But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. Genesis 6: 18, NIV.
Merciful God, thank You for providing us with an ark of safety. As we study today, please teach us how to enter it by faith, and be saved! This we ask in the holy name of Jesus Christ! Amen.
In the days just before the flood, the sins of humankind had reached heaven. The Bible describes the situation in these words: “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain” (Genesis 6: 5, 6). Thousand of years later, history is repeating itself. Just reading the newspaper you get the feeling, that once again, “every inclination of the thoughts of [the] heart [of human beings is] only evil all the time.”
The words: “The Lord was grieved.” “[H]is heart was filled with pain,” are awfully strong words! They are even more severe when applied to the Sovereign of the universe! The grief of God must be indescribable! His pain must be beyond boundaries! For who can find adjectives to adequately describe God’s “feelings?” Yet in the midst of His overwhelming grief, He thought of His creatures! When we read the story of the ark, our first impression is one of death and destruction. Nevertheless, our Scripture for today presents another aspect: grace!
Even though the Bible writer in describing Noah, speaks of him in these terms: “This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God” (9), does not mean that he had never sinned. The Bible clearly says, “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3: 23, emphasis provided). In spite of this, God searched for at least one family, through which He could save humanity. Oh, what love!
Has it ever occurred to you that God could just as easily have wiped out the entire human race at different times in our history? When the first two humans sinned (Adam and Eve). When there was only one family of eight (Noah’s family) that was worth saving. When they were all gathered in one place, making plans to go up to heaven (At the tower of Babel). Instead, on each occasion, His “grace [did] much more abound” (Romans 5: 20).
In our Scripture for today, God spared the life of Noah and his family. In so doing, He spared us all! And for all of us, He has provided an ark of safety. Peter speaks about it in these terms: “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, and this water symbolizes baptism that now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at God’s right hand—with angels, authorities and powers in submission to him” 1 Peter 3: 20b-22).
Peter explains that, “God waited patiently[.]” For 120 years Noah preached. The ark was big enough to hold all who were willing to go in, in obedience to God. But only eight people took advantage of the grace that was offered them. Peter talks about baptism, as being a symbol of the water that “saved” Noah and his family. The same water that represented death to the disobedient, was life for the obedient. One accepted the grace, the other spurned it. “Today, if you hear His voice [calling you into the ark of safety], do not harden your heart” (Hebrews 4: 7b)! Do not refuse His grace!