Flood

Genesis 7:1-16

¹Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.

²Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate,

³and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth.

⁴For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.”

⁵And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth.

⁷And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood.

⁸Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground,

⁹two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah.

¹⁰And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.

¹¹In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened.

¹²And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark,

¹⁴they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature.

¹⁵They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life.

¹⁶And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

There are times when you just have to look at someone quizzically and wonder why they are doing what they are doing. That had to have been the stance of Noah’s neighbors. They simply could not figure out why this guy was building this huge boat in his back yard. By huge – think 1½ football fields long. And he worked on it for over 100 years. Then one day, animals begin to arrive; animals that perhaps you’ve never even seen before begin to arrive at Noah’s house in order to board the boat. That would certainly get your attention.

We always consider this Noah’s story. But once again, it is not a story about a man. It is a story about the actions of a holy, perfect, and powerful God. The instructions that Noah received from God as to how to build the boat are detailed and specific. Who was to inhabit the boat was outlined in detail. And the gathering of the animals was completely miraculous. Imagine a couple of tigers, ocelots, wombats, and elephants all arriving at your door, like they had tickets for the ride. God had the entire thing orchestrated and planned out. As you might assume, I’ve read this story a few (hundred) times in my life. The verse I had never taken note of before was verse 10. “And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.” It took seven days to get all those creatures loaded onto the boat. Just as it took seven days to create the whole world, so it took seven days to get the group organized. There’s probably no deeply theological significance there, but it’s interesting. Finally, after the ark is loaded, God closes the door. Noah may have driven the pegs into place that held the thing together, but it’s God’s story. He is the primary actor in every scene.

We forget that on a day to day basis. We get so involved in whatever little projects or plans we’ve got going that we just don’t take a beat to realize it’s always and forever all about God. When those projects become burdens it is because we are taking on the God role. We are trying to orchestrate the action. The herculean task of building an ark was possible because God made it possible. The impossible task of rounding up every air breathing animal on the planet was completely outside of Noah’s power, but God took care of it. Most certainly He can handle your projects for today.