COME THOU … INTO THE ARK

How long Noah had been building the ark we cannot be certain, but at last it was finished. What mockery there must surely have been from the cynical world around him as he laboured! It was a massive structure, ‘The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits’, Gen. 6.15. It was to be a great floating house but the mys­tery to the men of the world would be that there was no sea where the ark was being prepared, and it is most likely that men had not yet seen rain in profusion, Gen. 2. 6. To the man of faith, however, there was no mystery; a deluge had been predicted and it would most certainly come.

One week before the rains came the command was given to Noah, ‘Come thou … into the ark’. Notice that Jehovah did not say, ‘Go thou’. It was as if the Lord was already in the ark and was now inviting Noah to come to where He was. In the ark he would have the divine presence and he would be safe. It must have been a busy seven days for Noah and his household. The necessary food had to be stocked. The creatures had to be settled in their apartments, their resting places, in the ark. No doubt there would be special help from God for the mammoth task until at last it was complete and all were safely on board the ves­sel. ‘And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him’, Gen. 7. 5.

There are several great gospel principles in the story. Here is that familiar word of gospel invitation, ‘Come’. God has endowed the gospel with a beautiful simplicity! Who cannot understand the meaning of this little word ‘Come’? Even a child will know what is meant and the word abounds throughout the pages of Holy Scripture, in both Old Testament and New. But Jehovah requires faith in His word, and faith demands obedi­ence. As James says, ‘shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works’, James 2.18.

So the flood came. The fountains of the great deep were bro­ken up, and the windows of heaven were opened, ‘and the rain was upon the earth forty days and forty nights’, Gen 7. 12. But the man who believed God, and obeyed, was safe.