The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat because God sent a wind over the earth that made the floodwaters recede (Genesis 8:1-4), and Les Feldick teaches that the mountain ranges we know today came up as a result of the flood (Clip 7).
Genesis 8 records that after 150 days, God remembered Noah, made a wind pass over the earth, and the waters 'assuaged' and kept returning until the ark rested in the seventh month on the seventeenth day upon the mountains of Ararat. The supplied clips do not cover that landing moment directly, but Les sets its context: the flood was catastrophic and far more than rain, the ark was a stable rectangular box built to survive almost a year afloat (Clips 1-3), and present-day mountains came up as a result of the flood (Clip 7). So the ark came to rest on a mountain range that, Les teaches, was itself shaped by the flood the ark survived.
Genesis 8:1-4 — This passage directly records God sending the wind that caused the waters to subside and the ark to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Genesis 7:11 — This verse identifies the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, which Les calls the secret of the flood's destructive power.
Genesis 7:11 records that the flood began on the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah's six hundredth year, when 'all the fountains of the great deep' were broken up and 'the windows of heaven' were opened. The waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days (Genesis 7:24). Then Genesis 8:1-4 says, 'God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged.' The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, the rain was restrained, and 'the waters returned from off the earth continually.' After the end of the 150 days the waters were abated, and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested 'upon the mountains of Ararat.'
Les Feldick does not, in these clips, walk through the specific moment the ark touched down on Ararat, but his teaching sets the stage for it. He repeatedly corrects the Sunday-school picture of the ark as a little round tub with animals peeking out. Instead, he says, the ark was an enclosed rectangular box — the Hebrew word translated 'ark' is also translated 'coffin' in other Genesis passages — built to survive the 'awful rigors' of the flood (Clips 1, 2, 3). He emphasizes that the flood was 'far, far more' than forty days of rain: the ark would be in the water for almost a year, and the secret of the flood's destructive power, he says, is in 'verse 11' — the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep (Clips 2, 3; cf. Genesis 7:11). Most directly, Les teaches that 'our present day mountain ranges came up as a result of the flood' (Clip 7). The mountains of Ararat where the ark came to rest are therefore, in Les's understanding, part of a mountain landscape that the flood itself brought into its present form.
According to Genesis 8:1-4, God's first recorded act in winding down the flood was to make a wind pass over the earth. The waters then 'assuaged' — the fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, the rain was restrained, and the waters 'returned from off the earth continually.' At the end of 150 days the waters were abated, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
Les Feldick teaches that the earth 'that now is' — our mountains, rivers, plains, and streams — began on this side of Noah's flood. He puts it plainly: 'Our present day mountain ranges came up as a result of the flood' (Clip 7). The resting place of the ark, the mountains of Ararat, is therefore understood as part of the mountain ranges that the catastrophic flood itself raised and reshaped.
Les emphasizes that the ark was not a sailing vessel — it was an enclosed rectangular box. Because the flood was far more than forty days of rain and the ark would remain in the water for almost a year, it had to be built to withstand 'the awful rigors of the flood' (Clips 1-3). The same design that kept the ark through the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep carried it through the receding waters until it rested in the seventh month on the mountains of Ararat (Genesis 8:4).
Noah’s Flood & The Middle East Oil Prophecy | Genesis Bible Study
And all of that was just plowed under. And I've talked to coal miners who have worked in coal mines almost a mile deep. And he said, every once in a while you'll see right in that vein of coal the perfect outline of a tree, of a limb, of leaves. So they know that all this stuff at one time was living vegetation.
The Ark as a Stable Rectangular Box
Les corrects the popular Sunday-school picture: the ark was not a round tub with a shed, but a rectangular box designed by God to survive the coming flood.
A Flood Far Worse Than Forty Days of Rain
Les explains the ark had to be built for almost a year in the water, so the flood was far more than the forty days of rain most people picture.
The Fountains of the Great Deep
Les identifies the secret of the flood's destructive power as the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep, the reason the ark had to endure catastrophic conditions.
What the Tabernacle Reveals About Christ Most People Miss
Now, I know it was there at the time of the Babylonian invasion, but I can't find anything in the record that the Babylonians took, that is, under Nebuchadnezzar, took the Ark with them. So, I'm going to leave you with some Bible study. You do some searching of the Scriptures, and same way with the Jews on television. If you can give me a hint, I'm just more than willing to listen.
Moses, the Ark, and the Second Coming: Unlocking the Prophetic Pattern
So when they saw that he was this kind of a child, she hid him three months. Then, when she could no longer hide him, in verse 3, she took for him an ark of bulrushes. Now remember, an ark is an ark. And remember when we were way back in Genesis, I told you that the Hebrew word ark is also translated in the last verse of the last chapter of Genesis as what? A coffin. So it was just simply a box.
What Saves You? Head Knowledge vs. Heart Belief
Somebody just asked me at one of our breaks, where do I think the Ark of the Covenant is tonight? Well, we know it's been gone ever since the Babylonian captivity and the invasion of Nebuchadnezzar, but there is nothing to indicate the Babylonians took it with them. So turn back with me to Revelation, because I think maybe others have had that same question.
Mountain Ranges Raised by the Flood
Les teaches that today's mountain ranges, including the mountains where the ark rested, came up as a result of the flood.
Genesis 8:1: And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;
God's sending of the wind was the direct cause of the floodwaters beginning to subside.
Genesis 8:3-4: And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated. And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
This is the verse that directly records the ark coming to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
Genesis 7:11: In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Les describes the breaking up of the fountains of the great deep as the secret of the flood's power (Clip 3).
Genesis 8:1-4 says God remembered Noah and sent a wind to pass over the earth. The waters assuaged and returned off the earth continually, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat.
Scripture says the ark rested on the 'mountains of Ararat' — describing a mountain region, not a single peak. Les Feldick adds that present-day mountain ranges came up as a result of the flood (Clip 7), so Ararat's mountains are part of the flood-reshaped earth.
No. Les Feldick teaches the flood was far more than forty days of rain and that the ark was in the water for almost a year (Clips 2-3). Genesis records that the ark rested in the seventh month of the year the flood began (Genesis 8:4).
Watch the Teaching: Noah’s Flood & The Middle East Oil Prophecy | Genesis Bible Study