‘Noah what are you doing?’
Asked the people as they went about their business
Past his property,
Watching him build something very large,
‘What are you building?’
‘I’m building an ark.’
‘What’s an ark?’ they asked in wonderment
‘To go on the water…to sail in.’
‘A….Noah….a….there’s no water.’
The people mocked .
‘Why are you building an ark?’
‘Because I’ve been told to by my God!’ he replied.
‘He told me he’s going to flood the earth.’
‘Noah, it’s not raining.’
‘No, but it will.’
‘Why do you insist on believing in only One God.
An eccentric you maybe,
but this is too much…’
They continued to mock
As they passed him by,
Carrying on with their wicked lifestyles.
The sons of God (angels?)
Marrying the daughters’ of men.
Huge giants roamed the earth,
The earth was corrupt and violent.
God even regretted making man –
Apart from Noah and his family
Who still walked in the ways of God –
A sorry lot to give His own image.

Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives
Were now ready.
They had gone into the ark.
alongside two of every animal,
Clean and unclean,
Male and female,
Every bird and insect,
Male and female,
And closed up the ark.
It started to rain –
Not just one day –
Not just two –
But every day.
Forty days and nights,
It rained.

Not knowing how long they would be
They took enough grain and supplies
To feed everyone,
Man and beast alike
For a long while.
Shem, Ham and Japheth, Noah’s sons
Worked alongside their father
Feeding the animals,
Cleaning them out with fresh hay and the like.
The women cooked and they ate,
Never going without.

After forty days,
Nothing could be seen for miles,
Except water.
All life had vanished.
No trees, no mountain tops, nothing.
There was no life that breathed left. Nothing!
‘Listen,’ said Noah’s wife one day.
They all fell silent and listened.
‘What are we listening for?’ whispered Japheth.
‘I can hear nothing,’ replied Ham.
‘Exactly,’ answered Noah’s wife, ‘It’s not raining!’
God stopped the rain,
Allowing the arc to come to a standstill
On mountains: Ararat’s summit.
Only the tops of mountains were seen.
After another forty days,
Noah sent out a raven,
Flying to and fro
‘til the waters were gone.
He sent a dove.
Who first brought back nothing
Seven days later, she brought back an olive branch.
Another seven days she did not return.
Another look, all the earth was dry again.
Then Noah was told let everything go free,
Go and multiply throughout all the earth again.
God set the rainbow in the sky,
As a covenant with Noah
Never again to destroy all things by flood,
So we remember the promise of God.

Do you think the world is better now than it was then?
I think not.
Let’s come before God and ask for forgiveness.
2 Chronicles 7:14. It’s still not too late.