God comes to Noah and tells him that because of the wickedness in the world, He is going to wipe the slate clean and wipe out everyone on earth except for Noah and his family. He proceeds to tell Noah that he must build an ark and it must be big enough to fit 2 of every living creature, both male and female of every species on the earth at that time. Noah is given the measurements and he and his 3 sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, got right to work. Once the ark was completed, Noah and his wife, their sons and their wives, and male and female of all animals boarded the ark and for 40 days, God poured out rain upon the face of the earth, coming both from the heavens and under the earth. After the 40 days of rain, there was so much water on the earth, that the tops of the highest mountain ranges were covered in water. Because the waters were so high, Noah and his family stayed on the ark for 150 days. I do not know if this was an additional 150 following the 40, or if it equalled out to the 150, but either way, that is a long time on a wooden boat full of stinking animals with nothing to do and nothing to see but water for miles all around. After the 150 days, God made the ark rest upon the top of the mountain Ararat. 3 months following that, the tops of the other mountains were visible. Shortly following this, Noah opened the window and sent out a dove from the ark. The dove came back after a while for it had no place to rest its feet. Noah waits a week, and again sends out the dove, this time when it returns, it as in its mouth an olive leaf. I imagine this was encouraging to Noah, but they couldn't leave yet. After another week, he sends the dove out for a third time, and this time, the dove did not return back to the ark, for it had found a resting place. After a period of almost a full year on the ark, God told Noah and his family to disembark from the ark and to increase and multiply over the face of the earth. Then God makes a promise to Noah declaring He will never again send a flood to destroy the earth, and as a seal, he placed a rainbow in the sky as a visual reminder between God and man. It might be easy to look at that story with the viewpoint that God is evil and wants to simply wipe us out. How about instead, we look at in as a way to clean house, so to speak, and start fresh. If God simply hated his creation, it would have been just as easy to simply destroy the earth with everything in it, but instead, he took a family that walked in his ways and preserved them from a wicked and perverse generation in order to remove things that should not have been and put in things that should have been. Many people are going through life with the feeling that the rain is just going to keep coming and they will be stuck on their "boat" forever. I can imagine that while on the ark, Noah and his family would get pretty depressed in their situation. Here, they have lost everything they had, their friends, the rest of their family, their livelihood, and are stuck out at sea with no hope of restitution insight. The rain continues to fall and more and more water has come upon the earth. I can only assume, that there is the possibility that a few of them lost some of their marbles and went a little nuts, but then, the sun comes out and there is now a glimmer of hope. "Finally", they exclaim,"we can get off this dumb boat." But unfortunately, their time aboard was not over. Eventually, they begin to see mountains coming out of the water and their hope increases with every peak. The waters are going down. Finally, they get to a point where Noah feels comfortable enough to send out a dove, and at first, there is nothing, but little by little, the dove is becoming a bearer of good news and things are finally looking up. Then, Suddenly, God gives the ok to leave the ark. It is probably safe to assume that they did not come off in a sloth-like many, but rather they were as cheetahs running across the African plains. There was no hesitation to stay aboard, but a haste to get to dry land as quickly as possible. Right now, my family seems like we are stuck on an ark, but we are watching the waters recede and the dove has brought us an olive branch, and we know that the doors of our ark will be burst upon soon enough. I can't wait for the day when I can come on here and tell what God has done for us, and oh what a story it will be, just know that through your storms, God has never forgotten you. It says in chapter 8 of Genesis that God remember his children and rested them safely on the mountain while they patiently waited for the land to come out of the water and they could disembark from the ark. The time is near for your storms to end and your waters to recede and it is time to GET OFF THE ARK!!!!
Adam Semple- a young man on a mission from God
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