Messiah In The Old Testament Episode 23
Hindu and Aboriginal Flood Stories
Welcome to Messiah in the Old Testament. We are telling you flood stories from around the world. And I get really excited about these flood stories because they are fun stories. They are colorful stories. They are stories that I really enjoy reading, I really enjoyed telling. In our last episode we told you two stories.
The first story came from the Inca Empire and remember we told you all about Pizarro and all the things that happened there. And then I told you the story from the Steppes of Africa, the Masai Story. And we talked about how far apart those two stories came from and the amazing similarities between the two stories. Now, I have promised you that we are going to look at the eight elements that are found in each of our stories and I was going to put a table together. So, I going to present today the first two rows from that table.
I am going to put them up right now. So, on the first row we have the Inca Story. On the second row we have the Masai Story. So, under hero, our hero in the Inca story, remember our llama herder, our shepherd whose llamas got sad and he tried to figure out why. The event that precipitated the whole thing was man being evil, the evil of mankind. The punishment that was sent on the earth was a giant flood where the rivers overflowed their banks. The oceans overflowed their banks, flooded the plain and they all had to escape. Their means of escape was going to a mountain. Remember Vilcoto. And they all went to the mountain. The companions that accompanied our hero, was his family and the llamas from his flock. Now, the segment of mankind and animals that were saved were the family of the herder and then some of all of the animals who on their own went up on to the mountain top. Their rescue came in the form of the flood that only went to a certain point and then stopped. And if you remember the waters were lapping on
the feet of some of the animals, they were getting afraid, it was like panic. And in the one story, when that happened, the mountaintop broke off and started floating like an ark. And then, when the flood receded, the mountaintop came, set back down in its place and then the waters receded. And once the waters receded, then the restoration, which is our final column, came in the form of everybody coming down off of Vilcoto and spreading out. And the llama herder and his family repopulated the earth and animals all spread out and repopulated the earth. Now, in the Masai story, our hero was Tumbainot. And remember, Tumbainot was given instructions kind of like Noah to build a giant boat. The event that precipitated the judgment of the earth was when one man hit another man on the head and killed him, committed murder. Then that precipitated God's anger and then God sent the punishment. The punishment came in the form of a flood. The flood that covered all the earth including the Steppes of Africa. The means of escape was a giant boat which Tumbainot crafted. The companions that went with them, it was Tumbainot, his family which included his two wives and six sons and then some of all of the animals from the earth. And then the segment of society that was saved was Tumbainot’s family and those animals that were on the ark. The rescue came in the form of the rain stopping and the flood subsiding. And then finally, they all disembarked from the boat or the ark, after the vulture came back and the arrow that was on his leg broke off and so he knew it was time to disembark. So then, Tumbainot, his two wives and six sons repopulated the earth for humankind and then all the animals that were on his boat then repopulated the earth for the animals. Now, you can see those two stories have common elements. You may have differences of climbing up on the mountain versus climbing into a boat. And, of course, the different cultural elements that come in, llamas versus all of each of the animals. But they do have a lot of similarities.
Now we’re going to continue today and I’m going to tell you two more stories. The first story I'm going to tell you is the story that comes from the Hindu culture, from the Vedic writings. And we’re going to tell you the story which is called Manu and the Great Fish. Then we’re also
going to tell you the story that comes from the aboriginal culture in Australia. That is the story of Tiddalick the Giant Frog. It is a story that comes from ancient times and it's a very fun and interesting story. I’m going to tell you the Hindu story of the worldwide flood. Now, I promised I would give you references and this story is taken from three specific sources.
The first source is the Shatapatha Brahmana, and that is the commentary on the original Vedic text. The story [of Manu] is found in the Shatapatha. And then in the Mahabharata which is an epic tale, there has actually been a movie made about the Mahabharata. So, the story [of Manu] is found in that epic tale as well.
And finally, the Puranas or Purana, they are stories. And there's specifically one story which is called Matsya Purana. That name Matsya is the name of the fish avatar of Vishnu. So, I took all those three stories, took the specific stories and kind of synthesized them into one story.
This story starts out on the banks of a river. We don't know which river. It could be a Ganges, we don't know what river it is. There was a man of some standing who lived in a cottage on the edge of that river. And he went out every day to bathe in the river and to present water from that river to the sun god as the sun came up.
So, he was doing that one day, when some phenomenal thing happened to him. Now, this guy was considered to be a sage. He was considered to be a very pious and righteous man who lived in a very evil world. In fact, the commentators talk about that. That the world was full of despicable man who did despicable things and this man stood out amongst the others. In fact, he was so well liked by the people in the region they made him their king. So, he is called King Manu. Now, Manu was liked not only by people but he was liked by all the animals as well. In fact, every animal that he met, he got along with him and he was just friends with all animals. And not only that, he was very much into plants and botany. He collected seeds. He was this avid collector of
seeds. If he found a new species, he would have to have seeds from that [species]. And he collected all this huge store of seeds. Now Manu, who was bathing in the river, and when he came up [out of the water] he took a cup full of water [in his hands] and was presenting it to the sun god. And as he did that, he noticed that there was a little fish in the water in the cups of his hand. He didn't want to offend the fish, so he threw the fish back in river. And then the fish spoke to him. And this is what one of our references said:
One morning he went to the river to say his prayers. (we’re talking about Manu) He bathed in the river and scooped up some water in his palms to offer it to the sun god.
To his surprise, he found a tiny fish in the water he had scooped. He threw it back in the water, but the fish spoke to him, (and this is what the fish said) “Take care of me and I will be thy savior.”
“From what wilt thou preserve me?” Manu asked. The fish replied, “A flood will sweep away all creatures. I will rescue thee from that.”
“But how shat I preserve thee?” Manu said. The fish rejoined, “So long as we are small, we are in constant danger of destruction. (in other words, other fish or other predators will eat him) For fish eat fish, so keep me in a jar. When I outgrow the jar, then dig a trench and then place me there. When I outgrow the trench, take me back to the ocean. I shall then be out reach of danger.”
So, Manu did as the fish instructed him. He took him. He put him in a jar and he took him home to rescue him. The problem is, the fish started growing pretty fast. In fact, in some versions he grows like (poosh) overnight (poosh) into this ginormous fish. He outgrew the jar. So, then Manu had to go to Plan B. So, then he put them in his water cistern. And then he outgrew the water cistern.
So, then he had to put him in a pool of water near the house. And then he outgrew that. So, then he went and took him to a lake and put them in the lake. And he outgrew the lake. Finally, he had to take him back to
the ocean and put them in the ocean. Now while he was in the lake, the fish talked to him again. The fish said to him:
“In such and such a year the flood will come; Therefore, construct a ship, and pay me homage. When the flood rises, enter thou the ship, And I will rescue thee.”
So, Manu put him in the ocean with this knowledge in hand. So, Manu then did as the fish. He went and built this huge ship. He enlisted the help of a bunch of men and women in the area. They helped him build the ship. And as we know he was already friends with all the animals and he already had this big store of seeds. So, this was perfect. When the flood started, Manu called all the animals and they got on the boat. And he let all the men and women that helped him construct the boat, they got on the boat. And he took his store of seeds which he already had stored on the boat along with a bunch of wheat. And they all got on the boat. And in fact, it says that the boat was built out of timbers and they coated it with pit inside and out, kind of similar to our flood story. And then Manu and all these people, they launched the boat into the river. And then the floodwaters start rising and rising and rising and rising. And here's another quote:
"Along the ocean in that stately ship was borne the lord of men, (talking about King Manu) and through its dancing, tumbling billows, and its roaring waters; and the bark, (which is another word for a ship or a boat) tossed to and fro by violent winds, reeled on the surface of the deep, staggering and trembling like a drunken woman. Land was seen no more, nor far horizon, nor the space between; for everywhere around spread the wild waste of waters, reeking atmosphere, and boundless sky. And now when all the world was deluged, naught appeared above the waves.”
So, the flood covered the entire Earth, wiped out all of mankind except for Manu, the men and women who were with him, the animals and their store of seeds. So, in the midst of the storm, the fish shows up again.
Now, he had grown into a large fish when Manu put him back into the ocean. But, by now, he was just this humongous, whale-like, even bigger fish. And he had grown a horn on the top of his head. And he yelled out to Manu.
He said, “Tie a rope around my horn and I will save you.” So, he did that and the fish towed him across the ocean. Now, in some versions this went on for years and years and Manu and the people survived on the wheat that he had taken and by fishing in the ocean. In other versions it was just a short period of time. So, the fish towed him north, went up to the Himalayan Mountains which they called Mount Himavan.
He found a peak above the waters. So, the fish instructed him to tie the boat one of the crags, which he did. And then as the water subsides, he was to go to a lower crag and lower crag. And so, the boat went down and he moored it at each level. And then finally, the flood ran off. And then all the people got off the boat and then they repopulated the earth. And Manu went and planted all of his seeds and new forests and trees all grew up from his seed. And the animals spread out all around and then the whole earth was then reforested, repopulated with animals and repopulated with humans. That is the Hindu version of the story. The next story I'm going to tell you is the aboriginal story. I told you this story includes a very large frog.
This story has captured the imagination of children all over Australia and beyond the borders of Australia for many years. It's a really fun story. In fact, there are children's books. And here's one which is called Tiddalick The Frog. And that's the name of our frog Tiddalick. And you can see here that Tiddalick was a very large frog. So, here's the story. In a time period which is called ‘dreamtime.’ Now, dreamtime, let me give you just a little bit history here.
Dreamtime, in aboriginal world, is a time before history. A time before memory. A time in the past. And some say that it was 55,000 years ago. But anyway, it is before the oral tradition, before history. When you tell
a story in the aboriginal culture you start out: Long time before, during dreamtime. (that's when this story happened)
There was a giant frog whose name was Tiddalick. Tiddalick had this insatiable thirst and he was all the time thirsty, thirsty, thirsty. He went around, he drank and he drank an he drank.
And as he drank, he kept getting bigger and bigger and bigger. So, he drank up all the water from the billabongs. He drank up all the water from the creeks. He drank up all the water from the rivers, all the lakes and finally all the ocean. So that all the water in the entire world was now inside of Tiddalick. Now, a drought obviously ensued. And all the animals were trying to figure out how they're going to get through this. So, they had a council.
And at this council many different animals showed up. You know the kangaroo, the emu, all the Australian animals showed up at this council. So, they were informed that Tiddalick the frog had all the water. And they needed to figure out a way to get Tiddalick to release the water. So, they talked and talked and talked and no one could figure out how to get the water back out. Finally, wombat came up with an idea.
He said, “Aha, if we could just get Tiddalick to laugh, then he would spill all the water back out and all of our problems would be solved.” So, they talked among themselves and decided we’re going to make him laugh. Who's going to go first? So, kookaburra volunteered to go first. Because kookaburra is all the time laughing, I mean kookaburra laughs and laughs and laughs. so, kookaburra went through his motions. He was cackling and laughing and all the other animals are kind of giggling and laughing. But Tiddalick the frog was unmoved. He was not amused at all by kookaburra.
So, kookaburra quit and then emu and kangaroo decided that they would have a leapfrog contest. So, they started leaping and jumping over each other and leaping and jumping and leaping and jumping. Again,
Tiddalick was unmoved. In fact, he started falling asleep. So now, here's a big sleeping hulk of a frog with all the water in the world in his belly and no one can get him to laugh. So, next the river eel came up and said, “Aha, I know how to make him laugh!”
So, river eel started squirming and started wiggling. And it was kind of a silly dance. And Tiddalick kind of opened one eye and kind of watched what was going on. And while the river eel was squirming, he accidentally tied himself into a knot. Well, this was the funniest thing that ever happened. All the animals started howling and laughing that river eel had tied himself into a knot. And so, they heard Tiddalick the frog, who now had both eyes open, started kind of giggling a little bit. And he started laughing and finally, finally his laughter sounded like rolling thunder and all the water in the world came out of Tiddalick at the same time. And all that water flooded the earth. Many men, many animals were killed in the ensuing flood.
And then, finally this flood subsided and went back to its normal levels. And all the billabongs were filled. All the rivers were filled. All the creeks were filled and everything was right in the world again.
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.
