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At some undetermined point after creation, God was watching over the people on the earth he had made. According to Biblical scripture, he was not pleased with what he saw; violence and corruption plagued the earth, all the people had hearts full of evil. The sight of what his creation had become made God very upset.
God decided he would wipe away mankind and the animals on the earth by sending a great flood. However, there was one good man, named Noah, who was faithful towards him.
According to the narative, God told Noah of his plans to flood the earth, and gave him instructions about building an ark. The ark was to be big enough to hold examples of every kind of animal, as well as food supplies.
Noah did as he was told, and on the day he and his family finished the ark the earth began to split apart. Water gushed from the deep below, the heavens opened, and rain started falling. It rained for 40 days, so hard that the entire earth was flooded. Even the highest mountains were covered.
After six months adrift on the waters, the Ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. Anxious for some other sign of land, Noah sent out a raven, but it kept on flying. Seven days later he sent out a dove, but not finding anywhere to land, it returned. Seven days later he sent the dove out again, and this time it returned with an olive leaf in its beak. Noah knew that the waters were subsiding. Seven days later he sent the dove out once more, and this time it did not return. After a further interval, and more than a year since entering the Ark, he, his family and all the other animals stepped out.
The Genesis account describes how God made a promise never again to destroy the earth and all its inhabitants with a flood. As a sign of his promise, God set a rainbow in the sky and said, "Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth." Having made known his absolute holiness, he gave mankind a new start and encouraged him to believe that in some important way his relationship with his Creator would now be different.
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