Then the Lord caused a wind to blow, which dried up the water. After floating one hundred and fifty days, the ark rested upon the top of Mount Ararat. After this Noah waited forty days, and then he opened the window in the top of the ark and sent out a raven and a dove. But they found no place to rest, and so returned to the ark. Seven days after, he sent out another dove, and in the evening it returned with an olive leaf in its mouth. After another seven days, he again sent out a dove, but it did not return. Finally the water was fully dried up, and God told Noah that he and all the birds and animals could leave the ark. They must have been very glad to be on the land once more, for they had been in the ark a year and seventeen days. Noah was very thankful to God for saving their lives. "And Noah builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar." Genesis 8:20. [Illustration: Noah's Sacrifice.] The Lord was pleased with this offering, for it showed that Noah was still true to God, and had faith in Jesus Christ, the great Sacrifice for the sins of the world. Then the Lord said that He would not again destroy the earth with a flood. And as a covenant, or pledge in regard to this promise, He set the beautiful rainbow in the clouds. As all the wicked were destroyed from the earth, the Lord made a new start with the family of faithful Noah, to raise up a people that would obey Him and be finally redeemed, or brought back to the first dominion. Jesus said, "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be." Matthew 24:37-39. [Illustration] The Tower of Babel. NOT long after the flood, some of the descendants of Noah forgot God who had saved their fathers in the ark. They began to worship idols as the people did before the flood. Then Nimrod gathered these wicked people together and went with them to the plain of Shinar. Nimrod was a grandson of Ham, and a great grandson of Noah. He was a mighty hunter, and became famous in the earth. The Lord wanted the people to move in small companies into different places all over the earth. In this way it could be best settled and subdued, or cultivated. Nimrod wanted to build large cities and keep the people together. In this way he wished to establish a government that would finally rule the world. "The beginning of his kingdom was Babel." In this city they decided to build a great tower that would be the wonder of the world. They thought they would make the tower so high that they could go to the top of it and be safe if ever there came another flood.