FIRST LESSON from Genesis chapters 7, 8, 9

Then the LORD said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that

you alone are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean

animals, the male and its mate; and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and its

mate; and seven pairs of the birds of the air also, male and female, to keep their kind alive on

the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty

nights; and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the

ground.’ And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. And Noah with

his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Of

clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on

the ground, two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had

commanded Noah. And after seven days the waters of the flood came on the earth.

The flood continued for forty days on the earth; and the waters increased, and bore up the ark,

and it rose high above the earth. The waters swelled and increased greatly on the earth; and

the ark floated on the face of the waters.

At the end of forty days Noah opened the window of the ark that he had made and sent out

the raven; and it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent

out the dove from him, to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground; but the

dove found no place to set its foot, and it returned to him to the ark, for the waters were still

on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took it and brought it into the ark

with him. He waited another seven days, and again he sent out the dove from the ark; and the

dove came back to him in the evening, and there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf; so

Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days,

and sent out the dove; and it did not return to him any more.

Then God said to Noah, ‘Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’

wives with you. Bring out with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh—birds and

animals and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth—so that they may abound on the

earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.’ So Noah went out with his sons and his wife

and his sons’ wives. And every animal, every creeping thing, and every bird, everything that

moves on the earth, went out of the ark by families.

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, ‘As for me, I am establishing my covenant

with you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature that is with you, the

birds, the domestic animals, and every animal of the earth with you, as many as came out of

the ark. I establish my covenant with you, that never again shall all flesh be cut off by the

waters of a flood, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.’ God said, ‘This is

the sign of the covenant that I make between me and you and every living creature that is with

you, for all future generations: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it shall be a sign of the

covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow is

seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant that is between me and you and every living

creature of all flesh; and the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. When

the rainbow is in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God

and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.’ God said to Noah, ‘This is the sign of

the covenant that I have established between me and all flesh that is on the earth.’

SECOND LESSON Romans 13:8-10