Good morning,
This week our Old Testament Foundation Stone is the Flood. God shows His judgment and His mercy. He judged the men and women who chose to act wickedly and He showed mercy to a man who chose to do righteously.
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he. (Genesis 6:8, 9, 22)
THE FLOOD
The Lord Commands Noah to Enter the Ark
And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation. Of every clean beast thou shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts that are not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of the air by sevens, the male and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth. For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him. And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth. And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood. (Gen 7:1-7)
Length of the flood
And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth. And the waters prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went upon the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died. And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark. And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days. (Genesis 7:17-24)
Flood ends
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; The fountains also of the deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and after the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were bated.
Ark rests on Mountains of Ararat
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat. And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month: in the tenth month, on the first day of the month, were the tops of the mountains seen. And it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to and fro, until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he sent forth a dove from him, to see if the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove found no rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand, and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed yet other seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the dove came in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive leaf plucked off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent forth the dove; which returned not again unto him any more. And it came to pass in the six hundredth and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering of the ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry. And in the second month, on the seven and twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. (Genesis 7:17-8:14)
The Lord commands Noah to enter the ark. Then He tells Noah that of the clean animals, seven male and female. The unclean animals, two male and female. The clean animals would be used for sacrifices.
Noah was 600 years old. Once his family was on board, with the animals and food, it was time for the flood to begin. Keep in mind, no one had ever seen rain before. So this was a first time event. It rained continually for forty days and forty nights. The waters prevailed on the earth for 150 days. The waters were so deep that they were twenty-two- and one-half feet above the highest mountain.
The rain stops and the ark ends up on the mountains of Ararat. Forty days later, Noah sends out a raven and a dove. He does this three times till the dove comes back with an olive leaf. He waits another week and by the second month, on the twenty seventh day, the land was dry.
God took good care of Noah, his family, and all the animals aboard. No deaths or problems.
It took a lot of faith for Noah to build the ark, gather his family, and animals, enter into the ark, and be willing to bounce around for forty days and nights.
Are we willing to follow God’s call as Noah did? Will we go where God sends or say “No” to God? Have we committed ourselves to the basics of reading and obeying God’s word?
Noah did not wake up one morning and say I am going to build an ark for God. Being faithful is a process. The process begins with the basics and increasingly gets more complex.
The “END STATE” is pleasing God.
Tom Stearns, WASI Chaplain, 907 715-4001
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