…Depicted in a puzzle–the Biblical account of Noah….

“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” Genesis 6:8

The people on earth, in Noah’s time, were living wicked lives–their behavior was depraved. God was sorry that He had even made man, yet had a plan for Noah and his family to be saved.

He’d decided to destroy both men and beasts through an immense flood of waters and rain that He would send. He gave Noah instructions to build an ark…for his protection until the worldwide flooding would end.

Noah, a just man, who walked with God, believed that God would do what He had said. He received God’s details for construction of the ark and then diligently followed them in going ahead.

Noah was to house animals of all the various kinds–to enter the ark for preservation. The whole endeavor may have seemed daunting, but Noah obeyed without hesitation.

Birds and creeping things also were to be brought in and all kinds of foods to be stored. This would be their provision, to sustain them well, for the days that they’d be on board.

When all was ready, Noah and his family entered the ark, and God shut them in for their stay. After the seventh day, the fountains of the great deep were broken up, the heavens poured rain, and the ark was soon to be underway.

The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose up high above the earth.  It moved about safely on the surface of the waters, having been built by God’s specific wisdom of the highest worth.

The rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights; and for one hundred fifty days, the waters prevailed. The hills and highest mountains were covered–every living thing perished as the predicted destruction was unveiled.

So God destroyed all living things on the face of the ground–men and cattle, creeping things, and birds of the air.  But God, of course, remembered Noah and the “life” on the ark–then sent a wind to pass over the earth everywhere.

This was to help the waters to subside, and God stopped the fountains and restrained the rain’s downpour.  The ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat–just ahead was God’s plan to restore. 

The tops of the mountains began to be seen–Noah opened the window that he had made. He sent out a raven, and then sent a dove, to test water levels during the flooding’s downgrade.

The first time the dove returned to Noah, for she’d found no place for her foot to rest. On a second venture, she returned to him with a fresh olive leaf with which her surveying had been blessed.

Another seven days passed, and he sent her out again; but, this time, she didn’t come back to the ark. When the waters were entirely dried up from the earth, God told Noah that it was time to disembark.

Grateful to God, Noah built an altar there, presenting burnt offerings to the LORD who had seen them through. The aromas were soothing to God, and then He said, that such a vast flood was something He’d never again do.

(“Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.” Genesis 8:20-21)

“While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer, and day and night shall not cease,” God said. Then He blessed Noah and his sons, giving instructions on living, for the days that would be ahead. 

…from Genesis 9:

“Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him: ‘And as for me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every living creature that is with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’

“And God said: ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ And God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.'” Genesis 9:8-17

So we’ve read in Genesis about the great flood–Noah and his family survived in the ark for many nights and days. As a preacher of righteousness, he must have warned others to turn to God; but the people didn’t change their ways. Noah had been obedient to God in building the ark, in anticipation of the coming flood. Today, there’s an “Ark,” into which anyone can enter through repentance and by faith in Jesus’ name and His shed blood.

P. A. Oltrogge

“…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 2:5

“For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins…..

“For it was the Father’s good pleasure for all the fullness to dwell in Him, and through Him to reconcile all things to Himself, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” from Colossians 1:13-23

(The poetic telling was gleaned from Genesis 6-9, Scriptures NKJV)