Noah had prepared the ark and provisioned it with enough food for every creature on board just as God had told him to. What a sight it must have been to see all the animals loaded on board!
Seven pairs of clean (eatable) animals, and all birds, with one pair of all other animals and all the creepy crawlies too! Finally Noah and his family (eight people) went in and God shut the door of the ark. There wouldn’t have been any handle on the outside. Then it began to rain….imagine the panic of the people on the outside as they saw the waters begin to rise. They would remember then all the times that Noah had warned them this would happen! The tide too kept on rising and people could now see that Noah’s prediction was right after all, but it was too late! It was no use banging on the door to be let in….God had shut it and there was no outside handle.
The water kept rising until the highest mountain was covered by fifteen cubits (seven metres ). All moving life died and the earth was cleansed of all the filth and evil that man had brought on it. The water covered the earth for just over five months before it began to recede.
This is a real lesson to us as we read this account….God’s invitation has an end. Just as the people in Noah’s time found that they couldn’t go into the ark when they wanted to, so people today will find that if they put off accepting God’s invitation to come NOW, the time may come when they won’t be able to come. Just like the man who kept putting off the chance he had to turn to Jesus, but kept resisting it. One day he dreamed that he could see God in heaven, and a big blind came down between them blotting out the sight. He said that he knew then that he wouldn’t be able to come even if he wanted to….it was too late! We must make sure that we don’t pass this point of no return!
Man’s sin brought judgment on the earth, Such as never seen since its birth,
The earth was cleansed all through and through, So then it could start fresh and new.
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