Over Christmas, I drove up to visit the Grand Canyon. After living in Arizona for 16 years, it was about time. I’d seen pictures and videos of it, but like they say, nothing can capture its majesty — or, should I say, God’s majesty — like seeing it up close. Now, the “experts” up there will tell you that it was formed by the measly Colorado River over billions of years. However, I did some research and discovered that huge hole in the ground was created in one fell swoop known as the Great Flood. Yes, Noah’s flood. You can watch videos at the bottom of Christian, Bible-believing geologists telling the truth about the Grand Canyon. It only shows off God’s great power.
Let’s first go through the account of the Great Flood found in Genesis. I’ve covered what was going on just before the flood in “As in the Days of Noah” from Luke 17. Suffice it to say that God was angry at His creation, but Noah found favor with Him. Here’s what happened next…
The Story of Noah
9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. 10 Noah was the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. 12 God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt. 13 So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!
14 “Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. 15 Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. 16 Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.
17 “Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. 18 But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 19 Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. 20 Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. 21 And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.”
22 So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.
The Flood Covers the Earth
When everything was ready, the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the boat with all your family, for among all the people of the earth, I can see that you alone are righteous. 2 Take with you seven pairs—male and female—of each animal I have approved for eating and for sacrifice, and take one pair of each of the others. 3 Also take seven pairs of every kind of bird. There must be a male and a female in each pair to ensure that all life will survive on the earth after the flood. 4 Seven days from now I will make the rains pour down on the earth. And it will rain for forty days and forty nights, until I have wiped from the earth all the living things I have created.”
5 So Noah did everything as the Lord commanded him.
6 Noah was 600 years old when the flood covered the earth. 7 He went on board the boat to escape the flood—he and his wife and his sons and their wives. 8 With them were all the various kinds of animals—those approved for eating and for sacrifice and those that were not—along with all the birds and the small animals that scurry along the ground. 9 They entered the boat in pairs, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. 10 After seven days, the waters of the flood came and covered the earth.
11 When Noah was 600 years old, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the underground waters erupted from the earth, and the rain fell in mighty torrents from the sky. 12 The rain continued to fall for forty days and forty nights.
13 That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives. 14 With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild, large and small—along with birds of every kind. 15 Two by two they came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes. 16 A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.
17 For forty days the floodwaters grew deeper, covering the ground and lifting the boat high above the earth. 18 As the waters rose higher and higher above the ground, the boat floated safely on the surface. 19 Finally, the water covered even the highest mountains on the earth, 20 rising more than twenty-two feet above the highest peaks. 21 All the living things on earth died—birds, domestic animals, wild animals, small animals that scurry along the ground, and all the people. 22 Everything that breathed and lived on dry land died. 23 God wiped out every living thing on the earth—people, livestock, small animals that scurry along the ground, and the birds of the sky. All were destroyed. The only people who survived were Noah and those with him in the boat. 24 And the floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days.
The Flood Recedes
8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock with him in the boat. He sent a wind to blow across the earth, and the floodwaters began to recede. 2 The underground waters stopped flowing, and the torrential rains from the sky were stopped. 3 So the floodwaters gradually receded from the earth. After 150 days, 4 exactly five months from the time the flood began, the boat came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 Two and a half months later, as the waters continued to go down, other mountain peaks became visible.
6 After another forty days, Noah opened the window he had made in the boat 7 and released a raven. The bird flew back and forth until the floodwaters on the earth had dried up. 8 He also released a dove to see if the water had receded and it could find dry ground. 9 But the dove could find no place to land because the water still covered the ground. So it returned to the boat, and Noah held out his hand and drew the dove back inside. 10 After waiting another seven days, Noah released the dove again. 11 This time the dove returned to him in the evening with a fresh olive leaf in its beak. Then Noah knew that the floodwaters were almost gone. 12 He waited another seven days and then released the dove again. This time it did not come back.
13 Noah was now 601 years old. On the first day of the new year, ten and a half months after the flood began, the floodwaters had almost dried up from the earth. Noah lifted back the covering of the boat and saw that the surface of the ground was drying. 14 Two more months went by, and at last the earth was dry!
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Leave the boat, all of you—you and your wife, and your sons and their wives. 17 Release all the animals—the birds, the livestock, and the small animals that scurry along the ground—so they can be fruitful and multiply throughout the earth.”
18 So Noah, his wife, and his sons and their wives left the boat. 19 And all of the large and small animals and birds came out of the boat, pair by pair.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and there he sacrificed as burnt offerings the animals and birds that had been approved for that purpose. 21 And the Lord was pleased with the aroma of the sacrifice and said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of the human race, even though everything they think or imagine is bent toward evil from childhood. I will never again destroy all living things. 22 As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night.”
Genesis 6:9 – 8:22 NLT
Then God gave us the rainbow as a sign of the covenant that He would never destroy all living things with a flood. But that doesn’t mean He won’t destroy with fire — that happens during and after the Great Tribulation which we find in the Book of Revelation.
Let’s recap:
- It rained for 40 days. Not just rain, but water came up from underground springs.
- The floodwaters covered the earth for 150 days – that’s 5 months!
- It took another 2 1/2 months for the mountains to become visible.
- 40 days later, Noah opened the window and released the raven and the dove.
- 7 days later, he released the dove again and it returned with the olive branch.
So, you see, that amount of water covering the WHOLE EARTH, had to have created the Grand Canyon and many of the rock formations we find all over the world. Watch the videos below.
God’s Magnificent Power
My purpose in going through the whole flood story is to show you some of the extent of God’s power. That’s why He’s called “almighty” and “all-powerful”. There’s no way we humans can fully understand God’s power. But we can trust it.
“Have you never heard? Have you never understood? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of all the earth. He never grows weak or weary. No one can measure the depths of his understanding. He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint.”
Isaiah 40:28-31 NLT
God is In Control
“God reigns above the nations, sitting on his holy throne.”
Psalms 47:8 NLT
“Be still, and know that I am God!
Psalms 46:10 NLT
I will be honored by every nation.
I will be honored throughout the world.”
God is Love
7 Dear friends, let us continue to love one another, for love comes from God. Anyone who loves is a child of God and knows God. 8 But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love.
9 God showed how much he loved us by sending his one and only Son into the world so that we might have eternal life through him.
1 John 4:7-9 NLT
Trust in God Alone
We don’t know what the future will bring. That is why we MUST trust in GOD ALONE! He is everlasting. Which means that He knows what the future holds for each and everyone of us.
“Let me hear of your unfailing love each morning, for I am trusting you. Show me where to walk, for I give myself to you.”
Psalms 143:8 NLT
“Let all that I am wait quietly before God, for my hope is in him. He alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken. My victory and honor come from God alone. He is my refuge, a rock where no enemy can reach me. O my people, trust in him at all times. Pour out your heart to him, for God is our refuge.”
Psalms 62:5-8 NLT
We read about trusting God in Luke Chapter 12. He tells us not to worry. He will provide everything that we need if we TRUST HIM! And it’s what we NEED not what we WANT! It took me a long time to learn that. Here’s a quote from a YouVersion Bible Study, “Rooted”…
God‘s version of success looks like building our lives on eternal things for eternal things. Anything less does not impress Him and shouldn‘t impress us. Neither appearances nor short-term success impress God. He looks at the heart, and He is looking for fruit that lasts. When we stand before Him at the end of our lives, the only thing that will matter is whether our hearts were aligned with His and we have long-term fruit. We want to live in such a way that we will hear Him say, “Well done, good and faithful servant!” That‘s the success that must motivate us to embrace His process of building roots in our lives.
“Rooted – The Hidden Places Where God Develops You” by Banning Liebscher
Like I wrote in yesterday’s post, I don’t think 2021 will be any better than 2020. We can’t count on or trust a vaccine to wipe out the coronavirus. We can’t trust whoever becomes President of the United States to bring us peace and prosperity. We can’t trust a political party or cause either. We can only TRUST GOD. He and only HE is our Eternal and Confident HOPE. No one else. Nothing else.
I’ll leave you with one last scripture passage…
“So we don’t look at the troubles we can see now; rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen. For the things we see now will soon be gone, but the things we cannot see will last forever.”
2 Corinthians 4:18 NLT
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
