Skip to main content

Are You On Board?

                Most people know about Noah’s ark.  Unfortunately, I believe that we often teach that story incorrectly.
                In Sunday school, the emphasis was on the water and the destruction.  The point was that God hates sin and that a judgment day is coming.  While that is true, I do not believe that it is the point of the story.
                Some focus on the dimensions of the ark and then built exact replicas to prove that it was big enough to hold a lot of animals.  Many of these replicas exist around the world and they are interesting, but I do not believe that the size or construction of the ark is the point of the story.
                Others search Mount Ararat in Turkey looking for possible landing sites or petrified pieces of the boat. Again, I do not believe that the landing spot this is the point of the story.
                At its core, Noah’s ark is about salvation. 
                After describing a world in which “every inclination of the thoughts of [the people’s] hearts was only evil all the time” (Genesis 6:5), we are told that “Noah found favour (or grace) in the eyes of the Lord” (verse 8).  That is the point and the theme of the rest of the story.  The focus is not on how some angry God tore apart the world he created.  Rather, the entire is message is that God stepped in and rescued Noah.
                My favourite verse comes at the start of chapter eight.  After the storm has raged for forty days and forty nights and after they waited another one hundred and fifty days for the water to recede, it says “God remembered Noah” (Genesis 8:1).  This does not mean that God had forgotten him and suddenly said, “Oh, I have an ark full of people somewhere!”  Rather, it means something like, “God lovingly cared for Noah and protected him even in the middle of the biggest storm he had ever seen!”  At times, we may feel alone, but God never loses sight of us.  Even when our storms rage, he is right there.  Noah’s ark is about God providing safety and salvation. 
                That offer of salvation now comes in the form of the cross and our baptism (1 Peter 3:20-21).  However, the idea is still the same.
                God wants to save his children (2 Peter 3:9).  That was the message in Noah’s time and that is still the message today.
                Are you on board?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Dark and Light

            When you look out at the world, what do you see?             Some see nothing but trouble and pain.   They point to things like poverty, crime, problems with drugs and alcohol and marriage break-ups and say that the world is full of sadness and sorrow.   Watch the news for even a half hour and you will get the idea that the world is a dark place.             Others see nothing but good.   They appreciate generous people in their community.   They think about their friends and neighbours and smile.   They marvel at the beauty of sunrises and stars at night.   To them, the world is a bright and wonderful place.             You may be surprised that the Bible supports both of these world views.   On one hand it says things like, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them. For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the
1 comment
Read more

New Article: Five Words to Improve Your Relationships

                 In the late 1800s, it was common for railway companies to plant formal gardens beside their stations.   These gardens were filled with trees, shrubs, flowers, and fruit trees.   Sometimes they also featured a kitchen garden growing lettuce, carrots, corn, and potatoes.   Estevan’s Canadian Pacific Railway Garden was once located where Mid-City Plumbing and Heating is today.                The purpose of these gardens was to show what the land could produce.   After hours and sometimes days of riding across the featureless prairies, the railways wanted to show settlers the potential of their new home.   The gardens showed what was possible and they encouraged the settlers to transform their own land and discover its potential too.                Today’s verse acts similarly, in that it challenges us to find the potential in
Post a Comment
Read more

Forgetting What Is Behind

                   Generalizations are helpful because they show a pattern that is normally true. However, they are also dangerous because they ignore the exceptions to the rule.                  Here is my generalization:   It is a quality of the strong to be able to forget the past and move on.   The apostle Paul summarizes this idea when he states, “One thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God had called me heavenward in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:13-14). Too often, we trip over things that are behind us.   We remember and nurse old hurts.   We rehearse mistakes that no one else recalls.   In doing so, we pull the past into the present and allow it to dictate how we feel right now.   In these cases, we would be better off “forgett
Post a Comment
Read more