generations ago. The Bible predicts global catastrophic topographical changes during the tribulation and a millennial earth that is very different than the way things are today. Perhaps God will shift the continents back together again and restore the vapor canopy which will extend the lifespan of humans up to perhaps 1000 years. Again, we find few details in Scripture for such conclusions, but the we do know that the curse on the earth will be partially removed, life expectancy will be extended greatly and the world will be bountiful under Christ’s 1000 year Millennial reign. It is intriguing to contemplate how the flood of Noah drastically changed the earth and the tribulation judgments may change them all over again.
Summary
Noah was a righteous and obedient man of ancient times. He lived to be 950 years old but was the last of men to live so incredibly long. The flood that came upon the earth was a judgment of God on the wicked people of that day. It serves as warning to those who reject God and his ways to repent before God’s final judgment. Noah’s story is found in Genesis 5:29-10:32.
Noah and the flood is one of the most familiar Bible stories in the world. Noah is associated with an elite handful of other Bible heroes including Daniel and Job. He is also mentioned in the hall of faith (Hebrews 11:7).
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, if a country sins against me by being unfaithful and I stretch out my hand against it to cut off its food supply and send famine upon it and kill its people and their animals, even if these three men—Noah, Daniel and Job—were in it, they could save only themselves by their righteousness, declares the Sovereign Lord.
Ezekiel 14:12-14
The flood water from Noah’s day was used by Peter as a symbol of the water by which we are saved when we place our faith in God’s Son, the Savior of the world who died and rose again on the third day, Jesus Christ! The water that brought destruction to the wicked of the world also provided salvation for those in the ark as they floated safely above the water. In the same way Jesus will come as the Judge of the wicked and as the Savior of those who have placed their faith in him. One cause; two very different effects.
After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him.
1 Peter 3:19-22
If you are a believer in Jesus, you should have no problem with any of the recorded facts regarding the story of Noah and the flood. Jesus himself validated the story as truth.
[Jesus speaking] As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.
Matthew 24:37-40
It is important to note that Jesus was not referring to the rapture of the church in that example though many people mistakenly assume he was. In the rapture of the church, believers are removed from the earth and go to heaven to be with the Lord (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18). However, the unbelievers are left behind. They will experience the tribulation period which lasts seven years and climaxes with the coming of the King of Kings, Jesus Christ who returns to reign on the earth. Jesus will defeat Satan and lock him in the abyss and will judge all the wicked who remain. Only true believers will enter Christ’s Millennial Kingdom. The unbelieving wicked population will be taken in death which is what is described in Matthew 24:40, “two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left.” The one taken is the unbeliever; the one left is a righteous believer left to live in the Millennial Kingdom of Christ on earth. So Jesus was referring to life in the first half of the tribulation period prior to when the antichrist assumes his role as dictator. That important transition brings on the awful judgments ultimately resulting in the destruction of all non-believers. Over the course of the last 3 1/2 years of the tribulation many unbelievers will perish and those who survive to the end will be taken by death in judgment. The result will be that only believers will remain to enter Christ’s kingdom on earth. Since we know and understand the future judgment is coming and how to be made right with God, let us strive to be righteous and obedient in a world of unrighteousness and rebellion. In other words, let us be preachers of righteousness like our ancestor, Noah.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.
Hebrews 11:7
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New International Version (NIV)
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