The Floodgates of the Heavens

1 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 pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs 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.

The story of Noah and the flood is not usually described as a journey at sea, but Noah was one of the Bible’s most gifted seafarers. He built a massive ship that housed his family and all kinds of animals. And with God’s help he navigated 40 days and nights of storming and flooding. Then they all waited months for the waters to recede.

It must have been extraordinary to see the waters coming from all directions—from the ground, from the sea, from the sky—a cataclysm bringing destruction on the earth. Though Noah had built the ship and prepared for this over many years, the force of the storm and the scale of devastation must have been shocking and overwhelming for Noah and his family.

Yet God had prepared a way of salvation. God taught Noah how to build the ark. And when the flood came, God guided Noah, his family, and all the animals to a place where they could land. God also promised that a flood like that would never come again.

The Bible shows that God’s justice flows together with his love and mercy. Despite the trauma and destruction of the flood, God provides shelter and promises new and full life. Today we see this even more clearly in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection for all who believe in him!

Father in heaven, thank you for always being faithful to your promises. Protect us in the storms of life, and guide us in your mercy. Amen.