Genesis 7-9

Right away you might have been surprised in these passages. Verse 2 tells us that Noah brought seven pairs of the clean animals and birds on the ark. You probably had all these wonderful pictures (from your childhood) of all the animals neatly lining up two-by-two and marching onto the boat – but some had more than two!

Also it may have surprised you to notice that Noah had 7 days after being told to gather all the animals to get everything on the ark. Wow, that is not much time, but if God can provide a whole universe in that time, He could surely help Noah get all the animals on board in a hurry. It then rained 40 days and nights and the water then (after 150 days) subsided enough to land on a mountain (Ararat) and then after a few periods of 7 days, they exit the ark under a new sky and onto a new earth. This means that they spent between 7 months to a year on the ark (not the best scenario with a bunch of wild animals). Upon exit, Noah gives a sacrifice to God and God gives the symbol of "my bow in the sky" to assure them all that He would not flood the entire earth again.

This is usually where you end the story in your mind, likely. However, you were likely surprised by the end of chapter 9 and the events that unfold. It would have been shameful to see your father naked (likely true today as well) and even more so to just talk about it instead of covering it up (as Ham did). Shem and Japheth then walk in backwards to cover their father who was drunk and naked and do not look upon his nakedness. They acted in a prudent way, and are blessed by Noah when he comes to. Canaan, Ham's son, however is cursed by Noah for his father's poor actions. Much could be said about this, but I will leave it at this – because of Ham's sin, Canaan and his descendents (the Canaanites) would be cursed and Shem's descendants (one of which would be Abram) would be a blessing to the earth. It is amazing what small things can affect history in a mighty way!