Following Adam and Eve’s disobedience, sin abounded. Iniquity came to the full after 1,656 years of man’s existence on the earth. “GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. … And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them” (Gen. 6:5,7).
However, one man found grace in the eyes of the Lord, Noah (Gen. 6:8). He was a preacher of righteousness and he had three sons (2 Pet. 2:5; Gen. 6:10). God commanded Noah to build an Ark for the purpose of bringing the animals of each kind, Noah, his wife and his sons and their wives through the flood safely while the rest of the wicked perished in the flood (Gen. 6:13-14).
Prior to the flood, there had been no rain. Instead, a watery canopy encircled the earth in the upper atmosphere and caused the earth to be watered by a mist. It was this canopy that broke and thus, caused the rain and the flood of waters that covered the earth. It was a natural phenomenon that occurred in God’s due time. By this flood, God determined to stop the extension of evil from the face of the earth. It rained for 40 days and nights and the flood waters came upon the earth. No flesh survived save those in the ark.
When the waters subsided, Noah opened the doors and released the animals. A fresh start began for life to blossom again upon the earth. What a wonderful vision of the restitution of all things. As the waters covered the world in Noah’s day, the waters of trouble cover the earth today. After the shaking, breaking and washing away of this present evil world takes place via Armageddon, the Lord will bless His creation with a renewed earth and He will remember their sins no more.
God has promised, the earth abideth forever (Eccl. 1:4). He signified this promise in the heavens with a rainbow which reminds us of God’s promise to never destroy the earth again with a flood (Gen. 9:11-15).