As the numbers of men and women increased on the earth so did the wickedness and their evildoing. Due to this evil God decided to wipe it all out and start again. I am not sure that God regretted creating man but was more sorrowful for how they had chosen to live their lives – full of sin – instead of choosing to be in a relationship with him which is why he created us in the first place. Today God’s heart is still broken by our sins.

In order to start again one person and his family were chosen to be saved. Noah “was righteous in his generation” Gen 6:9 which does not mean that he was perfect, but he loved God and had great faith and obeyed him so would have been a good influence on all of those around him. Noah was the glimmer of hope for the survival of mankind at that time. He was the shining example of how one man could be the salvation of thousands of others – remind you of anyone else we know?!

Noah obeyed God’s instructions by building the ark when not really knowing what the future held for him and his loved ones. What a great example of faithfulness for us all. God has promised that he will always love us and if we trust and stay in relationship with him then we will be welcomed into his heaven at the time of judgement.

When God asks us to do something, do we sometimes let our humanity get in the way and worry about the details? Noah did not have to worry about collecting up the animals – his instruction was to build the ark to carry them all – God would do the rest. Do we trust God enough just to step out in faith?

Whether you believe that the flood covered the whole earth or just the “known world” as it was then (the Middle East area to us now) is not the point. The importance is that God saves the people who are faithful to him, and so humankind can continue to live on the earth in relationship with him just as his original plan was with Adam and Eve. Many scholars see a parallel between the flood cleansing the world and baptism cleansing the sin of humans through the blood of Jesus Christ.

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Prayer – Our Father – we thank you that as you lived in the ark of Noah; resided in the Ark of the Covenant and now breathe in us that we are all truly blessed by living in relationship with you. Amen.