In 2014, at the age of 16, in the midst of High school and personal worldly issues, my dad took me and a few of my siblings to see the live action movie of Noah. The trailer had me hooked weeks prior and I couldn’t help but think to myself “This is it! This is going to be a great movie”. The story of Noah in the Bible was already compelling to me so I assumed that Hollywood wouldn’t need to change much about the story and stick to the Bible. The Prince of Egypt was my favorite movie as a kid, yet the inaccuracy of the movie led me to watch it less and less once I got older -despite the visually stunning images. I was hoping that they wouldn’t mess up Noah. The Bible is accessible to everyone. I presumed they had one of the directors read the story before working on the script.
So, here I am sitting in the movie theater, next to my dad who was interested in seeing the movie as well. As the lights dim in the theater for the movie to begin I had a gigantic smile plastered on my face. By the first 40 minutes, my smile lowered to a confused smirk. After the next 30 minutes that followed I’m frowning, hoping for a redemption. The story of Noah kept playing in my head and it didn’t match what I was watching on the big screen. At the end of the movie, I’m annoyed.
“WHAT A LOAD OF CRAP!” My thoughts proceeded to yell the words I couldn’t form in my mouth.
What happened next? Well I spent the next two hours complaining to my dad about Hollywood, the inaccuracy and several plot points in the movie that made no sense to Noah’s story. The only thing that made me a tiny bit happy was that my father and I knew the REAL story (of course he filled me in on some of the blanks because his knowledge of the Bible surpassed mine). I couldn’t help but think of the people who didn’t know the real story of Noah and concluded the movie was accurate and cool.
I say this to myself all the time. The Bible has enough content for it to stand as its own show and movie. All you have to do is follow the Bible word for word (with a bit of background information) and I promise there would be people who aren’t even Christians interested in watching it. The way Hollywood disrespected my main man Noah was unforgivable. It was overseasoned. I would rather watch a 99% accurate movie, than an 30% accurate movie that brings 70% of fiction.
Now, let’s dive into the real story.
We find out that Noah is this righteous, blameless in his generation who stands out from the rest and most importantly he walked with God. He still has a sin nature, mind you. Everyone is born with one and Noah isn’t perfect but he didn’t dwell in the wickedness like the rest of the earth that was now corrupted in God’s sight. God decides to do something about it and make an end to all flesh (excluding Noah and his family). He tells Noah to build an ark and gives DETAILED instructions on how to build it.
This wasn’t some small fisherman’s boat or yacht. We’re talking about a boat as big as the Wyoming, which was considered the largest wooden sailing ship ever built (still not bigger than the Ark though, which was wider). God reveals to Noah that He plans to wipe everything out with water. A cleanse. However, He will establish a covenant with Noah, who will be able to come into the ark, as well as his sons, his wife, his sons wives, and of every sort of animal he shall bring two of each. On top of that, he is to take every sort of food with him and store it up to serve as food for him and the animals. Noah listened to God and did all that was commanded of him.
And that’s on period, we love an obedient servant.
The ark wasn’t built in a day, nor did the flood come immediately. I can only imagine the thoughts of the people around him who watched him build the ark over the years.
Random guy #1: (mutters) “Here goes Noah again building this boat.” (To Noah) HEY NOAH IT HASN’T RAINED IN YEARS BUDDY!”
Random guy #2: That man is a looney!
Random guy #3: (pig like laugh) HAHA Hey Noah it’s still dry out!”
Fish from spongebob: OOOOH BROTHER THIS GUY STINKS!
Don’t mind the modern language and the one fictional character. My point is I’m pretty sure that Noah faced a lot of criticism. Did it stop him? Nope, he continued to follow God and build the ark and sure enough, once it was complete … the flood came. Seven days before God sent the rain He gives Noah these instructions:
“Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
So, at 600 years old Noah, his family, and the animals were on the ark (the Lord shut him in) and the floodgates of the heavens were opened, the springs of the great deep burst forth, and rain fell on the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.
Alexa play Kirk Franklin Melodies From Heaven.
Rain,
Rain,
Rain,
Rain,
Rain down on me,
L-l-l-l-let it fall on meeee.
I love that part of the song, and it was the first one that popped into my head as I was writing this blog post. I don’t know how someone can listen to that and not have the urge to sing along (if you know the words).
The waters rose. This wasn’t some regular kind of rain. The water rose so high that it covered all of the high mountains under the entire heavens. The largest mountain in the world is Mount Everest, which reaches 29,029 feet at its summit above sea level. So, the waters during the flood would have reached higher than the tip of Mount Everest. There was no hope for anyone outside the ark, every living thing that moved on land was DIED. It was wiped out. The only survivors in the whole earth were Noah, his family, and the animals. And the world stayed flooded for 150 days.
So, what now?
PraiseBreak 