The Church During the Flood, Genesis 7:10-8:1

The fountains of the deep had been broken up and the windows of heaven were opened. The waters of the flood were upon the earth.

This was not the first time it had rained, but never anything like this. Rain was a good thing up until now: Genesis 2:4-5, “These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, And every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew: for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground.” Rain was originally intended to nourish the earth and the what the Lord had created in it. Now the rain is a terrifying thing.

You may have experienced difficulty in the past, but maybe what you’re going through now does not compare to what you have known before. Perhaps something you had expected to be a blessing now feels like a curse. Noah would have understood that kind of disparity.

Continuity with the past

It is interesting that God here gives us a date for the flood based on the past life of Noah. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened,” (Gen 7:11). It indicates that the past is not just gone. Noah’s previous life, the previous history of the world, these had meaning. The church is not just over whatever has happened in the past. The earlier history is part of God’s plan and providence. We don’t start over at the flood, for instance, with a new Adam and Eve. There is progress.

This is radically different from the Muslim conception of the world, where Islam teaches that God has started over from scratch many, many times in the past, with no continuity from era to era. That’s why they consider the Bible to be a corrupted transmission from a bygone age, now replaced by the Koran.

In the same way, we ought to consider our experiences, both good and bad, as part of God’s ongoing work. We need to pitch in and do our duty, valuing and admiring whatever God has done and continues to do to accomplish his will.

God’s plan is “life”

Notice how the animals are presented--they are described as being imbued with the breath of life. In the midst of unprecedented and wide-scale death, God has preserved the breath of life in his chosen people, and in his creation.

In the case of Noah’s family and the Ark filled with animals, the means is remarkable. But when you think of the enemies of the church of Jesus Christ, and the suicidal tendency of unbelief, when you see the prevalence and celebration of death in the culture in which we live, we must know that God is doing something remarkable in heavenly places to keep us alive.

God’s Providence Despite Appearances

Adrift

Genesis 7:24 “And the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty days.”

How do you think you might feel after being adrift on an endless ocean for 5 months? It took a comparatively brief time for the water to prevail on the earth and drown every living creature except for those on the Ark. Genesis 7:17, “And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth.” But Noah continues floating for 5 months! We would not blame him if he and his family began to feel forgotten.

The impenetrable means God uses to save us

Consider the means God used to abate the waters of the flood. Genesis 8:1, “And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged.” What do you think that felt like on the Ark, the wind blowing hard enough to dry up an ocean? Sometimes the means God uses to save us are not the most comfortable. It may feel like an increase in the suffering or the trial we are going through.

Consolation

But we have here in verse 1 of chapter 8 this consoling statement: “And God remembered Noah, an every living thing, and all the cattle.” You might recall another time that God remembers the cattle. It is at the end of the book of Jonah. Jonah 4:11, “And should not I spare Nineveh, that great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand; and also much cattle?”

If God remembers the cattle that are on the Ark, and the cattle that are at Nineveh, do we suppose he is going to forget us? By no means. He remembers us and will bring us out at last from the doors of whatever ark we might be in.

A new beginning

The Ark, of course, was a sign in itself that God was caring for Noah. We’re safe inside whatever ark God has prepared for us while the storms of life rage. It’s good to take comfort in that protection, but the time is coming when the trial will be over and new things will begin. Are we weary of being in the ark? Thanks be to God that it is temporary. We have new work to look forward to, new beginnings are ahead.