Escape The Flood

Imagine that you are Noah or Noah’s wife. You have persevered through the long time of building the ark. Your faith remained constant through that time. It was hard to understand how you could make this gigantic boat, and very few people bothered to ask what you were doing.   Just as Jesus said in Matthew 24:37-39– But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away;- They were all too busy “doing their own thing. They didn’t have time and were uninterested in what Noah was doing. It was the ultimate apathy, but much like the character of modern society in 2024.

But Noah, his wife, three sons, and their wives (and perhaps others) kept building until finished. After 120 years, they completed the boat. It was as long as one and one-half football fields, about 500 feet, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high – three stories. And it was sitting on dry land.

The crowds watched as God gathered the animals together to go on the ark: seven each of the clean animals and two each of the unclean. Noah didn’t have to lead or drive the animals. God, who created all the animals, put it in their mind to go into the ark. There were no escape attempts. They all entered willingly. As Noah’s neighbors watched, they perhaps wondered if Noah’s message was valid. Finally, Noah, his family, and all the animals had entered. The spectators questioned who was going to close that massive door. Finally, an unseen hand (God) shut the door and closed it securely. They could hear Noah and his sons securing the door from the inside.

The rain started slowly at first, then with increasing intensity. The ground under observers trembled. God’s Word described it this way: God opened the windows of heaven and broke up the fountains of the deep. (Genesis 7:11). They could see water busting through the earth’s crust some distance away. They had experienced rain before, but nothing like this. And now water rose rapidly on the earth.

Suddenly, the unbelieving spectators began to think that Noah might be right. Was there a God who would judge them for sin? In what little time they had given to think about Noah’s ark, they had just regarded him as a lunatic. Maybe he was not just a crazy, eccentric old man.

Some screamed and pounded on the ark so Noah could open the door and pull them in. But God had shut the door, and Noah couldn’t open it even if he wanted to.

This time had to be a heart-wrenching event for Noah and his family. They could hear the screams of those outside who now had no hope. These were their neighbors and friends whom they had preached to, witnessed to, and prayed for. Now, they were lost eternally.

Trembling in fear, some of them headed for higher ground. It wasn’t long before others gathered their children around them, clutched what few possessions they could carry, and started toward a higher elevation. They watched the colossal ark rise and float on the waters. The rain continued to batter them, and the water rose steadily. They could no longer swim to safety because no safe land was in sight. Within a few days, “all flesh died” and “all in whose nostrils was the breath of life, of all that was in the dry land, died.” (Genesis 7:21-23)

The relentless, hammering rain persisted without interruption for forty days and nights. The reservoirs of water from under the earth gushed out. The hills and the mountains were covered. Death, devastation, destruction, and desolation prevailed. But inside the ark, Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives survived and thrived. All animal life within the ark was alive and well.

Jesus verified and used this historical story to warn of judgment to come. And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:26-27)

Peter warned using the story of the worldwide flood. God, who spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly. (2 Peter 2:5). Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts, and saying, where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation. For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the Word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. (2 Peter 3:3-7).

Just as it was in the days of Noah, today, scoffers doubt there is a God who will bring judgment on the earth because of wickedness. I hope and trust that you are not in that crowd.

God always warns, and He always loves. But, if you reject His warnings and His love, there is nothing left but the wrath of God. God gave His Son. He sent his messengers and preachers throughout the ages. And He has given us the written Word of God, the Bible.

Will you listen to His warnings and His love? Trust Him as your Savior today.

But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: (John 1:12).