Grammatically, this chapter is not
entirely chronological, but you can see the chronology. The floodwaters are
described and then the animals come, but we can see that Noah had the ark
loaded with every creature, some more than others, and food for the lot of
them.
You have to wonder if there was any
disparity in accommodations between the clean and unclean animals. That’s food
for concurrent discussions on another day.
For the moment, let’s consider that Noah had done all that he was
commanded to do. The ark was
loaded. The rain was coming.
Don’t you just love it when a plan
comes together? Wait!
The door was open.
The door to the ark was open. Noah had done everything just as the Lord
commanded, but the door was open. Noah
had never been to a flood before, but this open-door business surely wasn’t
going to work. The door was open.
Noah had built the ark. It had never rained. Noah probably didn’t know what a flood was,
but he did exactly as he was told and built this massive ship.
Noah made sure that he had the right
number of animals. He had seven pairs of
clean animals. He had seven pairs of
each sort of bird. He had two of each of
the other animals. They were paired for
mating and furtherance of the species.
Noah didn’t have to organize a safari
to round up the animals. They came to
him. That part falls under the category
of cool beans. The animals came
to Noah.
Noah did all that God commanded him to
do. He was 600 years old. On the seventeenth day of the second month of
the year that Noah turned 600, water started emerging from the ground and rain
began to fall. This flood thing—this thing never seen before—it was happening.
Some people give CCR credit for the
song Have You Ever Seen the Rain, but I think Noah might have written an
early version.
And on that same day, Noah and his
family entered the ark. The flood was
beginning and the door to the ark was open.
Maybe Noah could rig a quick pulley
system and put those elephants to work and pull that door closed.
If they tried to push it closed from
the outside. Someone would be left
behind.
Noah had done everything that God
commanded, but the door was open.
We don’t know if Noah wondered how to
close it or if this whole thing was just a test of his faith before he and his
family drowned. We don’t see any
thoughts or conversation about the door being open.
Noah had trusted God this far and
completed this seemingly impossible task, but he had been given no instructions
on how to shut the door.
Those that entered, male and female of
all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed the door
behind him.
The Lord shut him in.
Imagine having done all that Noah had
done and wondering if he would be undone by this single detail. Noah couldn’t shut the door himself.
If God could have held off on the
flood for a couple more months, Noah surely could have rigged a pulley
system. Noah could have built a small
raft and rounded up some extra elephants and had one of his sons have them push
the door closed, and then floated on the raft attached to the ark by a rope,
until he floated high enough to climb the rope to openings at the top of the
ark.
If Noah had only been given
instructions as to how to close the door, he surely would have done it. He did everything just as God commanded him,
but God had not commanded him to find a way to close the door.
We don’t know how big the door was,
but it would need to fit giraffes and elephants, rhinos and hippos through it.
If it wasn’t something that could also
double as a ramp, it would need a pier built next to the ship for boarders
could walk straight across and the door could close in a lateral motion. We just don’t know, but closing the door
would seem to be another monumental task, except this time God did not give
Noah instructions on what to build or what to do other than entering the ark.
The Lord closed the door behind
him. The Lord shut him in.
Noah trusted God throughout this
entire endeavor. Noah loaded the ark
with the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not
seen. Noah had faith that God had told
him exactly what he needed to know and needed to do.
Noah trusted God that God himself knew
best. Father knows best and Noah stayed
the course of faith throughout.
Do you know what else was missing from
God’s instructions to Noah? There was something else not in the design. Maybe there was more than one thing.
Let’s start with lifeboats. There was nothing in the design about lifeboats. No modern ship would be allowed
to leave port without sufficient lifeboats for all aboard. Modern lifeboats are supposed to be unsinkable. It makes you wonder why they don’t build the
entire ship out of the same stuff that they build lifeboats.
There were no lifeboats. Once Noah did what he was told to do, his
life was aboard that ark. His salvation
was in the ark. God did not give a contingency plan. There was no Plan B. There were no just-in-case
instructions.
Once Noah had done his part, it was
like God said: “I’ll take it from here.”
Yes, Noah and his family would need to
tend to the animals. They needed to be
fed and the stalls needed to be cleaned.
I bet Noah had the best compost pile ever. Those two worms that came aboard were probably
two million worms by the end of the voyage.
What else was missing? There were no sails. Noah had no means of trying to keep this huge
ship on course, if he could even figure out what course to set it on. John Masefield’s words would not come for millennia.
I
must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And
all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;
And
the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,
And
a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.
There would be none of that. There were no sails. There was no rudder. Any and everything having to do with
navigation belonged exclusively to the Lord.
God shut the door to the ark.
God knew that lifeboats would not be
needed.
God alone would direct the ship while
all were embarked.
Noah did exactly what God had
commanded him to do. His part was to trust and obey. His part was faith.
Noah did what he was told but Noah
trusted God to do whatever needed to be done for the salvation of his family.
That included shutting the door.
I’ll just bet Noah composed an early
version of Trust and Obey. While we
do his good will, he abides with us still, and with all who will trust and
obey.
The Psalms would not come until much
later, but I’ll venture a guess that Noah’s crew might have had their own
version of Psalm 150:6.
Let everything that has breath praise
the Lord.
Praise the Lord.
Having breath surely took on a whole new meaning when all of the lifeforms on the planet that needed air to breathe
were drowning. Countless people and animals took their last breaths at this
time.
As we consider Noah’s family entering
the ark and God shutting the door, I ask us to consider two verses that most of
us have memorized. They are Hebrews 11:1
and Proverbs 3:5-6.
Now faith is the
substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and
lean not on your own understanding. In
all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.
Noah trusted. Noah had faith, but more than that, he
trusted and probably didn’t understand much of what he was instructed to
do. He couldn’t see each and every part
of where God was taking him.
Noah surely walked by faith not sight. Let’s consider what we have learned today in
the context of the full biblical witness.
As we walk with the Lord, we must live
by faith not sight much of the time. We
must trust even when we don’t understand. We must live in the substance of
things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.
OBTW—these things are contrary to the patterns of the world.
We need to obey the Lord and what he
has commanded us will not be a burden to us. We are to take every thought captive and make it obedient to
Christ.
We must know that the Lord delights more in our obedience than in our offerings and sacrifices.
We are studying Noah and the
flood. Let’s through in a vocabulary
word for you to use at lunch when you are eating with your other friends who
worship elsewhere. It’s antediluvian. That means before the flood.
Postdiluvian would be after the flood.
Why did I through those two words
in? So, people will know that you are
studying Noah and the flood because today’s message was about trust and
obedience. It was about walking by faith not
sight. It was about living in the
substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.
It was about trusting God will do what
he needs to do even when we don’t understand it. It’s about stepping out in faith even when
God doesn’t give us all the information.
We are studying Noah but singing Trust
and Obey. The author of Hebrews
tells us:
By faith Noah, when warned about
things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.
Through Noah’s faith, God pronounced
judgment upon the world while preserving a righteous remnant.
Through obedience to God and the fear
of the Lord, Noah manifested faith and trust in his actions. He did what he was commanded to do by God and
trusted that God would do whatever else needed to be done.
I am going to speculate that Noah did
all of this without anxiety. Could
you imagine building a huge ship year after year, decade after decade with an
anxiousness abiding within you? You
would have a heart attack or nervous breakdown before the end of the first
decade. You would be toast.
Noah obeyed God and trusted God and
had faith in God and did everything God told him to do, even when he didn’t see
how all the pieces fit together, and I believe he did it without anxiousness. I
think somehow he knew the peace of the Lord.
Are we up for that? Can we obey and trust? Does our own understanding have to be
satisfied before we will act on God’s instructions to us, or will we simply
trust and obey and be at peace because God knows exactly what he is doing and
telling us to do?
My prayer is that we answer in the
affirmative.
Amen.
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