God told Noah to take his family of eight including his wife, 3 sons and 3 daughters-in-law and himself, along with 7 pairs of each clean animal and two pairs of each unclean animal into the boat. Clean animals are later shown to be the as ones used for sacrifice. God says in seven days he will send rain for forty days and nights to blot out everything he had made. After they went in, the Lord shut the door. 

God is sending a natural disaster with the intention of destruction. We still call floods, droughts, wildfires, hurricanes, and earthquakes Acts of God, yet there is always the nagging suspicion that we had a hand in it. Did we as a society do something wrong that caused nature itself to revolt? Is God being capricious, or are these direct consequences for our bad behavior? When I was a child I couldn’t comprehend how God could be so mean. As an adult, knowing all the terrible things people do, I see every day we survive as an act of God’s devine forbearance. 

Noah was in his 600th year, 2nd month and 17th day when God flooded the Earth. “The fountains of the deep burst forth and the windows of heaven were opened.” It’s a two way flood, water is coming from both directions. All the land was covered, even the mountains were 15 cubits (6.5 meters) under water, and all the birds, animals and people died. Genesis says the waters prevailed for 150 days. (This depth of coverage both killed everything and was deep enough to let the boat float freely.)

It surprises me how early the Flood occurs in the Bible, just seven chapters in. When Adams and Eve sinned they were still given a chance to have kids before they die, and when their first son killed the second, God gave them a third son. In this story, when the people choose evil, God destroys them, but not before prompting Noah to build an ark to save them. God doesn’t make the boat for them. Noah and his family had to build, prepare and enter it. Disobedience brought their punishment, but obedience brought their rescue.