Here we are, one of the most well-known stories. By this time, the land was populated by lots of people. Of course......sadly, there was more evil than good, as God had seen. "Every inclination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil all the time." That's pretty sad, and you could imagine how God felt. His once "very good" creation had turned....not so good. So, what was to be done? Start from scratch of course.
Send a flood that will wipe man and all living things from the earth.
That's one pretty darn epic solution if you ask me. However, there lived one soul that followed God. This soul was Noah. He was "blameless among the people of his time." So, God was going to let this guy and his family live. But how were they going to do that? Build a boat that would make even the Titanic proud of course!
I like in the verse how God is descriptive in how to make the boat. (Better known as the Ark.) Not only that, he commanded Noah to bring two of every living creature on board the vessel. (Saves the work of creating new animals later.)
I'm guessing while building the Ark Noah tried to convince the people of the upcoming storm and to repent. To these people, Noah seemed like some crazy old guy who was building a large boat. For what? Rain? HA! It's never rained before, why would it now? That was probably their response.
According to the verse, Noah was 600 years old when the Flood came. Wow, I'm going to have to say that people must have aged differently back then. 600 back then might have looked like 100 now. I believe this was the first time the earth experienced rain. Springs from the beneath ground burst, and the floodgates of the heavens opened. (I'm going to say the heavens refer to the sky.) So for forty days and forty nights the water covered the earth. I wonder what Noah and his family did in the Ark for that period of time. Fed the animals of course, and I'm guessing they played an early version of chess. How high were the waters? Look at Mt. Everest, the water covered more than twenty feet above that! Everything was wiped out, every single living thing. Except Noah and his family. (Can't forget the animals also.)
God didn't forget about them naturally, so when it was time, He sent a wind that receded the waters. Noah kept sending out a dove to see when it was safe to get out, imagine the great feeling of seeing it carry a freshly plucked olive leaf. When they had all gotten out, Noah made an altar to God. God then said that He will never again destroy all living creatures. Never again will there be such a large flood that can destroy the earth. (So that movie 2012? Nope.)
I'm no geologist, but the Flood did a lot to the climate. Before there was was no rain, and the inner earth was affected. Now for the dinosaurs question. I believe the Flood was the thing that wiped out the dinos. Then of course you're reading this and saying "Wouldn't have Noah brought some dinosaurs with him?" Now, due to the changed conditions of the earth due to the Flood, perhaps the dinosaurs couldn't live in the environment. How's that for an answer?!
The nice looking rainbow is a remembrance of God's covenant with Noah. Another fun fact is that God said that "My spirit will not contend with man forever, for man is mortal, (yeah, another term used a lot in later media) and his days will be a hundred and twenty years." Yup, so no one gets above that number. So make life count within those one hundred and twenty years!
In closing, the story of Noah and the Flood is still an interesting story to this day. How God got angry over his creation is fascinating, and the whole Flood concept is truly something else. The Ark still stands as the largest boat ever.
By the way, we just had a short earthquake hit Virginia, and it was felt all the way here in New Jersey. Wow, writing about the Flood and then feeling an earthquake.....uncanny stuff.
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