BIBLE STORIES - Paranormal Zone & Haunting Dimensions

This is a summary on the Biblical account of the Jonah and the big fish. You can read more in-depth Bible verses from the Scripture below and use the articles and videos to understand the meaning behind this teachable event in the Bible.God called to Jonah one day and told him to go preach to Nineveh because the people were very wicked. Jonah hated this idea because Nineveh was one of Israel’s greatest enemies and Jonah wanted nothing to do with preaching to them!

Jonah tried to run away from God in the opposite direction of Nineveh and headed by boat to Tarshish. God sent a great storm upon the ship and the men decided Jonah was to blame so they threw him overboard. As soon as they tossed Jonah into the water, the storm stopped.

God sent a big fish, some call it a whale, to swallow Jonah and to save him from drowning. While in the belly of the big fish (whale), Jonah prayed to God for help, repented, and praised God. For three days Jonah sat in the belly of the fish. Then, God had the big fish throw up Jonah onto the shores of Nineveh.

Jonah preached to Nineveh and warned them to repent before the city is destroyed in 40 days. The people believed Jonah, turned from their wickedness, and God had mercy on them. Jonah now became angry and bitter because God did not destroy the Ninevites who was Israel’s enemy! When Jonah sat to rest God provided a vine to give him shade. The next day, God sent a worm to eat the vine. Jonah now sat in the hot sun complaining and wanting to die. God called out to Jonah and scolded him for being so concerned and worried about just a plant while God was concerned with the heart condition and lives of 120,000 people who lived in the city of Nineveh.

2 This is a summary of the Biblical account of the Adam and Eve. You can read more in-depth Bible verses from the Scripture below and use the articles and videos to understand the meaning behind this teachable event in the Bible. God created the first man Adam and then created the first woman, Eve. God put Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden to care and nurture the land. He told Adam and Eve that they could eat any fruit from the trees except for the tree of good and evil. God warned them that if they ate from the tree they would die.

One day Satan came disguised as a snake and spoke to Eve, convincing her to eat the fruit from the tree of good and evil. Eve told the serpent that God said they should not eat it and they would die if they did, but Satan tempted Eve to eat saying that she would become like God if she did. Eve believed the lie and took a bite of the fruit. She then gave some to Adam for him to eat. Adam and Eve, now knowing that they had sinned, immediately felt ashamed and tried to hide from God.

Read more about the story of Adam and Eve, how sin entered the world, and what the consequences were for disobeying God.

The fish is thought to have been chosen by the early Christians for several reasons:

The Greek word for fish (ICHTUS), works as an acrostic for I = Jesus, C = Christ, TH = God’s, U = Son, S = Savior (Also see Christian beliefs about Jesus Christ)
The fish would not be an obvious Christian symbol to persecutors; It is said that during the persecution of the early church, a Christian meeting someone new would draw a single arc in the sand. If the other person was a Christian, he or she would complete the drawing of a fish with a second arc. If the second person was not a Christian, the ambiguity of the half-symbol would not reveal the first person as a Christian. (Also see Christian history and Christian beliefs and Christian fast facts)
Jesus’ ministry is associated with fish: he chose several fishermen to be his disciples and declared he would make them “fishers of men.”

The fish is also a symbol of baptism since a fish is at home in the water.

The LORD was grieved that he had made a man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. (Genesis 6:6, NIV) Every bent of the human heart was evil all the time. God did not make a mistake in creating human beings. Humanity made the mistake by turning away from God and becoming violent.

God decided to wipe out “all life under the heavens…Everything on earth will perish.” (Genesis 6:17, NIV). This indicates the Flood was universal and not regional.

Noah and his family were spared because God considered Noah righteous. Noah’s righteousness came from faith in God, as pointed out in Hebrews 11, the great Faith Hall of Fame list.

While Noah and his family worked on the ark — over 100 years — Noah preached repentance to everyone around. No one listened. God warned the people, but they were too fond of their evil ways.

Despite the ridicule, hard work, and a long wait, Noah believed God instead of his feelings or doubts. The Bible twice says Noah did all God commanded him.

DURING THE FLOOD

Rain began and lasted 40 days and 40 nights. In addition, springs burst forth under the oceans, pouring in more water. The water was so deep it covered the tops of the mountains by more than 20 feet.

The ark drifted for 150 days. God sent a wind, then for 150 days the water steadily went down.

After the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat, it still wasn’t safe to go out. The waters were receding but the earth was covered in thick mud.

During the Flood, every living creature on earth perished, including mankind. Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives, and the animals they had gathered into the ark represented the new life that would repopulate the earth.

LIFE AFTER THE FLOOD

Noah first sent out a raven, which flew back and forth but could find no place to land. Then he sent out a dove, which came back. The second time it came back with an olive leaf in its beak, symbolizing peace. The third time it did not return. It had found a safe place to live.

Only after God commanded him did Noah leave the ark, along with his family and all the animals. They had been on the ark over a year. As soon as he stepped on dry land, Noah built an altar of stones and offered sacrifices to God in thanksgiving.

God promised to never send another flood to destroy the earth. He made a covenant with Noah, marking it with his rainbow.

Noah and his sons received the same command from God as Adam and Eve: Be fruitful and multiply. They were to repopulate the earth.

Before the Flood, people ate only vegetables. After the Flood, God gave Noah and his family permission to eat meat from animals. (Genesis 9:3)

The water of the Flood symbolized baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21). Just as the Flood washed away evil and gave the world a fresh start, baptism cleanses a person for entry into a new life. However, after the Flood, sin remained.

by Don Roth (August 2008)

In light of recent unprecedented floods in the Midwestern United States, I decided to review the account of Noah’s Flood in Genesis 7 and 8. This study resulted in bringing to my attention the very detailed recording of the passage of time as the events of the Flood took place. These events are given to us as inspired by Christ, the Word, in a chronology of days and months through which God reveals a system for measuring the time that parallels the present calculations of the Hebrew Calendar.

A number of assumptions have been made about how time was measured when the events in the book of Genesis took place, the most prominent being that a year was comprised of twelve 30-day months. According to this view, the forty-two months and the 1260 days that is prophesied in Revelation 11:2-3 are identical. It should be noted, however, that the 42 months of the prophecy in Revelation 11 represent the period of time of the treading down of the Holy City while the 1260 days represent the period of time that the two witnesses prophesy. Neither the assumption that there were originally only 30-day months nor the premise that the moon’s orbit originally matched the yearly cycle of the sun is verifiable by this scripture. Many believe that both of these conditions existed at the creation of the world but that through the passage of time and events the relationship of the sun and moon to the earth was altered, giving us the average lunar month of 29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes, and 3 & 1/3 seconds. However, a study of the scriptural account of the Noachian Flood will demonstrate that the moon’s orbit has never changed. The irregularity of its orbit does not allow a calendar with the same number of days in each year.

The rather wobbly orbit of the moon periodically requires the addition of one or two days to the year to keep the months aligned with the phases of the moon, and the length of the moon’s orbit periodically requires the addition of a thirteenth month to the year to align the calendar with the solar seasons in order to keep the holy days of God at their appointed times. This intercalary month is necessitated by the yearly cycle of the sun, which is longer than the lunar cycle. All moon-based calendars, including those based on moon sighting, require some type of intercalation in order to prevent seasonal shifting.

In the Hebrew Calendar, the length of the year is regulated by an established intercalary cycle and by four mathematically-based rules of postponement. When neither intercalation nor postponement is needed, the year is composed of six 30-day months and six 29-day months, which makes a year of 354 days. However, many years have a greater number of days due to the need for intercalation or postponement to align the calendar with the actual positions of the sun and the moon. The necessity to adjust the calendar to the orbits of the sun and moon results in six different lengths of years: defective common years with 353 days, regular common years with 354 days, excessive common years with 355 days, defective leap years with 383 days, regular leap years with 384 days, and excessive leap years with 385 days. Knowing the number of days in a specific year enables us to determine whether or not intercalation or postponement was needed that year.

Some years may require both processes in order to keep the calendar in time with the movements of the sun and moon. The excessive leap year of 385 days occurs only when both intercalation and the rules of postponement are applied.

This fact has great bearing on the chronology of days and months in the scriptural account of the Noachian Flood. If the chronological record reveals that the year of the Flood was 385 days in length, it is unequivocally established as an excessive leap year and demonstrates that the calculations of the Hebrew Calendar were in effect many centuries before Moses received them from God. Let us examine the scriptural account of the Flood.

Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth years of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” This verse gives us the starting day of the Deluge: the seventeenth day of Iyar, the second month.

The fact that the Noachian Flood began in the second month of the year tells us that it was the season of spring.

Some may question this statement in the belief that the seventh month, Tishri, should start the year. They may even claim that Adam and Eve had to have been created in the fall of the year in order for them to have food to eat. But the garden was tropical, or semi-tropical, producing food throughout the year. Moreover, the calendar that God delivered to Moses clearly began in the spring of the year.

Exodus 12:2: “This month shall be your beginning of months; it shall be the first month of the year to you.” God gave Moses specific instructions for determining the beginning point of the year. This is the first of many scriptures designating the time that God ordained to start the year.

It should be noted that at this time Moses was not in Jerusalem but in the land of Goshen. According to some, Jerusalem is the only geographical area from which to sight the new moon of the first month. In addition, when God gave His instructions to Moses, the first month had already begun. As the new moon had already arrived, it was too late for Moses to determine the beginning of the year by observation. Instead, Moses received instructions from God for determining the months of the year by calculation.

According to the calculations of the Hebrew Calendar, the first month of the year is composed of 30 days. The account of the Flood states that the forty days of rain started on the seventeenth day of the second month, revealing the passage of 46 days from the first day of the year to the beginning of the Flood. Genesis 7:11: “In the six hundredth years of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.”

The breaking up of the fountains of the deep depicts massive earthquakes releasing immeasurable quantities of water, producing incredible tsunamis and storms of violence that modern man has never witnessed. No man-made shelter could have withstood the enormity of the violence that passed over the face of the earth.

Verse 12: “And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.”

This verse records that the initial length of the outpouring of water was forty days, and Genesis 7:17 confirms it: “Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.”

Note that it was the accumulation of water during the forty days that resulted in lifting the Ark high above the earth. The description in Verses 17 through 23 is relating what took place as a result of the forty days of rain and the breaking up of the fountains of the deep. At the end of forty days, the Ark was fifteen cubits above the highest mountain (v. 20).

Genesis 7:24: “And the waters prevailed upon the earth one hundred and fifty days.” The basic meaning of the Hebrew word that is translated “prevailed” is to be “strong, mighty” (Brown, Driver, and Briggs, p. 149). The waters did not prevail over the earth on the first or second day of the Flood. They prevailed at the end of the forty days when the Flood reached its maximum depth, making the one hundred and fifty days of prevailing consecutive to the forty days of rain. Both periods of time need to be included in order to determine the total length of time of the events of the Flood.

As recorded in the scriptural account, God did not allow the level of the Flood waters to drop until they had prevailed for one hundred and fifty days. He prevented this by sending additional rain and by bringing up waters from the fountains of the deep. God caused the waters to continue for one hundred and fifty days to maintain the level at fifteen cubits above the highest mountains. This ensured the death of all air-breathing life on land.

Genesis 8:1-3: “Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided. The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the one hundred and fifty days, the waters decreased.”

These verses describe the process by which God began to dry up the Flood waters. This process continued for an extended period of time as demonstrated by the word translated “decreased” or “abated” 2637 at the end of Verse 3. This word is used in the account to describe the removal of the waters from the flooded earth.

Gesenius gives the following definition of this word: “(1) To be devoid of anything, to lack, to be without, followed by an accusative.” As we continue to examine the scriptural account, we will learn the exact length of time that it took for the waters of the Flood to recede and the ground to become dry.

Genesis 8:4: “Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.” This verse gives the impression that the Ark settled down on the mountains of Ararat because the waters had started to decrease. However, for the Ark to rest on the ground would have required the depth of the water to have fallen considerably. The highest mountains were covered to a depth of fifteen cubits—not a great depth until you consider that fifteen cubits of water above Mt. Everest at 29,000 feet would make a depth of more than two miles above Mt. Ararat at 17,000 feet.

In addition, consider that the date was given for this occurrence, the seventh month, the seventeenth day, was only 194 days into the six hundredth years (Nisan 1 through Tishri 17). However, the scriptural account records that 236 days of that year had passed before God started to dry up the Flood waters (46 plus 40 plus 150 equals 236). If you figure that the forty days of rain were part of the 150 days, the total would still be 196 days before the waters began to decrease. It was therefore impossible for the Ark to have been lodged on the ground on the seventeenth day of the seventh month as the waters had not yet begun to decrease.

What then is the meaning of the word “rested” in Genesis 8:4? The word “rested” 5117 is describing a stopping of movement or activity. The same Hebrew word is used in Exodus 20:11: “God rested on the seventh day.” His activity or movement ended.

The use of this word in Genesis 8:4 tells us that the Ark remained immobile at a specific location. It was no longer rolling and plunging through churning, turbulent Flood waters. The winds that had driven it ceased to blow, the waves subsided, and the waters surrounding the Ark became calm and placid. The Ark came to a stop as if God had anchored it above the tops of the mountains. God maintained the location of the Ark at Mt. Ararat not because it was physically stuck but because God wanted it there. It did not settle upon the ground until after the waters had fully abated from their two-mile depth above Mt. Ararat. The scriptural account reveals that the decreasing of the waters took place gradually over the remaining months of the year.

To determine the total passage of time in the account of the Flood, it is necessary to know the exact date that the last of the waters dried up. This date is recorded in Genesis 8:13: “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.” This verse tells us that the waters were dried up on the first day of the six hundredth and first year, and Noah’s removal of the covering confirmed this fact. This state of dryness was reached exactly one hundred and fifty days from the time that the waters had ceased to prevail.

The fact that the Noachian Flood began in the second month of the year tells us that it was the season of spring.

Verse 12: “And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.”

In addition, consider that the date given for this occurrence, the seventh month, the seventeenth day, was only 194 days into the six hundredth year (Nisan 1 through Tishri 17). However, the scriptural account records that 236 days of that year had passed before God started to dry up the Flood waters (46 plus 40 plus 150 equals 236). If you figure that the forty days of rain were part of the 150 days, the total would still be 196 days before the waters began to decrease. It was therefore impossible for the Ark to have been lodged on the ground on the seventeenth day of the seventh month as the waters had not yet begun to decrease.

It should be noted at this point that counting the initial forty days of the Flood as part of the one hundred and fifty days of the waters prevailing would make the six hundredth year only 345 days in length (46 days to the beginning of the Flood plus 150 days of the waters prevailing plus 150 days of the waters decreasing equals 346 days, minus 1 day for the first day of the 601st year equals 345 days). There is no yearly cycle, either calculated or observed, that would fit a 345-day year. This fact confirms that the 40 days of rain and the 150 days of the waters prevailing were two separate periods of time, just as the 150 days of the waters abating were separate from the 150 days of the waters prevailing. These three periods of time extended from the second month of the six hundredth years of Noah’s life to the first month of his six hundredth and first year. Genesis 8:13: “And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry.”

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