The Lord's Spirit and Man

MYTH:  Noah spent 120 years building the ark

It is a common interpretation of this verse that after the Lord God revealed to Noah that he was going to destroy all of the ungodly people, it took Noah 120 years to build the ark. Scripture does not tell how long the ark was under construction. However, considering the immense undertaking of building the ark, and the purpose for its construction, the years of construction could possibly be determined by examining the early Hebrew use of symbolic numbers. The time could have been seven, or seventy years. These particular numbers are suggested because the number seven, ten and seventy are sacred numbers used when speaking of completion, excellence and judgement between God and man. (Miller 49; Haggith 39)

Consider the blessings and punishment the Lord brought upon Israel, and Also the destruction of Israel's enemies (Jer. 25.11,12; 29.10; Dan. 9.2; Zech. 1.12; 7.5). Seventy years is the time the Lord withholds His judgement of blessings or destruction. (Blue)

The Lord had past judgement against the wicked people in the world. In keeping with the use of this sacred number, it is reasonable to believe that Noah was possibly given seventy years to complete his task.

Further evidence that proves the inaccuracy of this belief. When Noah was five hundred years old, he begat Shem, Ham and Japhath (Gen. 5.32). When the Lord first spoke of the flood and building the ark, Noah's sons were already grown and married. The Lord established His covenant with Noah, and told him that he was to enter into the ark with his wife, his sons, and his sons wives (6.18). In Noah's six hundredth year in the second month, on the 17 day the flood came (7.11). In the six hundredth and first year in the second month of the 27 day of the month, the earth had dried and the Lord told Noah and his family to leave the ark (8.13-16). Two years after the flood, at the age of one hundred, Shem begat Arphaxad. (11.10)

Taking note that Noah's sons were already adults when construction began, simple math tells us that if Shem was in his nineties at the time of the flood, 120 years is not the measure of time in constructing the ark. What than does the 120 years represent?

"For the wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6.23)

When God created man, it was His intention that man should live in communion with him forever. But communion with the Lord is an intimate relationship. And as in any relationship whether it is spiritual with the Lord, or between man and woman, there is an expectation that we can trust one another when sharing our lives and our deepest feelings. In the relationship between the Lord and Adam, it was necessary for man to trust the Lord completely. With this trust Adam could live a happy and fruitful life. However, God did not want man to be a puppet, merely going through the motions of living as his strings are manipulated by the puppet master. God gave mankind a free will to make his or her own choices in life. But, just as there are rules of right and wrong conduct in a marriage between a husband and wife, the Lord gave Adam rules of what he could and could not do in their relationship.

"And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat: But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." (Gen. 2.16-17)

After Adam and Eve sinned by forming their own set of morals, according to their own reasoning. Their sin against the Lord God damaged their relationship with Him forever. The Lord still deeply loved his children, and wanted only what was best for them. But being perfect in all His ways, He could not look upon their sin. The Lord would not give sin free reign upon the earth. So Adam and Eve were cut off from their special relationship with the Lord. Their Paradise was lost, and immortality was taken from them.

"Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin: and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned." (Rom. 5.12)

So man's days on the earth were numbered. Death did not come immediately for Adam or his descendants, but the clock of life was now ticking away. At the time of death, Adam was nine-hundred and thirty years; Seth was nine-hundred and twelve years; Enos, nine-hundred and five years; Cainan, nine-hundred and ten years; Mahalaleel, eight-hundred and ninety-five years; Jared, nine-hundred and sixty-two years; Enoch, three-hundred and sixty-five years; Methuselah, nine-hundred and sixty-nine years; Lamech, seven-hundred and seventy-seven years. (Gen. 5.5-31).

Because of the depravity of man whom was covering the earth, the Lord decided to shorten the life span of man. The Lord God declared that, "My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh; yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years." (Gen. 6.3)

Although the Lord made his judgment upon the life span of man, Noah did not die until the age of nine-hundred and fifty years (Gen. 9.29); and Shem was six-hundred years; Arphaxad, four-hundred and thirty-eight years; Salah, four-hundred and thirty-three years; Eber, four-hundred and sixty-four years; Peleg, two-hundred and thirty-nine years; Reu, two-hundred and thirty-nine years; Serug, two-hundred and thirty years; Nahor, one-hundred and forty-eight years; Terah, two-hundred and five years (Gen. 11.10-32). Job, "lived one-hundred and forty years" after his ordeal, and then "he died at a very great age," (Job 42.16,17); Sarah, one-hundred and twenty-seven years (Gen. 23.1); Abraham, one-hundred and seventy-five years (Gen. 25.7); Isaac, one-hundred and eighty years (Gen. 35.28); Jacob, one-hundred and forty-seven years (Gen. 47.28); Joseph, one-hundred and ten years (Gen. 50.26); Amram, one-hundred and thirty-seven years (Exod. 6.20); Aaron, one-hundred and twenty-three years (Num. 33.39); Moses, one-hundred and twenty years (Deut. 31.2; 34.7); Joshua, one-hundred and ten years (Josh. 24.29); Eli, ninety-eight years (1 Sam. 4.15); Barzillai, eighty years (2 Sam. 19.32); Jehoiada, one-hundred and thirty years (2 Chron. 24.15); Anna, older than eighty-four years (Luke 2.36,37); Paul, "the aged one" (Phil. 1.9).

Depending on circumstances, or at the urging of one of the Patriarchs such as Abraham and Moses, God has been known to change his mind from time to time. In a poem that was presumably written by Moses, it is written that once again the Lord found it necessary to shorten mans life span to seventy or eighty years, depending on the individual (Ps. 90:10; Miller 589). Since the time of the ancient Hebrew writing, the Lord has never declared that he would again shorten the life of man.