Friday in Easter

1Verse 1. Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2Verse 2. You are to take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate; a pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate; 3Verse 3. and seven pairs of every kind of bird of the air, male and female, to preserve their offspring on the face of all the earth. 4Verse 4. For seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living thing I have made.” 5Verse 5. And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. 6Verse 6. Now Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. 7Verse 7. And Noah and his wife, with his sons and their wives, entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8Verse 8. The clean and unclean animals, the birds, and everything that crawls along the ground 9Verse 9. came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10Verse 10. And after seven days the floodwaters came upon the earth. 11Verse 11. In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12Verse 12. And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights. 13Verse 13. On that very day Noah entered the ark, along with his sons Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and his wife, and the three wives of his sons — 14Verse 14. they and every kind of wild animal, livestock, crawling creature, bird, and winged creature. 15Verse 15. They came to Noah to enter the ark, two by two of every creature with the breath of life. 16Verse 16. And they entered, the male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in. 17Verse 17. For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and the waters rose and lifted the ark high above the earth. 18Verse 18. So the waters continued to surge and rise greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the waters. 19Verse 19. Finally, the waters completely prevailed upon the earth, so that all the high mountains under all the heavens were covered. 20Verse 20. The waters rose and covered the mountaintops to a depth of fifteen cubits. 21Verse 21. And every living thing that moved upon the earth perished — birds, livestock, animals, every creature that swarms upon the earth, and all mankind. 22Verse 22. Of all that was on dry land, everything that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23Verse 23. And every living thing on the face of the earth was destroyed — man and livestock, crawling creatures and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth, and only Noah and those with him in the ark remained. 24Verse 24. And the waters prevailed upon the earth for 150 days.

13Verse 13. When a gentle south wind began to blow, they thought they had their opportunity. So they weighed anchor and sailed along, hugging the coast of Crete. 14Verse 14. But it was not long before a cyclone called the Northeaster swept down across the island. 15Verse 15. Unable to head into the wind, the ship was caught up. So we gave way and let ourselves be driven along. 16Verse 16. Passing to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we barely managed to secure the lifeboat. 17Verse 17. After hoisting it up, the crew used ropes to undergird the ship. And fearing that they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and were driven along. 18Verse 18. We were tossed so violently that the next day the men began to jettison the cargo. 19Verse 19. On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. 20Verse 20. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the great storm continued to batter us, we abandoned all hope of being saved. 21Verse 21. After the men had gone a long time without food, Paul stood up among them and said, “Men, you should have followed my advice not to sail from Crete. Then you would have averted this disaster and loss. 22Verse 22. But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because you will not experience any loss of life, but only of the ship. 23Verse 23. For just last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me 24Verse 24. and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And look, God has granted you the lives of all who sail with you.’ 25Verse 25. So take courage, men, for I believe God that it will happen just as He told me. 26Verse 26. However, we must run aground on some island.” 27Verse 27. On the fourteenth night we were still being driven across the Adriatic Sea. About midnight the sailors sensed they were approaching land. 28Verse 28. They took soundings and found that the water was twenty fathoms deep. Going a little farther, they took another set of soundings that read fifteen fathoms. 29Verse 29. Fearing that we would run aground on the rocks, they dropped four anchors from the stern and prayed for daybreak. 30Verse 30. Meanwhile, the sailors attempted to escape from the ship. Pretending to lower anchors from the bow, they let the lifeboat down into the sea. 31Verse 31. But Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men remain with the ship, you cannot be saved.” 32Verse 32. So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and set it adrift. 33Verse 33. Right up to daybreak, Paul kept urging them all to eat: “Today is your fourteenth day in constant suspense, without taking any food. 34Verse 34. So for your own preservation, I urge you to eat something, because not a single hair of your head will be lost.” 35Verse 35. After he had said this, Paul took bread and gave thanks to God in front of them all. Then he broke it and began to eat. 36Verse 36. They were all encouraged and took some food themselves. 37Verse 37. In all, there were 276 of us on board. 38Verse 38. After the men had eaten their fill, they lightened the ship by throwing the grain into the sea.