Genesis 6:8-22

Noah is told to build the ark in this chapter and he is given specific instructions by the Lord. There are reasons why the Lord is destroying every "flesh" because the earth was filled with violence and "all flesh" was corrupt before Him. Those two reasons are given in verses 12 and 13. I think the Lord has plenty of reason to destroy it all again in our days but he made a covenant that He will not do that until the end comes and it will not be with water this time. Many people discredit the story of the ark but we believe in it and our church may end up standing alone on this one day. The Council of Christian Churches has decided I believe in 1941 in Chicago that this story is as much a fantasy to teach good principles as it is the stories o tell kids that start with "once upon a time." But there are many Christian researchers out there that work hard to show us how it was all possible.

I am not going to use the time here to prove that 16,000 varieties of animals could have been gathered, or even answer the question "How did the Kangaroo hopped his way from Australia to where Noah was?" - well, that is easy so I will: the earth was not divided in continents the way it is today. The Kangaroo may be eating outside of Noah's house all day as far as I am concerned. But there are many amazing questions that can be answered, even questions we don't think about like how fish and plant survived, and how they managed animal waste, how the fed them properly, and such, how they were gathered. It is amazing and if one believes in God one can easily see the possibilities here.

There is no question in my mind that the Lord can do anything He wants, even instruct animals to do this and that so Noah did not have to do all the work one does at the zoo today. The good thing about this story is that, such like the story of the sea parting so people could cross to the other side stepping on dry land, it shows the power of God and it sifts the unbeliever from the believer. This is a story not less mind boggling and prone to be questioned than the reality of the Book of Mormon or the fact that Jesus brought to life a man that was dead for four days already. We either believe in God and His miracles or we don't. If we don't we can pray and get answers from Him. Too many choose to just ignore Him and it is a sad day in the life of a person when that happens. Even those who are praying always, reading scriptures and serving God's children now and then forget that God is there and stupid things. The world calls for open minds and so does the Lord.

What is in this story of building an ark this long and this wide and putting animals inside? What is practical for me today in the fact that the Lord got tired of all creatures and not just men? I think the more important thing it not just the fact that the Lord does get fed up with us, that eventually he may get ticked off of our games, but that he loved his creation so much that He decided to clean the house. He chose this man because according to the scripture Noah "was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God." There is always someone good in the midst of all the filth and the trash we see around us in this world. When Noah was born Adam was still alive. Adam probably knew what was going on and was very saddened by his posterity. He remembered the garden of Eden. He probably regretted the way he handled things and went back to God after his death, prior to the flood, wondering why this and why that. Eve who was so happy with the birth of this and that child probably cried bitter tears when she saw so many of his descendants who were giants, who were men of renown, to the things they were doing. She probably cried many times to see her daughters being promiscuous as they became that the Lord would decide to wipe out everyone, good and bad in one flood except Noah and his wife, and his three sons with their wives: 8 people in total.

What I learn is that even the Lord had to evaluate what was going on around and take some action. We must do the same. We can surely look at our life and see the mess that it is and start gathering only the good things in one place and cause a flood to get rid of all that is corrupt and violent that is in our heart, in our life. We get baptized and that is a flood but every week we can bring those waters back upon us through the Sacrament. Every week we can make an auto analysis and and inventory of all that is bad in our life and all that is good and keep what is good in a big place in our heart and let the Lord cleanse everything around us.

The idea of a weekly flood is not the only thing that comes to my mind. Noah did not do all that in one day and it was not easy. We can only imagine the people mocking him for building an vessel that big in the middle of nowhere. He had very good sons because they helped him in this endeavor. I don't think they invited others to help because there would be no reward for them. The craftsmanship necessary had to be in them or the Lord helped them learn fast. In any case they had to use their hands to make this all possible. We too expect the Lord to save us from a flood of filth and temptations but too often are not willing to build the ark and patch every single opening with pitch, inside and out. We must meditate on this, and think if we really do what it takes to have the peace and protection we expect in our lives.

It is easy to discredit some stories in the scriptures for our own convenience, so we can continue the same us from day to day. But we know better and we must give these scriptures a chance to teach and mold us. Let's try that today. It is very easy to see the evils in our life, but if we concentrate we will see the goodness within. Why not make a list like Noah made of the living creatures he was going to protect and work on keeping the good things in us alive and pray that the Lord bring forth a flood for us, a flood of forgiveness and love, a flood of the power of the atonement and peace like only He can give us peace. Then in the midst of the storms of life we too will be safe like Noah and his children were... and we too will make a covenant with the Lord to serve him with a new heart as we all should.

Genesis 6:1-7

Genesis 6:1-7
This is the introduction to the story of the flood. I am not sure of the genetic conditions of the children of Adam and Eve were (remember that the brothers and sisters were intermarrying and although we know that is illegal nowadays they did not have an option. After a while it was among cousins (something we have in the family) and then the thing got less "weird" as we think of it today. The Lord had to come up with races and I think at that time too there were good and bad people because the decisions of the children of Adam and Eve were based on moral agency just like today. The Lord did not have a people he forced into righteousness and will never have. He can send prophets and he can show himself to some people, but he will not force them to be sons of God or sons of the world.

So, in these verses we read about the sons of God taking for "wives" the "daughters of men." We must always be careful with that work because even in Portuguese we say "woman" for "wife" and that could be the case. The Lord got very upset with this trend because these good guys were seeing that the daughters of men (worldly women in my opinion) were "fair" (in our words - hot!) and it says there that the guys were actually giants and the children of these unions were the "mighty men which were of old, men of renown."

The problem with this very tall guys is that they became very bad indeed. Verse 5 says that the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his (man's) mind were only evil continually. I think there are lots of people like this in our days. They imagine all sorts of garbage and put those things in the internet and we bump into those things sometimes, it defiles our minds, and then we have to forget those images. Some people search for them, as if they needed more temptation and then they complain that Satan do not leave alone. We must not be like these people of that past, the mighty man of renown who were doing anything that came to their minds. That is how people act today. We must stay away from what they offer so we are not tempted to become like them. Moral agency does not mean to anything your imagination can come up with. There is good and bad in this world. There is no neutrality. We must choose that which is right and be "the children of God" not the "children of men."

Verses 6 and 7 shows us a God that we don't think of too often. In Lost in Space, the series of the 60's, Dr. Smith becomes like a God all silver and he has all the knowledge of the Universe, but that god envisioned by the directors of the series, I remember well, was without feeling. That is how too many people envision Heavenly Father. To them he is so up there above us in knowledge and feelings that he does not have emotions. I think in their minds it helps him be so forgiving because nothing makes him sad or angry. Those are probably feelings associated with this life only. We learn that there is eternal joy out there. So, no one will ever be sad again and that is heaven. Well, read this:

"6 And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.
7 And the Lord said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and best, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them."

I don't think the Lord has to repent of anything and I think there is a problem of translation here. In Numbers 23:19 it says:

"19 God is not a man, that he should lie; neither the son of man, that he should brepent: hath he said, and shall he not do it? or hath he spoken, and shall he not make it good?"

So, the fact that he repented of creating man does not mean what we understand of repentance. It is more like regret, sadness, as he "grieves" at his heart. Can you see God sad? I can see Him sad right here! I can see that he has a heart and it hurts when he sees the debauchery and the lack of morals of our generation, all that people are doing in secret places and in the open specially regarding chastity which was the case that made the Lord bring in the flood and pour down fire from heaven on places like Sodom and Gomorra: man with woman, man with man, woman with woman, child molestation, bestiality, you name it. People do what comes to their imagination and if it is not in their imagination they will go see porn videos and learn about more evil things to do and there is no end. They will read about these things to have an "open mind" and they will listen people talk about these things as if they were normal. They will not only "open the mind" they will open it to all sorts of garbage and close it to that which is holy and pure, chaste and acceptable to the Lord. They try to legalize their filth and they hurt God right in the heart, cause him pain and sadness.

I see God angry, I see Him wanting to destroy everything down below. The lack of gratitude and the disrespect is everywhere and we to certain levels contribute to His pain. We must realize that Heavenly Father is a person, not a clown or a puff of smoke or the product of men's imagination to scare us so we don't have a lot of fun. He is there and one day we will see Him face to face and understand all this, how we got a certain job, why we got hurt or why we have everything we want or nothing in this life. Bu until then, let's remember that Heavenly Father is a father, a man who wants us happy and will work with us until we get that eternal happiness He so wishes we accept in this life.

Genesis 5:1-32

This is one of those chapters that I usually don't like because it is just "this guy lived so many years and begat that guy, and that guy lives these many years and begat the other guy" and so on. It seems not like much to learn on this. Let's see what is going on though. Moses wrote it for a reason beyond making the connection between the Hebrews and Adam. This little Genealogy is actually an introduction to Noah's story. The flood was a fact by the time Moses is writing this and many civilizations accounted for it. He is introducing us to the family of mankind before the flood. Seth, the guy that looked just like Adam, was born when Adam was 130 years old (we saw that yesterday.) Adam dies in this chapter here, at age 930.

Do you remember when the Lord told him that the day he ate of the fruit he would surely die and the snake told Eve it was not true? Peter said:

"But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 2 Peter 3:8

In the Book of Abraham we read this explanation of facsimile number 1 by the Prophet Joseph Smith, Jr.:

"Kolob, signifying the first creation, nearest to the celestial, or the residence of God. First in government, the last pertaining to the measurement of time. The measurement according to celestial time, which celestial time signifies one day to a cubit. One day in Kolob is equal to a thousand years according to the measurement of this earth, which is called by the Egyptians Jah-oh-eh."

So, if one day for the Lord is 1,000 for us, then Adam died at about 10:30 p.m. of the day he ate of that fruit in a 24 hour day count starting the day the moment he ate of it (if we were in Kolob.) They don't say when Eve actually died but since the last son of Adam that we hear about was Seth (and they probably had more but Seth was very important) then we know Eve was around at least until after 3 a.m. The Lord was not telling a lie. Adam died the day he ate of the fruit.

But that is not the only interesting thing we learn. By the time Adam died Noah had already been born in preparation for the flood. Adam survived all these direct descendants: Seth, Enos, Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch (this is the Enoch we talk about whose city was Zion and they are with God), Methuselah, Lamech, Noah (well, he died when Noah was young and we can tell the exact age of Noah if we want to.)

The way Moses did it is by overlapping the age and the birth and death of the patriarchs. He tells that one patriarch had a child (the other patriarch) at a certain age and then tells when the father of that child died. This makes a perfect overlapping and we can tell with certainty that the flood happened in the year 1656 from the time Adam's years start counting. When I was in my mission I decided to make a chart and a family tree for these guys and it was fun to see all this.

As for one the one who lived the longest, it was not Adam of course, it was the son of Enoch (who stayed behind when Zion and all were taken up to the sky): Methuselah - he lived to be 969 years old. He is important because according to the Prophet Joseph Smith, this guy and Abraham were the ones who found the planet Kolob. Kolob is proof that of the whole Universe and beyond, God resides not too far from us. It also proves that the creation was talking about our known Universe, actually our sun and moon and the stars we see. This earth is bound to be the celestial residence of all the gods generated by the generations of Adam through the atonement, through us following the rules and reaping the blessings of obedience.

I think what is good for us is to know that the promises of the Lord are sure even the bad stuff like "you will surely die" if you eat of the fruit that is the middle of the garden of your life. It is also true that this whole world and the stars and the seasons, will bring people here and take them back to the dust one day, like it did with the patriarchs before and after the flood, like it does with the ones we love and the strangers out there. It is true that we have a purpose, that this is a special planet among many, and that our life, as long as it seems, is but minutes to the Lord. All that matters so much to us daily in the end is easy for the Lord to forgive, forget and make it right. Like they say, in the end it is going to be OK, no matter how hard things look like. If we but learned this lesson alone we would be a lot happier. I think the Lord sent prophets and patriarchs to this earth from the beginning so we would never forget that truth: that we are here that we may have joy, that we may also have immortality and life eternal.