The
Genesis Account of the Flood
What Really Caused Noah's Flood?
The story of Noah's Flood given in the Book of Genesis, is
one of the greatest stories in the Bible. It tells us of the
consequences of trusting in our own set of moral values, rather
than obeying God. The Genesis Flood story describes a worldwide
deluge that was the result of God’s judgment upon the earth.
Only eight people and the animals inside the Ark survived. The
Biblical account of the flood is given in Genesis chapters 6-8.
The physical cause of the Flood was a great catastrophe. However,
the real cause according to Scripture, was God's judgment upon
a world that had resorted to evil rather than abiding in Him.
In this case, evil had come to dominate the world. The antediluvians
no longer wanted to hear anything from God. He even warned them
of His coming judgment 120 years before bringing the flood upon
the earth. It was God's way to give the entire world a chance
to turn back to Him. It appears that only eight people out of
a large world population listened to God's message.
The antediluvians were not any different than our society today,
when it comes to listening to God's message. We so often see
what happens when we take away the values that the Bible gives
us and replace them with our own set of "moral" values. Whether
it was Hitler's Holocaust, Bosnia's ethnic cleansing or even
the Columbine High School shootings, the consequences of removing
the Bible's message from society turns out to have a severe
impact. As Proverbs 21:2 states "Every way of a man is right
in his own eyes".
The Genesis Account of the Flood
The bene elohim were a group of angels who had turned away
from God, and decided to make earth their home and live among
the humans. The progeny resulting from the relationship between
the sons of God and humans were called the Nephilim. The Nephilim
were genetically superior when compared with humans. The word
"Nephilim" means "giant" and they are referred to as giants
in the Bible. It is possible that the legends of mythical gods
such as the Greek and Roman gods, may not have been entirely
mythical. Apparently, since the Nephilim were genetically superior,
they may have even demanded that humans worship them as gods.
Moses even makes the comment in Genesis 6:4 that "They were
the heroes of old, men of renown". This implies that there were
great legends of the Nephilim. The Book of Enoch tells us that
the Nephilim meant to destroy (annihilate) the entire human
race, so that only a their race would inherit the earth.
God announced that He would destroy the world in 120 years.
This was done probably for two reasons: (1) to give mankind
and chance to repent (2) allow Noah 120 years to construct the
Ark. The following is the Genesis (Chapters 6-8) account of
the flood taken from the New International Version (NIV) of
the Bible.
Genesis Chapters 6-8
1 When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters
were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters
of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose.
3 Then the LORD said, "My Spirit will not contend with man forever,
for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years."
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when
the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children
by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown.
5 The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had
become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart
was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had
made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7
So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created,
from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that
move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved
that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of
the LORD.
9 This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his
time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem,
Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of
violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all
the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said
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. 14 So make yourself an ark
of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside
and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be
450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof
for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put
a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper
decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy
all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath
of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will
establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you
and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19
You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male
and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind
of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature
that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive.
21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and
store it away as food for you and for them."
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
7 The LORD then said to Noah,
"Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have
found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven
of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two
of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and
also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their
various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from
now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights,
and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature
I have made."
5 And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came
on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’
wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs
of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures
that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah
and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after
the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
11 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.
12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth,
together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered
the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to
its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature
that moves along the ground according to its kind and every
bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs
of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to
Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male
and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah.
Then the LORD shut him in.
17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as
the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth.
18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the
ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly
on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens
were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to
a depth of more than twenty feet. 21 Every living thing that
moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals,
all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind.
22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its
nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth
was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along
the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth.
Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
8 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.
2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens
had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky.
3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the
hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the
seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on
the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until
the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the
tops of the mountains became visible.
6 After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the
ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth
until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent
out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface
of the ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to set its
feet because there was water over all the surface of the earth;
so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and
took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10
He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the
ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there
in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew
that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven
more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did
not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred
and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah
then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface
of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second
month the earth was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 "Come out of the ark, you and
your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every
kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals,
and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can
multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number
upon it."
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and
his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that
move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves
on the earth—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of
all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings
on it. 21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his
heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man,
even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.
And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have
done.
22 "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold
and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease."
Noah was righteous and found favor with God. God told Noah
to build an Ark. The Ark was actually designed by God. Noah
was instructed to bring his three sons, their wives and his
wife. This was a total of eight people including Noah. He was
also told to bring at least one male and female of every kind
of animal. He was to provide enough food for his family and
the animals. The Bible says that Noah obeyed God and did as
he was instructed to do. God also warned Noah seven days in
advance of the flood, providing him to make final plans before
the flood began.
The flood began when the fountains of the great deep (probably
volcanism) were broken up and the windows of heaven were opened
(this could have been caused by great asteroid or comet impacts).
Rain pored upon the earth for 40 days and forty nights. The
flood waters lifted up the Ark by at least 15 cubits higher
than the highest mountains. The flood waters prevailed upon
the earth for 150 days. The waters abated after 150 days. The
Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. After the waters
had completely dried up, Noah released the animals on the mountains
of Ararat.
More Bible Passages On Noah's Flood
The New Testiment of the Bible testifies of the account
of the Flood and offers additional information. Jesus Himself
also testifies of the Great Flood.
Mathew 24:37-39 NKJV - Jesus speaking
37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming
of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people
were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up
to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about
what would happen until the flood came and took them all away.
Luke 17:26-27 NKJV - Jesus speaking
26 "Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be
in the days of the Son of Man. 27 People were eating, drinking,
marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered
the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.
1 Peter 3:20 NKJV
20 .....God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the
ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all,
were saved through water,
2 Peter 2:5-6 NKJV
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast
them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness,
to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient
world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness,
bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
2 Peter 3:3-7 NKJV - (In this account, Peter prophetically
announced that a time would come in which people would deny
the flood ever happened)
3knowing this first: that scoffers will come in the last days,
walking according to their own lusts, 4and saying, "Where is
the promise of His coming? For since the fathers fell asleep,
all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation."
5For this they willfully forget: that by the word of God the
heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of water and
in the water, 6by which the world that then existed perished,
being flooded with water.
Jude 6 NKJV
6And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left
their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under
darkness for the judgment of the great day;
Links to Other Biblical Passages on the Flood
On
The Great Flood of Noah - Lambert Dolphin
Sons
of Seth or Angels -Chuck Missler
Who
is Jesus?
