Genesis 6:9

There are so many wonderful stories in the Bible that I love, it is hard to say which is my actual favorite. However, since I must choose one, today I will write about Noah’s Ark. That was one of my favorite stories in Sunday School as a young child.

So, this story is in Genesis 6:9 – 9:17, it is to many scriptures to type, but I am sure most of you know the story, if not please read it, it is such a beautiful story.

In Genesis chapter 6:13-17, God told Noah that He was going to end all flesh, because man was causing to much violence on the earth. He gave Noah an enormous task. God told him to build an Ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch (this is something similar to tar to waterproof the ark). He said the length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits’, its width should be fifty cubits’, and its height should be thirty cubits’. Noah was to finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. He told Noah to build the ark with a lower deck, second deck, and a third deck, (Noah’s ark had as much storage space as a freight train with approximately 150 boxcars). God commanded him to save all the creatures of the earth from a great flood that he would send to destroy every living thing.

First, he had to gather together “two of every kind,” meaning one male and one female, of bird, animal, and “every creeping thing of the ground…to keep them alive” (Gen 6:20). Noah then herded all these animals aboard the ark that he had built, along with enough food to feed them and his family for the duration of the flood. After the flood, these animals would produce offspring and eventually fill the earth with their species again.

Noah knew he would need some animals to feed his family and some to offer as sacrifices to God after the flood, so he loaded seven pairs of some domestic animals onto the ark, including sheep and fowl. It rained for forty days and forty nights, the flood covered the earth, and you could not see the top of the mountains. After about ten months the waters began to subside, and you could see the top of the mountains.

Noah released a raven and it returned to the ark. When Noah released a dove from the ark for the third time and it did not return, he knew it had found dry land to rest on; the flood’s waters had subsided. However, Noah remained on the ark for a while longer so that the earth could dry completely. Following God’s instructions, Noah freed all the animals he had earlier brought on board and cared for. The creatures streamed out of the ark in groups: wild animals, farm animals, different species of birds, snakes, insects, and every other kind of living thing that could not survive in water. Finally, Noah himself left the ark and stepped out onto dry land, along with his wife, sons, and daughters-in-law.

Noah was enormously grateful to be alive and to be walking on firm earth again. The first thing he did was to build an open-air altar and offered a burnt sacrifice to give thanks to God. Pleased with Noah’s sacrifice, God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to have children to

repopulate the earth.

God promised Noah that “never again shall there be a flood to destroy the entire earth” (Gen 9:11). As a sign of this promise, God placed a rainbow in the sky. Since the time of Noah, the rainbow has been a reminder of God’s promise to us all.

My Story:

When I was approximately seven or six years old, I was riding with my Mom in a really bad thunderstorm with heavy rains. As we continued, we got to a street where the water had settled in the street. Mom stopped the car and watched as the car in front of her drove slowly through the water. After the car made it through, she continued forward as well, but our car stalled and cut off. She tried to restart the car to no avail. Mom got me and my siblings out of the car and walked us about a block to my Uncles house. As she and my Aunt were helping us out of our wet clothes into to dry clothes, I said to her but God promised that he would not send a flood again. Now my Mom and Aunt chuckled a little and assured me that this was not at all a flood, but I remember thinking surely this was a flood that I just waded through and got all my clothes soaking wet.

But as an adult I now understand that storms will come and go but God has never gone back on His Word. The winds may blow, the waters may rise, things may be uprooted and repositioned in the midst. But God has never broken His promise. He still keeps us safe & secured in the midst of it all.

Prayer:

Heavenly Father today we give thanks and praises for all that You have provided us with and thank You for the rainbow and the promise that it reminds us of you never flooding the entire earth again. Thank You for the story of Noah and the ark. It is our prayer that we continue to strive to be pleasing in Your site just as Noah was. This prayer we pray in the precious name of Jesus. Amen