Noah and the Flood

More people were brought to life on Earth and men and the women started marrying as well as having children. Overtime the Lord started to see the wickedness that humankind possessed and he felt bad for creating it. So the Lord decided to wipe all mankind, animals and creatures from the earth, but he favored Noah. 

Noah was a good man with three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. God told Noah that he was going to put an end to mankind because they brought violence, and that he need to Noah to to build an ark with specified dimensions. He told him that he was going to flood the Earth to destroy all life on it, so that all will perish. The exception was Noah and his family along with two of each kind of living creature along with food necessary for survival on the ark. Noah did everything as he was told.

Then the Lord told Noah that he must take his whole family, 7 of the clean animals and 2 of each kind of unclean animal and 7 of every kind of bird onto the ark as well. Noah was told the flood would start in 7 days and that it would last for 40 days and 40 nights. Noah did as he was told.

Noah was six hundred years old when the rain came and him and the family entered the ark to escape the weather along with the instructed amount of animals as God had commanded. Rain fell for 40 days and 40 nights as Noah had been told. Everything living thing outside of the ark perished and the land became wiped out. The flood last for a hundred and fifty days.

God remembered those in the ark and he sent out a wind to have the water recede. The rain stopped failing from the sky and water fell back. The ark came to rest on top of a mountain. After forty days Noah opened the window he built in the ark and sent out a raven that kept flying back and forth until the water dried up. Then he sent a dove but the dove could not find a place to set its feet because of the water so it returned to Noah in the ark. 7 days later he sent the dove out once again to have it bring back an olive leaf. The next time he sent it out, it did not return.

Then God said to Noah that he could come out of the ark along with all the other animals so that they could be fruitful. Noah built an alter to the Lord and the Lord was happy.

Next God blessed Noah's sons and told them to multiply and fill the Earth, giving them all the green plants. God established his covenant with all those who were on the ark, mankind and animals alike. The rainbow was the sign of the covenant.

An animal that fascinates me is the lion. Last spring break my family took a trip to South Africa and we spent a week at these lodges where we would go on game drives in the morning and at night and one night as we were heading back to the lodge in our open-air jeep like thing, our group came across a group of lionesses and their cubs lying in the middle of the road. It was so impressive to see how elegantly they moved and with such poise. They also weren't startled by the car at all and refused to move, it may be one of the scariest moments I have experienced, knowing that if provoked it would not be difficult in the slightest for one of the lionesses to jump right into my lap and attack me. But it was so fascinating too! It was hard to not look straight at them, but they can sense when you are staring at them so you had to be careful! Here is a picture I took of them the night they were lying in the road:

and here is another picture I got of a lion during one of the morning drives: