The Lord Was Grieved 

     We know God is capable of emotion, disappointment and reaction. Everyone on earth was about to experience...anger. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 

     In Noah God had a man who sought communion with him. By God's grace he lived by faith (Hebrews 11:7). He was another preacher of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5).

     Unlike Enoch, taken up, Noah was told to work, to build an ark 450 by 75 by 45 feet...with no blueprints or lumber companies to supply material. And no experience.

     Noah was 600 years old by the time he and his three sons with their wives were ready to launch, to shove off, to weigh anchor, to... Okay. Noah didn't even have to close the door himself. The future of civilization was at stake, and God was Captain...of everything. 

     Months later the ark settled on dry land - somewhere - and the people, animals, critters and birds all disembarked. 

     God blessed Noah and his sons, giving them the right to "everything," except meat with lifeblood still in it. 

     He would also, "surely demand an accounting for...the life of a fellow man." Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man (Genesis 9:6). 

     Then God established a covenant with Noah and his sons and their descendants, and with all living creatures. Never again would he cut off life by flooding. He set "my rainbow in the clouds," a sign of covenant between himself and the earth.  

     God was no longer angry. We think maybe he was sad. 

 Next: the great divide