The Genesis Site - Genesis 7

The Story

Worldwide subtropical climate made Earth look like paradise. But mankind didn't behave like paradise people. Although knowing God they went there own way. Human life became a mess. So God decided to end it all. By a worldwide flood. Not out of revenge, but to keep a way for sending someone to restore life. And as a warning for those who are to obstinate to listen.
This time one man and his family were warned to build a wooden boat, an ark. It took Noah about 100 years to build this giant ship [1]. And when the days of the flood were coming, God sent him and his family into the ark:

Then the LORD said to Noah, "Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive upon the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground."
And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.
Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.

And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark, to escape the waters of the flood. Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, they and every beast according to its kind, and all the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, and every bird according to its kind, every bird of every sort. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And they that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.

The flood continued forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered; the waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep.
And all flesh died that moved upon the earth, birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the earth, and every man; everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.
And the waters prevailed upon the earth a hundred and fifty days.

Did you notice where the waters came from? From above and from below!
"From above" means that the water vapour canopy (as described on the Atmosphere-page of Genesis 1) collapsed and fell down on earth. After the flood this vanishing caused a few changes.
1) The protection against harmful solar radiation disappeared. As a result lifetime of man decreased. Compared with Genesis 5 this is exactly what the generation list in Genesis 11 tells us. It also must have had it's influence on mankinds health and appearance.
2) The worldwide subtropical climate disappeared forever. Warmth escaped into space. Temperature changed suddenly. Storms and winds were felt for the first time. This all meant the beginning of seasons. In fact this is what Genesis 8:22 tells us.
3) The beginning of seasons included of course rain. So we find that after the flood something was seen that was never seen before: the rainbow! (Genesis 9:12-17)
Another important change can be found on the Geological strata-page.

Waters coming "from below" make us conclude that the earth's crust broke. So we can think of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. But it's also possible to suggest that underground seas existed before the flood. And why not? Psalm 136:6 claims about God that He "spread out the earth upon the waters". In fact a German research team found such an underground sea. They discovered a salt ocean three till six kilometers beneath the surface of the earth and as large as the common oceans [2].

A breaking earth and collapsing "waters above the firmament" caused a disaster mankind would never forget. As the old Maori's of New Zealand told:

All was changed. The earth was cracked and fissured in some places, and in others it had been turned upside down and confounded by reason of the flood. And no one soul was left alive in the world. They who came forth from the raft were the solitary survivors of all the tribes of the earth.

The wild waters on earth were rising destructively and covered the whole earth. No living being could escape. Just eight people and a bunch of animals survived in a wooden boat.

The ark finally ren aground on the mountains of Ararat. Through all the ages people claim to have seen the ark. In 1902 for instance, and again in 1904, an Armenian boy and his uncle visited the ark and climbed upon it. There is said a lot of Armeninans knew to find the ship in those days. Later the boy (George Ucell) moved to the USA, where he told his story. From his description a drawing was made by the artist Alfred Lee. George Ucell died in 1972.

[1] It wasn't untill 1858 AD that a ship was built greater than the ark: the Great Eastern.
[2] "Zoute oceaan op vier kilometer diepte", in: Technisch Weekblad, September 7, 1994.

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