Many Mesopotamian and Assyrian narratives include flood stories that bear similarities to the story of Noah. The Babylonian version, for instance, describes a flood triggered by one of their gods, who was so annoyed by the noise coming from the earth that he decided to destroy the entire planet. This depiction feels less like a divine being and more like a grumpy uncle fed up with his neighbours’ loud music. In contrast, the biblical flood narrative stands apart. It is not driven by the arbitrary whims of a deity but by God’s purpose to bring humanity back to the Garden, to His holy mountain.
Whether the flood God sent was at a global or local level remains uncertain, as the Hebrew word for “earth” can also mean “land” or “region.” It could have been a regional flood targeting a specific area or a global event impacting all creation. Similarly, just as the World War wasn’t a conflict involving the entire world but rather a few powerful nations viewed as global superpowers, the flood might have affected only certain regions. From the perspective of the author, these regions could have represented “the whole world” as they knew it.
Interestingly, Abraham—whose descendants wrote this narrative—was from the same region from where the Mesopotamian flood stories originated, specifically Ur in Chaldea, Babylonia. While he may have drawn from these narratives, the emphasis is not on debating the flood’s scope or plausibility but on understanding God’s grieving heart over humanity’s persistent rejection of His path. Among all the people of his time, Noah is chosen to build the Ark of God as he alone seems willing to return back to the mountain of God.
Noah is Chosen
This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. – Genesis 6:9 (NIV)
Mankind’s sin had grown rampant, marked by unions between angels and humans, Nephilim roaming the earth and a general disregard for God’s commands. The earth was corrupt and filled with violence, as people pursued evil for their own pleasure. Seeing this, God declared to Noah,
I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. – Genesis 6:13 (NIV)
God instructed Noah to build an ark of cypress wood, 300 cubits long, 50 cubits wide, and 30 cubits high, with a roof, an opening, and three decks. Noah was to bring his family and pairs of every living creature, along with food, into the ark. God promised to establish His covenant with Noah and preserve life through the coming flood.
Noah did everything just as God commanded him. – Genesis 6:22 (NIV)
It was God’s grace that made Noah righteous. This is the same truth Jesus taught us—that we cannot make ourselves righteous through our own actions. No matter how many baptisms we take, how often we attend church, how much we volunteer, or how many confessionals we partake in, the only thing that makes us righteous is God’s grace. In His infinite grace, God gives us the opportunity to participate in His plans, and we can either willingly join in or oppose His will, aligning ourselves with the prince of this world.
The Rains Came Down
God instructed Noah to enter the ark with his family because He found Noah righteous in his generation. He was told to bring seven pairs of every clean animal, one pair of every unclean animal, and seven pairs of every bird, male and female, to preserve their kinds. God warned that in seven days, He would send rain for forty days and forty nights to destroy all life on earth.
In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month —on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. – Genesis 7:11-12 (NIV)
Then the LORD shut them in and sealed the Ark, and for forty days the flood kept coming on the earth. As the floodwaters rose, the ark was lifted above the earth, floating on the water. The waters rose to cover even the highest mountains by more than fifteen cubits. Every living thing on land—birds, livestock, wild animals, and humans—perished. Everything with the breath of life in its nostrils died. All life on earth was wiped out, leaving only Noah and those with him in the ark. The waters remained on the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. – Genesis 8:1 (NIV)
In the Bible, whenever we read, “God remembered,” it means that God is about to make good on His promise. Unlike popular sayings that God forgives and forgets, God indeed has forgiven our sins but does not suffer from any memory loss when it comes to our sins. God chooses not to remember our sins and remind us of them to keep us in check but it is the devil who keeps reminding us of our sins. God is willing to look past our sins and move forward, but it is we who keep holding on to our guilt. In this instance, God is about to fulfil His prophecy by bringing Noah and his family out of the Ark.
Relief on Ararat
After the springs of the deep and the floodgates of heaven were closed, and the rain stopped, the waters steadily receded. After one hundred and fifty days, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month. By the first day of the tenth month, the mountain tops became visible.
Forty days later, Noah sent out a raven, which flew back and forth until the earth dried. Then he sent a dove, but it returned, finding no place to perch. After seven days, Noah sent the dove again, and it returned with an olive leaf, showing the waters had receded. After another seven days, the dove did not return, indicating the land was habitable. By the first day of the first month in Noah’s six hundred and first year, the earth’s surface was dry. By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was completely dry.
Then God said to Noah, “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. – Genesis 8:15-16 (NIV)
Noah was instructed to wait for the Lord to open the door of the Ark that He had sealed. However, in the meantime, Noah still tried to determine for himself if the land was drying up. Perhaps he was impatient or simply curious to see if the waters had receded. In the same way, we often do the same while God is at work, seeking to take matters into our own hands. Whether it’s curiosity or anxiety, these actions reflect our lack of faith. We struggle to fully surrender control to God and instead try to influence the outcome ourselves. This often leads us down the wrong path, distancing us from God.
Once the land had dried, God instructed Noah and his family to leave the ark, bringing with them all the animals, birds, and creatures, so they could multiply and fill the earth. They had remained inside the ark for an entire year and only emerged when God commanded them to, as the land was now dry. Noah then built an altar and offered some of the clean animals and birds as burnt offerings to the Lord.
The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” – Genesis 8:21-22 (NIV)
God has a plan that humans have not understood, an everlasting covenant that will bring us back to the Garden. The sacrifice of His Son will wash away our sins and bring us closer to God. But until that appointed time, God is making several covenants with mankind. Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, Elijah and Isaiah received separate covenants from God, serving as a transient fix to the larger problem. However, the ultimate covenant would be the sacrifice of His own Son, which will cleanse the sins of the entire world—something no flood can ever achieve.
Discussion Questions
- Why did God choose Noah to survive the flood? Can anyone be blameless in the sight of God?
- Did God forget about Noah for a hundred and fifty days?
- If God was to tell Noah when to come out then why did he send the birds out to find dry land?
- When humans persist in sin and refuse to change, why did God promise Noah He would not destroy them again? What was different this time?
The Jordan Valley 
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