by Tim Chaffey
Noah realized the ramp would not hold. “Inside!”
Ham shoved Japheth into the ark, and Noah leapt for the doorway just as the platform gave way and crumpled to the ground.
Noah looked at his sons.
“That was too close,” Japheth said.
“How are we going to close the door now?” Ham asked. “We can’t get to the knot.”
Noah poked his head out of the opening. With the rain splatting against his face and soaking his hair, he glanced first at what used to be the base of the ramp. Naamah shouted something at her soldiers, but the wind and thunder drowned out any hope of hearing it. One of them produced a torch and tried to light it. They’re planning to burn the ark. Looking back toward the door, Noah studied the top of it. “If I could. . . .”
“Father,” Ham said, water dripping off the sides of his beard. “I can climb out there and untie it. Then I can push it away from the wall and ride it back in here.”
“No, I’ll do it,” Noah said.
“I will. I’m younger and stronger.”
“Wait.” Noah scanned the room. “Kezia, bring that rope. We’ll tie it around Ham.”
Ham nodded. “Good idea. I’ll need a bit of a boost to grab the top.”
Kezia slipped the rope around her husband and several of them grabbed onto it.
They walked toward the edge of the opening as Ham searched for the best place to hold on to.
Noah pointed to the knot that held the door. “Wait. Look at that!”
“It’s coming loose,” Emzara said.
“How can that be?” Kezia said.
The knot unfastened and the door slowly moved away from the outside wall of the ark.
Shem held his arms out and gestured for the others to step away from the entrance. “Get back.”
“The Creator is closing the door,” Ar’yel said.
As the door swung toward him, Noah stared down at Naamah and her soldiers and shook his head as a sense of sorrow mixed with relief struck him.
She screamed something at him just before the door slammed shut with a thud that instantly dampened the sounds from outside. An array of animal sounds within the ark overpowered the muffled screams, wind, torrential rain, and thunder.
Noah quickly latched the door. He turned and stared in amazement at his family. Emzara leaned against him and he held her tight. Shem hugged Ar’yel while she let out a deep sigh. Kezia put her hand on Ham’s back as he loosened the rope around his waist and let it fall to the ground. Japheth watched Rayneh as she moved silently to the door, her face emotionless, as if she were in shock. She put her hand on it and fell to her knees, sobbing. Japheth hurried to kneel down beside her. She collapsed in his arms and wept.
No one spoke for several moments — the magnitude of everything that had just happened and what must have been occurring outside rendered Noah speechless. Another muffled blast of thunder along with barely audible screams registered in his ears. He imagined Naamah and her army trying desperately to escape the devastation. An image of Garun and Laleel popped into his mind. Had they survived until now? And what about Purlek and Evet? Jerah and Pivi? Misha and the rest of his siblings? Noah pulled Emzara closer as his eyes welled up.
An animal’s snort beside them grabbed his attention. One of the chariot beasts sniffed at Emzara’s feet and then gently brushed its long brown snout against her leg.
Emzara glanced up at Noah. “I’d better go and put these two in their enclosure.”
With a tip of his head, he gestured to the wagon full of firewood in the corner and spoke softly. “Those tuskers need to be put away, too. Shem, would you do that? Then we’ll all meet in the sitting room. We need to pray and thank the Most High for His provision and protection.”
Emzara lightly kissed his cheek and then gestured toward the rest of their family. “Look, it’s just as the Creator told you so long ago. The ark will be for you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives.”
Still hurting from the heightened awareness that everyone outside the ark would soon be gone, but thankful for God’s mercy to him and his family, Noah nodded and pulled Emzara close again. “Another reminder that we can always trust the Creator.”
And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him (Genesis 7:5).
Epilogue
Genesis 7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
8 But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the livestock that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind blow over the earth, and the waters subsided. 2 The fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed, the rain from the heavens was restrained, 3 and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of 150 days the waters had abated, 4 and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 And the waters continued to abate until the tenth month; in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.
6 At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made 7 and sent forth a raven. It went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. 9 But the dove found no place to set her foot, and she returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. 10 He
waited another seven days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. 11 And the dove came back to him in the evening, and behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. 12 Then he waited another seven days and sent forth the dove, and she did not return to him anymore.
13 In the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and behold, the face of the ground was dry. 14 In the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth had dried out. 15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Go out from the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. 17 Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh — birds and animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth —that they may swarm on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” 18 So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. 19 Every beast, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that moves on the earth, went out by families from the ark.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 And when the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man’s heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. 22 While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease.”
9 And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. 2 The fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea. Into your hand they are delivered. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 And for your lifeblood I will require a reckoning: from every beast I will require it and from man. From his fellow man I will require a reckoning for the life of man.
6 “Whoever sheds the blood of man,
by man shall his blood be shed,
for God made man in his own image.
7 And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
8 Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, 9 “Behold, I establish my covenant with you and your offspring after you, 10 and with every living creature that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with you, as many as came out of the ark; it is for every beast of the earth. 11 I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.” 12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all future generations: 13 I have set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living creature of all flesh. And the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16 When the bow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17 God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth” (Genesis 7:1–9:17).
Behind the Fiction
Just like in the first two books in The Remnant Trilogy, the initial part of this non-fiction section, Questions and Answers, is designed to address certain questions that readers may think of during the story. Many of these issues will be apologetic in nature. That is, in this portion of the book, we will respond to numerous challenges raised by skeptics and critics. The goal is that these novels will also help you defend the truth of Scripture.
You may have noticed as you read the novel that several things didn’t line up with what you may have expected, particularly in this story regarding the Ark and the animals. As we mentioned in the other books, this was done intentionally to break certain stereotypes about Noah and the pre-Flood world that many Christians assume are from the Bible, but are not actually found there. We want you to see clearly what comes directly from the Bible and what comes from traditions people have developed over the years.
The second feature in this non-fiction portion is what we call Borrowed from the Bible. Since the Bible only includes scant details about Noah’s life and times, we fleshed out his story using artistic license. We certainly do not wish to be seen as adding to Scripture and want the reader to understand that these are works of fiction, with the exception of the few details that come straight from the Bible. In some places we curbed the amount of artistic license taken by drawing from other biblical accounts instead. In Borrowed from the Bible, we highlight certain events and customs in our story that will be somewhat familiar to those who know their Bibles.
The third special feature is entirely unique to this series. We had the incredible opportunity to work behind the scenes at the Ark Encounter for the past few years. Tim was involved in the planning of nearly every exhibit and was responsible for writing or overseeing all of the content while K. Marie took part in designing various aspects of several spaces on the Ark. We wanted to use our experience to bring this series to life in a creative manner. As such, many of the objects and animals described in the book are on display in the Ark Encounter, so visitors to the theme park can see part of what Noah witnesses in our story. The Encounter This section lets the reader know what these items are and where they can be found.
Finally, we included a fourth section in this book that is not found in the other two. Since we never used modern names to describe the many different kinds of animals encountered throughout the series, we have included a list of those animals with their modern names so that readers can properly identify the beasts described in this series.
We hope you have enjoyed reading about what may have been, while learning to better discern between fact and fiction.
Answering Questions
Raised by the Novel
SPOILER ALERT! Many of the answers to questions in this section reveal key points in the storyline of the novel. If you have not read the story first, some of these details will spoil important events in the book.
Would animals fear man in the pre-Flood world?
In Chapter 13, Noah finally takes Emzara to see some of her favorite animals, members of the giraffe kind, which are called keluks in this series. She gets the opportunity to get close to them for a while. In our day, wild animals seldom allow people to get so close, but would things be different prior to the Flood?
After the Flood, God told Noah that “the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth and upon every bird of the heavens, upon everything that creeps on the ground and on all the fish of the sea” (Genesis 9:2). The straightforward meaning of this verse is that following the Flood, animals would have a fear of man, which is something we see among most wild animals today. It seems natural to infer that they did not possess such a fear prior to the Flood, and the next verse appears to confirm this notion. Genesis 9:3 states that God originally had given plants to man for food, but now man would be permitted to eat every living thing that moves (this concept is addressed in more detail in the question and answer section of Noah: Man of Destiny). Since mankind was not permitted to eat animals until after the Flood, the animals did not need the instinct to be afraid of people. But once permission to eat meat was given, the fear of man became important for creatures to survive.
So it is quite plausible that someone like Emzara could approach a group of wild animals without causing them to run away.
Were Noah’s sons triplets?
Genesis 5:3
2 states that when Noah was 500 years old, he begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. At first glance, this verse seems to indicate that the sons were triplets, or possibly a set of twins with the other son also being born within Noah’s 500th year. While some Christians interpret this verse as teaching that Noah’s sons were triplets, the Bible provides further details that make such an interpretation unlikely, if not impossible. Instead, it makes much more sense to understand the verse as stating that the oldest son was born in Noah’s 500th year.
This verse appears at the end of a genealogy describing the people in the line from Adam to Noah. Genesis 11 includes a similar genealogy, but this time it moves from Shem down to Terah and his sons. Of particular relevance here is the fact that Genesis 11:26 states, “When Terah had lived 70 years, he fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran.” While the names and number of years are different, the pattern is the same as Genesis 5:32. When we look at other passages in Scripture, such as Acts 7:4 and Genesis 12:4, we learn that Terah’s sons were not triplets because Abram was born when Terah was 130 years old. So it seems that this type of statement in a genealogy merely conveys how old the father was when the oldest of the named sons was born. Also, notice that Abram was not the oldest. Instead, the son most relevant to the book’s subject matter is often listed first in these genealogies.
Other clues in Genesis reveal that Noah’s sons were not triplets. The oldest was born in Noah’s 500th year and the Flood was in his 600th year. In Genesis 11:10, we read that Shem had a son when he was 100 years old, and that this took place two years after the Flood. So Shem must have been about two years younger than his older brother, Japheth. Japheth would have been 100 at the time of the Flood, and Shem would have been 100 years old two years later, or possibly three years later if “after the Flood” in Genesis 11:10 is meant to refer to the time after the family exited the Ark. Either way, the boys were not the same age. We cannot be sure of Ham’s age, but we do know that he was the youngest of Noah’s sons (Genesis 9:24). In our story, we made him about ten years younger than Japheth.