Joseph’s Alabaster Box

AUTHOR’S PROFILE

Poetry is almost as hard to put on paper as smoke is hard to put into jar. My father-in-law was a man of toil. I loved him for that, and his many other strengths. He had such a hat: ancient, sweat-stained. He spent many hot summers in east Tennessee tobacco fields. But, unlike the farmer in the poem, he outlived his wife. She died of a broken heart, yearning for their son who disappeared on a frozen North Kirean battleground. I hope this simple verse will find a place in your heart, as words on paper.

HIS CROWN

There on a nail in the kitchen,
Hung an old sweat-stained hat,
Just as he had hung it years ago
When from the fields he came.
Bone tired, depressed, his youth was gone;
He knew not when it left.
He leaned against the wall and sighed;
The pain was sharp and long,
But he must smile for her, he knew,
For her he must be strong.

He ne’er went back to put it on
To venture to the fields,
And all these years she’d left it there,
The trophy of her knight.

The poem above was published in the International Society of Poets latest book, Forever Spoken along with the author’s profile.

Thou tiny grain upon the shore,
Wouldst thou the universe explore?
While ignorance oppress thee sore;
Truth unseen within thy door.

Wouldst thou with slide and calculator
Discover who is thy Creator?
Wouldst thou with telescope espy
His dwelling place there in the sky?

Upon thy toes would thou begin
To count the blocks within thy skin?
Or total up the sum of stars,
Or learn the origin of Mars?

A lesson thou couldst learn from Job,
For God, Who spun the whirling globe,
Sees thy place upon the beach,
And notes the shortness of thy reach.

AWARDED THE FIRST PRIZE IN
THE POETRY CONTEST AT
TENNESSEE TEMPLE UNIVERSITY IN 1969

The Son of God was born in flesh, and walked upon the earth,
but God the Father stayed in Heav’n and watched the humble birth.
Prophets wrote as they heard God speak in a special way,
so men on Earth could know that He would come some day.
Worshiped by shepherds, and heralded by heav’nly host,
as wise men trudged, and stars sang in the Holy Ghost.
As lambs, and cattle, and donkeys in wonder stood about
to worship their tiny Lord while God’s angels in heav’n shout!
All Creation halts to join the holy celebration.
Joseph stood by with face revealing his elation,
beholding the scene, with wonder to know
that angels had told them this would occur
just as God planned it: He who does not err,
who found this little maid, and bestowed on her
the honor sought by girls for ages past,
o bring to the world this Saviour fair,
to bruise Satan’s head when He died up there.

Upon examining my web site, I find there is no article on the Ark that Noah built to save himself and his family from the devastating flood that God sent when the world became corrupt sixteen hundred years after the creationl of the world. I had this title on the cards I have been giving out, and I must apologize for this error. I am very sorry. Please forgive.I understand a man in the Netherlands has built an enormous model of the Ark which has become quite popular as a tourist attraction. According to the news reports, he built the model with his own money. I am certainly glad this man has done this, because there is so much skepticism in the world today that a good reminder of biblical matters is an excellent thing. I received about three emails from friends informing me of the news, along with pictures. The man built his ark model after the design that is popular in most people’s minds. While I am not being critical of anything, I want to present what I think.

The Institute of Creation Research published pictures in its free monthly publication, “Acts and Facts.” I have received this periodical every month for many years. It is an excellent presentation of creation science. A couple of years ago, “Acts and Facts” contained some pictures of a small model of the Ark a man had built. This model, too, was built on the same design – with a bow like an ordinary ship.

This design, I believe has developed from the description of the Ark by a man named Hagopian. Early in the last century (c. 1908) George Hagopian claimed to have walked on the Ark. Drawings of what he claims he saw are similar to a great roofed, wooden ship, except that the drawingd show a rectangular cupola lengthwise along the roof with many windows, and it has rounded corners. I think these drawings have been responsible for numbers of errors in the minds of people pertaining to how the Ark appeared.

The following is an excerpt from my teacher manual, From Eden to Canaan:

“Ronald E. Wyatt, an amateur archaeologist who died in August of 1999, used sophisticated electronic equipment, and assistance by scientists to examine a location 12 miles south of Mount Ararat. He found what seems to be conclusive evidence of the ark’s remains, even to the “rooms” in the Ark. In 1987 Turkey dedicated the Noah’s Ark National Park due to the work of Wyatt. Tourists are welcomed to this site which is in sight of Ararat. Wyatt was featured on 20/20.
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“John Woodmorappe is a creation scientist who has done extensive
research on the flood, and has written two major books on the subject. (Call ICR at 1 800 628 7640 or AIG at 1 800 778 3390 for info on these books.)
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“Several other expeditions have been made, but there has been no conclusive evidence that the ark has been found. It has been well-said that the discovery of the Ark Noah built would be the greatest of all archaeological discoveries of all time.
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“The following article was copied from an article entitled ‘ARK HUNTS: THE FT CHRONOLOGY OF SIGHTINGS OF THE ARK ON ARARAT’ on the web site, Fortean Times Ark Sighting Chronology at:
http.//www.forteantimes.com/arctic/120/arkohrono.html (Ed. note: I just tried this web site url again, and it would not come up.)

275 BC(13) – Berosus’ History of Babylonia claims that pilgrims journey up Ararat to carve amulets from the petrified pitch that covers the Ark. 50 AD – Josephus mentions pilgrimages to the preserved remains of Noah’s Ark.
620 AD – According to Hussein El Macin of Baghdad, Roman Emperor Heraclius visits the remains of the Ark after conquering the Persian city of Themanin.
1255 AD – Guillaume of Ruysbroeck tells of the devout Jacob of Medzpin’s adventure on Ararat and his answered prayer to see the Ark.
1647 AD – Adam Olearius’ Voyage and Travels of the Ambassadors relates Armenian and Persian stories of the petrified Ark.
1820 (?) AD – Explorer Claudius James Rich writes that one Aga Hussein has seen the remains of the Ark.
1829 AD – James Parrot makes the first modern ascent of Greater Ararat. He visits an ancient monastery, said to contain artifacts from the Ark, that was destroyed in the 1840 eruption of Ararat.
1854 AD – Haji Yearam and his father lead three British scientists up Ararat to the Ark remains.
1876 AD – Viscount James Bryce climbs Ararat as recounted in his book Transcaucasia and Ararat. He finds old hand-tooled timber on this treeless mountain.
1883 AD – Turkish Commissioners investigate severe Ararat avalanches and report seeing the preserved but battered Ark structure. Locals claimed the remains were visible for six years. (Chicago Tribune, 13 August, 1883)
1887 AD – John Joseph, Prince of Nouri, Archbishop and Grand Apostolic Ambassador of Malabar, India and Persia, makes three attempts to climb Ararat. He claims a sighting near the saddle between the peaks. Turkey refuses to ship the Ark to Chicago World’s fair. Nouri ends up in a Californian mental institution.
1906 (?) AD – George Hagopian treks Ararat with his uncle and on several occasions reports climbs onto the preserved Ark.
1916-17 AD – Czar Nicholas II sends ill-fated expedition to map Ararat and document Ark. Revolution erupts and evidence disappears.
1939 AD – New Zealander Hardwidke Knight finds very old hand tooled timbers high on Ararat.
1942 AD – Farmer Shakru Arsent tells of seeing petrified remains of a ship-like structure high on Ararat during an unusually warm summer. (AP, 23 November 1948)
In 50 AD ‘Josephus mentions pilgrimages to the preserved remains of Noah’s Ark.’ ”

If God had wanted to hide the Ark, and still preserve it, there is hardly a place upon Earth where it could have been stored more effectively. If God wanted to preserve the Ark, then He must have plans for its discovery some time before He comes again. The mountains of Ararat are remote and dangerous.

There are certain, what I think to be common sense conclusions that we can reach, even sitting in a easy chair in our den.

The first of these conclusions is the shape of the Ark. I believe it would not have been practical for the Ark to have been built with a bow like a ship. The Ark was not intended to go anywhere, and so a bow would have been useless. Had the Ark been built with a bow instead of a square end, thousands of cubic feet of space would have been lost. If the bow were only six feet long, it would have taken 10,125 cubic feet out of the Ark. (37.5″ X 45″ X 6″ = 10,125 squate feet. That’s one half the width of the Ark times the height of the Ark, times the length of the bow) That’s nearly 2,000 cubic feet greater than area of my house. (Some of you engineers out there check my figures.) A six feet bow would hardly be a bleep on the end of a box 450 feet long and seventy-five feet wide.

The second common sense conclusion we can reach is the matter of the window. Of course, God settled most of this questions when He gave the dimension for it. It was to be a cubit (about a foot and a half) square (Genesis 6:16). A window that size would not have provided any noticeable ventilation or light in such an enormous box. Even a row of windows all the way along the length of the Ark on both sides would have furnished little ventilation and light. With three floors cutting off the ventilation and light to the bottom floor, it would have been very stiffling and dark in the Ark.

There was only one window eighteen inches square, and it was located somewhere in the roof. It was placed in the roof so no one could get to it during the rain. It was located in the roof so that the people in the Ark could look toward God, and so Noah could put the dove out after the flood was over. I don’t think there was any way Noah himself could have gotten out through the window. There was a door in the side of the Ark for coming and going.

Many factors of the Ark can be explained by natural processes, but there are more that cannt be. It was “God’s flood,” and therefore it was a miraculous flood. Ventilation and light were miraculously regulated. God provided. The light must have been regulated so that the animals could sleep comfortably. The provisions of food, drinking water, waste disposal, and overall maintenance was surely taken care of by the LORD in His own way. It would not be difficult for me to believe that a host of angels took care of the work. But that is getting too far away from our topic.

The Ark was intended to save the lives of animals and men. To do that, it needed only to float, and that it did grandly. It’s dimensions given in Genesis 6:15 nade ut almost impossible to capsize. (See The Genesis Flood by John C. Whitcomb, Jr. and Henry M. Morris, pg. 103, vailable from ICR at 800 628 7640) A barge such as the Ark was virtually impossible to capsize. Its length was such that it was well suited for riding waves. The Ark was a bos (barge), not a ship.

I’ll give you a quote from the book listed above. The quote is footnot #1 on the page cited. “Ramm, op. cit., pp. 230-231. . . Alexander Heidel points out that the Hebrew term for ark is teba and is related to the Egyptian db’t, meaning ‘chest,’ ‘box,’ ‘coffin.’ Outside of the Flood account, it is used only of Mosers’ ark in the Nile (Exodus 2:3,5). Seidel concludes: ‘Noah’s ark, as evidenced by its dimensions and the names by which it is designated in Greek and Hebrew, was a flat,bottomed, rectangular construstion, square on both ends and straight up on the sides.’ the Gilgamish Epic and Old Testament Parallels, 233-235.”

I rejoice to know that another good man has gone to great sacrifice to honor the Lord by bringing people’s attention to an important Bible truth. I think the actual shape of the Ark is important only to you and me who do not need to be reminded of God’s glorious work through the ages. The Bible is full of the most fascinating stories ever recorded, and they are all true and have important information for us. The Epic of the Ark is only one of such tales. Praise God for the bright future we have in Christ!

Only God is eternal, and therefore, only good can be eternal, because He is good. Evil did not exist in eternity, that is the message from Ezekiel 28:15, ” till iniquity was found in thee.” Evil came after the creation, from the person of Lucifer, and it will be destroyed with the devil at some point in the future, some near point, we hope.”In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” declares Genesis 1:1 in a statement that should be self-evident to every mortal upon the earth that biblical truth is more qualified as a fact of history and science than any pronouncement man could make. All other explanations for the origin of the universe are as the babbling of little infants in comparison to that great and eternal truth. That statement is a statement of reason. An explanation that is self contradictory is easily recognized and strongly eschewed by people who put truth and honesty above all other motivating factors in life. To argue against such a beneficial proposition is to make oneself guilty of a crime against humanity.

What motivates one to begin with an idea that is altogether detrimental to mankind, and go about seeking proof for that idea, when he could more easily choose to begin with an idea that produces beneficial results for mankind? The motivation is the offspring of a spiritual condition rather than a scientific theory.

What did God create? The first thing God created was matter. Matter is anything that has weight and takes up space. The smallest piece of matter that we know of is the atom. There are about a hundred different kinds of atoms. Atoms are elements such as hydrogen which is the lightest of all atoms, to uranium, which is one of the heaviest of elements. Scientists have learned an enormous volume of knowledge about atoms in the last few years, and our appreciation of God’s handiwork has greatly increased as a result. Evolutionists, of course, reject everything that falls under the shadow of the Word of God.

A sovereign, omnipotent God could have created the universe in any way He chose. People who spend their time wondering about life on Mars take note. What we wish to do is examine as closely as He will permit us, how He chose to do it. We believe that he chose to create matter first of all as a great stockpile of building material, and then from that store of matter, make all material things. Dr. Scofield teaches erroneously in his notes, that the earth was without form and void because of some great catastrophe that destroyed the original creation.

Dr. Henry Morris makes it clear that God created the universe from nothing as the Bible teaches. He says, “But, very significantly, the concept of the special creation of the universe of space and time itself is found nowhere in all religion or philosophy, ancient or modern, except here in Genesis 1:1.”

It is important to note that religious books that teach anything at all about creation, teach that their god created the universe from matter already in existence. In other words they begin with a chaotic universe, and bring it to order. God created the universe, not in a chaotic state, but in an unformed state. This makes good sense, for we know that before a builder begins to build something, he must have his materials on hand. The pile of building material sitting on a vacant lot may have no form, but in the skilled hands of good carpenters, it soon will have form. This mass of atoms was dead. The electrons of atoms revolve at extremely high speeds.

However, when they were created, they were motionless, cold and dark. God created the stockpile.
It seems that the LORD Elohim created atoms without their energy or motion. They were dark and this was why the earth was without form and void. When God said in verse 3, “. . .Let there be light: and there was light.”, that was the instant when the electrons began revolving around their nuclei, and they became energized – and there was light.
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1. Henry M Morris, The Defender’s Study Bible, pg. 3 (Grand Rapids, Michigan: World Publishing, Inc., 1995), p.3.