Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 24
Native American Flood Story
Welcome to Messiah In The Old Testament. We’re continuing to tell stories from around the world. Now, we told you four of them so far and these have come from for different continents.
I'm going to put up a picture of the world for you so you can see. Our first story came from South America, from the country of Peru. And you will see on the map I put a picture of a llama there to remind you of the story of the Lama Herder and his sad llamas. And then how they foretold that there was a flood that was coming and then everyone was saved by going up on the mountain. And then we moved over to Africa and I have a picture there over the country of Kenya of Tumbainot and his first wife. And it's the Masai story where Tumbainot was warned by God and went and built a large boat and saved his two wives and six sons and all the good animals. Then we moved up to the country of India and I told you the Hindu story of Manu and the Giant Fish. And I put a picture up there of the giant fish towing Manu in his boat. And then finally we went to Australia and there I have a picture of Tiddalick the giant frog and we told the aboriginal story.
Now, as promised we’re filling in our table of the eight elements found in flood stories and let's go through those. So, the Hindu story is the next line. In the Hindu story our hero was King Manu. And the event that happened was evil, men doing evil things and brought the wrath of Vishnu. And the cataclysm that was sent for judgment was the giant flood that covered the entire earth. And remember, we read that the there was nothing seen above the level of the water no matter where they looked. The escape of means was a giant boat that Manu and his fellow villagers built. The companions that went on the journey were the helpers that helped build the boat. They were all able to get on the boat and be saved. And then in one of the stories, the Seven Sages were saved, so not only were the humans and animals and the store of seed [were saved] but also the wisdom of the world was saved on that boat. So, who was saved, man and animals. The rescue that happened was their boat was floundering in the ocean of water and the giant fish Matsya came and told Manu to tie the rope around a horn that had grown from his head. And he towed them north to Mount Himavan. And the restoration was after everybody came down off Mount Himavan, the remnant of people populate the earth and the remnant of animals repopulated the animals on the earth. So, let’s go to our next line, this is the aboriginal story. And we told you that the aboriginal story is a bit of an outlier. It doesn't fit all eight categories very well, but it does fit several of them. Let's go through it. The hero in the Aboriginal Story is the river eel. Remember, he did his little dance, tied himself into a knot and made Tiddalick laugh. The event that precipitated all this? We have no idea why Tiddalick went and drank all the water from the billabongs and rivers and filled him[self] up with all the water in the world. Which
resulted in the cataclysm, which was a drought and a flood that came after the drought once the river eel made him laugh. The means of escape was Tiddalick laughing and releasing all the water. The companions that were saved, were the animals in the council. And then who was saved, the story said that many men and many animals died, but many men and many animals survived. The rescue was the water receding and going back into the billabongs and the rivers and lakes. And then the restoration was all the people that were left repopulated the earth. Now, we know that the aboriginal story doesn't fit as well as our other stories, but it does tell the story of a worldwide flood. And this is a story that came from dreamtime.
Now the concept of dreamtime is shared by other cultures. In fact, in the Inca culture where we told you the story of the of the llama herder, they have a time similar to dreamtime [Purunpacha, time of no memory] where there is no memory of what happened. And the story of the flood came from that time period. So, that's not a totally foreign concept. It's like the mythical period before the written histories came about or the oral histories recorded. So, the Tiddalick story is just an echo from the past, from dreamtime. Now, our next story is going to be from the North American continent so we’re going to add a new continent. We will have five continents now. It’s the story of the North American Native American culture. There are literally hundreds of Native American tribes and sub-tribes and there are stories carried by each of those tribes, talking about a worldwide flood.
Now, I’m going to put a graphic up that will help us in our, to see the big picture. Now, if you'll look at the bottom of that graphic I put up, in Middle America, that would be the Aztec, Mayan, Zapotec and other cultures. Their story is different from the North American Indian story, so we excluded all of those stories. And then the Southwest, also their stories kind of tend to be little more like the Middle American story. So, we kind of excluded those as well. The bulk of our stories came from the Eastern Woodlands and you will hear as we tell the stories and tell about the region where they came from. Eastern Woodlands is where I live, where we are recording this show right now. In Indiana, we are right smack in the middle of Miami territory. Just to the north we have Pottawatomie Tribes. And then up along Lake Michigan we have Ottawa Tribes. We have several bands, the Grand Traverse, the Little Traverse and the Little River Band. So, the Ottawa up along the Lake Michigan there, and then we’ve got the Ojibway and we got the Huron and all of these Woodland Cultures. They all share very similar stories. Some very interesting cultural differences and we will talk about the variations in the stories as we go through them. And then over in the Great Plains, those cultures all share very similar story. The southeast, mainly the Cherokee and we’ll draw from the Cherokee story. We already told you the Cherokee creation story. And we’re going to go over that a little bit as we continue. And then the Great Basin, Plateau, Californian and then the Northeast Coastal, or Northwest Coastal I should say. And then there is a region called the Subarctic. The most important tribe there would be the Cree. The Cree is a huge, huge First Nation. They are located in the northern parts of Saskatchewan and Manitoba; Alberta and they are across the northern part of Canada. The largest First Nation Tribe in
Canada. Estimated [to have] over 350,000 to 400,000 people. Now, as I tell you the single story, you'll find that there are a lot of regional variations in that story. But all these tribes that I've been referring to and all this territory I showed you, they all have the same story. Which I find to be utterly amazing that all these tribes carry that same story.
Now, if you remember the Cherokee creation story, and if you want to go back and review now to be an awesome time to do that. In the Cherokee story, if you’ll remember, we had the giant granite arch. We had Galun’lati above, the expanse of water below that was in darkness.
And remember the animals came down and explored and finally, the water beetle dove down, grabbed some mud and brought the mud up. And as the mud came up it started expanding and expanding and turned into the earth. That is a common theme in all these stories. And it's interesting that creation stories and these flood stories, in some cases, are kind of interwoven and intertwined. So, just remember that Cherokee story as we start telling the story. And it'll be like, yeah, I remember that. Now, here's the story.
In the beginning, we have a man of some stature, a man who could possibly be like a chief or the son of the chief. But it is somebody who has standing within his tribe. So, for some reason he comes into conflict with water deities. Now, these water deities, they're not just like mystical spirits. The Indians believe that these water deities have physical manifestation.
And the most common physical manifestation is that of a giant serpent. Now, let's go back to the Cherokee culture. In Cherokee culture they have a water serpent and they've given it the name Uktena. And Uktena has a very interesting part of their story and of their culture, not directly related to this story but it is related. But I want to tell you that story because it sheds light on our story. Now, Uktena is a horned serpent.
And when they draw Uktena it looks like there are almost like antlers coming out of the side of the serpent. The serpent is very large and when the serpent rears up it is like as tall as the trees. The serpent has scales that are impenetrable. If a warrior shoots an arrow at Uktena, the arrows just bounce off because the plating is just so thick and so hard. It is said that as Uktena moves the scales almost like spark or glitter. And then there's like light flashing off of the scales, these dragon scales. And then Uktena has several bands of color kind of like a coral snake.
And there are different bands of color on the snake. There are at least seven bands on Uktena and on the seventh band there's an interesting marking. It is towards the front, so when Uktena would rear up, you would see that marking. The marking is a diamond shaped white patch on the snake. The importance of that patch is that it's behind that diamond where the snake’s vital organs, specifically his heart is located. So, if a warrior could shoot an arrow through that diamond into the heart, he could kill the snake. Now it turns out that the scales in that area are very thin and that the snake is vulnerable. But the only time a warrior could get a shot off is when the snake is rearing up, ready to attack and bite the warrior. So, I imagine it was very dangerous game to play trying
to shoot that spot. Because, if you missed and then the snake would devour you. So, I imagine that it is some scenario like that which has brought this warrior out to fight against the water deities. So, let's say it is a Cherokee warrior fighting against Uktena. So, he shoots the bow and arrow. He kills the water deity. And when he kills the water deity then he incurs the wrath of all the other water deities. And in some cultures, the water deities are like sea serpents that come in from the ocean. Or the water, lake serpents that come in from the Great Lakes. But in most it's a River serpent that comes because a lot of our cultures only have rivers and lakes. They don’t have these giant bodies of water. So, the other deities decide they're going to punish our hero.
So, they start flinging water at him. I mean they're just throwing water, spurting water and the water is just inundating our hero. So, our hero takes off and starts running, trying to get away from the water. But as he goes, the water is starting to fill up because there is just so much water, it’s starting to cover the earth. And our hero is just going through a thin layer of water.
And then it's up to his feet and he is plodding through the water. And then he's up to his knees and he's wading through the water. And it's
rising so fast, that our hero is going to be overtaken by the flood. Which, of course, was the intent of the water deities. Now, fortunately our hero is saved. And the means of his salvation is a fair young maiden who arrives in some sort of watercraft.
Now, the watercraft in Ottawa [culture] is a giant canoe and this maiden is rowing the canoe. And all the animals, the good animals are in the canoe. And she paddles up to our hero, who's floundering by now. She lets down a rope, he climbs up the rope, scrambles onto the canoe and he is saved.
In the Cree story, the fair young maiden arrives to save our hero, but she's on a giant raft. And all the animals are on the raft with her. And she pulls up and she pulls our hero to safety. And then in the Caddo story, now the Caddo culture is from Texas, from the eastern part of Texas along the Louisiana Mississippi border there. The Caddo story says that she was in a giant reed. And the story goes that she was given a magical reed. And the reed just starts expanding and expanding and expanding. And it gets big enough that all the animals can get in and she can get in. And she guides the reed up to our hero he gets on board and he is saved.
So now, whew! Our hero is safe. He's on the watercraft, whichever watercraft it is and they’re waiting for the water to go down. And waiting for the water to go down. But the water will not go down. The water just stays and stays and stays. And finally, they're getting a little bit frustrated.
But one day a tortoise pulls up alongside the watercraft. And the tortoise yells up to the hero and says, “Hey there's land underneath all this water. If you could just go down and get some and bring it out, we could recreate the earth.” So, the hero thought that that was a brilliant idea. So, then he starts asking for volunteers amongst the animals. And in different stories from different cultures there are different animals. But the common theme is that these are all animals that are used to diving underwater.
So, I’m going to tell you the Ojibway story because the Ojibway story has a variety of these animals and can kind of give you a flavor of what goes on in the other stories. So, the first animal that volunteers says, “I will go down and get some earth and bring it up.” is Maang, the common loon. And if you’ve ever been on a lake up north, I go fishing
up north, and the loons will be out on the lake. And they’ll be hooting or [making] their mournful calls, especially at sunset. And you will see the loon dive under the water. He'll be gone for a long period of time, several minutes and then he'll pop up. But he won’t pop up where he went down, he’ll be like 100 yards away across the lake. And I think that's where the whole idea of the loon going down and getting the soil comes from. So, he goes down, attempts and he is he is not successful. So, the loon does not bring any mud up. So next, the beaver, Amik the beaver, volunteers to go down. So, he goes, he paddles down, paddles down, paddles down and he is unable to get any mud at all from the bottom. Finally, the animals are getting frustrated. They’re kind of arguing a little bit.
A small little duck paddles up beside their watercraft whichever one it is. And it is the Black Coot. And if you’ve ever seen a coot, they’re kind of small ducks. And his name was Aajigade. So, he volunteers to go down, but he is so small, the animals start laughing and mocking him. And saying, “That ain't gonna work.” There is one quote in one of our stories it says, “Get away Aajigade we don't have time for your nonsense.” So, they brush off the little coot. And they go on arguing and arguing. And this goes on till almost sundown. And they figure they are going to have to stop and reconvene in the morning. And somebody looks around and says, “Where’s Aajigade? I don’t see Aajigade anywhere.” So, one of them looks out on the water and saw a small carcass floating on the water. So, they row over to him, they bring in carcass and sure enough it's Aajigade, the coot. So, the hero goes up and sees that his beak is just full of mud. So, he takes the mud from his beak and fashions it into a
small little round ball. And he blows life into the duck. And the duck revives and flies away, brought back to life by the hero.
He then takes the mud, and he ties it to the neck of Raven. And Raven flies around. And wherever Raven flies, then the earth is re-created. Now, in the Huron story it is the tortoise who re-creates. The hero takes the mud and puts it on the [shell], smears it out over the back of the tortoise. And then it expands and the tortoise expands. And so, the concept is that were all riding on the back of this giant tortoise. There are some plains tribes that believe that. And I think it's because they climbed up on the mountains and saw the curvature of the earth. And they figured it’s like a tortoise shell, the curvature of a tortoise shell. So, they believe that it was tortoise. So, now everything is made right again and there, the vegetation starts growing. And everybody is able to disembark. And now they go out, the animals repopulate and the hero and his fair maiden also repopulate. Now, that is the Native American story. And to me, this is probably one of the most important stories that we have. Because this story shows that all these tribes are unified in their flood story from coast-to-coast, top to bottom. Just think of the amount of land that that this encompasses from northern Canada all the way down you to the border of Mexico. Some say that it's because the immigration that came over the land bridge between Alaska and Russia. And they came across and all the people then emigrated and spread out through all of North America and South America. And that would explain why they would all have a common story. But that also supports my theory that this story came originally from Noah and his three sons. And when they spread out through the earth, they carried that same
story. And my theory is that all of these stories that we've been telling you all come from the same source. And they are all echoes of that same story. They have regional variation and cultural variation but they are the same story. So, we’re going to continue telling you stories from around the world. And in our next story we’re going to head to the ancient land of China. so, join us at that time.
Thank you for watching our show today. We hope that you enjoyed watching it as much as we enjoyed bringing it to you. Now, after watching this episode you might be saying to yourself, “Who is this Messiah that Dr. Smith is talking about?
Is he talking about the Christian Messiah? Is he talking about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who was born of the Virgin Mary. And then lived a blameless and holy life on the earth, and then was tortured and crucified. And after he died, he then was resurrected from the dead after three days. Then after people witnessed this, he was then taken up bodily by Elohim into heaven from the Mount of Olives.
Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Muslim prophet Isa. Isa Ibn Maryam, the messenger, who was sent by Allah to bring a message to the people. The Quran says he that lived a holy and blameless life, was born of the virgin Mary. He fulfilled all the Jewish prophecies in exact accordance. But one difference, instead of being crucified, he then was taken up by Allah into heaven before the Romans laid hands on him. And he awaits there now in the fourth heaven where at the end of days at the day of judgment he will be revealed to all.
Or is Dr. Smith talking about the Jewish Messiah? The Messiah who has not yet been revealed, that the entire Jewish world is waiting for his revelation. Now, the beautiful thing is that you can hold to any of these beliefs. And we can all still learn together about Messiah. We can learn about our Christian Messiah. We can learn about our Jewish Messiah. We can learn about our Muslim prophet Isa who will be revealed. It doesn’t matter what you believe. You can even be an atheist or agnostic and still learn from this program about Messiah. Now, I have to admit I am a Christian so I approach things, obviously, from a Christian point of view. And I promise you, as we reveal these prophecies, which I believe
have all been fulfilled through Jesus Christ. Or will be fulfilled when he comes back, returning in the clouds in the same way he was taken up. I believe that all of this is true, but I promise you I will do my very best to present these prophecies from a neutral point of view. And try to keep my Christian bias to a minimum. Obviously, it will pop up from time to time but I will try to stay only in the Tanakh and try not to get into the New Testament very often. Now, if you want more information about Messiah, we have resources for you.
We have a website which is findingmessiah.org. Now, on that website you are going to find several resources. You will find links to all the videos, all the episodes that we have created so far. You will find links to download the transcripts of any of these episodes. And then you will find a section where you can get more information about Messiah through frequently asked questions. And then there is a section for donation. If you want to come alongside our ministry at Finding Messiah.
Now, there’s going to come a time in this series where you are going to be confronted with the question: What are you going to do with Messiah? Who do you believe Messiah is? Which of these Messiahs do you believe Dr. Smith is talking about? And Messiah will become real to you if you look at all the information presented and come to your conclusions. So, join us as we continue our journey through the Old Testament Scriptures looking for all the Messianic Prophecies. And join us next time as we reveal those to you.
