“Lions and tigers and bears!”
Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
Genesis 7:6-10
Noah didn’t have to round them up. The Bible says that one to seven pairs of every specie found their way to Noah’s ark. Well how did that work? You may ask. I don’t know how, specifically, but I do know that animals today find their way to their birthplaces when they migrate. The arctic tern migrates from the North pole to the South pole every year. Over their lifetime they fly enough miles to get them to the moon and back! Interestingly, even arctic tern chicks who are separated from their parents are able to find their way. How do they do that? I don’t know how but they do. How did the animals find their way to Noah’s ark? I don’t know how but they did. (birds.com)
OK but how did different species who don’t associate in the wild coexist on the ark. I mean, come on, predator and prey on the same ark? Predators and other predators on the same ark? How did that work? It’s amazing what we see today in the way of unlikely friendships between animals. There’s a well documented occurrence of a polar bear playing with huskies in Churchill, Manitoba. The huskies were on a chain and as the polar bear approached, the owner of the huskies was sure that his dogs were on the polar bear’s menu. But instead they played together! Incredibly, the polar bear returned to play with the huskies every night for a week! (Animals at Play) An ABC news clip shows a lioness caring for a baby oryx antelope, a cat playing with a crow, and a hippo and a tortise who are inseperable. (ABC News-Nat Geo) Another Nat Geo clip shows a lion, a tiger, and a bear living together peacefully in the same enclosure at a ranch that takes in homeless animals (and foster children as well). (see video at the top of this post)
The name of the ranch?
Noah’s Ark.
Where the Noah’s ark of the Bible is concerned, the reality of Noah and the events surrounding the flood are well documented. Noah and certain of his family members are mentioned in genealogies in 1 Chronicles chapter 1 and Luke chapter 3. The events of Noah around the time of the flood are referred to in Isaiah 54:9, Ezekiel 14, 1 Peter 3:20, and 2 Peter 2:5. Noah is also mentioned in the “hall of faith” in Hebrews 11:7.
Finally, Jesus Himself refers to Noah and these events as historical fact in Matthew 24. And again Jesus’ validation of the flood events is found in Luke 17.
The ark of salvation was filled with creatures who, apart from God’s hand, didn’t exist peacefully with each other. Our Ark of salvation, Jesus Christ, is filled with the same, creatures who don’t necessarily coexist peacefully in our natural state. But the Holy Spirit changes all of that. Galatians 5:22 says that the fruit of the spirit is love, agape love. Love that gives without an expectation of anything in return. That kind of love born of the Holy Spirit is what I need, what you need, what we need to experience the abundant Christian life. (John 10:10)
I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.
John 15:11-12
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