05/28/2008
Genesis 8:15 - 22 (HCSB) 15Then God spoke to Noah, 16“Come out of the ark, you, your wife, your sons, and your sons’ wives with you. 17Bring out every living thing of all flesh that is with you—birds, livestock, creatures that crawl on the ground—and they will spread over the earth and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
18So Noah, along with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, came out. 19All wildlife, all livestock, every bird, and every creature that crawls on the earth came out of the ark by their groups. 20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21When the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, He said to Himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, even though man’s inclination is evil from his youth. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.
22 As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, and day and night
will not cease.”
Approximately 6 months had passed since Noah, his family and the animals were sealed up in the ark. Now, they step on dry land in a new and foreign landscape. American seamen who go to sea will be on their vessels for 6-month tours. They do have the pleasures of occasional shore leaves, but it is difficult for me to imagine being at sea for such a length of time—much less, with a menagerie of animals.
A few years ago, a newspaper article read:
“Adam and Eve would have had a tough time getting together. They may have lived in different eras.”
“In their effort to find out when the human species sprouted, diversified and spread around the globe, scientists have been hunting for the ancestral ‘Adam and Eve,’ the most recent common ancestors of all living humans.” Emily Sohn, “A new mystery evolves on trail of early humans”. The Dallas Morning News. Monday, June 26, 2000.
According to the study in the article, scientists somehow looked at the permutations of the Y chromosome and those of the X chromosome and determined that the common female ancestor predated the common male ancestor. They mockingly insinuate that the Biblical account of creation is impossible based on their data. Yet they failed to take into account the great flood. Ironically, one scientists uses the metaphor “We are all coming out of the same boat not so long ago.”
Who stepped off the ark?
Noah, his three sons, Noah’s wife, and his sons’ wives.
Think about this for a minute. We have one man and his three sons, so their Y chromosomes would link directly back to Noah and thus all males born thereafter would be traceable back to Noah. Of course, they would also trace back to Adam, but the diversity of male DNA stepping off the ark is significantly less diverse than the females.
We have 4 women of potentially diverse ancestry. Therefore, the X chromosomes would necessarily trace further back in time—to Eve. So, if we are trying to find the most recent apex for the diversification of humanity, then of course, male DNA and female DNA will appear to have different common progenitors.
However, rather than this data proving the “Adam and Eve” account of human creation wrong, it confirms the preservation of Noah and his family after the flood.
It frustrates me to no end when scientists find something and start their little victory dance claiming they have proven the Bible wrong, when they have in fact, validated what the Bible tells us. Again, if the Bible were merely anecdotal stories, or the imagination of some ancient sage, then how could it so accurately answer scientific discoveries?
Science does not disagree with the Bible—scientists do. God so wonderfully preserved a history of the earth for us. We would be careless to dismiss Genesis as mere fable.
With the 8 people who stepped from the ark, there sprang people of all hues, stature and character. We have no details of the physical characteristics of Noah, his sons’ or their wives. But I suspect that God planned for there to be a diversity of human beings preserved for posterity.
Let us thank God for his providence in times past and in our own lives.
Jeff Justus
Cleff Publishing
www.cleffpublishing.com
©2008 Cleff Publishing, all rights reserved.
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