Contrary to popular belief, God is not sitting in His high chair, doing nothing but looking down on us. In chapter 6, we saw that God regretted making man because our imagination was evil continually, and how He planned to destroy us from the face of the earth. Because of one man’s righteousness, He resorted to another option and put a plan in place to preserve humanity.
Noah built the ark, and in this chapter, we will see him, his family, and the animals enter the ark before the rain. Evil is still upon the earth today. God has another plan to eradicate evil, but only this time for good. God is actively instructing the Noah of our day to prepare for doomsday.
The good news is that the door of mercy is still open; the bad news is that no one knows for how long it will remain open. Furthermore, if you die today and you are not saved, obtaining mercy might be too late for you.
- There is a reward for righteousness.
Those of us Christians know that our righteousness, obtained through Christ, will be rewarded. In this chapter, God tells Noah to enter the ark of safety because He has seen his righteousness in the generation.
Given that Noah’s family was also saved, this suggests that either Noah commanded his household according to God’s ways or their lives were spared for Noah’s sake. I would like to believe that it was the former, that Noah’s family all lived according to God’s principles.
Noah’s favor with God should encourage us to be righteous and inspire others to be the same, especially those in our households. Of course, we can’t be righteous alone, but we can allow Christ to imbue His righteousness upon us.
- Keeping seeds alive on this earth requires both male and female
When God instructed Noah to take the animals into the ark, He told him to take seven pairs of the clean and two pairs of the unclean beasts. Of particular interest is that God told Noah to take the male and the female specifically to preserve seed on the earth.
The birth rate in most countries, including Jamaica, continues to decline. Despite the economic climate, people have forgotten that one male or two males, or one female or two females, cannot produce children, and two, we have abdicated our God-given responsibility to replenish the earth.
Instead of allowing God to decide upon their reproductive decisions, people choose not to conceive, and those who conceive have countless options to abort their unborn babies.
- Stay with God in the church.
Noah was in the ark seven days before the rain started. If God hadn’t shut the door or had Noah been like some of us, he might have been tempted to doubt God. Perhaps some of us would exit the ark, do our regular duties, and prepare to jump in when we see the rain. However, Noah’s faith depended not on seeing rain but on God and on what He said would come to pass.
Are you in a position where God has made a promise, but there is no evidence that what He says will happen until now? Like Noah, place your trust in God, not in what you see happening or not happening in your marriage, business, or any other aspect of your life.
In 2000, many people sought baptism because they believed the world was coming to an end. After being in church for a while and realizing that the world was still up to its old self (or so they believe), some people have returned to where they came from.
Others will tell you they have heard since they were children that Christ is coming back, and that up until now there has been no sign of Him. They scoff at the idea that this earth will end shortly. I would hasten to tell those who are skeptical that if you are waiting to see Christ before believing that He is coming again, it will be too late for you.
In the same way, God told Noah to enter the ark seven days before the rain began. We, too, should ‘enter’ the Ark of Safety before the Son of Man returns. It may be seven days, seven years, seventy years, seven hundred, or seven thousand years for you, but what matters is that Christ is coming again. Christ said, “I believe, I am prepared,” and that settles it.
Let’s not be caught up in the doom and gloom of the days of horror that will come, like those who went for those who didn’t believe in Noah’s time.
- Get your family in the Ark of Safety as well.
Can you imagine how Noah would feel on the ark, alone with the animals? His wife and children are perishing in the flood while he is on board the ark. Too many people are professing to know God, preparing themselves through Jesus Christ, while their children are steadily progressing on the broad road to destruction.
I am not saying that every child will follow in the footsteps of their God-fearing parents, but I believe if we live an exemplary Christian life and take them to church, especially when they are young, it’s more likely that they will want to emulate us. Eventually, as we continue to talk to them about Christ more than about education and career, they will turn their eyes to the One who is worth emulating.
If, after all of that, our children still choose not to follow Christ, we would have done God’s will.
- Christ, our Ark of safety, will lift us out of the troubles to come
Genesis 7:18 says that the waters prevailed, but the ark went upon the face of the water. Someone facing hard times today, in the middle of a battlefield, must understand that God can and will lift them above their troubles, but they must allow Him.
Whatever your ‘water’ is, the water will come, but God will not allow you to drown in it. Look to Him because, indeed, He is our Ark of Safety.
- All flesh will die except those who are in Christ.
I often think of the people who died in the flood and wonder what they thought when Noah and his family entered the ark on that first day. What did they think when they saw no rain, then rain, which eventually started flooding? Did they climb on their rooftops, seek to go to the top of the tallest mountain, or perhaps they believed they could swim it out?
Unfortunately for them, everything, even the tallest mountains and trees, was covered with water. There was no way of escaping the disaster that was upon the land. Even if the trees weren’t covered, which they were, the water had been upon the earth for over five months. How would one survive without food for five months?
Not one person was left alive to tell the tale of what it was like outside the ark.
But the truth is, we need no witnesses because we are in the same position they were. Jesus Christ is our Ark of Safety. Those in Him will be saved from the impending destruction, and those without will be wiped away.
In a little while, the door of the Ark will be closed by God Himself, on which side you will be found.
Assignment:
- Can verse 5 be said about you?
- In your estimation, why did God close the ark door Himself?
- What other lesson(s) have you learned from this chapter that you will apply to your life?
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