Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. – Genesis 8:2

Today's Scripture Reading (August 9, 2024): Genesis 8

Our world has several flood stories. Even in Africa, where floods seldom appear, there are stories of an ancient flood. It is one of the reasons that we read the story of Noah and realize there must be some truth to it. Enough cultures have a flood myth that we are left to the conclusion that there must have been a global flood. Adding to the stories we tell, there is other evidence of a flood, such as the fossils of fish at the top of tall mountains. However, there are also places, like Antarctica, where there is no evidence that a flood has ever taken place. All of this leads us to ask the question: what exactly happened?

It is a question to which I have invested some thought. The traditional belief is that God sent the rain for forty days and forty nights, resulting in the epic flood. The problem is that forty days of rain is not all that unusual. I have lived through periods of rain that have been longer than forty days. In the United States, Oregon saw seventy-nine days of measurable rain in 1997-98. Maunawili Ranch on the Hawaiian Island of Maui saw measurable rain for an incredible 331 consecutive days in 1939-40. If you include trace rainfall, another Hawaiian Island, Oahu, holds the record of 881 straight days of rain between 1913 and 1916.

So, Noah, your forty days of rain don't really measure up. So, what happened? This verse provides us with a clue. The story's author seems to indicate that there were two water sources. Not only did the sky open up with rain, but the ground opened up with water as well. This is what we know from the biblical record.

We aren't told what happened, but I have an unprovable theory. I think there might have been some kind of a catastrophe, like a meteor hit, that caused the earth's water to swell up, the oceans to surge, and the skies to pour with rain. All of the earth's waters swelled and moved over the dry land, producing a situation where it would take months for the water to find its way back to its point of origin. For all this time, Noah was kept safe in the Ark that God had told him to build.

It might be considered a weakness in my faith, but I am not sure that the entire world was covered for the whole time indicated in the Bible. It was enough for the known world to be covered with water for the story to be accurate, but the poles could have escaped the disaster. As a result, there is a lack of evidence of a flood in Antarctica. But the known world was covered, and life on the planet could have ended, except for the faith of Noah. 

Tomorrow's Scripture Reading: Genesis 9