It was time.
Noah had spent a century building an ark in faith. I’m sure he was mocked and considered the local looney. And I’m sure he oftentimes doubted if he himself was doing the right thing. But he did. And now it was time.
The Lord brought the animals to him and they entered the ark.
There were 7 pairs of every clean animal, and two pairs of every unclean animal. Nine pairs in all.
A few years ago I visited the replica of the potential ark in Kentucky. It demonstrated how actually this was all possible in preserving the species this way. A lot of work to keep everyone fed, and yet possible.
I guess one of the questions I have is why did Noah’s sons not have any grandkids? Peter tells us “there were eight in all” on the ark (1 Pet 3:20). I don’t have the answer.
But what is most defining of this moment, and of Noah’s righteousness, is this statement:
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
Noah certainly had faith. We really don’t read of rains and such prior to this. In fact it more seems like there was a vapor canopy on the earth.
He also warned the people. The ones who did not listen to him at all.
By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family (Heb 11:7)
The rains did come and they came very, very swiftly. Where I live is a region almost as far away from the ocean as one can get on this earth, save for a few places in Mongolia perhaps or the Dzungarian Basin in China. But even here we still have fossils.
One of those fossils is fascinating. It is of a fish inside of a fish.
The flood came so fast that there was not time for the one fish inside the belly of another fish to digest or decompose. It is proof of the severity and intensity of the global flood to come that fast.
We also have dinosaurs here too. Many of them also perished with the flood. We know this as decomposition is the natural state of existence. Fossilization only happens with cataclysmic events.
But Noah was shut in the ark. The waters covered him beneath and below. And in it he and his family were saved.
Peter says this is also a type of baptism:
19 After being made alive, he went and made proclamation to the imprisoned spirits— 20 to those who were disobedient long ago when God waited patiently in the days of Noah while the ark was being built. In it only a few people, eight in all, were saved through water, 21 and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a clear conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
In the same way God is still wanting to save us. Destruction is still on its way. We might not see it yet, although we often see death. But judgment is coming. And the only way to be saved is to get into the ark with Jesus.
