Noah Builds a Boat

“So Noah did everything precisely as God had commanded him.” — Genesis 6:22

As the years went by, there were more and more people in the world. But they were not like the people God had made them to be. They were cruel and violent, and they thought about doing wrong all the time. God was very sad. It hurt Him in His heart.

God decided that He would send a great flood to wash away all that wickedness. But there was one man who was different. His name was Noah. Noah loved God and walked with Him, and God was pleased with Noah.

God said to Noah, “Build yourself a boat, a huge one called an ark.” God told him exactly how to make it, out of wood and covered with tar to keep the water out. It was to be longer than a football pitch, with three floors inside, lots of rooms, a roof and a door in the side.

“I am going to send a flood,” God said. “But I will keep you safe. Go into the ark with your wife, and your three sons and their wives. And bring two of every kind of animal with you, a male and a female, to keep them alive.”

There wasn’t a cloud of trouble in the sky. People must have stared at Noah, building an enormous boat on dry land. But Noah trusted God. He did everything exactly as God told him.

When the ark was finished, the animals came. Two by two they came: cows and camels, foxes and frogs, eagles and elephants. Noah and his family stored up food for everyone. Then they all went inside, and God Himself shut the door.

Then it began to rain. And rain. And rain. Water burst up from under the ground too. It rained for forty days and forty nights. The water rose higher and higher until it covered the fields, then the houses, then even the tallest mountains. Everything that lived on the land and breathed the air died in the flood. But inside the ark, Noah and his family and all the animals floated safely on top of the water.

Then the rain stopped. “But God remembered Noah” (Genesis 8:1). He sent a wind, and slowly the water began to go down. One day the ark bumped to a stop on the mountains of Ararat.

Noah opened a window and sent out a dove to see if the land was dry. The dove came back, because there was nowhere to land. A week later he sent the dove out again. That evening she came back with a fresh olive leaf in her beak! Trees were growing again. A week after that he sent her out once more, and this time she didn’t come back at all.

At last God said, “Come out of the ark.” Out came Noah and his family, and out came all the animals, running and hopping and flying into a fresh, clean world.

Looking ahead to Jesus: Jesus said that one day He will come back, and it will be like the days of Noah (Matthew 24:37). Everyone who trusts Him will be safe with Him, just as Noah was safe in the ark.

Read it in your Bible: Genesis 6–8

Dear God, thank you that you take care of people who trust you. Help me to listen to you and do what you say, like Noah did. Amen.