Noah, the Flood, and the Rainbow Covenant

Context

Genesis begins with God as the creator and giver of life. Human beings bear his image and are accountable to him, but by Noah’s generation, evil had spread far beyond one isolated act. The future of life on earth stood under God’s judgment.

Noah lived in this early world with his wife and their three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Each son also had a wife. Noah’s story introduces an important biblical word: a covenant is a solemn commitment that God establishes. Here, judgment, preservation, and covenant come together in a turning point for the whole earth.

Story

God saw that human wickedness had become great. Evil filled people’s thoughts, and the earth itself was corrupt and full of violence. What God saw grieved him deeply. He declared that he would judge the earth and bring an end to the violence that had overtaken it.

But Noah found favor with God. He was a righteous man among the people of his time, and he walked with God. God told Noah what he was about to do: a flood would come upon the earth, and every land creature with the breath of life would die.

God commanded Noah to build a large wooden ark. It was to have rooms, three levels, a door in its side, and an opening near the roof. Noah was to seal it inside and out with pitch. God promised to establish his covenant with Noah and told him to enter the ark with his wife, his sons, and their wives. Male and female animals representing every kind would also come aboard, and Noah was to gather enough food for his family and for them all.

Noah did everything God commanded him.

When the appointed time came, God called Noah and his household into the ark. The clean animals and birds were taken in greater numbers, while the others came male and female, two by two. Once Noah’s family and the animals were safely inside, God closed the ark behind them.

Then water burst up from the great deep, and rain fell for forty days and forty nights. The rising waters lifted the ark from the ground and carried it on their surface. They continued to rise until even the mountains were covered. Every human being and every land creature outside the ark that breathed died. Only Noah, his household, and the creatures with them remained alive. For one hundred and fifty days, the waters covered the earth.

Then God remembered Noah and every living creature in the ark. He sent a wind over the earth. The rain stopped, the sources of the deep were closed, and the waters began to recede. In time, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. As the water continued to fall, the tops of the mountains appeared.

Noah opened the ark’s window and sent out a raven, which flew back and forth. Then he sent out a dove to see whether the ground was dry. The dove found nowhere to rest, so it returned, and Noah reached out and brought it back inside. Seven days later, he sent the dove out again. That evening it returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf in its beak. Noah now knew that the water had gone down. After another seven days, he released the dove once more, and this time it did not return.

Noah eventually removed the ark’s covering and saw dry ground. Still, he waited until God told him to leave. Then Noah came out with his wife, his sons, and their wives. Every animal, bird, and crawling creature also left the ark, kind by kind, to spread across the earth and multiply.

Noah’s first recorded act outside the ark was to build an altar to God. He offered sacrifices from the clean animals and birds, and the offering was pleasing to the Lord. God declared that he would never again strike down all living things in this way, even though the human heart remained inclined toward evil. As long as the earth endured, planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night would continue.

God blessed Noah and his sons and told them to multiply and fill the earth. Animals would now fear human beings, and God gave animals to them for food as he had given plants. But they were not to consume meat with its lifeblood still in it. God would require an accounting whenever human life was taken, whether by an animal or another person, because human beings are made in God’s image.

Then God established his covenant with Noah, his sons, their descendants, and every living creature that had left the ark. Never again would the waters become a flood that destroyed all life on earth.

God placed the rainbow in the clouds as the sign of this covenant. Whenever clouds gathered and the rainbow appeared, it would bear witness to God’s enduring promise between himself and every living creature upon the earth.

What We Learned

• God is not indifferent to corruption and violence. Human evil grieves him, and his judgment is serious.
• Noah received God’s favor and responded with steady obedience, following God’s instructions before the flood and waiting for God’s word before leaving the ark.
• God’s preserving care extended beyond Noah’s household to the creatures with them, and his covenant embraced every living creature.
• Human life has unique dignity because every person bears God’s image. This is the basis for God’s demand that human life be protected.
• The rainbow points to a promise grounded in God’s faithfulness, not in the idea that human evil had disappeared.