The flood

The world was sinful.  God decided to drown it through a flood.  However, He chose to spare one family.

That family was Noah's.  God told him to build an ark.  Noah spent years doing this.  He was probably ridiculed for his work because the world has not experienced rain or flood before.  But Noah chose to believe in God and continued to build.

When the time came, God sent to Noah a representative collection of all kinds of animals.  From the humans, Noah, his sons and their wives were saved in the ark.  The skies and the fountains in the sea broke after that, but God closed the door of the ark after the creatures that were to be saved were inside.

After a long time, the rain stopped and the waters receded.  The ark landed on Mt Ararat.  Noah knew when it was saved to come out of the ark when a dove he sent out brought back an olive branch.

Noah burned a sacrifice to God when he emerged from the ark.  God made a promise that He would not flood the world again.  The rainbow is the sign of this promise.


For more information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noah%27s_Ark
Genesis 6-9