Week 29, Day 1: The Great Flood
Today’s Reading: Genesis 6:1-22
Some thoughts from the reading…
It did not take man long to turn his thoughts to doing evil. And man did evil to the extent that it grieved God that He had ever made man. But there was one man who “walked with God”. Can you imagine seeing everyone around you following after their corrupt desires. You alone stand upright and blameless. People just think they have it tough today! And yet Noah found a way to remain comitted to God. Our faithfulness to God does not depend necessarily upon those around us or circumstances. Let us stand up for what is right no matter how crooked things get or even if we must stand alone.
God tells Noah to build the ark. This is a good example of someone obeying God fully. There is no indication that there were rain storms back then like we know them today. As far as we know flooding was not something that they were accustomed to nor had to worry about. And yet here Noah is told to build a boat, and not just any boat but a BIG boat. The ark was 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. The boat’s length was equal to a football field and a half = Massive. We also do not know what kind of tools Noah had to make this boat with but for certain it would have taken lots of work and persistence. All the while I imagine that Noah would have been receiving quite a bit of attention from those around him. What did they have to say about this? Did they ridicule Noah? Was Noah the talk of the town, thought of as being crazy? And yet Noah did all that God had commanded him – he didn’t change any of it and completed the task given him to do.
We are also told that God was going to send the animals to Noah. “…two of every kind will come to you” vs. 20. Some skeptics have scoffed at the thought of Noah filling the ark with all of these animals. Noah didn’t have to go chase anything down, they came to him. God sent them to him and aided him in completing his task. God did not command something impossible of Noah. Some have challenged the feasability of Noah being able to house all of the animals in his ark. We are not told how it all happened. I have sometimes wondered if the animals that came were very young. For example; baby elephants coming instead of their massive parents. And it would not be beyond God’s power to cause the animals to hibernate while onboard the ark. The fact is that when people scoff at what the Bible says they simply do not believe that with God all things are possible. The Bible does not give us every detail specifying how things happened. But we know that God’s word is true and when it tells us that these things happened, we can know that they did. Let us not be led into doubt or disarray by the nay sayers.
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