As I write, I had just begun my second round of cover-to-cover reading of my NKJV Bible for the year. After going through Genesis 8 and 9, I suddenly came up with a number of questions I had never asked before. Neither had I encountered similar questions, in the many years I served as the WCG (Worldwide Church of God) Regional Office’s main “personal correspondent,” that it was my duty and privilege to answer. [See: “Just Like Peter – Part 2,” section “A lifeline is dropped,” paragraphs 17-18.]
Question #1: How could the birds of the air have all died when God made it rain on the earth 40 days and 40 nights, resulting in a worldwide flood to destroy extremely corrupt and violent mankind in Noah’s day (Genesis 7:12, etc.)? When the birds saw Noah’s ark floating as the flood waters rose, would they not have found it natural or instinctive to alight on the roof of the ark for safety? Even if there was not enough room there for all the birds, at least a good number of them would have found a spot, even if they had to jostle and fight for it.
I pondered how I would answer the person who might ask about Genesis 7:21-22 (emphasis mine) —
And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both men and cattle, creeping things and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth.
- Forty days and nights being soaked in the rain would have caused the birds to experience extreme cold – hypothermia. If this did not kill them, something else would.
- Birds have a very fast metabolism. This means that they need to eat every now and again in order to survive. Without food for 40 days, they would have starved to death! Unlike them, the birds inside the ark had food aplenty (Genesis 6:21).
- Could aquatic birds, like penguins, have survived because they could find food in the water, and survive extreme cold? Even if they could find food, they would have to be always on the water, and possibly over-fatigue would kill them, because there was no land on which they could rest, as is their natural habitat.
- Even if predatory birds, like eagles, preyed on the smaller, milder birds and ate their flesh or the corpses of birds that had died earlier, these predatory birds’ food supply would not last 40 days and, in the end, they would still have died from starvation, if not from hypothermia.
Question #2: After the flood had subsided, and Noah and all those with him in the ark went out to dry land, Genesis 8:20 says: “And Noah began to be a farmer and he planted a vineyard.”
How could Noah have planted a grape vine, if all herbaceous and similar plants probably died after they had been soaked during the 40 days of rain, and the flood waters that prevailed for 140 days (Genesis 7:24)? True, the sturdier plants like trees evidently survived, as Genesis 8:11 shows that the dove which Noah released the second time came back with a “freshly plucked olive leaf” in its beak. But would this have been the same with the less sturdy grape vine?
- As, apparently, a wine enthusiast (Genesis 9:21), and a farmer besides, Noah could have brought with him into the ark grape seeds or cuttings of the grape vine, and placed these latter in a jar of water to survive all the 190 days in the ark. Who knows if he could even have had a grape seedling or more with him?
- After the flood, the earth would have been covered with tons of debris from dead bodies and plants. How could Noah have planted a vineyard in such an environment? If Noah had grape seeds or seedlings, he could have kept them until the soil was ready. Let’s not forget that God is able to heal the land (2 Kings 20:3) in His miraculous ways!
Question #3: When Noah began to be a farmer (Genesis 9:20), he surely did not just plant a vineyard, but also grains, fruits, and vegetables for daily sustenance. Where did he get the seeds or stocks for these?
- Noah could have been inspired by God to store up such seeds and stocks as they would need for planting after the flood. There is today a “Project Noah’s Ark” which seeks to preserve seeds of food and other essential plants inside a frozen cave for cold storage, so that future generations that would survive the much-feared coming worldwide holocaust might have resource to grow food again after “the dust settles.” Doesn’t this show that people today think as Noah might have thought?
- Could not God just command or say the word again, as He did in Genesis 1:11-12, and grass (including grain food), herbs, fruit trees, etc. would spring up? “With God nothing shall be impossible” (Luke 1:37)!
Pedro R. Meléndez, Jr.
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