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Noah lived 350 years after the Flood and died at 950, only 50 years before Abraham’s birth.
“It is entirely possible that Abraham saw one or more of Noah’s three sons, Ham, Shem, and Japheth,” writes Noah W. Hutchings in his 1998 classic God Divided the Nations. “Ham had 30 sons, Japheth had 14 sons and Shem had 26 sons. We are not told how many daughters they had.
“It certainly would be improbable for a woman to have this many children in a normal life span today. Peleg, who lived at the time of the Tower of Babel, lived to be 239 years of age, and Eber, a grandson of Noah, lived to 464 years of age.
"So even after the Flood, for about 400 years, men lived to be 700 years old, and had large families. This was for the purpose of the rapid replenishing of the earth with people, since God desired that all the earth be reinhabited again.”
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“The ‘old world,’ which was the pre-Flood world, offers some very interesting things to examine when you study Genesis 1-10 and then come to Genesis 11,” says Richard Jordan. “In Genesis 11 is a genealogy you can compare to the time period of the peoples’ lives in Genesis 5.
“In Genesis 5, people lived hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years. Methuselah lives 969 years and his life is cut short actually. People aren’t even having children until they’re 200-300 years old.
“Immediately after the Flood the longevity span begins to drop to less than 100 years. It quickly tapers down. The question asked is, ‘Why is that?’ One of the obvious reasons is there was a tremendous difference in the way the world was structured prior to the Flood and after the Flood.
“Before the Flood, the earth was not tilted on the 23.5 degree axis that it is now. That’s what makes us have seasons. Seasons are introduced in the Bible in Genesis 8:22, after the Flood. Prior to the Flood, the earth would have been a tropics kind of environment all around. That’s why in the archaeological evidence you find all kinds of indications of that in strange places.
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“Another thing is the Garden of Eden was on earth. In Genesis 4, Cain and Abel go to the door of the Garden and the cherubim are there providing the way that man can bring a sacrifice and offer it before God. There was place to go in the earth for those sacrifices.
“After the Flood, that place is gone; it’s been removed from the earth. When Noah gets off the Ark, he offers for the first time a burnt offering. The offering had to ascend UP into God’s presence. Noah is a second Adam. We’re all the sons of Adam here tonight but were also all the sons of Noah.”
Hutchings writes, "The Garden of Eden must have been an immense jungle of vegetation and animal life. The general area, as evidenced by the junction of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, was somewhere in the Persian Gulf near Kuwait. Oil is the residue of the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter, and there is more oil under the ground in that area than in any other place in the world . . .
"Before the Flood it was unnecessary for men to eat meat, because the nuts and herbs were delicious and nutritious. Adam was told in Genesis 1:29 that the herbs, the seeds and the fruit of the trees 'shall be for meat' . . .
Hutchings writes, "The Garden of Eden must have been an immense jungle of vegetation and animal life. The general area, as evidenced by the junction of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers, was somewhere in the Persian Gulf near Kuwait. Oil is the residue of the decomposition of animal and vegetable matter, and there is more oil under the ground in that area than in any other place in the world . . .
"Before the Flood it was unnecessary for men to eat meat, because the nuts and herbs were delicious and nutritious. Adam was told in Genesis 1:29 that the herbs, the seeds and the fruit of the trees 'shall be for meat' . . .
"If the world was restored to its Edenic condition, many of the reasons nations go to war against each other would be resolved. There would be food, shelter and clothing for everyone."
Historian Josephus says the "Garden was watered by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was parted into four parts."
Historian Josephus says the "Garden was watered by one river, which ran round about the whole earth, and was parted into four parts."
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“In this Garden, God has planted precious plants, costly spices and aromatic herbs. writes Bible expositor Cora MacIlravy, circa 1916, in her commentary book on the Song of Solomon. "He has planted lilies, which are white and pure, humble and fragrant; and among these lilies is found the One who is the Rose of Sharon and the Lily of the Valleys . . .
"When God sends the Holy Spirit as the north wind, He comes and uncovers our nakedness, exposing the selfishness of our thoughts, and our false position. With a blast of conviction, He blows upon those suckers, and like a mighty wind He sweeps down upon them to try them. As they fall off, we are left apparently stripped and bare; but, in reality, we are in a better condition to bring forth blossoms and fruit to His glory than we have ever been before . . .
“In spiritual things, as in the natural, the blossom is not the fruit. How many times we see a vineyard or fruit tree beautiful with fragrant blossoms, and we begin to look forward to an abundant harvest of fruit. But when the blossoms fall off, and it is time for the fruit to appear, there are only a few small, weakly apples, pears, or grapes, whatever the fruit may be; and all the beautiful blossoms lie decaying and unsightly upon the ground beneath the tree.”
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