At one time, human sin became so great and so repugnant to God that He decided to reboot. Setting apart one righteous man and his family—and a whole slew of animals—God enacted His plan to send a deluge upon the earth to erase the infection of sin.
God told Noah to build an ark and take upon it pairs of every kind of animal and bird—male and female—in order to keep these species alive. If I had been Noah, I’d have been consumed with the anxiety of how I was going to trap and transport all of these creatures onto the ark. Scholars say that the ark could have held 45,000 animals. So how was it possible to get that many creatures, who would have been natural predators and prey, to enter the ark without attacking one another? How was it possible for a human to usher wild, undomesticated animals like lions and bears without getting mauled?
God himself took care of this superhuman task. “Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark.” (Genesis 7:15) The animals obeyed God's command to approach Noah, keep from attacking others, and obediently enter the ark. Noah wasn't the only one who demonstrated obedience; the animals too showed themselves obedient to enter the ark. Those that obeyed God were spared from drowning, and became the Adam and Eve of their species when the waters receded. Those that didn't met the same fate as the wicked humans who perished in the flood.
"Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. (Genesis 6:11-13)
"Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in." (Genesis 7:15-16)
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