Lesson 1.5: Noah And The Flood

Loved one, WORK AT YOUR OWN PACE, and please be patient as you study. Reply with ONLY the 11 answers to the exam. The next lesson will then be sent with your corrected exam answers. A beautiful completion certificate will be sent to your email upon completion of all 36 lessons.

Pray for wisdom and understanding as you absorb this Spirit filled, faith building, knowledgeable material (John 8:32). If you would like to comment or ask a Bible question, please do. Lord willing, a Bible answer to your question will be provided.

To the good God of Heaven and Earth be the Glory as His Will is done (1 Corinthians 10:31). We love you with the love of the Lord (John 13:34-35; Ephesians 4:15). The Liberty NW church of Christ, meeting in Portland, Oregon, USA.

Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61572427827731

LESSON 1.5: NOAH AND THE FLOOD

Loved one, the number of people living on the earth continued to increase, and the Lord God saw that the people were very evil (Read Genesis chapter 6). They thought only about evil things all the time. All this evil made the Lord sad in His heart. He was sorry He had made people.

God's Response to Evil

The Lord said, "I will destroy all the people I created on the earth. I will destroy every person and every animal and everything that crawls on the earth. And I will also destroy the birds in the air" (vs. 5-7).

There was one man on earth, however, who pleased and found grace in the eyes of Jehovah. His name was Noah (v. 8). Noah was a good man who always walked with God. Noah and his wife had three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth (vs. 9-10).

When God looked at the earth, He saw that people had ruined it. Violence was everywhere, and it had ruined their life on earth.

God said to Noah, "Everyone has filled the earth with anger and violence, so I will destroy all living things. I will remove them from the earth" (vs. 11-13, cf. v. 17).

Then God said to Noah, "Build a boat with rooms out of gopher wood and cover it with tar. Make the boat 146 meters (300 cubits; 450 feet) long, twenty-three meters (50 cubits; 75 feet) wide, and fourteen meters (30 cubits; 45 feet) high. Make a window for the boat about half a meter (1 cubit; eighteen inches) below the roof. Put a door in the side of the boat, and make three floors—a top deck, a middle deck, and a lower deck" (vs. 14-16).

Noah Obeys God's Command

Noah trusted God and by faith did the things God commanded (Hebrews 11:7). Noah built the big boat according to God's instructions (Genesis 6:22). While the boat was being built, Noah preached to the people, warning them that a flood was coming, and urged them to change their ways, but the people would not take heed to him (2 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 3:19-20).

Finally, the Lord God established a covenant with Noah and said, "Gather your family and go into the boat. Get seven pairs (seven males and seven females) of every kind of clean animal. And get one pair (one male and one female) of every other animal on earth. Get seven pairs (seven males and seven females) of all the birds. This will allow all the animals to continue living on earth after the other animals are destroyed. Seven days from now I will send much rain on the earth. It will rain for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe everything off the face of the earth. I will destroy every living thing I made" (Genesis 7:1-4).

The Flood Begins

Noah did everything the Lord told him to do (v. 5). He and his family went into the boat. All the animals, all the birds, and all the insects that Noah had gathered went into the boat with 600-year-old Noah. God closed the door behind them (v. 16), and seven days later the flood began.

On the seventeenth day of the second month, all the springs under the ground split open, and water began flowing from the ground. That same day, the rains began falling on the earth. It was like windows in the sky were opened. The rain fell for forty days and forty nights. The water began rising and lifted the boat off the ground. The water continued to rise, and the boat floated on the water, high above the earth. The water rose until it was more than six meters (15 cubits; twenty feet) above the highest mountain on the earth.

So the flood destroyed every living thing that was on the earth—every person, every animal, everything that crawls, and every bird. God saved the lives of Noah, his family, and the animals with them in the ark (vs. 21-23).

The Flood Ends

The Lord made a wind blow over the earth, and the water began to disappear (Genesis 8). After 150 days the water was low enough that the boat touched land and stopped on one of the mountains of Ararat. This was the seventeenth day of the seventh month, five months after the flood began. The water continued to go down, and by the first day of the tenth month, the tops of the mountains were above the water.

Forty days later, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat and sent out a raven. The raven flew from place to place until the ground was dry.

Noah also sent out a dove. Water still covered the earth, so the dove came back to the boat. Noah reached out his hand, caught the dove, and brought it back into the ship.

After seven days, Noah sent the dove out again. That afternoon the dove came back with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. This was a sign to Noah that the water had dried up on the earth. Seven days later, Noah sent the dove out again, but this time the dove did not come back.

God Makes An Agreement With Noah

Two months later, on the twenty-seventh day of the second month (one year and seventeen days after he had entered the boat), Noah took the roof off the boat and went out with his sons, his wife, and his sons' wives. All the animals, everything that crawls, and every bird left the boat.

Then Noah built an altar and worshiped the Lord. Noah took some of all the clean birds and animals that had been with him in the boat, and he sacrificed them on the altar as a gift to God. God blessed Noah and his sons and made an agreement with them. God said, "This is my promise to you. All life on the earth was destroyed by the flood, but that will never happen again. I am putting a rainbow in the clouds as proof of the agreement between me and the earth. When I see the rainbow, I will remember the agreement between me and the earth" (Genesis 9:8-17).

After coming out of the boat Noah became a farmer (v. 20). Noah and his family started a new life. God told Noah and his family to spread out and fill the earth with people again. Thus, all ethnic groups of the human race today are related through Noah. There should be no arguing and hate between families.

Mysteries Explained

The biblical account of the flood helps explain several geological mysteries. For example, geologists say that the stone trees in America's Petrified Forest came from mountains 100 kilometers (sixty-two miles) away. Somehow, these trees floated 100 kilometers across the desert to their present location and were covered quickly by several hundred feet of soil. This put such great pressure on the logs that the wood turned to stone.

In one case, a petrified log extends at an angle through several layers of soil. That means that these layers of soil must have been laid down around the log quickly, as in a flood. If each layer (stratum) had been laid down slowly over millions of years, the log would have rotted.

According to Chinese tradition, Fa-He founded the Chinese civilization. Tradition says that a great flood was sent upon the earth because of humanity’s rebellion against heaven. Fa-He escaped from the flood in a boat, along with his wife, three sons, and three daughters.

Native Americans, Assyrians, Babylonians, Brazilians, Druids, Egyptians, Fiji Islanders, Greeks, Greenlanders, Hindus, Indians, Mexicans, Peruvians, Phrygians, Polynesians, and other ancient cultures have traditions of a great flood that destroyed all people except one family.

The Bible is not a science textbook. It does not solve all the mysteries of the universe. Yet, the biblical account of the flood provides answers for many of the questions that scientists are asking.

We Are Caught In A Conflict Between Good And Evil

The biblical account of Noah teaches us that we are caught in a conflict between good and evil.

1. The forces of evil are powerful and widespread. After sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, it gained control of their son Cain. From Cain, it spread throughout the earth. People were held captive by lust, greed, violence, and other forms of evil. The happiness and joy that Adam and Eve had experienced in the Garden of Eden disappeared. Misery and fear took their place. Life on earth was ruined by sin.

The forces of evil are still very powerful in the world today. Our prisons are full and running over. Evil people are abusing members of their own families. Wives are beaten by their husbands. Children are physically, emotionally, and sexually abused by parents, relatives, or friends. The minds of children, young people, and adults are being destroyed by alcohol and drugs. People are dying of AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. People fight each other, steal from each other, and hurt one another in a variety of ways. The poor are neglected, and the earth is filled with violence—in much the same way it was in Noah's time. Life is ruined by sin.

2. The forces of good are also at work in the world. Noah and his family obeyed God while people around them gave themselves to evil lifestyles. It did not make him popular, but Noah urged his neighbors to turn from their evil ways. Noah has been called "a preacher of righteousness" (2 Peter 2:5).

Evil people usually get more attention than good people do. The news media reports murders, rapes, and robberies, but they are slow to mention the good things people do. Therefore, we forget that there are people all around us who, like Noah, are trying to be faithful to God.

3. God hates evil. The story of Noah and the flood is a story about God's response to sin. God hates sin because sin is rebellion against Him, and because sin hurts the people He loves. Adultery, child abuse, lying, stealing, wife beating, and mistreating others can only lead to pain. Like cancer, sin produces suffering and death. God loves everyone and does not want anyone to be hurt.

4. The flood was God's judgment against evil. Tender-hearted people have criticized God for turning a deaf ear to the cries of people drowning in the flood. We must remember, however, that these evil people had refused to listen to God or to obey the preaching of Noah. They had been warned again and again. They had been given opportunity after opportunity to change their hearts and lives, but they had refused to change. They were infected by evil. They were sick with a spiritual disease. God sent the flood to punish evil people. God's plan was not to destroy mankind, but to save humanity from sin.

As we continue our study, we will see how God's plan to save mankind from sin unfolds.