2 Noah and the Flood [Genesis 6:5–9:17]
The Bible passage: [Genesis 6:5–9:17]
The Story:
About 1600 years after Adam and Eve, God saw that humans all over the earth were wicked and evil. God regretted that He had made mankind. God declared that He would wipe man off the face of the earth along with all the animals that He had created.
Noah, however, found favor in God’s sight. Noah was righteous and blameless among all the people on the earth. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
God told Noah, “The earth is filled will violence because of mankind, and I’m going to put an end to them. Build yourself an ark of planed lumber. Make rooms in it and cover it with pitch inside and out. Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Put a roof on the ark and a door in the side. Build it with three decks.
“I am going to bring a flood on the earth to destroy all life. Everything on earth will die. But I will make a covenant with you. You will enter the ark with your wife and your sons and their wives. You will also take a male and female of every animal on the ark. You need to gather food for everything that will be on the ark.”
God’s plan was that the ark would be the first boat, and that it would be used to save Noah and his family.
Noah did this and everything that God told him to do.
Once the ark was finished, God told Noah, “Enter the ark with your family. Take seven pairs (a male and a female) of clean animals with you. Take two of the unclean animals (a male and a female). In seven days, I’m going to make it start raining and it will rain for 40 days and 40 nights and I will destroy everything that lives on the earth.”
Again, Noah did all that God told him to do. Noah was 600 years old at this point.
Seven days later, with Noah’s family and the animals in the ark, God closed the door and the rain began. Water also came up from all the springs that had watered the earth since the creation of the world.
The rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights. Every living creature on earth that was not on the ark died in the flood. The water covered the entire earth for 150 days.
God caused a wind to cover the earth and the waters began to steadily recede. By the end of another 150 days the waters had decreased greatly.
The ark rested on the top of the mountains of Ararat. The waters continued to recede.
After 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark and sent out a raven. It flew back and forth waiting for the floodwaters to dry up.
Then he sent out a dove. When it couldn’t find a place to land, it came back to the ark.
Seven days later, Noah sent out the dove again. This time it came back with an olive leaf in its beak.
The water that covered the land dried and God told Noah to bring his family and the animals out of the ark.
Noah built an altar to the Lord and offered some of the clean animals as an offering on the altar. God smelled the pleasing aroma of the offering and He said, “I will never again curse the earth because of man, even though he is inclined to evil from his birth. I will never again destroy every living thing this way.”
God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to be fruitful and fill the earth. He put all the animals under their authority and told them that every living creature would be food for them, along with all of the plants. He told them, however, that they must not eat meat that still had its lifeblood in it.
God said that He would never again destroy the earth with a flood and that He would confirm that covenant with the rainbow in the sky.
The Lessons:
- An ark is basically a box to carry something. In the story of Noah, the ark carried Noah, his family, and many animals to protect them from the global flood. You will also read later about the Ark of the Covenant, a very special large, ornate box that was built to carry the tablets of the Ten Commandments.
- A covenant is a verbal contract. In the Bible, most covenants are between God and a person.
- In [Leviticus 11] and other passages, God explained to his people which animals were clean and which were unclean. Unclean animals were to be avoided in most cases and never eaten.
- Since Noah came before those rules were given, we have to assume that God taught Noah which animals were clean and which were unclean.
- To be righteous is to be in right standing with God. It is characterized by living according to his laws and standards. The Bible is clear that no one is righteous. No one. [Romans 3:10] In the Old Testament (before Jesus), God considered some to be righteous based on their keeping a close relationship with him. In the New Testament (starting with Jesus), righteousness comes by accepting the gift of Jesus to be the sacrifice for our sins. I’m afraid this is too complicated to explain in this book, but Hebrew/Greek words translated to English as “righteous” have two possible meanings. The simplest way that I can think of to explain the difference is that one is a journey and one is a destination. God is perfectly righteous and holy. We should strive every day to be more like God. We are on a journey to reach the same status that God IS. When the Bible refers to a person as righteous, it is saying that they have a great relationship with God. It’s NOT saying that they have fully achieved perfection.
- God punished the wicked people of the world.
- At the same time, God protected his righteous followers from that punishment. While God protects his righteous children from punishment, He doesn’t protect them from every bad thing that can happen to them in this world.
- Noah believed God and obeyed Him. That obedience saved Noah’s life and his family’s lives. I don’t know where it originated, but we taught our children that “Obedience is doing what I’m told, when I’m told, with a right heart attitude.” We also taught them that “Obedience brings blessings; disobedience brings consequences.”
- When Noah and his family were finally able to come out of the ark, he gave an offering to show his thankfulness to God for saving his family.
Next: 3 The Tower of Babel [Genesis 11:1–9]
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