Day 4: The Flood (2026)

Summary

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The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz)

Episode: Day 4 – The Flood (2026)
Date: January 4, 2026

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Episode Overview

This episode covers the famous Flood narrative (Genesis 7–9), the immediate aftermath, and Psalm 1. Fr. Mike Schmitz reads the selected Bible passages, reflects on their meaning, explores the brokenness and hope inherent in humanity's story, and draws connections to Catholic teaching and daily life. The episode’s purpose is to highlight the ongoing themes of sin, judgment, mercy, and God’s covenant love.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

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1. Scripture Readings: Genesis 7, 8, and 9; Psalm 1

[01:18–10:20]

• Noah Enters the Ark:
  God commands Noah to bring his family and pairs of animals into the ark, emphasizing Noah's righteousness.

  • “Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.” [02:10]

• The Flood:
  The floodwaters cover the earth for 40 days and nights, wiping out all life except those in the ark.

  • “All flesh died that moved upon the earth... Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.” [03:36]

• Receding Waters & New Beginning:
  The water recedes, the ark comes to rest on Ararat, and Noah sends out the raven and dove to test if the land is habitable.

  • “He waited another seven days; and again he sent forth the dove... the dove came back…with a freshly plucked olive leaf.” [05:04]

• God’s Covenant & Rainbow:
  After Noah offers sacrifice, God makes a covenant: never again will a flood destroy the earth. The rainbow is established as a sign of this promise.

  • “I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth.” [07:57]

• Genesis 9 Rules and Blessings:
  God gives permission for mankind to eat animals, but forbids eating blood and institutes respect for the sanctity of human life.

  • “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for God made man in his own image.” [07:41]

• Noah’s Vineyard & the Sin of Ham:
  A dark episode follows where Noah becomes drunk and Ham’s actions lead to the curse of Canaan.

  • “Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father…and told his two brothers outside.” [08:48]

• Psalm 1:
  Contrasts the righteous and the wicked, emphasizing delight in God’s law.

  • “Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked... but his delight is in the law of the Lord.” [09:47]

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2. Fr. Mike’s Reflection & Connection to Church Teaching

[10:30–20:05]

• God’s Unconditional Love & Faithfulness:
  Fr. Mike prays, giving thanks for God’s persistent, renewing love, even when he uses water’s destructive power for new life.

  • “Your love is unstoppable and unconditional... you have used even the destructive power of water to renew the face of the earth.” [10:36]

• New Permissions and Prohibitions:

  • After the flood, God permits eating animals, with respect for their lives and a special prohibition against murder.
  • Fr. Mike emphasizes animals’ place in creation (referencing Catechism paragraphs 2416–2417):
    • “By their mere existence, they bless him and give him glory. Thus, men owe animals kindness.... But there’s this notion, right, where God has made a distinction here: that animals may be killed and eaten, human beings may never. Innocent lives may never be taken.” [14:20]

• Dignity of Human Life:

  • He highlights the command, “Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed,” as a profound affirmation of humanity’s dignity.
  • Fr. Mike quotes the catechism:
    • “The covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence.” [13:41]
    • “That’s God’s gift to us as human beings: to be made in God’s image and likeness.” [13:56]

• Brokenness & Sin Even After Salvation:

  • The episode with Noah’s sons powerfully illustrates generational sin, broken families, and the need for grace.
  • “Once again, the dignity that we have as human beings... only seems to accent the murderous intent of our hearts, our willingness to do evil at times.” [16:59]
  • The “sin of Ham” is explained as not simply voyeurism, but (according to many scholars) an act of domination and humiliation, possibly sexual, increasing the depth of the family wound.

• Universal Need for Grace:

  • Fr. Mike draws the narrative to the present, highlighting that all humanity is broken and needs God’s grace daily.
  • “I place myself under your dominion, I place myself under your lordship, and I place myself under your grace. Because I know you’ve called me to heights… yet in my heart I’m broken.” [18:37]

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Memorable Quotes & Moments

• On God’s Covenant with Noah:

  • “God is setting down his bow and saying, ‘I will never, ever again destroy the earth by a flood.’ … God’s making peace by making a covenant.”
    — Fr. Mike Schmitz [12:06]

• On the Human Heart:

  • “Human beings in our hearts are broken... the thoughts of the human heart are, as Scripture says, murderous.”
    — Fr. Mike Schmitz [14:05]

• On Family and Brokenness:

  • “Families are consistently broken…we’re going to find again and again as we continue to move through scripture… the break of families.”
    — Fr. Mike Schmitz [16:15]

• On Surrendering to Grace:

  • “God, I place myself under your dominion. I place myself under your lordship, and I place myself under your grace. …I beg for your grace.”
    — Fr. Mike Schmitz [18:28]

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Important Timestamps

• Genesis Flood Story Reading: [01:18–09:47]
• Psalm 1 Reading: [09:47–10:20]
• Opening Prayer of Thanksgiving: [10:30–11:19]
• Noah’s Righteousness Highlighted: [11:19–11:44]
• Rainbow as Covenant Sign: [12:06–12:20]
• Permissions and Prohibitions after the Flood: [12:27–14:20]
• Catechism Quotes on the Dignity of Life: [13:41–14:20]
• Explanation of Ham’s Sin and Family Brokenness: [15:29–16:34]
• Call to Seek and Surrender to Grace: [17:56–18:47]

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Overall Takeaway

Fr. Mike Schmitz guides listeners through the Flood as both an act of judgment and of new beginning, stressing how God’s covenant love persists despite human sin. The narrative is rooted in dignity, the call to mercy, and the ongoing challenges of human brokenness, all pointing toward the need for daily surrender to grace.

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For further scripture context and catechism details referenced, or to continue your journey, subscribe to the podcast or view the reading plan at Ascension’s website.

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Transcript

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Hi, I'm Fr. Mike Schmitz and you're listening to the Bible in a Year Podcast where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible Timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. This is day four, so let's get started. We are reading today from Genesis chapter seven and Chapter nine, as well as Deuteronomy, diving back into the Psalms, but all the way back to the beginning we're going to be reading Psalm 1. So to get your Bibles queued up, Genesis chapter 7, 8 and 9 and Psalm 1. Couple reminders. The Bible translation that I'm using is the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. It's the rsvce, the Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition. If you want to read along as well as listen along, you can download your Bible in a Year reading plan by going to ascensionpress.com BibleInAYear, go to the website ascensionpress.com BibleInayear. You can also subscribe in your podcast app and we will keep showing up every morning morning for you. And then lastly, if you want to sign up for our email list, you can do that by texting the word Catholic Bible to 33777. You probably have that memorized by now after these four days. Catholic Bible to 33777 let's get started.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Genesis 7 and 9 Then the Lord said to Noah, go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and its mates, 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 upon the face of all the earth. For in seven days I will send rain upon the earth 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 600 years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood of clean animals and of animals that are not cleaned, and of birds and of everything that creeps in the ground. Two and two, male and female, went.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Into the ark with Noah as God had commanded.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Noah and after seven days, the waters of the flood came upon the earth. In the 600th year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the 17th day of the month, on that day, all the fountains of the great deep burst forth and the windows of the heavens were opened and rain fell upon the earth. 40 days and 40 nights on the very same day, Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark. And they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the cattle according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth according to its kind, in every bird, according to its kind, every bird of every sort, they went into the ark with Noah 2 and 2 of all flesh, in which there was the breath of life. And they that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. The flood continued 40 days upon the Earth. And the waters increased and bore up the ark. And it rose high above the Earth. The waters prevailed and increased greatly upon the Earth. And the ark floated on the face of the waters. And the waters prevailed so mightily upon the Earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. The waters prevailed upon the mountains covering them 15 cubits deep. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth. Birds, cattle, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm upon the Earth. And every man, everything on the dry land in whose nostril was the breath of life, died. He blotted out every living thing that was upon the face of the ground. Man and animals and creeping things and birds of the air, they were blotted out from the Earth. Only Noah was left. And those that were with him in the ark and the waters prevailed upon the Earth a hundred and fifty days. But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark. When God made a wind blow over the Earth and the waters subsided, the fountains of the deep and the windows of the heavens were closed. The rains from the heavens was restrained, and the waters receded from the earth continually. At the end of a hundred and fifty days, the waters had abated. And in the seventh month, on the 17th day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. And the waters continued to abate until the 10th month. In the 10th month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen. At the end of 40 days, Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made and sent forth a raven. And it went to and fro until the waters were dried up from the earth. Then he sent forth a dove from him to see if the waters had subsided from the face of the ground. But the dove found no place to set her foot. And she returned to him, to the ark. For the waters were still on the face of the whole Earth. So he put forth his hand and took her and brought her into the ark with him. He waited another seven days. And again he sent forth the dove out of the ark. And the dove came back to him in the evening. And behold, in her mouth was a freshly plucked olive leaf. So Noah knew that the waters had subsided from the earth. Then he waited another seven days and.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Sent forth the dove.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

And she did not return to him any more. In the 600 first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, the waters were dried from off the Earth. And Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked. And behold, the face of the ground was dry. In the second month, on the 27th day of the month, the Earth was dry. Then God said to Noah, go forth from the ark, you and your wife and your sons and your sons, wives with you. Bring forth with you every living thing that is with you of all flesh, birds and animals, and every creeping thing that creeps on the Earth, that they may breed abundantly on the Earth and be fruitful and multiply upon the Earth. And Noah went forth, and his sons and his wife and his sons, wives with him. And every beast, every creeping thing and.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Every bird, everything that moves upon the.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Earth went forth by families out of the ark. Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odor, the Lord said in his heart, I will never again curse the ground because of man.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

For the imagination of man's heart is.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. While the Earth remains seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease. And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the dread.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Of you shall be upon every beast of the Earth and upon every bird.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Of the air, upon everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are delivered. Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you green plants.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

I give you everything.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Only you shall not eat flesh with its life that is its blood. For your lifeblood I will surely require a reckoning. Of every beast I will require it. And of man. And of every man's brother, I will require the life of man. Whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. And you be fruitful and multiply. Bring forth abundantly on the earth and multiply in it. Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him, behold, I establish my covenant with you and your descendants after you. And with every living creature that is with you. The birds, the cattle and every beast of the earth with you, as many.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

As came out of the ark. I establish my covenant with you.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

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.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

And God said, this is the sign.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Of the covenant which I make between me and you and every living creature.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

That is with you.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

For all future generations. I set my bow in the cloud. And it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and the earth. When I bring clouds over the earth and the bow is seen in the clouds, I will remember my covenant which 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 bow is in the clouds, I will look upon it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth. God said to Noah, this is the sign of the covenant which I have established between me and all flesh that is upon the earth. The sons of Noah who went forth from the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. Ham was the father of Canaan. These three were the sons of Noah. And from these the whole earth was peopled.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Noah was the first tiller of the soil.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

He planted a vineyard, and he drank of the wine and became drunk and lay uncovered in his tent. And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father. And he told his two brothers outside. Then Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it upon both their shoulders. And walked backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father's nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and knew what his youngest son had done to him, he said, cursed be Canaan. A slave of slaves shall he be to his brothers. Ya also said, blessed by the Lord, my God, be Shem and let Canaan be his slave. God enlarged Japheth and let him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his slave. After the flood, Noah lived 350 years. All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died. Psalm1 the two ways blessed is the.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Man who walks not in the counsel of the wicked, nor stands in the way of sinners, nor sits in the seat of scoffers.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

He meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Streams of water that yields its fruit in its season, and its leaf does not wither.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

In all that he does, he prospers.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

The wicked are not so, but are.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Like chaff which the wind drives away.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Therefore the wicked will not stand in.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

The judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

For the Lord knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Father in heaven, we thank you so much for your word. And we thank you for revealing your.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Love for us and your faithfulness to.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Us that your love is unstoppable and unconditional. And we give you praise for revealing how you have used even the destructive power of water to renew the face of the earth. Lord God, all of your gifts, all of creation, can be used for good. They can be used for ill.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

They can bring forth life and they.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Can bring forth death. But you are good.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

You are the giver of life, and all life lies in your hand.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

All life lies in your power. And so we place our lives in your hands, and we place our lives under your dominion and authority. This day, in Jesus name we pray.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Amen.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Name of the Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Amen. Gosh. Okay, so we have the story of Noah. We had last yesterday had heard about how Noah had made the ark and he did all that God had commanded him. And that was one of the refrains that's so good. We know that Noah was a righteous man. It says again and again in scripture, Noah was righteous. He found favor in the eyes of the Lord. And as everything that God had asked.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Him to do, he did.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

Noah did all this, and he did all that God had commanded him. And then there was the floodwaters that destroyed the earth and destroyed all those.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Who were not in the ark.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

That's a story that's probably one of the most well known stories in the entire Bible. And they have the bow, the rainbow in the air. And there's something really powerful about that rainbow, the archer's bow, that is not going to be used for war, not going to be used for destruction or death. But is God is setting down his bow and saying that I will no longer will never ever again destroy the earth by a flood. And so here is. He's God's making peace by making a covenant with Noah and his family. It's just remarkable.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

There's also this.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

This notion. A couple things change after this, right? There's a couple things that. That are God makes incredibly clear. The first thing is the Lord smelled the offering that Noah made. He said, I'll never again curse the ground because of man. For the imagination of man's heart is evil from its youth. Neither will I ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. And so you have the sacrifice of Noah. And the response of God is like, yeah, I lay down my bow, right? But also you have the next chapter nine, beginning of chapter nine, where you have God saying that two things. One is you can eat of the animals. Now, there is a. There's an element where there was not necessarily the commandment to eat or the permission granted to eat of animals before the flood. But then God gives permission and also gives a prohibition against murder. Now, obviously, murder had already been proscribed. It had been prohibited. It had been spoken against. Right. At some point. Well, sorry, I say, obviously it's not in the text that God has prohibited murder. I think that would just be one of those obvious things. But who knows? Maybe I'm incorrect. But this is where God speaks in chapter nine. And he says, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. And so there's this first clear prohibition, I guess you'd say, against murder. And the covenant between God and mankind is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life and man's murderous violence. That's a quote from the catechism to paragraph 2260. I want to say that again. It says, the covenant between God and man is interwoven with reminders of God's gift of human life. That is God's gift of human life that God made man in his own. He says this, whoever sheds the blood of man by man shall his blood be shed. For God made man in his own image. That's a gift to us as human beings to be made in God's image and likeness. That's God's gift of human life. And. And also man's murderous violence. That one of the things we recognize is that the story of Noah points out the fact that human beings in our hearts are Broken. We heard it in chapter three of Genesis, that story of the fall. We saw it in chapter four with Cain and Abel. Then we see it now, as we continue in the story of the brokenness of the human heart, that actually the thoughts of the human heart are, as Scripture says, are murderous. And so what we need to do is we need to bring those thoughts, we need to bring those desires of the human heart under God's dominion, under his rule. And so God prohibits right, prescribes murder, and says, if you shed the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed. But also says that you can eat of animals, the flesh of animals. And it's the interesting thing the catechism says about that. In paragraph 2416 and 2417, it says that animals are God's creatures, and he surrounds them with this providential care. By their mere existence, they bless him and give him glory. Thus, men owe animals kindness. That's an important thing to note. 24:17 says, God entrusted animals to the stewardship, to those whom he created in his own image. That's us human beings. Hence, it is legitimate to use animals for food and clothing. They also may be domesticated to help man in his work and his leisure. Also, medical and scientific experimentation on animals is morally acceptable if it remains within reasonable limits and contributes to caring for saving human lives. But it is contrary to human dignity to cause animals to suffer or die needlessly or to expend extravagantly on animals when human beings could be helped. But there's this notion, right, where God has made a distinction here, that animals may be killed and eaten, human beings may never. Innocent lives may never be taken. And that's a commandment given. Why? Because our hearts are broken. And there's almost maybe nothing that more clearly reveals the brokenness of the human heart than the story immediately following the covenant with Noah. Maybe if you've never heard this story, you have heard the story of the animals and heard the story of the ark, you heard the story of the flood and the dove. But maybe you never heard the story of his sons, Sham, Ham and Japheth. Because you have this story where Noah planted a vineyard and drank the wine, became drunk, lay uncovered in his tent, and Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, told his two brothers outside, Shem and Japheth took a garment laid upon their shoulders, walked backwards, they did not see the nakedness of their father. And you say, like, wait, how is. How is Ham cursed now? And how is Canaan cursed? Because his. He saw his Father's nakedness. Well, it is believed by many scripture scholars that seeing their father's nakedness is an idiomatic expression for essentially laying with their father's mother or, sorry, their father's wife, essentially having sex with his mom or his father's wife. That would not simply be typically, in this kind of context, an act of lust, but actually an act of trying to dominate his own father, trying to humiliate his own father and emasculate his own father. And so Shem and Japheth did not do that. They honored their father. And so you have Ham being the father of Canaan and Canaan being the enemy of the people of Israel. And so you have this beginning of this, this once again, the break of families. And this is one of the things we're going to find again and again as we continue to move through scripture these days ahead is that when we follow the family, because pretty soon we're going to leave Noah. Not yet quite, but we're going to leave Noah. We're going to be introduced to Abraham pretty quickly, or Abram and his wife Sarai pretty quickly. We're going to find when we follow families is families are consistently broken. And families might not be as broken as this thing that Ham had done with his father's wife, but definitely broken in so many ways. Once again, the dignity that we have as human beings made in God's image and likeness only seems to accent the murderous intent of our hearts, our willingness to do evil at times. And so what do we do? We say, okay, God, I place myself under your dominion. I place myself under your lordship, and I place myself under under your grace. Because I know you've called me to heights. You've maybe in your image and likeness. And yet in my heart, I'm broken. And so I need your grace. And I ask for your grace. I beg for your grace, and I place myself under the dominion of your grace. You guys, we're going to continue our journey through the Bible. This is the Bible in the Year podcast. If you're interested in getting daily updates, you can subscribe to this podcast, in which case it'll pop up every single day as a podcast for you to listen to. If you'd like to have daily updates or regular updates and be on our list, you can text the word Catholic Bible to the number 33777, and you will get all the updates you can handle, my friend. It'll be phenomenal. I can't believe we're already starting this. This is our journey together. And I'm praying for you. Please pray for each other and pray for me. God bless you. My name's F.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

Thank you for listening.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

To Day four of the Bible in Ear podcast.

[Narrator / Scripture Reader]

If you'd like to hear even more commentary and dive deeper into today's readings, you can find exclusive content free in the Ascension app.

[Fr. Mike Schmitz]

God Bless.