‎"And then" - 01/03/13 - Genesis 7:1-10:32, 1 Chronicles 1:5-23

^"Noah was 600 years old when the floodwater's covered the Earth. Noah and his wife and sons and their wives boarded the ship to escape the flood. Clean and unclean animals, birds, and all the crawling creatures came in pairs to Noah and to the ship, male and female, just as God had commanded Noah. In seven days the floodwater's came." (Gen 7:6-10) 

In seven days.  He had to be ready - family and all of the animals. 


At times when we come up against our "floods",  we think, "no way" will we make it through and He provides.  We usually focus on the obstacles - not Him.  Then we are in awe and call it a miracle.  Something that we start to believe happens once in awhile - when in reality- miracles occur continuously all about us - because that is how He works.  We just don't see it - because we aren't looking in the right place - His face.

^"The floodwater's took over for 150 days.

 Then God turned his attention to Noah and all the wild animals and farm animals with him on the ship. (Gen 7:24-8:3) 

His time. His way.

Can not imagine how the passing of one year and ten days was for them.  How at times they probably felt completely forgotten - frightened - alone.  The first shifts of the ark as the waters began to raise and it began to float.  The fear of not knowing if their abilities in building created a vessel that would float, last until when?  Noah was 600 years old.  When living that many years, did he wonder how many more he would have to live on the ark?  Their ears hearing the sounds of death outside the ship.  Cries of voices pleading to be let in - some probably calling out their names.  Faces running through their minds of family, friends, adults, children.  Hands pounding against the wood of the ark, tools used to try and break through. 

People desperate to live. 

The sound of the rain beating against the ark. 

And then - beyond the noises within the ark - only the sound of the great wind. 

No more cries, no more beating, clawing.  No more rain. 

And the continued rocking of the ark. 

There they lived - sealed within - by His command. 

And then - God turned His attention to them.

Nichalas and I were discussing this.  About if the window Noah opened to release the raven and then the dove, was this the first time it was opened?  Did God have all of the animals and people in a hibernation state?  Did they eat normal daily food provisions? Did they reproduce?  What about all that waste!  We were wondering if God will have "story hour" in heaven by all the persons we have been reading about through His Word. 

We also discussed how God provides the "ark" for us during the "floods" of life.  In it we are not alone, He provides all of our needs, we are there for the time He sees fit and safe enough that He can go on about His business until we are in the place for Him to "turn His attention" back to us.  This isn't saying that God has forgotten us.  It just says that sometimes we need to be in the ark in order to depend on Him. 

Totally. 

^"On the seventeenth day of the seventh month, the ship landed on the Ararat mountain range." (Gen 8:4)

No green pastures, flat terrain, but on a mountain range.  Noah is now 601 years old and gets to climb down the side of a mountain.  The things God does to make us stronger will seem to be things that will destroy us - IF we focus on the side of the mountains and not His face.  His promises.   

In the storms of life that cause my "floods", I strive to look for the sign of His covenant.  His promise that He is indeed here with me.  That with each mountain top I have to climb down from - there is a rainbow. 

"I’m putting my rainbow in the clouds, a sign of the covenant between me and the Earth".  (Gen 9:13)