October 24, Genesis 7
And the LORD shut him in. - Genesis 7:16
What’s the longest time you’ve ever been confined inside? For many of us, the days of quarantine during the Covid-19 epidemic of 2020 kept us at home more than any single event or circumstance in our lifetime. I had heard of cabin fever, but never really felt the strain of confinement before. I actually enjoyed being able to work from home, but I was already alone much of the time for study, message preparation and writing. Other folks who were used to going and doing and interacting more probably had a harder adjustment to the newly imposed conditions of confinement.
Of course it’s easier to stay in when certain death and not just risk or danger awaits you outside. That was the situation for Noah and his family when they entered the ark. Everyone inside would be safe; everyone outside would be dead. So Noah and his family and all the animals boarded the ark on the day God told them it was time, and the LORD shut them in.
The account is straightforward. Can you imagine the panic and horror of a flood that rose until all was submerged and there was nowhere to run or climb? Jesus looked back on the flood and described it like this: “For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man” (Matthew 24:39). Peter described the effect of the flood, saying, “the world that then existed was deluged with water and perished” (2 Peter 3:6). But inside there was safety. God shut Noah and his family in a safe, dry place.
I want to meditate on the phrase, “The LORD shut them in.” Noah obeyed God and built the ark. But the salvation was designed and directed by God, all through the process. He told Noah and his family how he would save them, he called them into the place of safety and he closed them inside. Do you think they felt confined or restricted as the waters rose? Or were they overwhelmed with thanksgiving to God for sparing them? Do you imagine they chafed at God’s arrangement for their safety when there was water, only water as far as the eye could seen? Or did they praise God for his gracious deliverance?
Perhaps we should learn a lesson from the eight in the ark, restrained there by God, from venturing out into the destruction that was quite literally raining down on the world. If you feel that God has restricted your freedom by forbidding you certain things, think again about what he’s saving you from by giving you a “do not” command. If you feel shut in by God’s call on all who have been saved by grace to live soberly, righteously and godly, it would be good to remember that even God’s prohibitions are for our good and have our best interests in mind. If it appears that ungodly people enjoy a freedom to do as they please while you are constrained by your Father’s will, trust that as Psalm 84:11 puts it, “No good thing does he withhold from those that walk uprightly.” If he says “No,” it’s not good.
I believe this picture also illustrates our salvation in Christ alone. Sometimes Christians are accused of exclusivism. But the doctrine of salvation only in Christ didn’t originate with us. Jesus himself said it: “No once comes to the Father except by me” (John 14:6). Peter preached it, too: “And there is salvation in no one else for there is no other name under heaven, given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:12). It is not being judgmental to simply trust what Jesus himself said, and his apostles proclaimed in the gospel. Noah’s neighbors may have had some strong and bitter opinions about the ark when Noah and family were aboard. But inside the ark, there was wide-eyed wonder at being saved. That how we should think in the church, too.
Let’s never criticize God’s design for saving people from sin and eternal ruin in Christ. Let’s not be disgruntled by God’s protective restriction on our behavior. Let’s rejoice and be glad that he has shut us in the place of safety.
Copyright © 2021 by Michael B. McElroy. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Today in God's Word—October 2024
East Tallassee Church of Christ
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