Chapter 1

Young, Beautiful and Wicked

"Help! Thief!"

"I'll get you yet!"

Noah heard the angry voices and the slap! slap! slap! of sandaled feet on the hardened clay road outside the house he was building. Darting to the entryway he looked out just in time to see the assailant overtake his prey. Knocking his victim to the ground, the thief swished out his short sword and stabbed the man several times—in the light of day, while many people watched!

Noah moved toward the murderer, slowly, his mind racing for some way to subdue the armed man and keep him for the authorities.

Lighter footsteps clapped the street as a woman hurried past him: "My husband! My husband!" she shrieked. "You killed my husband!" She flung herself onto the body, sobbing, "Someone, help me! This man killed my husband!"

The assailant kicked her. "Quiet, woman!" he barked as he pried an object from the dead man's fingers. He seemed unaware of the huge carpenter advancing toward him. "Come with me," he growled to her. "I'll be your husband."

A member of the governor's guard stepped from a doorway nearby. "What's going on there?" he demanded, drawing his weapon.

"He's killed my husband," the woman wailed, still clutching the body.

The guardsman came on the run, and the murderer swung his sword at the woman, hissing, "I told you to be quie. . . ."

Noah's physical size exceeded that of most of the sons of men.¹ He lunged at the man, and grasped his forearm in mid-swing—so tightly that the bones snapped. The sword clattered to the ground, and the assassin fell writhing at Noah's feet. "How dare you take the life of one of God's children," the giant carpenter roared. "And to rob him too . . . the curse of Cain and of Lamech be upon you."

The killer's face twisted in surprise and pain, but he screamed in terror when he looked into the raging eyes of the muscular man standing over him. Never before had he seen the anger of a righteous man—and his body went limp with agony and fear.

As the guardsman led the still-trembling murderer away, Noah turned to the weeping widow who lay astride her dead husband.

"Thank you," she sobbed, looking up at him. "You saved my life."

"I'm sorry about your husband." Noah stooped beside her, patting her shoulder gently. He said nothing more for many minutes, as she pressed her face into the dead man's tunic and wept.

When at last she raised her head, she scrutinized Noah—much as she would an item she might purchase in the market. Among the sons of men the one who saved a woman's life under such circumstances would likely add her to his own harem. So she inspected the man she presumed would soon become her next husband.

Noah sensed her quandary. "I already have a wife," he told her, "so I cannot be your husband. But my wife and I would be honored to have you as our guest . . . if you like?"

She wrinkled up her forehead and gazed into Noah's eyes. She'd seen bravery like his before, but never in one so kind.² Somehow his offer drew her from within. Are there others like this? she wondered. Could he help me become so thoughtful? so loving? "You're not from the city, are you?" It seemed more a statement than a question.

"No, I have a home in the hills," he pointed as he spoke, "about half a day's ride. . . ." He paused, knowing his offer might not be relished by one who'd spent her life among the sons of men. "But of course," he looked away, "you must have other plans."

"No," she breathed, rising to her feet and brushing the dirt from her clothing. "My husband's . . . dead. I-I've no pla. . . . Yes!" A semi-smile flickered from behind her frightened face. "I'll go with you. I'd love to meet your wife . . . to see the hills . . . to get as far away as I can from this cursed city."

"I can't believe it's the same world," Noah sighed as he sat on the grass with his wife beside a mountain brook.

"That bad?"

"The murder was only the worst of many evils with which I've had to deal." He reached for a goblet and scooped water from the stream, gulping it down without a pause. "At least while I work my mind is concentrating on the project . . . I can block out the curses and foul stories of the crew."

He watched in silence as two fawns batted at each other with their front hooves. "On the last house I built in the city, I had to hire a man to keep children from stealing materials, or breaking down the work we'd already done."

"Why would they break it down?"

"They seem to get some devilish pleasure out of it." He picked a long stalk of Alwyn grass and chewed on the tender end.

"One boy . . ." Noah touched his temple, lost in thought for a moment. "He couldn't have been more than eight or ten. . . . I'd just finished a fireplace, decorated with cut emeralds, set in gold and silver . . . must have been a thousand gems embedded in a white marble facade. . . ."

"Sounds pretty."

"It was . . . and expensive too. Those stones are hard to find . . . came all the way from the Havilah River Basin. I hired a small army to protect them from roving bands of thieves. Five men died in several little fights along the way." He covered his eyes with his hand.

"Oh, dear!" she cried.

"Anyway, I turned my back on the fireplace for just a minute. When I looked again I found this boy prying an emerald from the marble . . . he'd already taken two!" Noah scratched his head, seeming perplexed. "I said to him, 'Ho there, son. Those stones belong to someone else. God doesn't want you taking the property of others.'

"He looked at me, his eyes wide in surprise. 'God?' he asked . . . just as sincere as you please . . . 'God? Who's He?' He bolted for the door with the stones he'd already taken, but I caught him.

"'You've never heard of God?' I asked him.

"'Awe, He's just a fairy tale.'

"'No,' I said. 'God made the world . . . and He made you, and me too.'

"'Really?' he said. 'My father once told me the sun-god made us.'

"'Who's your father?' I asked.

"'Oh, he's dead . . . and Mother too. Killed in the last raid from Gihon.' I could see big tears in his eyes.

"'Who takes care of you?' I asked. 'Do you have older brothers or sisters to look after you? . . . uncles or aunties?'

"'No. My uncles are all dead . . . brothers too. The raiders took my sisters and aunties to be slaves . . . or wives . . . or something.'"³

Tears streamed down Noah's face. "I asked him if he'd come to live with me. 'No,' he said, 'I'm a big boy now. I can take care of myself.'

"He gave me back the emeralds he'd taken. 'You're a nice man,' he said. 'I'll tell my friends not to steal from you.' And he was gone . . . out the door and down the street . . . no home, no relatives . . . nothing."

"You were right to offer him a home." She gave Noah a small cloth with which to dry his tears. "I wish you wouldn't go into the cities," she sighed, gazing at the grass-covered hills around them. "If you could only stay here . . . with me."

"I'd like that." He smiled and kissed her on the cheek. "I think of you often, and of our trips to the Garden Gate." He encircled her with his arm and leaned his head against hers. "I keep up a constant conversation with God in my mind."

"You do?"

"Yes. And that's what keeps me going. But the world seems bent on destroying itself with endless selfishness."

Noah thought for a moment. "Instead of showing gratitude to God for His blessings, people use them as a means of separating from Him. They don't seek to bring glory to their Creator, but to themselves. God has entrusted them with so much, but they have filled the earth with violence."⁴

"And yet it doesn't touch you?"

"God gives me grace to be faithful to Him."

"But you still must go." It sounded more like a question than a statement.

"I'm a master builder." He squeezed her and looked into her hazel eyes. "Few men take time to learn the old trades. They'd rather party, or fight, or steal each other's wives and property." He kissed her forehead. "Every wealthy merchant wants me to build his palace. I can't build them all. But it gives me opportunities to tell the sons of men about our Creator. Who knows?" he shrugged his shoulders. "Maybe someday one of them will listen . . . and become a son of God."⁵

Noah's wife changed the subject. "It's such a beautiful world—even with the double-curse."

"A sparkling jewel." Her husband waxed eloquent. "It's nearly as perfect as when it came from the Creator's hand only a few centuries ago." Noah looked up at the sky. "It seems such an ordinary thing."

"What does?"

"The sky." He raised his arms as if to embrace the clear blue expanse. "God designed the atmosphere to filter the sun's rays so evenly that the climate all over the world is temperate—even at the poles where the light strikes at acute angles."

"I've thought about that," she answered, her eyes brightening. "Methuselah explained it to me one day. He's quite a scientist, you know."

"One of the best," interjected Noah.

"He told me that the reason the seasons have only minor changes, and the air always feels warm and fresh has something to do with water vapors in the air." She wrinkled her forehead.

"And yet all that water never falls on us," laughed Noah.

"Wow!" chirped a young boy who'd skipped up and dropped down between them. "If all that water floats in the air, how do the plants get what they need?"

"Have you noticed how the plants are wet every morning," explained Noah's wife, running her hand over his velvety hair.

"Yes."

"The water in the air condenses on the leaves at night," summed up Noah.

"Must take a lot of dew to grow big trees like that," mused the boy, pointing at a huge cypress not far away.

The group gazed in awe at the giant, fine-grained hardwood tree that towered into the sky.

Noah rose and ambled over to the tree, admiring it with a builder's eye. He quickly estimated the lumber it would yield. "The cypress is one of the finest trees in the forest." He caressed its smooth bark and examined the massive trunk. "It's wood is nearly as hard as stone . . . and almost as permanent.⁶ Mmm . . . probably enough lumber in that tree to . . . to build several large houses."

"Is that the kind of wood you use?" asked the boy.

"Oh, no!" Noah backed away, laughed, and sat down again. "Cypress wood's too hard . . . takes too much time to cut it to size. Most people don't want to pay the price."

The group sat in silence for a few moments, gazing into the distance at the rounded bellies of rolling hills as they slept beneath soft blankets of living green—tacked into place by occasional clumps of trees. Nuggets of silver and gold, and a rainbow of gems—diamonds, rubies, garnets—shimmered in the sunlight among the blades of grass.

Noah picked up a sapphire stone that lay nearby. "So many beautiful things in God's world. Too bad the sons of men have used them to increase their selfishness."

"Is that why they're always fighting and killing each other?" asked the boy.

"Yes." Noah looked away to hide the tears that bulged in his eyes. "God made all living things to be loving and tender toward each other. There's not a single animal in the forest that would intentionally harm a human being." He picked up a beetle and examined its multi-colored shell. "It seems that only the sons of men have taught themselves to hurt and destroy. There's food in abundance . . . a large variety hanging from millions of trees. And yet men have conceived the idea of eating the flesh of innocent animals."

"It must have stunted their growth," added Noah's wife. "The son's of men seem to be much smaller than we are."

"Yes," put in the boy. "And they've come to enjoy killing animals so much that now they're killing each other."

"After I've been working among the sons of men," Noah confessed, "I feel contaminated. The curses, the music, the evil plans and stories . . . the whole atmosphere seems saturated with sin."

"I breathe more easily when you return safely." replied his wife.

"God protects me," he nodded. "But when I reach home my heart longs to let God cleanse me from the filthiness of the evil that surrounded me while I worked in the cities of men."

"Is that why you wash your clothes and bathe when you return," asked his Nephew.

"Yes, Lad." He patted the boy on his head. "And that's also why I go to pray at the Garden Gate."

Notes

1. "In the days of Noah, men, animals, and trees, many times larger than now exist, were buried, and thus preserved as an evidence to later generations that the antediluvians perished by a flood." Christian Education, p. 191.

"Seth was one of more noble stature than Cain or Abel, and resembled Adam more than did any of his other sons. The descendants of Seth separated themselves from the wicked descendants of Cain. . . ." The Signs of the Times, 2/20/1879

I picture Noah, a direct descendant of Adam and Seth, as having a healthier physique and greater stature than that of the sons of men.

2. "[Noah] was a faithful and unbending witness for God, kind and courteous to all. . . ." The Signs of the Times, 2/27/1879.

3. "Instead of doing justice to their neighbors, [men] carried out their own unlawful wishes. They had a plurality of wives, which was contrary to God's wise arrangement at the beginning. . . . Man followed his own carnal desires, and changed God's order. The more men multiplied wives to themselves, the more they increased in crime and unhappiness. If any one chose to take the wives, or cattle, or anything belonging to his neighbor, he did not regard justice or right, but if he could prevail over his neighbor by reason of strength, or by putting him to death, he did so, and exulted in his deeds of violence." The Signs of the Times, 2/27/1879.

4. "Instead of showing gratitude to God for His blessings, the antediluvians used His blessings as a means of separation from Him. They did not seek to honor and glorify their Creator. The gold and silver which He entrusted to them they used for self-gratification. Violence filled the land; appetite and passion bore sway. Men spent their time in dissipation and amusement and in enriching themselves." The Signs of the Times, 4/10/1901, p. 2.

5. Some have suggested that the "sons of God," as portrayed in Genesis, were angels. They say that when these celestial beings intermarried with the daughters of men they produced the Nephilim—giants.

However, the Bible never identifies the sons of God as angels. Instead, Scripture uses the phrase to describe human beings who followed God's instruction and did His will.

Luke calls Adam "the son of God" (Luke 3:38) in contrast to all others, whom he designates as sons of other men. Adam was the son of God in the special sense that God created Adam with his own hands. God was Adam's only Father.

Jesus Christ bears the title "Son of God" in a different sense, in that He, being God, took upon himself the body of a human being. In this way He became the Son of God at His birth in Bethlehem, and shall remain such throughout eternity. (Phil. 2:58; John 3:16)

The New Testament reveals that those who believe on Jesus' name also become "sons of God" (John 1:12 KJV); that "those who are led by the spirit of God are the sons of God;" (Romans 8:14); and that the one who purifies himself in preparation for Christ's coming is "now" a child of God (1 John 3:2).

Thus the "sons of God" before the flood were, like the "sons of God" today, those who followed Seth in continuing to worship their Creator.

In contrast, the sons of men followed Cain in rebellion against God. When the "sons of God" married the "daughters of men" they soon forgot their righteous heritage, and turned their backs on their Creator. In this way they also became sons of men.

"Those who honored and feared to offend God, at first felt the curse but lightly, while those who turned from him and despised his authority felt its effects more heavily, especially in stature and nobleness of form. The descendants of Seth were called the sons of God; the descendants of Cain, the sons of men. As the sons of God mingled with the sons of men, they became corrupt, and by intermarriage with them lost, through the influence of their wives, their peculiar, holy character, and united with the sons of Cain in their idolatry." The Signs of the Times, 2/27/1879.

The Nephilim—giants (KJV)—have not been adequately identified, but there is evidence that the word could be translated "terrorists." (see SDA Bible Commentary, Vol. 1, p. 251.)

6. "The race of men then living was of very great stature, and possessed wonderful strength. The trees were vastly larger, and far surpassed in beauty and perfect proportions anything which mortals can now look upon. The wood of these trees was of fine grain and hard substance—in this respect more like stone. It required much more time and labor, even of that powerful race, to prepare the timber for building, than it requires in this degenerate age to prepare trees that are now growing upon the earth, even with the weaker strength which men now possess." The Signs of the Times, 2/27/1879.

Chapter 2