Genesis 7 -- Waiting On God

Waiting on God seems to be this chapter’s theme.  Noah had spent years constructing the ark and God had then commanded the animals to load up.  Finally, Noah and his family entered the ark, and God Himself shut the door.  It was another week before the first raindrops fell.  By that seventh day, anyone else would have been wondering if it had all been simply a bad dream, but Noah and his family trusted God and the first raindrops ever eventually fell. 

They also didn’t have any idea how long they’d have to remain in the ark, “but the Lord knew, and that’s really all that mattered,” my commentary said.  One year and ten days after those first raindrops fell, they watched as God opened the door to His freshly cleansed world.

Of course God had waited on mankind for over a century to repent so that the flood wouldn’t be necessary, and that speaks of His mercy and longsuffering.  Unfortunately, mankind didn’t repent.

It’s also important to remember that God didn’t use only rain to flood the earth.  He unleashed vast reservoirs of underground springs that welled up to help accomplish His purposes.

My commentary concluded this chapter with words from a British preacher:

“For a hundred and twenty years the wits laughed, and the common sense people wondered, and the patient saint went on hammering and pitching at his ark.  But one morning it began to rain; and by degrees, somehow, Noah did not seem quite such a fool.  The jests would look rather different when the water was up to the knees of the jesters; and their sarcasms would stick in their throats as they drowned.  So is it always.  So it will be at the last great day.  The men who lived for the future, by faith in Christ, will be found out to have been the wise men … while they who had no aims beyond the things of time … will awake too late to the conviction that they are outside the ark of safety, and that their truest epitaph is, ‘You fool’ .”

Father, thank You for shaking me out of my spiritual slumber and for showing me what a fool I’d been, and for waking me to Your truth.  Help me to help others to find what You’ve shown me before it is too late for them.

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford