THE FLOOD WAS REAL: NOAH, NIMROD & THE TOWER OF BABEL

Noah Builds the Ark!

GOD LOOKED with sorrow on these human creatures He loved. He was so
displeased at their refusal to abide by His rules for happy living that He decided to do an awesome thing.

He would blot them out of existence by a worldwide Flood! (Gen. 6:7).
God knew that if human beings were to continue in their evil ways, they would
destroy themselves more painfully. His way would be more merciful. Then He would bring them back to life thousands of years later when Jesus Christ would be ruling Earth. They would then realize how much wiser it would be to obey their Creator.

At that time God saw only one man who was willing to live according to His laws. His name was Noah. (Gen. 6:8.) He warned the people who lived around him that their lives depended on their turning from their evil ways and obeying God. His warnings were ignored.

One day he was startled to hear the Eternal speaking to him. God said: "Because
men have disobeyed me and become so evil, I am going to take away their lives. But because you have obeyed me, I am going to spare your life and the lives of your family. All other people will be drowned in a great flood that will cover the whole planet.,'

"But how can my family and I escape such a flood?" Noah asked.
"I will instruct you in building a large ship," God answered. "It will be of such size that it will hold at least one pair of every kind of creature on Earth." (Gen.6:14-16.)

Noah Builds an Ark

Although Noah was four hundred and eighty years old when he and his three sons
later started the task of ship-building, old age wasn't a drawback in very early times when human bodies were probably closer to being as perfect as the bodies of Adam and Eve.

When people heard what Noah and his sons were doing, they came for many miles
to stare and laugh at what was going on.

"Noah must be crazy!" they jeered. "Who ever heard of building a ship that size?
There isn't even any water around here to float it in!"

"He thinks there will be a sudden big flood!" others scoffed. "He's going to have all
that work and expense for nothing!"

Years passed. The ship, or ark, grew larger. The closer it came to being finished, the more onlookers ridiculed the patient Noah and his three sons, Shem, Ham and
Japheth, who carefully carried on for nearly a hundred years, probably with many
other men helping them, to work by the ship plans through which God directed them.

Meanwhile, Noah continued reminding his scoffers that the Flood would come in due time because of their disobedience, but that those who would repent and obey could be spared. No one outside Noah's family believed what he said.

"You've been saying that for a hundred years, and there still isn't the slightest sign of a flood!" people sneered. "You are only a religious crackpot!,'

The Ark Is Finished

Twenty more years passed (Gen. 6:3) while onlookers jeered at the sight of a
mammoth ship sitting far from any place where it could float. God had patiently given them one hundred and twenty years to think about their sins and decide to live differently. (II Pet. 2:5.)

People must have admired Noah and his sons, however, for their ability to build such a craft. It was higher than a four-story building, and ten times as long as it was high!

It was designed to be a huge, floating zoo. The interior was divided into stables and cages for the many creatures that were to be loaded into it. There were runways, ventilator shafts, feeding troughs and everything that would be needed for the strange, live cargo.

By the time the ship was finished and smeared with waterproof pitch, Noah was
almost six hundred years old! His sons were then far older than most people are
today when they die of old age. But more work had to be done. There was the task
of gathering and storing in the ark the many tons of food that would be needed by
the animals. Hay, grain, dried fruit and dried meat were hauled from the surrounding country and stowed aboard along with huge tanks of fresh water.

People continued to laugh at this activity. They wouldn't believe that worldwide
disaster was at hand. Instead, they felt that there was a glorious future for man as he spread out to conquer the whole Earth. It was much as it is today, when a few men chosen by God are warning all nations of a great calamity that will sweep the world within the lifetime of most people living today. Instead of heeding these warnings, people are looking forward to an increasingly easier life with more money and less work. And just as foolish hopes were shattered in Noah's time, so will they be shattered again. Even a little child who will heed the warnings is wiser than the socalled educated man who shakes his head at them.

"Where are all the animals you plan to take for a boat ride?" was the question
jeeringly put to Noah so often. Then the scoffers would add, "It will take you another hundred and twenty years to round up enough creatures to fill that thing you've built!"

The Animals Seek Shelter!

It wasn't easy for Noah to listen to these taunts decade after decade. But he believed God. He was so sure that his live cargo would somehow soon be on hand that he built a ramp up to a large door in the side of the ark, so that the animals could walk in. This was just another act of faith in the hundred and twenty years of trusting God while the ark was being built and the people warned.

One day those who came to scoff stood and wordlessly stared at what they saw. All
kinds of animals and birds were gathering around the ark! (Gen.7:8-9.) If the amazed onlookers expected Noah and his men to have trouble getting the creatures into the ship, they were wrong. God had given the creatures an impulse to seek shelter here.

They entered the ark in an orderly manner, even though many were ferocious by
nature!

Of animals and birds clean enough to be eaten by man, seven pairs went into the
ship. Of unclean creatures, only one male and one female entered. Soon they were
in the stables and cages that would be their homes for many months. Then Noah
and his wife and Noah's three sons and their wives entered the ark. The growing
throng of onlookers was still jeering, but some of the people were so amazed at
having seen the animals entering the ark that they began to wonder if Noah's
predictions from God were true. But most of them simply refused to take Noah's
warnings seriously. Then, as now, people couldn't recognize the truth because they
didn't want to obey God.

Noah and his sons had built a door to shut up the opening in the side of the ark. God caused it to be closed and sealed. (Gen. 7:16.) If onlookers saw this happen, they must have been quite startled.

"And the Flood Came"

PERHAPS few noticed on that morning the wind was a little stronger than usual. By
noon there were violent gusts that grew into gales. People were forced to shelter.
Strong winds weren't very unusual, but when swift-moving masses of unusually dark clouds boiled up over the horizon, residents began to worry.

To add to the growing concern, there were strange rumblings within the ground.

The darkness grew worse. The rumblings became so strong that the Earth quivered.

Then, just seven days after God had told Noah to go into the ark, Earth's crust broke open here and there, and giant streams of water shot out of the ground. (Gen. 7:11.)

At the same time, huge waves roared in from the seas and spread over the coastal
areas. Lightning flashed and cracked, followed by deafening roars of thunder.

Torrents of water burst from the darkened skies.

This, at last, was just the start of the terrible thing Noah had warned would come
upon the world!


It was the most awesome thing that had happened to the planet since Satan's sin
had resulted in all of Earth's surface being torn up so that nothing could live on it.
By now most people were becoming crazed with fear. No matter what they did or
where they went, water came at them. No one could survive without shelter, but
there was no lasting shelter. Rivers flooded the valleys where most people lived.
Because of the constant cloudbursts, climbing to higher elevations was almost
impossible. Swift torrents of water from the hills and mountains swept brush, trees, rocks, mud and people into the rising waters below. Only the strongest were able to battle their way to higher ground, and then only eventually to lose their lives by drowning or violent injury or murder.

Meanwhile, water had swirled up around the ark and slowly lifted it free of the
ground. Many who had jeered at Noah had realized that the inside of the ship was
the only safe, dry place left. (Gen. 7:18.) A few who hadn't been able to flee
elsewhere had waded up to the ark and screamed to be let in. With rain pounding
loudly on the ship, no one inside could hear the frantic shrieks. Hands clawed feebly at the pitch-smeared siding, and then disappeared in the rapidly rising and turbulent water.

God's Mercy

In His great mercy, God had given the people one hundred and twenty years to heed His warnings through Noah. The people had ignored Noah, which was the same as ignoring their Creator. Now it was too late to change or to pray for help. It is often too late to expect God to help us if we postpone asking for help beyond the long periods of mercy God extends to us.

Day after day the water kept rumbling out of the sky and up from the ground. It
swelled to the tops of the highest mountains. Any people or animals who were strong enough to fight their way that far must have battled among themselves for the last gasps of air before they were swallowed up.

Within a few weeks the water was so deep that the peaks of the highest mountains
were well below the surface of the water. (Gen. 7:20.) By then every person on Earth had been drowned except the eight in the ark.

For forty days and nights water gushed supernaturally from the heavy, gloomy cloud layer. Then the rain stopped. By this time the blanket of water covering the planet was a few miles deep above the land and normal sea surfaces. But Noah and his family and cargo floated safely as high as some of our passenger planes now fly above the clouds!

For a hundred and fifty days the water stayed at it’s deepest. (Gen. 7:24.) During this time, the people in the ark weren't idle. Whatever the tasks, they must have been hard to perform in the weeks in which the ark pitched and rolled through massive waves pushed up by the wind. God caused this strong wind to blow so that it would evaporate the water as fast as possible.

The Waters Lower

One day the tops of the highest mountains began to appear above the water. The
ark drifted up against one of the mountains. (Gen. 8:5.) The water level kept
lowering, leaving the ark stranded high on the side of the mountain.
Noah waited more than two months while the water kept going down. After that he
sent out birds to see if the distant land below was still flooded. At last one of the birds returned with a green leaf in its beak, after which it flew away and failed to return.

This proved to Noah that the water had drained off to where plant life had started
redeveloping, and that the valleys were ready to live in again. (Gen. 8:11.)
The men opened the top of the ark, then the only eight people left on Earth excitedly came out on the top deck to view land for the first time in more than a year. (Verse 13.)

After being cooped up for so many months, the sight of dry ground was a wonderful
welcome sight to Noah and his family, but it was strange to look down on a silent
world where there was nobody to scoff at them.

A New Life Begins

"Come out of the ark," God told Noah. "Bring the creatures with you. I want all living beings to spread out over the Earth and produce families.' (Verse 17.)
The large door in the side of the ark was broken open, and a wide ramp type of
gangplank was built from the door to the ground. Then all the creatures were freed
from their stables and cages to return to a new life amid the new greenery of the
Earth.

But Noah didn't set all of the animals and birds free. He was so thankful to his
Creator for sparing him and his family that he built an altar on the mountain, and
sacrificed some of the clean creatures as an offering to God. (Verse 20.)
God was pleased with Noah. He blessed him and his sons, Shem, Ham and
Japheth. They were told to rebuild homes and raise children, so that many people
would again live in the world from which the disobedient had been purged.

"I shall never again bring a flood over the whole planet", God told Noah and his sons. (Gen. 9:11.) "As a promise to you that it will not happen again, look at this sign that will sometimes be seen in the sky." (Verses 12-17.)

Thereupon the Eternal caused a beautiful arc of many colors to appear from horizon to horizon. Whenever people see this colorful arc, called a rainbow, they are seeing the sign of the promise God made to man more than four thousand, three hundred years ago!

The Tower of Babel

FROM then on, all the people who came into the world descended from Noah's three sons and their wives. (Gen. 9:19.) After some years had gone by, there developed many inhabitants in the plains area south of where the ark had landed.

Some of them moved farther down into the valleys of the Tigris and Euphrates, the two main rivers of what later became known as the land of Assyria.

As the years passed and people increased in numbers, many of them moved
southeast over the lower plains to what is now known as the Persian Gulf. There the soil was rich, and wonderful crops sprang out of it. The ground was best in the region where the Tigris and Euphrates flowed closest together in a land called Shinar. (Gen. 11:2.) More and more families chose that area in which to live.

There were very few rocks or trees there. Probably no great city would have been
built there if it hadn't been discovered that much of the soil was just right for making excellent bricks. These were made by pressing moist clay into block shapes and baking them in the sun or around fires. Furthermore, there were places where a thick, pitchy liquid oozed from the ground. This liquid, called bitumen, was the very thing needed to hold the bricks together. (Gen. 11:3.)

Human Beings Huddle Together

Men began putting up homes, barns, warehouses and all kinds of buildings. Before
long towns were sprawling over the plain of Shinar. People were massing together
again just as they had done before the Flood.

This did not please God. He knew that when human beings huddled together in
crowded buildings, they failed to get the best out of the good things He had created
for men to find in the fields, the forests, the mountains, the streams and even in the seas and deserts. Besides, men were more likely to break God's rules of happy living when they existed in masses. God had told Noah and his family that people should spread out over the Earth.

Noah lived for three hundred and fifty years after the Flood. (Gen. 9:28.) During that time he publicly proclaimed God's wishes whenever he had the opportunity.

Through him, many people understood something about God's plans and laws.

Unhappily, most people were living further and further from the ways they should have been living, and had little interest in bettering themselves by obedience to their Creator.

Nimrod Becomes a Hero

At this time in human history there was a man who came down from one of Noah's
sons, Ham. The man's name was Nimrod. Most of Earth's inhabitants today wouldn't have any idea who this man was, although in one way or another he has had a powerful effect on the life of most every one who has lived in the past four thousand years.

Nimrod was a very large, strong, fierce man with dark skin. Because of his power
and skill as a successful hunter of wild beasts that attacked people, he became a
hero and a leader among his tribesmen. (Gen.10:8-9.) Like most others of his time, he knew of his Creator's laws, but he hated those laws. Just as many people today have been led to believe, Nimrod believed that if he lived by God's rules he wouldn't enjoy life. He lived by his own laws, and tried to prove to others that they would be happier if they would live the same way.

Nimrod became chief over the people who grouped together in the main sprawling
town in the land of Shinar. Probably there were many families who didn't like the way he ordered them about, but whenever wild animals attacked, Nimrod and his warriors fought to protect the townspeople. Nimrod later built a wall around the growing town.

Deeds like these helped make him a strong leader, and caused more families to
move in and settle under his rule.

Before many more years had passed, the town had grown into a city. It was the first large one to be built on the Earth after the Flood. It was such a wonder that people came from afar to gaze on the vast mass of buildings and high walls. That country later came to be known as Babylonia, and the name of the city was Babel or Babylon. (Gen. 10:10.)

Nimrod Begins Idol Worship

Nimrod was not only ruler of Babylon, but he became the most feared man in the
land. His power and wealth grew as Babylon grew. He made the laws, and those
laws decreed that Babylonians should not look to the God of Noah as their ruler, but should be ruled by human governments. One of Nimrod's schemes to hold people together under his rule was to build a tower so gigantic that it would excite
everyone's awe and wonder. It was to be the highest temple ever built, and a
monument to the sun god in the center of a world-ruling government. (Gen. 11:4.)

Men slaved for a long time just to erect the base of the tower. Then little by little the temple took shape toward the sky. Nimrod's plan for a brick monster to loom up over the plain was working out well.

Then God stepped in. He saw that Babel was only the beginning of far-fetched things men would try to do, and that they had to be stopped. (Gen. 11:6.) Imagine what it would have been like if men such as Nimrod had been able to develop weapons such as we have today!

Many Languages Begin

Since the Flood there had been only one language. Men hadn't moved apart in
different tribes long enough to start speaking in different ways as do the people of
today in various sections of the Earth. (Gen. 11:1.) Then something happened to the men working on the tower. They began to accuse each other of not talking plainly.

Some talked one way, while others talked other ways. The less they understood one another, the more they argued. Arguments grew into fights. Work came to a halt. (Gen. 11:7-8.) Not every workman necessarily spoke a different language, but God caused them to speak in so many different ways that the lack of communication made it impossible to continue working on the temple. The tower was thereafter called "Babel" because "Babel" meant "confusion" in Noah's language.

Not understanding their neighbors, many of the families living in or near the city of
Babylon moved away to seek a living in distant parts of the land. This was what God intended for them to do. (Gen. 10:25 and Deut. 32:7-8.) His way of scattering them by confusing their language was a great blow to Nimrod's scheme for quick growth of his kingdom and greater control over man's religious habits.

But during the next few years, while people were scattering out over the land, those who stayed at Babylon were increasing in numbers. Besides, many who had never been there stopped there in their travels. In time, there were so many in or near the city of Babylon that Nimrod again put men to work on the tower.

Nevertheless, it wasn't God's will that the tower should be finished. It never was.

Noah Dies of Old Age

At the time Nimrod's kingdom had spread, Noah was still living! He was about seven hundred years old when God scattered men from Babylon. Still he was not feeble, and because he remained faithful to God, God gave him many more years of abundant life. He became a successful farmer who was nine hundred and fifty years old when he died!

That is a long time to live, especially when we consider how short a time we live
today. Yet those who are wise enough to turn from the wrong kind of living and seek God's ways will enjoy even longer lives. They will get to live forever as spirit beings (I Cor. 15:44-45, 53), and many of them will start that long life by ruling the Earth soon with Jesus Christ for a thousand years! (Rev. 2:26-27 and 5:9-10.)

Later, they will dwell in a beautiful, jeweled city God will send down from Heaven to Earth. (Rev. 21:2.) This is one of the many wonderful things God has prepared for those who love Him.