Noah was a man who did what was right and obeyed God. He had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth.
However everyone else was disobeying God. People were treating each other very badly.
God saw that the people He had created had become very wicked and violent.
God told Noah He was going to put an end to this wickedness by sending a flood to cover the earth. But Noah and his family would be spared.
Noah was given instructions to build a big ark out of wood and cover it in waterproof pitch. It was to be 450ft (135 m) long, 75ft (23m) wide and 45ft (14m) high. It would have three decks divided into rooms and a roof with a gap underneath for air to get in. It would have one door on the side.
At once, Noah and his sons started to build the huge box shaped boat.
The wicked people around wondered what Noah and his sons were doing.
When the ark was ready, God told Noah the flood would be coming in 7 days’ time. Noah, his three sons and their wives were told to take their possessions aboard. They stored food for the animals coming aboard too.
Seven pairs of each clean animal and bird, one male the other female, were put into the ark. Two of every unclean animal were also taken on board. (Unclean animals were those such as lizards, moles, pigs, owls, mice, ferrets and ravens.
God then closed the door of the ark and the rain began to fall. For 40 days it rained heavily; rivers burst their banks, and flood waters got higher and higher.
As the waters rose, the ark began to float.
The waters kept rising until they covered all the high mountains. Every living creature on land outside the ark was wiped out.
The water flooded the earth for 150 days but those on board the ark were kept safe.
As the flood water went down the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat.
After 40 days Noah sent out a raven but it found nowhere to land.
Then he sent out a dove. It flew around looking for land.
But it could find nowhere to perch and returned to the ark. Noah reached out his hand and brought it back into the ark.
Seven days later he sent out the dove again.
Later that evening it returned with a freshly plucked leaf. Noah knew the water was receding.
A week later he sent out the dove a third time but it did not return. Noah knew that the dove had found land.
Noah removed the roof of the ark and saw the land was drying out. Two months later the land was dry enough for Noah, his family and the animals to leave the ark.
Noah built an altar to the Lord and made sacrifices to God.
God was pleased with the offering and promised never again to destroy all living creatures. ‘As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’
God put a rainbow in the sky. God then told Noah, ‘This rainbow is the sign of my promise never to flood the whole earth again.’
No comments:
Post a Comment