Story 7

After it rained for 40 days and nights the waters overwhelmed the Earth for 150 days and then the flood began to subside. Noah sent out a Raven and a Dove to see if they would come back, which it is unlikely if they found dry land and fresh vegetation. This was a sign to him that the flood waters had subsided.

The Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat and God commanded Noah and his family to leave the Ark along with all the living things. Then Noah built an altar and made sacrifices to God in recognition that he was their God and universal sovereign. God so much appreciated this that he resolved in his heart never to flood the Earth again and he made a promise to the human family.

See what you make of this powerful story.

The flood water subsides

8 Then God remembered Noah, the wildlife and the livestock that were with him in the Ark. God caused a wind to blow over the Earth and the water began to subside. 2 The springs of the watery depths and the floodgates of the sky were closed and the downpour from the sky stopped. 3 The flood upon the Earth continued to subside until there was none 150 days later. 4 On the 17^th day of the 7^th month the Ark came to rest on Mount Ararat. 5 The water continued to steadily subside until the tenth month. On the 1^st of the 10^th month the tops of the mountains appeared.

The Raven and the Dove

6 At the end of the 40 days Noah proceeded to open the window of the Ark he had made. 7 He sent out a raven and it kept flying around outdoors, going to and fro until the water on the Earth dried off.

8 Later he sent out a dove to see whether the water had subsided from the surface of the Earth. 9 The dove did not find any resting place for the soles of its feet. So, it returned and went into the Ark, because the water was still on the surface of the Earth. He took it and brought it inside the Ark.

10 He waited another seven days and once again sent out the Dove from the Ark. 11 Later at about evening time, the dove returned and “Look!” a freshly plucked olive leaf was in his beak, and so Noah realised that the water had subsided on the Earth.

12 He waited another seven days. He sent out the dove, but it did not return again. 13 On the 1^st day, of the 1^st month of the 601^st year, the water had subsided from the Earth. Noah removed the covering from the Ark to look out and see, and now the surface of the Earth had drained dry. 14 And on the 27^th day of the second month the Earth was dried off.

God’s command to Noah

15 Now God spoke to Noah and said

16 “Go out of the Ark, you and your wife, your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every living thing that is with you of every sort of flesh from among the creatures that fly, from among the beasts, from among the creatures that crawl and they must be fruitful and multiply and swarm across the Earth.”

18 At that Noah and his wife and his sons and their wives, 19 every living thing, every creature that crawls, the flying creatures and all the wildlife left the Ark according to their specie.

God’s promise to Noah

20 Noah began to build an altar to God and he took some of the clean animals and birds and offered burnt sacrifices upon the altar. 21 And God began to smell a pleasant scent and so he resolved in his heart “Never again shall I call down evil upon the ground because of man, as the man is inclined to sin from an early age, and never shall I deal everything living a treacherous blow as I have done. 22 For as long as the Earth shall be, planting to harvesting, freezing to warmth, summer to winter, from day to night – things shall never cease!