Noah’s Flood
God’s love proved to be bigger and stronger than all man’s wickedness.
In the 6th century BC, Jerusalem was captured by the Babylonians, and her nobility were deported to Babylon. In their exile, they studied their oppressor’s heathen mythology of a great flood, and turned it quite brilliantly into an allegory of Israel’s sins, the ‘flood’ of invasion, and their own Noah-like role in keeping Judaism alive until God restored Israel to her land.
IN the ninth generation of Adam’s descendants, creation had become so corrupt that God was ready to sweep everything from the face of the earth in a great flood.
However, Noah and his family found favour in God’s eyes. For their sake, he instructed Noah in the building of a vast ark, designed to preserve one breeding pair of every animal in creation.
Nothing else survived the storm that followed.
When it was over, Noah waited many days before sending out a dove to see if the waters had subsided, but it found no home. The second time, it found an olive branch, but still no home. The third time, the bird did not return, and Noah knew the world was habitable again. He built an altar, and offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God.
And that man should not fear another such flood, God set high in the sky the most beautiful pledge of unconditional forgiveness: the rainbow.
Suggest answers to this question. See if you can limit one answer to exactly seven words.
Why did God instruct Noah to save a breeding pair of every animal?