The Destruction of Life

Genesis 7:21-24

“And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.” (Genesis 7:21-23)

Those who have observed flash floods or a tidal wave are often stunned by the power of that first wave of water traveling very fast and sweeping almost everything before it. Some survive by being swept onto an area where the water is shallow and climbing to safety, while others see the danger and flee before it. Those who escaped death in the first few hours of the flood undoubtedly sought higher ground for safety. The dinosaur and human tracks found near Glen Rose, Texas appear to be fleeing the same thing. Could it have been the stream of water and soil which preserved their tracks? Eventually the rising water covered the areas they had fled to and they exhausted themselves trying to escape and drowned. Floating debris would enable others to survive for a while, but they would eventually starve if they didn’t drown. Scavengers could survive for a while longer on the corpses of those who’d died, but even they and the birds and amphibians would find it impossible to survive very long.

Modern day ocean liners are able to endure and survive the storms of today because of their size, and design. The ark was of similar dimensions, and research indicates that the relationships of length to width to height produce the most stable vessel possible. The twenty feet of freeboard would have meant that only the largest waves could splash in, while the roof would have kept most of the water out. Scuppers could easily have drained away what water was splashed through the window before it got to the lower decks. Only those within the ark would ultimately survive.

“And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.” (Genesis 7:24)

For five months, the ark floated freely and nothing was visible. By that time all the animals except those who live full time in the water had either drowned or starved if they were outside the ark. Even many of the sea creatures would have died as a result of the sediment in the water.

In producing pressure treated or stabilized wood products, wood is immersed in chemicals under high pressure, for prolonged periods and the chemicals replace water in the cells. When we build a dam to retain a large body of water, trees and plants that were not washed away with the initial influx of water eventually die from being submerged. The pressure of the water forces it into the cells, and frequently the wood is preserved for long periods. Individual trees submerged during the flood were exposed to tremendous pressure, and large amounts of certain minerals were dissolved in the water as erosion exposed them. The petrified wood we see today would have resulted from the process much like that of pressure treating wood today, and the duration of the flood would have provided the necessary conditions.

While most plants would not have survived such sustained immersion, most seeds would have remained viable, just waiting for favorable conditions to begin growing.

The size of the ark would provide sufficient room to store an adequate supply of food for more than a year, sustaining animal life. Without divine guidance and assistance, it is unlikely that Noah could have designed or built a boat of sufficient size to provide what was needed, at least without years of experimentation.