NASHVILLE, Tenn. (BP)–The story of Noah and the Ark is a story of obedience and disobedience, of rescue and punishment. It paints a picture of the way Jesus rescues those who obey Him and the way those who reject Jesus will experience God’s judgment.
The flood of Noah’s day was an instrument of judgment and destruction. Genesis 6-9 tells us that humanity had sunk to such depths of depravity that God decided to destroy mankind and start over with Noah and his family. A holy God must judge wickedness, but He demonstrated His grace by warning people and giving them time to live in humility and obedience before Him.
In a desert, hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean, Noah heard God telling him to build a giant boat because a flood was coming. Noah had never seen a flood, perhaps never even rain. He certainly saw no reason to build a giant boat. But Noah obeyed God, and for more than 100 years the construction of the Ark was a warning to wicked, disobedient people. God had set a day in the future when He would judge and punish. The flood was the result of their refusal to turn back to God.
The Ark and flood, however, were not just tools of God’s judgment. They also brought cleansing and salvation. God led Noah and his family into the safety of the Ark and shut the door securely behind them. When the deluge began, Noah’s family was saved from destruction while everyone else was destroyed.
God showed mercy on Noah and rescued him because of his faith — the way he trusted God and obeyed, even though he was mocked and harassed for more than a century. He endured what Spurgeon called “a long martyrdom.” Hebrews 11:7 says Noah was rescued because he “faithed” God. And on “the 17th day of the seventh month,” the Ark “rested” on the mountains. (Genesis 8:4)
Noah’s survival, along with his family, resulted in the replenishment of the earth. Mankind literally was saved through Noah, receiving not only physical survival but also a new spiritual opportunity. Noah was a new Adam in a new creation.
God works today just as He did in Noah’s time.
Today, as in Noah’s day, everyone has disobeyed God and deserves to be judged by Him. As in Noah’s day, God has set a time for judgment and also has given us time to decide that we will live in humility and obedience before Him.
And as in Noah’s day, God has shown His grace and mercy by providing a way out. Jesus Christ is the door of our Ark. Jesus said, “I am the door; if anyone enters through Me, he will be saved.” (John 10:9) Those who refuse to “faith” God, however, will be judged and destroyed as surely as the unrepentant souls of Noah’s day died pounding on the closed door of the great boat. (John 3:18)
Jesus died because of our wickedness, just as Noah had to be closed up in the Ark because of the wickedness of everyone around him. Spurgeon said: “The ark was, so to speak, a coffin to [Noah]: he entered it, and became a dead man to the old world; and within its enclosure he was floated into a new world, to become the founder and father of a new race.”
Jesus’ resurrection also, like Noah’s survival, was only possible because of God’s power.
By Jesus’ death and resurrection, we are rescued from the flood of sin and death in which our world is drowning. Apart from Jesus’ death and resurrection, we have no hope. As in Noah’s day, those who reject God’s provision will not survive God’s judgment.
Like the Ark rescued Noah, Jesus is our rescuer — the ultimate deliverer and savior. He rescues us from judgment because of God’s grace. For anyone who “faiths” Him — who chooses to follow Jesus’ way, trusting Him to keep His promises — “old things are gone and all things are made new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17) The one who “faiths” Jesus comes safely to rest in the strong arms of God Himself, as Noah and his family nestled in the mountains of Ararat.
And as the Ark came to rest on “the 17th day of the seventh month,” Christ’s resurrection secured permanent rest on the same day of the Jewish calendar — three days after Passover, the fourteenth day of the seventh month.
–30–
