Through My Eyes

Emzara Few people know my name; I’ve been known by several. I am the daughter of Rake’el, a son of Methuselah. The sons of Methuselah were the last of the godly men before Noah. When they passed, my husband, Noah, was the head of the only family left who worshipped the LORD. There was so much violence and corruption everywhere. The LORD God came to Noah with a warning. There would be 120 years for mankind to repent and then the end would come. Noah was told to build an ark for us and for the animals of the world. Only in this way would we be saved from the deluge which was to come and destroy the whole world. 20 years later the children came. When Noah was 500 years old, we were blessed with the first of our three sons. Japheth was followed by Shem and Ham. God had given Noah the directions for exactly how the ark should be build and how many of each animal should be taken along. So Noah started working on building the boat. When the boys were old enough, they too began working on the boat. My heart ached for them. Here they were, working hard at building a boat where there was no body of water anywhere near, being ridiculed daily. None of the neighbors believed in God. Noah tried preaching to them, warning them; he preached every day. But they would have none of it. They were still scoffing when the rain started. I didn’t know where all the water was coming from. We had never had rain like that before, only a gentle mist which watered the land. Suddenly there was water coming from the skies and from the deep. The whole earth seemed to open up to release water. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights, nonstop. God had closed the door when the eight of us, and all the animals, had entered the boat. Our sons had all married by this time. Japheth married Aresisia, Shem married Zalbeth, and Ham married Nahalath. They were all lovely young women and sure to give us beautiful grandchildren someday. But back to the rain; it was awful. We could see little out the small windows, but we could hear the anguished cries. As the waters rose, people suddenly understood the seriousness of the situation. At first people were walking around, questioning what was happening. Then some charged the boat, trying to get in. But God had closed the door and it wasn’t to open again until the land was dry. People and animals began to drown. The whole earth was soon covered with water. When we dared to look out the windows, we could see bodies floating. Neither man nor beast could survive in that flood. By the end of the 40 days the water covered even the highest mountains. The water stayed in place for 150 days. At that point, God had a great wind blow over the earth and the waters began to abate. Seven and a half months after the rain started, the boat settled on a mountain top. Sometime after we first could see the tops of the mountains, Noah sent a dove out the window to see if there was enough dry land out there. But the dove came back. After a week, he sent her back out. This time she returned with an olive leaf in her mouth. We knew the land had to be drying up. He sent the dove out again after another week; this time she didn’t return. Finally, on the first day of the new year, Noah removed the covering of the boat and we could see that the ground was dry. Almost two months later, God gave Noah the go ahead for us to disembark from the boat. Most of the animals quickly went their way. Noah took some of every clean animal and bird and offered them on the new altar he had built to the LORD God. That was when the LORD promised he would never drown all creation again. That was also when we saw the first rainbow, a symbol of this promise. Every time we’ve seen it since, we have been reminded of his promises. Noah went back to farming, as he had done before the flood. I wished he hadn’t had such a good crop of grapes; it brought a curse to some of my grandchildren. Noah made excellent wine. On occasion he drank too much of it and ended up sleeping it off in his tent. One time he fell asleep with his clothes off. Ham saw this, and instead of being discrete about it, went out and told his brothers. Shem and Japheth took a blanket and, backing into the tent so they wouldn’t see him, covered their father with the blanket. When Noah woke up and found out how Ham had made a mockery of him, he cursed Ham through his son¸ Caanan. “Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brothers.” Noah used this occasion to also speak a blessing. “Blessed be the LORD, the God of Shem; and let Canaan be his servant. May God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.” I never quite understood the whole thing, but it caused a lot of friction between my sons. It wasn’t too long before they had large families of their own. Japheth had seven sons, Ham had four, and Shem had five. I have been able to hold grandchildren and great grandchildren. To be honest, I can’t keep track of all of the generations. Now I am old and preparing to leave this world. Not all my descendants remember God’s goodness. I can tell that already some are returning to behaviors that caused the LORD to send the flood. Yet we are still waiting for that promised descendent who will make things right again with our God.