Noah And The Ark

About a month ago I was reading the story of Noah and the ark.  You know the one...

God told Noah to build a great big boat because a flood was going to come and cover the entire earth... 

Hundreds of children's books have been written to try to convey the story to young children.  I'm going to take a guess that probably almost everyone in North America at least has heard the story...no matter what their background or belief is. 

Today, I want to try to bring across the story in a different light.  As I was reading it last month it literally jumped out of the page and I was blown away with the story...yes the story I have heard many, many times in my life...

Imagine for a moment you were in Noah's shoes.  I'm going to go through the story of Noah, starting in Genesis 6, and I'm going to try to describe how I read it and how it impacted me.

Noah was living in a day that was so full of sin that God was grieved and actually said "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth..." (6:7)  Sometimes I wonder how similar our world is to Noah's.  There is so much violence, corruption, hatred, and sin around us...in the thousands of years since Noah's time to now not much has changed when it comes to darkness and sin.  Anyway, back to Noah.  God told Noah He was going to destroy the earth with a flood and that Noah was to make an ark out of cypress wood.  God gave specific instructions as to how Noah was to build the ark.  And at the end of chapter 6 it says "Noah did everything just as God commanded him." 

Okay, stop there for a moment.  From my understanding it had never rained before.  So imagine God saying to [you], "Go build a huge boat...something that floats on water...called an ark.  I'm going to send rain...droplets of water from the sky...and the earth is going to open from the force of water springing forth.  This is going to cover the whole earth with water and only you and your family are going to survive..."  Can you imagine how crazy that would sound!  Can you imagine the laughter and criticism from everyone around Noah?  Yet, there is nothing in this story that says Noah ever questioned God or doubted what was going to come.  All it says is Noah did EVERYTHING God commanded him to do. 

From there the story continues and God told Noah and his family to go into the ark and to take some of every type of animal into the ark with them.  The childrens stories all say the animals came "2 by 2" but that isn't really correct.  The Bible says the took 7 pairs of every kind of clean animal and 2 pairs of every kind of unclean animal, as well as 7 pairs of every kind of bird. 

Maybe it's just me, but boy is that a lot of animals or what!  Two of each kind is already more than enough, but either 7 or 2 pairs of EVERY kind of animal on the face of the earth?!  I can't even visually begin to imagine how big the ark was to be able to fit all those animals in it!  Crazy!

Now comes the part that blew my mind away...even more so than all the other crazy things about this story.  Chapter 7 verse 8 says that the animals came to Noah.  Noah didn't go to them...they CAME to him!  When I was reading this all I could imagine was an ark with a long line of animals waiting to come into the ark.  It blows my mind to think that God put it in every single one of the animals to go to the boat.  Noah didn't go running around trying to make sure he put every single kind of animal on the boat.  God took care of all the details!  How amazing is that!

The final part of the story that amazed me was when it describes how high the water rose in chapter 7 verse 20:  "The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet."  Basically, what I read there is that the water rose so high it was more than 20 feet above Mt. Everest!  And the ark was on top of that!  Most people can't even climb to the top of Mt. Everest and survive, let alone be more than 20 feet above it floating on water!  It's amazing how God sustained Noah and his family throughout the entire time they were on the ark! 

I have a lot to learn from this story.  Actually, I think we can all take at least one part of it and apply it to our lives.  I know for me personally, how many times has God called me to do something that might be strange or uncomfortable and I complain about it because it's too "hard"!  Or how many times do I come across something in my life that seems too big to handle?  I need to learn how to completely surrender to Him and let Him take total control of my life.  I have such a hard time with this because I like to have control, but it's not mine to take...it's God's if I am going to let His will be done in and through me.  And that is the desire of my heart. 

So there you have a very long description of what really stuck out to me for the first time as I read the story of Noah and the Ark for probably the hundredth time in my life!