Noah’s Ark: The Story in Genesis 6-9

Noah’s ark was the huge wooden boat our Father told Noah to build so that Noah’s family and pairs of every kind of animal would survive the flood, as told in Genesis 6-9. It is a story of human wickedness, our Father’s grief, His faithful care for Noah, and a covenant sealed with a rainbow. Below is the account in the words of Father’s Heart Bible, with what it shows about the Father’s heart.

Why did our Father send the flood?

The story begins with grief, not anger. Before any rain, Genesis 6 shows what our Father saw and how it affected Him.

“Our Father saw how great human wickedness had become on the earth—every thought and desire of their hearts only evil all the time.”

“He was grieved he had made humanity on the earth, and his heart filled with pain.”

The text names the pain before it names the judgment. Then comes the turn: Genesis 6:8 says “Noah found favor in the eyes of our Father,” and verse 9 describes him as righteous, blameless, a man who “walked faithfully with our Father.”

Building the ark: how big was it?

Our Father gave Noah the plan, down to the materials and measurements.

“Build yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it inside and out with pitch.”

“Make it like this: the ark about 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide, forty-five feet high.”

Father’s Heart Bible gives the size as about 450 feet long, seventy-five feet wide and forty-five feet high, with a door in its side and “lower, middle, and upper decks” (6:16). The same chapter ends with obedience: “Noah did everything just as our Father commanded him” (6:22).

The flood

Noah was 600 years old when the waters came (7:6). Our Father told him to enter the ark, and the animals came to him.

“In Noah's six hundredth year, second month, day seventeen—that same day—all springs of the great deep burst open, and heaven's floodgates opened.”

“Male and female of all flesh entered, as our Father commanded him; then our Father shut him in.”

The rain fell forty days and forty nights (7:12), the waters rose until the ark floated above the earth, and the waters “prevailed over the earth 150 days” (7:24). Notice verse 16: it is our Father Himself who shuts Noah in. The one who judged is also the one who protects.

Our Father remembered Noah

“But our Father remembered Noah, all the living creatures, and all the livestock with him in the ark, and swept a wind over the earth so the waters began to recede.”

This is the turning point of the whole account. Remembering in Scripture is never just recalling; it is acting for the people held in mind. The wind sweeps, the springs close, and the water goes down. The ark rested on the mountains of Ararat on the seventeenth day of the seventh month (8:4). Noah then sent out a raven and a dove, and the dove returned with a freshly plucked olive leaf (8:11). When the earth was completely dry, our Father told Noah to leave the ark (8:15-16).

Noah’s altar and our Father’s promise

“Our Father smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of humanity, though the human heart's inclination is evil from youth, nor will I ever again strike down every living thing as I have done.”

Look at what has and has not changed. Human hearts are still inclined toward evil; that is the same diagnosis as in Genesis 6:5. Yet our Father, speaking “in his heart,” chooses mercy anyway. The promise rests on His character, not on people becoming better.

The rainbow covenant

“I set my covenant with you: never again will all flesh be cut off by floodwaters; never again a flood to destroy the earth.”

“I have put my rainbow in the clouds as the sign of the covenant between me and the earth.”

“When the rainbow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between me and every living creature of every kind on earth.”

The rainbow is our Father’s sign, and He says He will see it and remember. The covenant is with Noah, his descendants “and every living creature” (9:9-10), and it is everlasting.

What Noah’s ark shows about the Father’s heart

Read together, the account shows three things the text itself says: our Father is grieved by evil (6:6), He keeps and shuts in those who walk with Him (7:16), and He remembers (8:1; 9:15-16). Judgment is real, and so is His determination to preserve life and make a covenant with it. You can read all of it free, with audio, in Genesis 6, 7, 8 and 9.

Jesus and Noah’s ark

Jesus himself pointed back to Noah. In Matthew 24 He says:

“As in Noah's days, so will be the Son of Man's coming.”

“For in the days before the flood, people ate and drank, married and gave in marriage, until the day Noah entered the ark;”

Jesus treats the flood as real history and as a picture of how suddenly our Father’s judgment can arrive when people are not watching; see the whole passage in Matthew 24 and the parallel in Luke 17. Jesus is the Son of Man, fully God and fully human, and the one who speaks with that authority. Peter adds a note about patience:

“who disobeyed long ago, when our Father waited patiently in Noah's days as the ark was being built, in which a few—eight people—were brought safely through the water.”

While the ark was being built, our Father waited patiently. Peter then connects the water to baptism and to “Jesus Christ’s resurrection” (3:21), which is where the story points: safety through water, now found in Christ. See 1 Peter 3.

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