7 Jan. God decides to destroy the evil in the world
"The LORD saw that the human beings on earth were very wicked and that everything they thought about was evil. He was sorry he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain."
"So the Lord said, 'I will destroy all human beings that I made on the earth. And I will destroy every animal and everything that crawls on the earth and the birds of the air, because I am sorry I have made them.' "
"But Noah pleased the LORD... Noah was a good man, the most innocent man of his time, and he walked with God."
"When God saw that everyone on the earth did only evil, he said to Noah, 'Because people have made the earth full of violence, I will destroy all of them from the earth.' "
"Build a boat of cypress wood for yourself. Make rooms in it and cover it inside and outside with tar... Put a door in the side of the boat. Make an upper, middle and lower deck in it."
"I will bring a flood of water on the earth to destroy all living things that live under the sky, including everything that has the breath of life. Everything on the earth will die."
"But I will make an agreement with you - you, your sons, your wife and your son's wives will all go into the boat. Also you must bring into the boat two of every living thing, male and female. Keep them alive with you..."
"Also, gather some of every kind of food and store it on the boat as food for you and the animals."
"Noah did everything that God commanded him."
(Genesis 6:5-22)
After many generations during which the inhabitants of Mesopotamia worshipped the sun and the moon and numerous local deities, God’s heart was filled with pain at the violence and wickedness of mankind.
Around 3100BC, God decided to send a flood that would destroy much of what he had created in the "Cradle of Civilisation", and would get rid of the evil that had built up there.
Noah, however, was a righteous man who worked hard and worshipped God. He had probably learnt how to build ditches to drain the alluvial floodplain at the mouth of the Euphrates and had turned the marshland into productive grazing land.
God decided to save Noah and his family. He instructed him to build a boat (an ‘ark’) out of cypress wood and to cover it with tar (bitumen) to make it watertight.
Noah was instructed to take seven pairs of each kind of ‘ritually clean’ animal from his herds and one pair of each ‘unclean’ animal into the ‘ark’ (Genesis 7.2).
‘Ritually clean’ animals were those considered to be perfect in God’s eyes (see Leviticus 11:1-47), while the number seven represented completion and God’s particular blessing (see Genesis 2:3 & Joshua 6:4-5).
Then Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives had to wait...
The photo (by Anas Salloum) shows the alluvial floodplain of the Euphrates River at Abu Kamal.
You can read more about Noah and the flood @ https://www.thebiblejourney.org/biblejourney2/23-the-journeys-of-adam-enoch-noah-abraham/noah-journeys-to-aratta-on-the-flood/