Did Noah Have Daughters?
October 22, 2024
Did Noah Have Daughters?
We watched a movie recently where five people meet Jesus in the flesh in a diner. Over and over, Jesus says He will not make someone follow Him. We discussed free will. I totally understand free will. Lucas flips from videos and lectures about the Historical Ark and Epic History TV in this phase of his elementary learning – he can name most of Napoleon’s generals and tell you how the ark could have worked. (All this is backstory, setting the stage for my writer’s mind craziness)
It was the next evening, generator, exhaust fan, Prim barking in the background while I’m letting dinner simmer and Thea, after cutting fifteen potatoes and helping build the triple bunk and watch Laud, is listening to some of my favorite kid cartoons. The Greatest Adventure Stories From the Bible: Noah’s Ark was her second cartoon. I’m feeding Laud and a random thought strikes me.
Did Noah have any daughters?
If you count ages, you realize that Noah’s father and grandfather died the same year as the flood. The Bible says they died. We are not told how. They are not mentioned as helping Noah build the ark. Did they mock Noah and His God too? Or were they part of “Noah’s family” working on the ark and simply didn’t live to see the launch? The Bible says Noah begat three sons. It doesn’t say anything about any daughters. Did Noah have daughters who were entangled with the world because their husbands didn’t believe? If so, how did Noah weep when the door closed!
In the cartoon, it shows Noah trying to tell the people mocking him to believe and be saved.
Did Noah preach to his father and grandfather? Perhaps even his daughters and sons in law? Was the long life enough for people to think that if they survived all the evil that surrounded them they didn’t need the God who made them? My mother’s heart broke for thinking of a girl given to a husband in marriage, maybe he was even following God in his youth, then over time he is worn down by the evil in the earth and strays away, pulling her and any potential children along with him.
I feel pity and cry for those I know who continue to turn away from God in our broken world.
I know that Noah and his wife felt pity for those who wouldn’t listen to them.
I’m sure that’s really why God had to shut the door. Those inside wanted to save as many as they could; but only those who chose to believe before the rains actually came were allowed to be saved.
Exactly like now. Deathbed confessions are really a thing as the thief on the cross testifies to, but once the door to the earth is shut (one dies), there is no way to change one’s choice.
I pray as those chosen for the ark must have done as they thought of their neighbors, friends, sisters, brothers, family (Noah’s sons’ wives family at least) who would mock as they were building. Perhaps even the workers hired to help build the ark laughed; I can almost hear them “I’ll spend your gold, and watch your ark stay planted firmly here without any rain.” Jeering and laughing at the boss. The boss who most likely prayed for them.
I stopped my brain there. I like to step into a person’s shoes and wiggle my toes around, feel their emotions, attempt to wrap my mind around their culture and the experiences that molded them into the men and women they became.
I prayed for my family. For those I know who mock God. I prayed for those who will fill in a circle condemning children to excruciatingly painful death for their father’s crimes. I prayed for fortitude and wisdom to raise my children to be firestarters. To light the world with their love and light. To reflect Jesus to everyone they meet. I pray we reach all who we can touch. We cannot force. We can pray.
A little more morbid than most, but hopefully this helps you think. This is the cry of my heart today.
Type at you later,
~Nancy Tart
