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5. The Flood of Sin.

Enoch led a godly life. One day he went away from his people and never came back. Because he led a godly life, God took him to Himself.

Noah was already living in an evil time. The people had forgotten the Lord their God, even though they received daily benefits from his hand. They did not live according to his holy will and commandment, but according to the unholy desires of their hearts. Only Noah and his wife were still pious, as Seth had once been, and kept their children, as righteous parents should, from the evil examples and corruption of the ages as much as they could.

God decided to let the human race perish in a great flood of water. But he would not let pious Noah and his relatives perish. He told him what he should do to save them, and Noah did so. He built an ark out of fir wood, that is, a large house that could float on water. The ark had three storeys and numerous chambers in each. It had a window at the top facing the sky. But the door was on one side. Into the ark he brought all kinds of animals, male and female, to keep them alive, and all kinds of food to feed him and them. So God had commanded him.

The Lord said to Noah, ‘Go now into the ark, you and your family, for I have found you righteous in my sight at this time.’ Noah went into the ark, he, his wife, his three sons and his sons' wives, eight souls; and God shut it behind them.

Then suddenly the sky was covered with heavy black clouds, which poured down in torrents of rain for forty days, and the underground waters broke out. The ark began to rise from the earth. The fields, the trees, the dwellings of the people were already under water. The ark began to float on the waters. People and animals that had not yet perished on the plain fled to the hills, from the hills to the mountains. The heads of the mountains became smaller and smaller and also sank with everything that had taken refuge on them. At last the ark floated fifteen cubits high above the heads of the mountains. There was nothing left but water below and water above and a floating house with eight souls under God's protection and umbrella. Whoever sits under the umbrella of the Most High and dwells under the shadow of the Almighty says to the Lord: ‘My confidence and my fortress, my God, in whom I hope!’

The flood stood high for a hundred and fifty days; then the wind began to blow, the rain stopped, and the waters gradually subsided. At first the ark remained under the water from Mount Ararat. The waters receded more and more, and the heads of the mountains became visible again. Noah let a raven fly out; it did not return, but flew back and forth over the waters until the waters had dried up. This is the raven's free species. Noah let a dove fly out; it found no dry place to stay wherever it flew and returned to the ark. This is the way of the pious dove. After seven days Noah sent out another dove, which stayed out until vesper time. At vesper time it returned, bringing with it another green leaf from an olive tree. That must have been a great joy in the ark. But seven days later, Noah let another dove fly out. It never came back. From this he recognised that the earth was dry again. God spoke to Noah, and he went out and walked on the ground again for the first time, he and his family and the animals he had taken with him. The animals flew and leapt and walked joyfully on the new ground, each with its own kind.

But Noah and his sons built an altar and offered a sacrifice of thanksgiving to God for their miraculous salvation. Good people can never forget to thank God when he has protected and mercifully saved them and their loved ones in danger. God was also pleased with these thankful attitudes and gave the earth and the human race his blessing once again. ‘Be fruitful,’ he said, ’and multiply, that you may abound on the earth. As long as the earth remains,’ he said, ’seedtime and harvest, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. There shall be no more flood of sin to destroy the earth.’

At that moment, as Noah lifted up his eyes, the beautiful rainbow stood in the clouds in its quiet splendour and majesty. God said: ‘This shall be the sign and the pledge of my promise and my favour with which I look upon the earth, my bow which I have set in the clouds.’ -

So the rainbow still appears in the sky from time to time, and its beautiful shape and mild, cheerful colours still reflect God's kindness and radiance towards mankind and shine down on the earth. Pious children look at him with wonder and joy and never want to do anything bad.
The three sons of Noah were called Sem, Ham and Japheth. Ham and Japheth departed and spread out over the earth with their families. But a descendant of Sem was Abraham.