Today were going to talk about Noah, his sons, and also the building of the ark. The reason for this article is to show that what many teach today regarding this subject matter is not correct.

In today's Christian world it is widely taught that it took Noah one hundred and twenty years to build the ark. It is also taught by many, who also teach this one twenty teaching, that Noah and his family entered the ark and were in there for seven days until the rain came and started to flood the earth.

So these are the two key subjects we are going to deal with in this article, to show that neither one of these teachings is correct, and that it actually only took Noah one hundred years to build the ark, and that Noah and his family entered the ark the same day that it started raining, not seven days before.

First off, let us look at the verse that many use to say that it took Noah one hundred and twenty years to build the ark itself. If we go to Genesis 6 v 3 we read it says, "And the Lord said, My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years."

Here in this scripture we can see that now God is putting the life of man at one hundred and twenty years, or at least He sets this amount of time that His Spirit will strive with a man.

No where does it say anything about Noah and the ark, but yet I hear all the time preachers saying it took him one hundred and twenty years to build the ark. How they get that, I am not sure. Maybe they are reading a different Bible than what I read the majority of the time. That would be the NKJV or the KJV.

So now let us look and see just how long it did take Noah to build this ark, his way of escape. First we have to read Genesis 5 v 32, it says, "And Noah was Five Hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth."

Here we see Noah, at the age of five hundred, had three sons. Much older than his forefathers, much older. Were these three sons triplets? I think they were, but this is only my opinion as it does not say in the Bible itself they were, but of course, if we want to accept that Noah begot his sons all at the same time, at five hundred, then yes, that would make them the first triplets that we know of in the Bible. So I will let each person come to their own conclusion on this certain matter.

Some may say, that this verse is just saying he was five hundred years old and that he had three sons, not that he was actually five hundred when he had these sons. But if we look back over this chapter it seems to tell us the age of each individual when they had their sons, and then how long after their sons were born that they lived.

So we are going to say that Noah did have these sons at five hundred years old, all three.

One thing we might go ahead and take notice of, even though it does not regard Noah, is the fact that Enoch walked with God for three hundred years. The reason I say we should notice this is because in Genesis 5 v 21, it says regarding Enoch, "Enoch lived sixty-five years, and begot Methuselah."

Now look at Genesis 5 v 22, it says, "AFTER Enoch begot Methuselah, Enoch walked with God three hundred years, and had sons and daughters."

Think about that, it seems here that Enoch did not come to the Lord, or should we say, give himself to the Lord, or say to walk with the Lord, until he was sixty-five years old, or when his son was born.

He was three hundred and sixty-five years old, verses 23-24, when the Lord took him, but it says he walked with God for three hundred years, not three hundred and sixty-five years.

So I ask, was Enoch a late bloomer so to speak? Did having a son bring the needed responsibility that finally brought Enoch to the Lord. Oh well, something for all to ponder, as I know I myself was up in age before I came to the Lord, so why not Enoch too? I mean we should not always assume that these men of the Bible always walked with God their whole life.

Now back to Noah and these teachings. We left off where Noah was five hundred when he begot his sons. Now let us go to Genesis 7 v 6, it says, "Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth." We can also reference Genesis 7 v 11 to show he was six hundred years old too.

Ok, here we clearly see that from the time Noah had his sons, to the time that the flood waters came upon the earth, was one hundred years. Is this enough evidence that it took one hundred years for the ark to be built? Let us continue, so it will be clear to all who reads this article, that it was one hundred years, and not one hundred and twenty as many teach.

If we will now go to Genesis 11 v 10, it says, "This is the genealogy of Shem: Shem was one hundred years old, and begot Arphaxad two years after the flood."

Remember, Shem is Noah's son that he had when he was five hundred years old. The flood water came upon the earth when Noah was six hundred. One hundred years, the same age as Shem.

But here we have to take notice that it seems that either Shem was one hundred and two years old when Arphaxad was born, or Noah was five hundred and two years old when Shem was born. It seems to not fit now does it, but let us explain.

Here, Shem was one hundred and two years old when Arphaxad was born, and we know this because in Genesis 10 v 22, it says, "The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram."

Here we see that Arphaxad was the third born to Shem, and we know this because the firstborn would always be listed first, and then the second etc.

So in Genesis 11 v 10 we have to pick up on the clue that the Lord gave us when he tells us "Two years after the flood," Arphaxad was born to Shem, and then reference back to all of his sons and see what order they were born. We see two sons born first, and that would have been when he was one hundred and one hundred and one years old.

Why does this conclusion make the most sense? Because no where do we read that Shem had children before the flood came, and again no where do we read that Shem had a child during the flood.

We also see in Genesis 9 v 1 God says to Noah and his sons after the flood, "So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth."

Boy, all that to show it only took one hundred years for Noah to build the ark, from five hundred to six hundred. This means that Noah's sons would have been working with Noah as soon as they were able to start helping. It basically would have been their life mission. Kind of like it is ours too.

Now one of the most important things about this one hundred years is this, that here we have a man named Noah, and at five hundred years old he had three sons.

We have already seen that it took one hundred years to complete the building of the ark, so what we need to realize, is that here the man Noah, now has three more mouths to feed in his life, and at the same time, God is now commanding him to build this massive ark to escape rain that no one has ever seen before.

Now folks, how easy would of it have been for Noah to say, God, I can't do that, I now have three more mouths to feed in my family, I have to work the fields, I do not have time to build some ark, you understand don't you God? We must remember, God can call us at anytime in our lives, even at the times that seem the most impossible.

You see, this is the problem in today's Christian world. They do not have the kind of faith that Noah showed. Noah knew the added responsibilities regarding his family, but he put faith in God to take care of his family, and since Noah chose God's plan first, God provided all that Noah and his family needed, just as he says in Matthew 6 v 33.

I hope all can see that this is how long it took, one hundred years, and not a hundred and twenty as some teach. I also hope all understand the true sacrifices that Noah made during this time called his life. This is how one has to seek, to get these hidden truths, but the Lord is faithful, He will lead one through it all.

Now on the subject of when Noah and his family entered the ark in the first place. Many teach that Noah entered the ark with his family and sat there for seven days. Why do they do this I ask?

Well let us look at the verses used to teach this teaching, and then we can open this up. Most use either Genesis 7 v 1 where the Lord says to Noah, "Come into the ark," or they use Genesis 7 v 10 where it says, "And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth."

One has to be very careful how they read chapter 7 of Genesis, as it is easy to misinterpret, and we have proof of this by the teaching out there. What we are going to do, is show that Noah and his family entered the ark the same exact day that the rain started to fall.

Ok here we go, we see in Genesis 7 v 1 that God tells Noah to come into the ark. But what we need to focus on here is Genesis 7 v 2 where the Lord says to Noah, "You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female."

Ok what do we notice here? First, we see that there are clean and unclean animals before the people came out of Egypt. Were not going to go into detail on this subject, I just wanted to make that point.

What we have to take notice of is this, that Noah had not brought any animals into the ark yet, and the Lord, after telling him in verse one to come into the ark, then proceeds to tell him what he has to do before hand.

I hope this is clear to all. We see in Genesis 7 v 5, it says, "And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him."

Ok, what we see here, is that Noah started doing the work of putting all the animals into the places of where they needed to go. If one keeps reading they will see that they continue doing this work until we read in Genesis 7 v 10 that it came to pass after seven days the floods came.

So what we need to realize here is this, that this work that Noah had to accomplish took one week, seven days. Seven of course represents completeness. For six days Noah and his family would have worked to load the animals, and the on the seventh day the Lord would have shut them in, on the Sabbath. Oh yes that true day of rest.

This would mean that they entered the ark the very same day that it started to flood. We see in Genesis 7 v 13, it says, "On the very same day Noah and Noah's sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark."

Now to prove the point, that they entered the same day, as if verse 13 is not enough, we need to go and look further into God's word, to see if somewhere else it teaches the same thing.

We must remember, God's word is always backed up and verified by two witnesses, Matthew 18 v 16.

We have provided the first already, Moses, the writer of Genesis. Now we need to go to the Book of Luke.

In Luke 17 v 27 we read Christ said, "They ate, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, UNTIL THE DAY that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all."

Here, we see it was the same day. Now follow me here ok. For those who teach that he entered into the ark seven days earlier, and not the same day, what they have also done, is unknowingly taught that the people in Noah's day fasted for seven days while Noah was in the ark with his family.

We have to read closely that the scripture says that the people were doing all of these things UNTIL Noah entered the ark. So if Noah entered the ark seven days ahead of time, as many teach, that means all these people stopped all they were doing, including eating and drinking, for seven days too.

And there is no proof of that anywhere in God's word. I hope it is clear to all who are reading this article on when he entered into the ark.

But if we read further it will give even more validation to this truth. In Luke 17 v 28-30 we can read it tells us that all were doing the same thing in Lots day, and that on the day, (Same day) that Lot went out of Sodom, it rained fire and brimstone, the very same day.

In verse 30 we see it says, "Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." How many times does Christ tells us, and I will raise them up the Last Day. Many, many times we are told this, we must realize the day of deliverance is also the same day of someone else's destruction.

But more importantly we have our two witnesses, Moses, and Luke. So God's word is validated that it was the very same day that Noah entered the ark that the flood waters, or rain, started to appear, not seven days earlier as many teach. Those who teach this cannot provide two witnesses to back up their teaching, so please all, accept the truth.

So there we have it, we now know how long it actually took to build the ark, and when Noah and his family entered into the ark. Some may be saying, why is this important?

It is important, because anytime false teaching, whether on purpose or by accident is being done, it leads people away from the truth. Remember, we are either speaking the truth, or we are speaking lies, one or the other, and it is the truth that sets us free.

People should not just accept what someone is saying because it sounds good, or that it seems that person knows what they are talking about. So with that being said, I hope that someone out there, yes someone, will receive a blessing from this article regarding Noah, his family, and the ark that they built.

If only one lesson is learned from the article though, I hope and pray it is that we saw how Noah, even though he now had three more family members to take care of, still relied on God for all of his needs, when he could have easily put his trust into himself, and then you and me would not be alive today to talk about it.

Salvation is a struggle, it is not as easy as Satan has made it out to be in the Christian church today, we must submit to God, we must be willing to take that leap of faith and be willing to trust God to catch us. We must first seek His righteousness. Psalm 119 v 172 And that is what Noah did. 2nd Peter 2 v 5

If a person will just take that leap, I promise that our Father, who art in heaven, will reach out his hands and catch them. And as Christ has told us, "My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than ALL; and NO ONE is able to snatch them out of My Father's hand." John 10 v 29

Isn't that where we want to be, in the Father's hand?