Reading
SAA Notes
The flood is one of the most persistent stories over the face of the earth. The ancient Chinese script has an ideogram for a boat made up of three characters – a vessel, eight, mouth. A boat is a vessel holding 8 people. Belief in Noah’s flood is not about religion versus science. The ancient deluge is rejected because it upholds belief in a Creator. The earth gives witness to several great catastrophes in our past.
SJA Notes
* Creator God, Sustainer of all life – Please teach us today from Your word.
“And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the LORD shut him in.”
God closes out the sealing of those whom He saves, those who will escape His wrath.
They did as He command them.
We see a similar event at the end of the plagues sent upon Pharoah and Egypt.
The blood of a lamb was to be put on the doorposts and lintel of the house (Exodus 12), a seal for those inside to escape from the judgement the Lord was bringing upon the land of Egypt.
As we worked through in yesterday’s passage the ark was a vehicle of salvation.
In Egypt the people were to stay together within the houses that had the lamb’s blood sealing them in, keeping them safe.
We God’s people today are kept safe through the shed blood of our Lord Jesus, the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
His blood rescues us, cleanses us – A strange truth to grapple with, being cleanses through blood shed.
His sacrifice at Calvary on the cross took on the wrath of God that was meant for us.
His coming back to life on the third day broke apart the hold of death, for us.
As God sealed in Noah and his family, as the families of Israel were sealed through the lamb’s blood on their doors, so we all of us are sealed through Jesus, His finished work.
We can escape the wrath to come!
This is the message of great hope and rejoicing for us – A message of calling and warning to those outside the fold, for them to come to Jesus!
* Dear God Above,
You are the great creator who sent so much water on the earth as to cover the mountaintops, the globe entirely flooded.
You are the rescuer of Your people, sealing up Noah and his family, Israel in Egypt – And through Jesus, all of us Your people from Adam through till the last.
How good a God You are!
Amen.