“The Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5). “The earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with wickedness... God said to Noah, ‘I have decided to put an end to every creature, for the earth is filled with wickedness because of them; therefore I am going to destroy them along with the earth’ ” (Genesis 6:11–13).
“Noah, however, found favor (that’s amazing grace) with the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). “Noah was a righteous man... (He) walked with God” (Genesis 6:9). He was faithful (Hebrews 11:7), submissive and obedient to his Lord’s command. So, when God gave Noah the blueprints for the ark, Noah started cutting down trees... lots of trees.
“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark, and cover it with pitch inside and outside. This is how you are to make it: The ark will be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high... Make it with lower, middle, and upper decks” (Genesis 6:14–16).
What a barge! Three decks... 450 by 75... that’s over one-hundred thousand square feet of floor space. Two elephants... two camels... two kangaroos... a guy needs a lot of space.
The fifth chapter of Genesis, a genealogical list, ends with: “Noah was 500 years old, and he fathered Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (Genesis 5:32.) Later we read: “Noah was six hundred years old when the flood came and water covered the earth” (Genesis 7:6–7). It’s reasonable to assume that God put those numbers in the book for a reason... Maybe the construction project lasted a full century.
Without the aid of electricity, without a diesel-powered saw-mill or a crane to lift the timbers into place, without a handy-dandy battery-powered DeWalt screw gun, Noah and his sons labored to construct a floating zoo equipped with living quarters for the zoo-keepers.
The forty-day West-Texas toad-floater started “in the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month” (Genesis 7:11). “In the six hundred first year, in the first month, on the first day of the month, the water that had covered the earth was dried up ... By the twenty-seventh day of the second month, the earth was dry” (Genesis 8:13–14). Noah and his family remained in the ark for over one year.
Let me get to the point... The ark had one door. God said, “put a door in the side of the ark”(Genesis 6:16). A week before the first raindrop, Noah led representatives of the animal kingdom into the barge, then Noah and his family entered. Then, “the Lord shut the door” (Genesis 7:16). He closed it. He sealed it.
Two points. First, there was only one way in. By faith in God’s promise and provision, they entered the ark through the only entrance. And second, when God shut the door, they were secure, safe in the storm. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). There’s only one way, one door. If you enter by grace alone, through faith alone, in Jesus alone, you’ll be safe in the storm... forever!
All Scripture quotations, except as otherwise noted, are from
Holman Bible Publishers’ Christian Standard Bible.
