Noah And The Ark. The Flood


The Lord gave Noah detailed specifications on how to build the Ark.  

He then instructed Noah to bring pairs of all the animals into the Ark [male and female] ... and to make sure that there was enough food for all life on the Ark.

And the time came that the Ark was ready.  

Noah and his family started to move all their things into the Ark, and the animals came, two by two, to fill their space in the Ark.  

The Lord notified Noah, while the animals were busy finding their way into the Ark, that the seventh day from that moment would be the day that man would know His Wrath. 

When The Lord was sure that everybody was in the Ark, He shut the door close to the Ark, from the outside.

Noah was 600 years 2 months and 17 days old when all the fountains welled up from the deepness of the earth to overrun the earth.  It was the day that the windows of heaven were opened.  It rained storms for 40 days and 40 nights non-stop ... and everything on the earth drowned ... all the animals, birds and all of humankind. There was nothing alive except for those in the Ark.  And the water covered the earth for 150 days.

The Lord then thought of Noah and all the living things that were in the Ark. 

He made a wind that passed over the whole of the earth so that the water declined, as well as the fountains that had fed the drowning waters. 

The windows to Heaven closed and the rain stopped.

The water then slowly evaporated and disappeared slowly from the face of the earth, until the Ark rested on Mount Ararat.

Noah first sent out a raven and then a dove.

There was great joy on the Ark ... the day that the big ship found ground!  Noah then waited another 40 days before he opened a window and sent a dove out.  But the dove couldn't find a foothold.  So he flew back to the Ark.  Noah waited another 7 days and then he sent out another dove. And that evening the dove returned with an olive branch in his beack.  Noah waited again for 7 days before he send the dove out again.  This time the dove didn't come back.

In the year 601, on the first day of the first month, was Earth dry from all the water.  And Noah opened the latch of the Ark for the first time to walk out on the deck and he could see that the land was dry.

The Lord came to Noah and spoke with him. He told Noah to open the Ark so that the living things could go out and breed and multiply on the face of the earth. Then Noah went out with his wife, his sons and their wifes and with all the animals that was on the Ark.

The first thing that Noah did was to build an altar for God, and gave Him offerings from pure animals to show his gratitude that The Lord had spared their lifes.

And when The Lord smelled the sweet savour of the offerings He said in His heart: 'I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake ... for the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth.  Neither will I again smite any more every living thing, as I have done.  While the earth remains, seed time and harvests, cold and heat, summer and winter and the day and night shall not cease.'

The Lord then blessed Noah and his sons and said to them: 'Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth.  And you will be master over every living thing and they will be meat for you to eat ... but not the blood. The life that flows in the blood is Mine.'

He then made a bond with Noah that He will not drown the earth again, ever.  The rainbow would be His sign so that man can remember the bond between God and himself.

So, Noah started to be a husband and he planted a vineyard.  The time then came for him to make the wine.  He got drunk from the wine and passed out naked in his tent.

His son Ham, the father of Canaan, came into the tent and saw his drunken naked father and immediately went to his two brothers to snicker about his father's state.  Shem and Japheth immediately went and covered their father in a garment without looking at his nakedness.

When Noah woke up from his sleep he knew what his son had done to him and he cursed Ham and his bloodline to be servants to his brothers.

Noah lived another 350 years after the flood.



Source: The Bible: Genesis 7