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In Christ, Mark
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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.
The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
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 forty days and forty nights.
On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
Genesis 7:1-16
This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.
God was fed up with the way mankind had allowed sin to dominate. The scriptures tell us that the earth was corrupt and full of violence, leaving the Maker and Master of all living things to regret creating men and women in the first place (Genesis 6:6, 11-12).
And so He set a plan to hit the reset button on humanity, sharing His intentions with a righteous man named Noah:
“I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.” 6:13
And with that, God gave Noah very specific instructions on building the ark that would serve to protect and save him, his wife, and his sons and their wives from a great flood that God was going to bring (6:14-16). Anything not on the ark, all living creatures that the Lord breathed life into, would perish in the floodwaters. Everything on earth was going to perish (6:17).
Along with his family, Noah was told to “bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you”. This would include “two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground”. Additionally, Noah was ordered to “take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them” (6:19-21).
In response to God's demand, Noah “did everything just as God commanded” (6:22).
Here, we find God showing how He works to prepare His beloved people for what’s to come. All one needs to do is submit to Him in obedience, just as Noah did.
As we turn to chapter 7, we see that the time had come for Noah and his family to enter the ark, loaded with all the living creatures God demanded. This also included “seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth”. The great flooding of the earth would begin in “seven days” as God would “send rain” pouring down “for forty days and forty nights” in order to “wipe from the face of the earth every living creature” He had made.
We learn that all this happened when Noah was 600 years old. And as the time approached for the great flood, it’s interesting that we actually read about what the rest of mankind was doing during this run up to the 40 days and nights of rain through the words of Jesus in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament. In verses 37 through 39 of chapter 24, here’s what we find:
“As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.”
Here, in talking about His second coming and how there would be many people destined for destruction because they had not believed in Him, Jesus proclaims that the wicked people of Noah’s day were “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They knew nothing about their looming demise until “the flood came and took them all away”.
In the end translation, only eight people survived God’s judgment and they, along with the other living creatures loaded on the ark, would be fruitful and multiply the earth once again as God would make all things new.
One more important part of this story involves what happened after Noah and his family had done what the Lord commanded, loading the ark with the creatures as ordered before getting onboard themselves. And with that, it was the Lord who then shut them in. He sealed their survival before He would cause “all the springs of the great deep” to “burst forth” and “the floodgates of the heavens” to open. After the 40 days and nights of rainfall, they would end up the sole survivors, all because God had prepared them for what was to come.
Today, our Lord is still in the business of preparing His cherished children for what’s to come, whether it comes to salvation and eternal life or for other matters. All believers should believe and trust in this truth, ever seeking to go and do what the Lord desires with the goal of accomplishing His purposes. As in the days of Noah, He will never let down those who turn to Him in obedience and faith.
Amen.
In Christ,
Mark
PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.
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