The Fountains of the Deep: Genesis 7:11-24

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened.

The world cracked open.

From below, the deep that had been restrained since creation—the tehom, the primordial waters—erupted through the earth's crust. Geysers of destruction, aquifers exploding, the planet hemorrhaging water from wounds that gaped across continents.

From above, the windows of heaven—the raqia, the vault that held waters above—opened and poured. Not rain as they knew rain but a deluge, a waterfall from the sky, the separation of day two reversed.

And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

Forty days. Forty nights. The number of testing, of judgment, of complete transformation. The world that had been would cease to exist.

On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark.

Eight people. The entire future of humanity walking up a ramp into a wooden box.

They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings.

Pairs of everything. The earth's biological treasure compressed into compartments, held safe while the world died outside.

Then the LORD shut him in.

God himself closed the door. The last act of mercy before judgment fell—sealing the righteous inside, sealing the wicked outside. Once shut, no one could open. The decision was final.

The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.

Mountains submerged. The highest peaks drowned. The earth became what it had been in the beginning—formless and covered with water. Creation in reverse.

Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died.

Everything. Every breath of life outside the ark—extinguished. The violence that had filled the earth was answered with violence from above and below. The judgment was total.

Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

Eight people, floating on a world's grave. The rain drumming on the roof. The ark creaking in the swells. Somewhere below, everything they had ever known lay drowned.

The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.

Five months of water. Five months of floating. Five months of waiting for God to remember the promise he had made.

The old world was gone. What would rise from the waters remained to be seen.