In Hebrew, the word for “ark” is tebah, and it is used more than 20 times in the story of the flood in Genesis 6–9. But the word is also used in the story of Moses. Knowing that the Egyptians had orders to kill every newborn Hebrew boy, Moses’ mother sought to protect him. She made a basket (also tebah), coated it with tar and pitch, placed her baby son in it, and put the “ark” in the Nile river (Exodus 2:1–3). The basket was discovered by the daughter of the pharaoh, the Egyptian king, and as a result, Moses survived the massacre of the Hebrew boys.

From this, the Israelites would have understood their leader Moses to be a man like Noah, because God had saved both of them with an “ark”, a tebah. The people whom Moses led out of Egypt had been the first to hear the Genesis stories, and this connection between Noah and Moses’ origins would have made the story of the flood an encouragement, as they struggled through the chaos of their journey through the wilderness.

When God created the world, He first made it habitable (Genesis 1:3–19) before filling it with living beings (vv. 20–31). Now, through the humans and animals saved by the ark, the world will be populated again with “every kind of living creature . . . so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it” (8:15–19; see also 1:22, 28).

Noah builds an altar to the Lord and offers a sacrifice on it, in an act of gratitude (8:20). This spontaneous act of worship is a “pleasing aroma” to God, who responds with a marvellous promise never again to destroy the world with a flood, even though human beings will continue to sin (v. 21). Again, we are presented with a picture of a God who is moved by our response to Him. God wants to have a genuine relationship with us the way a father does with his children. Just as He expects us to be influenced by His words and deeds, He delights in our acts of gratitude and faith carried out for His glory.

Genesis 8 ends with God’s promise of uninterrupted seasonal patterns and rhythms of time “as long as the earth endures” (v. 22). This gives us the confidence that God will maintain a reasonable stability in the natural world—such as in the earth’s orbit and rotation, and in the weather cycles that facilitate agriculture—despite the harm that greedy and selfish societies have inflicted on it, especially in the recent past.

Jesus teaches about God’s fatherly care that causes Him to bless both good and evil people (Matthew 5:45).

This teaching is rooted in the book of Genesis and is evident to this day. If not for God’s maintenance of nature’s patterns and cycles, no human technology or ingenuity could offer creation even the slightest chance of survival!