Scripture Daily

Context No. 3931 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 7:6-12: in context

6Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came on the earth. 7Noah went into the ship with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, because of the floodwaters. 8Clean animals, unclean animals, birds, and everything that creeps on the ground 9went by pairs to Noah into the ship, male and female, as God commanded Noah. 10After the seven days, the floodwaters came on the earth. 11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the sky’s windows opened. 12It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights.

After the long years of building, the moment comes: Noah, with his family and the animals, goes into the ark, and only then, after seven days, do the floodwaters come. The fountains of the deep burst open and the rain falls for forty days. Noah entered the refuge God had provided before the storm broke, acting on God's warning while the sky was still clear.

There is faith in that entering. Noah did not wait for the first drops of rain to prove the danger real; he trusted God's word about a flood no one had ever seen, and went into the ark in advance, when to onlookers it must have seemed foolish. His faith took shelter before the judgment fell. There is a lesson here about heeding God's warnings ahead of the visible danger. God tells us of realities we cannot yet see, and calls us to take refuge in the shelter he provides before it is too late. To wait until the storm is upon us to seek shelter may be to wait too long. Noah's example is to act on God's word now, entering the refuge God has provided while there is still time.

Do I heed God's warnings and take shelter in the refuge he provides ahead of the visible danger, acting on his word now as Noah did, rather than waiting until the storm is already upon me?

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