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The Flood
Genesis 7 and 8
Good News Translation (GNT)
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1 The Lord said to Noah, "Go into the boat with
your whole family; I have found that you are
the only one in all the world who does what is
right.
2 Take with you seven pairs of each kind of
ritually clean animal, but only one pair of
each kind of unclean animal.
3 Take also seven pairs of each kind of bird.
Do this so that every kind of animal and bird
will be kept alive to reproduce again on the
earth.
4 Seven days from now I am going to send rain
that will fall for forty days and nights, in order
to destroy all the living beings that I have
made."
5 And Noah did everything that the Lord
commanded.
11 When Noah was six hundred years old, on the
seventeenth day of the second month all the
outlets of the vast body of water beneath the
earth burst open, all the floodgates of the
sky were opened,
12 and rain fell on the earth for forty days and
nights.
13 On that same day Noah and his wife went
into the boat with their three sons,
Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and their wives.
14 With them went every kind of animal, domestic
and wild, large and small, and every kind of
bird.
15 A male and a female of each kind of living
being went into the boat with Noah,
16 as God had commanded. Then the Lord shut
the door behind Noah.
17 The flood continued for forty days, and the
water became deep enough for the boat to
float.
18 The water became deeper, and the boat
drifted on the surface.
Genesis 8
The End of the Flood
6 After forty days Noah opened a window
7 and sent out a raven. It did not come back,
but kept flying around until the water was
completely gone.
8 Meanwhile, Noah sent out a dove to see if
the water had gone down,
9 but since the water still covered all the land,
the dove did not find a place to light. It flew
back to the boat, and Noah reached out
and took it in.
10 He waited another seven days and sent out
the dove again.
11 It returned to him in the evening with a fresh
olive leaf in its beak. So Noah knew that the
water had gone down.
12 Then he waited another seven days and sent
out the dove once more; this time it did not
come back.
13 When Noah was 601 years old, on the first
day of the first month, the water was gone.
Noah removed the covering of the boat,
looked around, and saw that the ground was
getting dry.
14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second
month the earth was completely dry.
15 God said to Noah,
16 Go out of the boat with your wife, your sons,
and their wives.
17 Take all the birds and animals out with you,
so that they may reproduce and spread over
all the earth."
18 So Noah went out of the boat with his wife,
his sons, and their wives.
Genesis 9
God's Covenant with Noah
8 God said to Noah and his sons,
9 "I am now making my covenant with you
and with your descendants,
10 and with all living beings - all birds and all
animals - everything that came out of the boat
with you.
11 With these words I make my covenant
with you: I promise that never again will all
living beings be destroyed by a flood;
never again will a flood destroy the earth.
12 As a sign of this everlasting covenant which
I am making with you and with all living
beings,
13 I am putting my bow in the clouds. It will be
the sign of my covenant with the world.
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Taken from 'word-on-the-web' supplied by the
Scripture Union
The Flood
Genesis 7, 8 and 9
The flood was going to be a significant event.
It's important to notice that all animals were
represented in the ark, whether they were
considered to be 'clean' or 'unclean'.
The Jews used only the 'clean' animals for food
and sacrifice, so the 'unclean' ones would
simply be able to reproduce once
the flood had subsided.
Noah might have been tempted to choose
only the 'clean' animals, considering the
unclean ones as not worth saving.
God created animals,
He regarded them all as 'very good'
(Genesis 1;31),
and therefore they all had a place on the ark.
It's interesting that the flood didn't
actually happen for seven days after
they entered the ark.
I wonder whether there was a point during
that time when Noah wondered whether
he had imagined God telling him to build it?
It must have been hard for them to wait...
and wait... especially if the neighbours
were taunting them all, watching them sitting
on a boat in the middle of a desert!
The animals were quicker to get on board
than the people. Throughout the Bible,
creatures have been obedient to God,
donkeys, lions, great fish and even worms
obeyed God, but people ...!
Remember anyone could have got on board the Ark.
Unfortunately pride, family, friends or
just a love of what they were involved in
kept them out of the Ark and away from safety.
Safety isn't found on the gang-plank,
it's on board the Ark!
Even with the movement of so many animals,
people just watched instead of acting quickly.
Then came the saddest words in the Bible _
the Lord closed the door!
Now, as the first drops of rain fell
and the flood broke, how many thought,
"If only I had . . . "?
God loves people.
He demonstrates that in Jesus dying for you _
all you have to do is get on board,
before the door of opportunity is closed!
Imagine it. Shut up all that time in a boat
full of animals. Just waiting.
They still had God with them.
What would you do and how would you cope if
all the things that seem important to you
were not there?
Noah sent out a raven, an unclean bird,
but it just flew about.
Maybe it landed on, and ate from,
dead floating things.
The dove was different;
it couldn't find a place to land
so it came back to Noah and to
the place of safety.
We all have choices about what we do
but are you doing and going to the right places?
When the dove was sent out again
it found a place to land,
vegetation hadn't been destroyed,
and the dove came back with a fresh
olive leaf in its beak.
That has been a symbol of peace for years.
Noah remained patient even though he knew
the ground was almost dry.
The dove stayed away when
it was in a safe place.
We should be the same -
come back to the ark of safety in Jesus
if you're unsure as to what's right,
check things out with Him.
Remember, He cares about you
and the decisions you make
and places you go.
Finally, we have the covenant that God promised in chapter 6
and spoke to himself in chapter 8, though note that four times
we are told that the covenant includes animals as well as humans.
The covenant is mentioned seven times and the
bow/sign of the covenant five times - and three times
God says that he will not again destroy the world.
Again, what is reiterated is life.
Nevertheless, it is a sobering thought that when God looks on his rainbow,
he thinks,
'No, I must not destroy them, despite the atrocities that I see'.
Father, we cannot understand how, hating sin as you do,
you still love us as you do, but we thank you for your patience,
love and forgiveness.
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