In describing the flood, the Bible says that water poured down from the sky and burst forth from the deep, covering the entire earth and the mountains to a depth of twenty feet.
The amount of water that was poured down upon the earth and came up from the ground would have created a great upheaval of the ground and washed away everything in its path. The plants and trees would have matted together as they were washed away and then buried under massive amounts of mud.
When dirt that is churned up by water begins to settle it does so in layers. Some of the dirt would have begun to settle during the flooding and then been churned up again by more movement of water. It wouldn’t have been until it stopped raining and the water started receding that all the dirt and rocks would have had a chance to settle into one place and stopped being moved around.
Lots of dead animals would have been buried in the layers of sediment under conditions that would have fossilized them. The layers of dirt and rock would have been compacted by the weight of the mud on top of them and solidified into sedimentary rock containing fossils.
1But 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. 2Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
The Bible says that God sent a wind over the earth and the waters receded. We have to think about and figure out possibilities for some of the things that were going on because the Bible doesn’t give much information. Geologists who study the make-up of the surface of the earth can give us an idea of what might have happened. For the waters to recede they would have needed an ocean basin to flow into.
It is likely that many of the mountain ranges that exist now were pushed up at the end of the flood or shortly thereafter as the sedimentary layers would have been still somewhat soft and pliable, forming what are known as fold mountains. Most mountains ranges are made up of Fold Mountains.
If these ranges were pushed up and the ocean bottoms sank from the weight of the water, basins would have formed, giving a place for the waters to recede into. There is also evidence of massive volcanic activity, which would have made other mountains. After the flood when the layers were hardened into rocks other movement of the earth would have made other types of mountains.
6After forty days Noah opened the window he had made in the ark 7and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9But 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. 10He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11When 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. 12He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13By 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. 14By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15Then God said to Noah, 16“Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17Bring 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.”
18So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19All 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.
Noah and his family were in the ark for an entire year before the land was dry and God told them to come out. It was a year of waiting and trusting God. Noah walked with God and during the time on the ark, he knew God was taking care of him and his family. God takes care of those who put their trust in him.
King David, who also trusted God, wrote many Psalms expressing his trust. Psalm 18:2 says, The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
When we trust God, we don’t have to be afraid in difficult circumstances. Noah and his family went through a terrible time in a catastrophic flood that changed the face of the earth but they relied upon God who was with them in the midst of it all and brought them safely to rest on the mountains of Ararat. God fulfilled the promise had had made to Noah. Because Noah was faithful, the human race and animals were preserved.
- Overview Questions: Where did the ark come to rest? (4) How did Noah know that the water had receded? (10-11) What did Noah do after the dove came back with the olive branch? (13) How old was Noah when the water dried up? (13) What did God tell Noah to do once the land was dry? (15-17)
- Thought Questions: What kinds of things do you think Noah and his family talked about while they were on the ark? What would they have been concerned about? What do you think made them most afraid? How would they have coped with being cooped up in the ark for a year?
- Prayer: Thank God that he is with those who put their trust in him. Thank him that he is always watching over us and that we can trust in him. Pray that you would learn to look to God, trust in him, and be used by him to be a blessing to others as Noah was.
- Memory Verse: Psalm 18:2
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my rock, in whom I take refuge. He is my shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
What can we trust in times of trouble?
We can always trust that God is our rock and keeps us safe.
Questions: What does it mean that God is our rock? Our fortress? Our deliverer? Our shield? Our salvation? Our stronghold? What will happen to us if God isn’t these things for us?