Few living creatures have maintained their size or integrity since the world wide flood of Noah some 4,500 years ago. We see animal and plant of extra ordinary size in the fossil record
For example; Penguins 5 ft tall. Beavers 8 ft long and 450 lbs., tassel ferns of today stand no higher than the knee and yet in the fossil record it shows they soared to 100 feet!
As we turn our attention to the 200 – 300+ ft tall Sequoias and Redwood trees. The characteristics are striking. Robust, tall, strong, long lived (1,000+ yrs.) and impervious to diseases, nasty wood boring insects or anything! It’s almost as if these trees have two parts to their trunks: one part sunk deep into the pre-flood soil some 5,000 ago and the other into our soil today.
But these trees represent more than scenery, it helps us see who we were once. Before the great Noachian flood we find a people described in the book of Genesis (3,500 B.C.) and the writings of Josephus (100 A.D.) who were like the Giant Sequoias:
1) Long lived – up to 969 years
2) Tall giants – the Bible tells us that Goliath, who was a post-flood hold out in size, was nearly 12 feet tall (6 cubits and a span) when the Royal cubit is used.
3) Resilient to disease and decay. With such thick bark, almost impervious to wood destroying insects, and fire, do they indicate that man before the flood may also have had a greater resilience to decay and disease considering the average life span of 895 years. Some sequoias are so old they are nearly as old as the first trees reseeded shortly after the flood or 4500 years old.
Consider its cousin the “Methuselah” tree. There is a Bristlecone Pine that is estimated to be almost 5,000 years old. That makes this tree the oldest living thing on the planet!
Next time you plan a trip to California, take a tour among the earth’s last vestige of true giants and glimpse not only our past but also God’s promise of tomorrow.