Genesis 7:1-24

The Flood Covers the Earth

1Finally, the day came when the LORD 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. 2Take along seven pairs of each animal that I have approved for eating and for sacrifice, and take one pair of each of the others. 3Then select seven pairs of every kind of bird. There must be a male and a female in each pair to ensure that every kind of living creature will survive the flood. 4One week from today I will begin forty days and forty nights of rain. And I will wipe from the earth all the living things I have created."

5So Noah did exactly as the LORD had commanded him. 6He was 600 years old when the flood came, 7and he went aboard the boat to escape--he and his wife and his sons and their wives. 8With them were all the various kinds of animals--those approved for eating and sacrifice and those that were not--along with all the birds and other small animals. 9They came into the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10One week later, the flood came and covered the earth.

11When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, the underground waters burst forth on the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. 12The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights. 13But Noah had gone into the boat that very day with his wife and his sons--Shem, Ham, and Japheth--and their wives. 14With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of breathing animal--domestic and wild, large and small--along with birds and flying insects of every kind. 15Two by two they came into the boat, 16male and female, just as God had commanded. Then the LORD shut them in.

17For forty days the floods prevailed, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. 18As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. 19Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, 20standing more than twenty-two feet[a] above the highest peaks. 21All the living things on earth died--birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all kinds of small animals, and all the people. 22Everything died that breathed and lived on dry land. 23Every living thing on the earth was wiped out--people, animals both large and small, and birds. They were all destroyed, and only Noah was left alive, along with those who were with him in the boat. 24And the water covered the earth for 150 days.



Dig Deeper

Many people claim that the account of Noah and his flood is not an accurate account. One of the reasons for this is that they claim that all of the animals could not have fit on the Ark. People often say this without really considering how many animals would be necessary and how much room would have been available on the Ark. The Ark was about 450 feet long or the length of one and a half football fields. It was about 75 feet wide which is wider than ten railroad cars sitting side-by-side. It was also 45 feet tall, which is about the height of a four-story building.


The Ark could hold the equivalent of 522 railroad cars of people, animals, and equipment. Each one of those cars could hold 240 medium-sized animals. If Noah took one each kind of animal, he would have needed room for about 16,000 animals. To be on the safe side let’s assume that Noah would have needed room for 45,000 animals. This would take up only 188 of these railroad cars. That means there would be 344 cars left for a large aviary for the birds, cargo space for food and water, plenty of living space for Noah and his family, and a large area for the animals to walk around.


In the True Story of Noah’s Ark, author Tom Dooley says: "The Ark was six times longer than it was wide. Modern ocean-going vessels like aircraft carriers and oil tankers are still built to this same ratio. When it was fully loaded, the Ark displaced about 22 feet of water. Since it was 45 feet high, just about half of the Ark was submerged with the other half above the water line - the perfect ratio for stability in the water. In fact, it was one of the most stable floating platforms ever built. Even in a sea of gigantic waves, the Ark could be tilted through any angle to almost 90 degrees and still right itself."

There are many flood stories and legends from nearly all cultures around the world, so doesn't this prove that the account of Noah's flood is just another legend? Actually, it does not. The stories, legends, and remembrances from so many cultures regarding floods point to the fact that some sort of worldwide flood really did happen. What sets apart the Bible flood account, among other things, are the facts listed previously. Only the biblical account of the flood includes information that is not only scientifically possible or believable but actually has information that has been proven to be the scientific ideal. It can hardly be mere coincidence that the biblical account is so scientifically accurate. All of the other accounts share some common features with the biblical account, but they also include scientifically ridiculous details such as the Epic of Gilgamesh, from the Babylonian culture, which claims that the Ark was a perfect cube.



Devotional Thought

God told Noah that He considered him and his family to be the only righteous ones on the earth. It can be tough to behave righteously when everyone else around is not that way. Do you ever find it to be tough to act righteously when you are at school or at work, or are around your friends? Pray for the strength to be a righteous individual when no one else around you is interested in that.