When I was a kid, I remember running into the house when the thunderstorms came.
We’d see the clouds coming and got pretty good at estimating how long we had to play. Then, we knew it was time to get inside. We weren’t jumping through windows or using umbrellas. We ran inside through the door of the house. Without the door, we’d be stuck outside in the wind, rain, and hail. The door made the difference.
In his unwavering faith and obedience, Noah had preached the warnings to humanity. All the meticulous preparations for the Lord’s judgment were made. Pairs of unclean animals and seven pairs of clean animals were loaded and ready. In a profound act of obedience, Noah and his family boarded the Ark.
Then we read in Genesis 7:11-16:
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
Genesis 7:11-16, New International Version
Noah was 600 years old when the flood came. The date was very specific: the seventeenth day of the second month of Noah’s 600th year. On that day, it started.
Naturally, we want to convert this to modern timekeeping. The first challenge with dating this to our time is the “second month.” This implies it was the second month of a new year. Easy enough, but the Hebrews kept two calendars in their history. One started in the autumn, while the second one started in the spring.
The next challenge is the year. If we go from Creation, the Flood started around 1,656 years after Creation. As we look at the dates provided in the pages of Scripture, the Flood started 4,359 years ago—give or take a few hundred years.
Considering the distance from this event, that’s pretty close to an exact date.
Some have said this flood was symbolic, but Scripture doesn’t present it this way. Scripture presents the Flood as real as the birth of Noah, Abraham, or Jesus.
As the Flood starts, the language reminds us of the second day of Creation. There, the Lord harnessed and separated the waters. Here, the Lord “un-creates, ” releases His hold, and allows the water to cover the Earth.
As this deluge filled the Earth, the rain fell for “forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:12). Again, the specificity in the numbers is on purpose. As I wrote, Scripture presents this as an actual historical event.
The final sentence of our passage today is profound: “Then the Lord shut him in” (Genesis 7:16b). Of all the work Noah did for the Lord, this final step was the Lord’s alone. The door was simultaneously a source of salvation and destruction.
The Lord brought judgment on the Earth, protected Noah (and the remnant of creation), and would deliver Noah (and all the others in the Ark), not by removing them from the flood but by taking them through it.
We’ll learn many lessons throughout our study of the Flood. But at this point, let’s focus on the seriousness of the Lord’s judgment and the mercy of His salvation.
Inside the Ark, the inhabitants were saved and safe. Outside the Ark, the inhabitants were doomed. The door to the Ark was the difference.
Heaven and Hell are very similar. Inside Heaven, the inhabitants are safe and happy forevermore. Outside Heaven (in Hell), the inhabitants are doomed for all eternity. The door makes all the difference. That door is Jesus, who said, “I am the gate; whoever enters through me will be saved” (John 10:9a). Jesus makes all the difference.
Which side of that door are you on?
Life Meets Theology 