Story Set # 2 Noah and the Flood

Noah and the Flood
God’s purpose for creating mankind was to develop a community. Humans would have to be perfectly obedient to God in order to live in community with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. Unfortunately, we know that our common ancestors Adam and Eve failed to be obedient. They disobeyed God in the Garden of Eden and were punished with both physical and spiritual death. What then has become of God’s plan for a perfect community? The Bible tells us the stories of God’s actions throughout human history to correct the problem that we are not able to fix.

All humans have inherited Adam’s disobedient nature. We struggle to do the right thing and try to obey our God-given conscience but without exception we all eventually fail and disobey God. The Bible calls disobedience to God “sin” and teaches that everyone is a sinner. Spiritually we are all separated from God’s community because we have inherited Adam’s sinful nature. God, however, is perfectly fair and holds us most accountable for our own individual disobedience.

This is the story of mankind’s punishment for sin.

Adam and Eve multiplied and the number of people on earth grew rapidly. God continued to bless His creation in spite of their tendency towards disobedience. Unfortunately, mankind responded to God’s loving care not with obedience but with ever increasing evil. One day God observed how wicked the people’s thoughts were and became sorry that He had ever created mankind. He decided to destroy what He had created. But in all the earth one man called Noah found favor in the sight of God.

Noah consistently obeyed God and enjoyed the intimate relationship of their community. God told Noah of His plan to destroy His creation with water because it had become totally corrupt. He instructed Noah to build a special structure out of wood and seal it with tar, inside and out. God gave Noah very specific details for building a craft that would float on the water as it rose and covered all the earth. It would be a large boat that had the capacity to hold Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives and miraculously two of every kind of creature that lived on the earth at that time. Noah worked very hard on the boat for many years and did everything exactly as God commanded. Then he began collecting sufficient food for his family and all the animals in accordance with God’s instructions. Finally, God called a male and female pair of all the animals He had created and brought them to Noah to be placed in stalls on the boat. He also told Noah to take along extra pairs of male and female animals that had been approved for eating and offering to God as a sacrifice. At last the day came when God said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I consider you alone to be righteous.” Noah and his family entered the boat and God shut them inside. It began to rain.

For forty days and nights waters from beneath the earth burst forth and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. Flood waters began to rise and cover the earth but Noah’s boat floated safely on the surface. Finally, the water covered even the highest peaks on earth and all things that lived on land and breathed air died. Mankind was completely destroyed except for Noah and his family which God had preserved in accordance with His plan for salvation.
Then God sealed up the underground water and the rains stopped but the flood waters covered the earth for 150 days. As God sent a strong wind to blow across the waters the flood began to go down. Exactly five months from the time the flood began, Noah’s boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (a region in modern day Turkey). Two and a half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks began to appear. After another forty days, Noah opened the window God had instructed him to build in the boat and sent out a dove to see if it could find dry ground. It returned because the water was still too high. Seven days later he released a dove again and it returned with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. A week later, Noah released the dove and this time it did not come back. Finally, after ten and a half months the earth was again dry and God said to Noah, “Leave the boat, all of you.”

Noah built an altar of stones and sacrificed animals to God that had been approved for that purpose. God was pleased with the sacrifice because He knew that Noah was grateful for the protection and care that his family had received. God blessed Noah and his family and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth. I promise never to send another flood like this and have placed my rainbow in the clouds as a reminder of this covenant. Never again will there be a flood that destroys all life.” Shem, Ham, and Japheth, the three sons of Noah, survived the flood with their father. From these three sons of Noah came all the people now scattered across the earth.

Again we can see that God desires community with His creation. Even when mankind becomes totally corrupted and deserves punishment for their sin, God provides a solution that we cannot provide for ourselves. His love for us is so great that He has provided a lifeboat big enough to hold everyone who will obediently respond to the invitation to join His Community.