Number 5: Noah

Hero Number 5: Noah

The fifth person I want to meet in heaven is Noah.  But there is a different dynamic at play in this meeting than meeting with the other Biblical people I have already mentioned.  The reason: he’s my ancestor. 

Certainly there are things that I want to ask him about that are questions meant to fill up my gaps in understanding of the accounts we have in the Bible.  Perhaps most of these will have been answered if and when God the Father holds his “History 101” class for us all.  There certainly is that hunger to know what life was like as he lived and dealt with the critters we know of today as Dinosaurs.  How did he build the ark?  What exactly is “gopher” wood?  How close was he to the other patriarchs that he knew as his ancestors? What are his perspectives on parenting?  What’s the deal with that “Curse on Canaan” thing;  His perspective on the epic of Gilgamesh, and if Nimrod and Gilgamesh were one and the same.

Yet the approach to such a person must be different than an approach to the other people I mentioned.  He is a forbear, THE Progenitor.  From him, all humanity after the flood are descended.  Would he be deal with me in a Fatherly sort of way?  

My ancestor would be Japheth.  What was he like as a kid and a young man?  How old were they before they weren’t a “kid” anymore in that culture?  What stories does he have about “dad?” 

He is also the archetype of the preacher who preached and did not get any results. What did his preaching message look like?  How did the crowds respond? Anger? Laughter? Poor Noah.  If he was a preacher in a lot of our churches today, he would probably be fired.  Yet the results he got certainly were not his fault!  How does a man preach for 120 years to repent and “get into the boat” and not get discouraged?  What was his secret?

Most of all there is just the enigma that this man is.  For a short time, all of human history hung on the thin thread of his life.  Yet we really know so little about him!  There are legends that he eventually moved to what we know today as Lebanon but returned to the area of Urartu (Ararat) to be buried.  The name of the city is Nakhchivan, a name which is even derived from its association with Noah. 

So set me up for my appointment!  I am ready to meet Noah!