The
seventh chapter of Genesis begins with God commanding Noah, “Go
into the ark, you and your family, because I have found you righteous
in this generation“.
After over 100 years of faithfully working on the ark and, I suspect
preaching repentance to anyone that would listen, it is time. I
don’t believe this was done in secret, but rather a very public
display. It doesn’t sound like Noah had a single convert outside his
family members, yet he remained faithful. I can’t help but notice
that Noah remains faithful by just doing his job. I believe that
means for us, we need to do our work with excellence as well.
Whether you are a doctor, a carpenter or a student, if you do your
job with joy and excellence, people will notice. God brings to Noah
every kind of animal, both clean and unclean. For the second time we
are told “Noah
did all that the Lord commanded him“.
Then we are told, they enter the ark as God commanded, “and
after seven days the flood waters came on the earth“.
That may have taken more faith than the 120 years prior, can you
imagine the conversation taking place INSIDE the ark during those
long seven days? They must have had doubt, they must have questioned
Noah’s understanding, they must have felt uncertain.
We
are told, “In
the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the
second month- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst
forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell
on the earth for 40 days and forty nights“.
The world before the flood must have been a very different
topography and environment. It seems that the very thick blanket of
clouds collapsed and completely flooded everything. I read recently
that the earth is not a perfect sphere, if it were, everything would
be covered with water. As we will see, after the flood, the world
will be quite different. One fascinating verse tells us that after
Noah entered the ark, “The
Lord shut the door“.
We have to be careful never to shut the door on anyone when it comes
to salvation. It is God that will close the door on that last day,
we just need to continue to be faithful. “The
waters increased and lifted the ark high above the earth…All of the
high mountains under the entire heavens were covered…Everything on
dry land that had nostrils died…Only Noah was left and those with
him on the ark“.
The
picture of the ark is also a picture of salvation. It is quite clear
that only those that got into the ark lived. In the Gospel of John,
Jesus Himself tells us, “I
am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the father except
through me“.
And Paul reiterates this to Timothy, “There
is one God and one mediator between God and men, the Man Jesus
Christ“.
Just as only those that go into the ark lived, only those that
accept the forgiveness through Christ will spend eternity with God.
Don’t wait until God shuts the door.