Noah’s Ark
As a child, when I pushed the limit, my father would warn me, “You are walking on thin ice!” When I heard his warning I knew I had a limited amount of time to change my ways. If I pushed him to his breaking point, if I fell through the ice, there would be no mercy!
The Bible tells us that our Father in Heaven also has a breaking point. He shows tremendous patience, but sin will always be judged.
There are moments recorded in history when we see God’s judgment upon humankind: Sodom and Gomorrah, the conquest of the Promised Land, the destruction of Israel. Those are all moments where the ice broke, but like my father on earth, our Father in Heaven always sent a warning before he poured out his wrath. In the days of Noah that warning was the ark.
God gave Noah specific instructions for building the ark, and Noah listened to God. God said it, and Noah believed it! The ark was over 475 feet long. It was 75 feet wide and stood over four stories high… but it only had one door. Every animal and every human being saved from the flood entered the ark through one door. Once they had entered, God himself shut that door, and then the rain came.
LUKE: 17:22-27
Jesus said to his disciples, “The time is coming when you will long to see one of the days of the Son of Man, but you will not see it. People will tell you, ‘There he is!’ or ‘Here he is!’ Do not go running off after them. For the Son of Man in his day will be like the lightning, which flashes and lights up the sky from one end to the other. But first he must suffer many things and be rejected by this generation.
Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all.”
The ice is getting thin! “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man.” God is watching and he is not impressed, but he has sent a warning. He has sent his Son! Just as everyone who escaped the flood entered the ark through one door, so those who escape the final judgment will enter through one door. Jesus said, “I am the door!” (John 10:9).
God is waiting patiently, but when the ice breaks, there will be two people in bed, one will be saved and the other will be lost. There will be two people in a field, one will be saved and the other will be lost. The only difference between them will be what they believe.
Do you believe? If so, your judgment has already come! “When they came to the place called the Skull, they crucified him there, along with the criminals—one on his right, the other on his left” (Luke 23:33). At that moment the penalty, meant for you and for me, was given to Jesus, the one and only Son of God. He died and was buried for our sins, but the grave could not hold him. On the third day he rose again and ascended to the right hand of our Father in Heaven.
It’s easy for us to believe that life on earth will carry on forever just as it is now, that evil has triumphed over good—but God has said that is not the case. He is waiting patiently, but one day the ice will break, and he will send his Son to judge the living and the dead.
The first time Jesus came, he came as a door, as an Ark; the next time he comes, he will come as the flood. He is calling your name! Go to him! All who enter through him will be saved. God said it! Do you believe it?
Rev. Troy Tysdal is Director of Communications and Prayer for the Church of the Lutheran Brethren and serves as publisher of Faith & Fellowship magazine.