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December 2
Adam
and Eve lived many years and had A LOT of children, but 3 are mentioned
especially. The first were Cain and Abel. Cain was a farmer and Abel
was a shepherd. They both made sacrifices to God. God accepted the
sacrifice of Abel because he offered it with a pure heart. Cain was
jealous and killed Abel. From then on, Cain was cursed by God.
Many
years later, when Adam was 130, he had another son named Seth. Seth is
important because his descendant was Noe. Since Noe and his family were
the only people spared in the Great Flood, we are all children of Adam,
Seth and Noe.
Seth had 2 other special descendants before Noe.
Their names were; Henoch and his son Mathusala. Henoch was the great
great great grandson of Seth.
In Genesis 5:21-24 we read that
Henoch lived on earth 365 years. Then God did something special. God
took him away and he was seen no more! Henoch did not die. The Apocalyse
says that he will come in the last days with Elias (who also was taken
up by God) to oppose the Antichrist and then they will die.
Henoch’s son, Mathusala is famous for being the man with the longest life mentioned in the Bible. He lived 969 years (Gen 5:27)
Now we come to Noe.
In
the back of the Douay-Rheims Bible, you will find an historical and
chonological index of the Old Testament. There it states that 1056 years
after creation, Noah was born.
The Bible says that Adam lived
930 years so he died just 126 years before Noe was born. Adam’s son,
Seth would live 4 more years after the birth of Noah, his descendant.
At that time, there was so much wickedness in the world, God decided to send a world-wide flood.
God told Noah to build an ark for his family and all the animals God would send.
It
took Noah years to build the ark. Most likely, the other people laughed
at Noah. It probably seemed impossible to them that a flood would
happen, but Noah kept right on building.
We can pray to Noah for help when we feel as if we are all alone in obeying God’s laws.
God will reward us for all eternity if we are faithful to Him here on earth.
Noah
worked hard and after many years the Ark was ready. By then, even old
Mathusala had died. Of all those who lived on the earth, only 8 people
were saved; Noah, his wife, his 3 sons and their wives. Noah was 600
years old when the flood came; 1656 years after the creation of Adam.
After
the flood, Noah made a sacrifice to God. Throughout the Old Testament,
there is an emphasis on sacrifice; a need for man to give back to God;
to dedicate to God the best that men had.
Sacrifices were offered to God for 4 reasons;
-To adore God
-To thank God for His many graces
-To try to make up for having offended the good God. (reparation)
-Finally, to ask God for the things they needed (petition)
In fact, these are the same reasons why we offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass today
God
gave Noah a sign in the sky of His promise to never send a worldwide
flood again. This sign was the rainbow. Every time we see a beautiful
rainbow in the sky, it is a reminder to us that God keeps His promises.
Noe is a type, or prefigurement (symbol) of Christ;
God cleansed the world by the flood, just as Our Lord cleanses us through the waters of baptism.
Noe
was the father of the new human race just as Our Lord is the “new
Adam”, and through His grace we become “sons of God” with God’s own life
in our souls.
Noe built the Ark to save his family just as Our
Lord founded the Catholic Church to help us get to heaven. The Ark that
saved people from the flood is a prefigurement of the Church, which Christ
founded to save souls.
God told Noah and his sons to increase
and multiply. Each one of us are descendants of Noah and his sons; Sem,
Ham and Japheth. The children of Sem are called Semites. They include
the Chosen People of God, whom we will talk about tomorrow.
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