Genesis 7

Genesis 7:1-24: For Noah, the time to depart was at hand after 120 years of barge building and preaching against unrighteousness. All the world was about to end. I tried putting myself in Noah’s place so that I might gain an understanding of what might have been running through his head and heart now that the Ark was ready to lift off the accursed ground. It is hard to imagine what it would have been like living for God in Noah's time. 

Noah’s world was not a happy place for his family; they were completely surrounded by children of darkness who had no interest in their values. They must have felt isolated in such a way that only missionaries planted in pagan cultures could come close to understanding. It stands to reason that the spiritual father of Cain, Satan, wanted to stamp out the last remnants of the godly line of Seth, but God placed a hedge around Noah and his family to protect them from the evil one and his emissaries. Noah’s tireless efforts to reach people for God for 120 years resulted in zero converts. Not one man, woman, or child ever responded to the call to repent, not one…. The mindset of the lost was unimaginably saturated in evil, clueless of the wrath to come that would submerge them all in a violent death.

Since thought precedes behavior, wickedness was great, and violence filled the earth because every intent of the thoughts of the heart was only evil continually. It was as if every angel that fell from heaven found an abode in human flesh. The doomed were so consumed and addicted to satisfying the appetites of the flesh that every conceivable sin went unrestrained. Living in a godless society, Noah had heard and seen everything; he was 600 years old when the flood came (Gen 7:6)! All of his relatives were deceased. The godly line of Seth was down to 8 souls standing for God on the entire planet. The earth as Noah understood it over the past six centuries would be no more.

Noah was probably more than ready to leave. If I was in his shoes I would be a mixed bag of emotions: excited, scared to death, and sorrowful. Noah's heart must have been burdened and broken by those he tried to reach for God throughout the years. He knew once he entered the Ark, the fate of the world was sealed with the closing of the door. The massive escape pod of gopherwood would be lifted by the rising water high above the earth covering the highest mountain range for the draft of the ark to clear (Gen 7:20), and all outside the Ark would perish...

Then Noah got the call, Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation (Gen 7:1)… and the LORD shut him in (Gen 7:16).

 I am reminded of a story of a woman who boasted that preachers don’t like her because she asked tough questions. I asked for her to give me an example. She said confidently, “The Bible states that God put two of every creature in the ark, right?” I told her that was basically true; there were additional animals for sacrifice. Then with a smug, she asked me, “Well then, what did God do with all the fish?” I humbly told her, “He left them in the water!” Immediately her countenance changed and an expression of fear came over her. Dumbfounded she just turned around and walked away. She never asked me another question about the Bible.

How intense was the wrath of God? So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth (Gen 7:23). And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days (Gen 7:24). The Ark of the living from another world began its descent to a “lifeless” planet as the waters abated. 

Father, like the Ark, so many people see the cross as an object of ridicule or fear. They are both symbols that there is something terribly wrong in the world, but the message falls on deaf ears; for men love the way of Cain and despise the way of Seth. May I be like Noah, proclaiming until the very end to those outside the Ark of safety. <><