Questions for Littles: How does Noah decide when to go into the ark? What are clean animals for (so far, cf. 9:3)? How many are they to take? How many unclean? How far in advance of the flood does the Lord command him into the ark? How much of what was commanded him does Noah do (v6)? What is repeated in v7? What is repeated in v8-9? What happens after seven days (v10)?In this week’s Old Testament reading, we have Noah’s grand entrance into the ark.
The Lord begins telling him to come into the ark in v1. Noah obeys the command in v5. His obedience is then summarized in repetition in v7. And the flood waters come in v10.
This is like a zooming in of a camera, or a slowing down into super slo-mo replay. The story is going to pick up again next week in detailed descriptions of the storm and the flooding. But, for this week, it focuses upon the entering.
This was an intense moment. But, it wasn’t really a moment was it? It was a week. A week of sitting on the ark, with all those animals. A week of starting to do the chores. A week of experiencing the smells. A week of experiencing the new family dynamics of living in this conditions with one another as sinners. A week of no rain. A week of everyone outside knowing that they were inside. And still, a week of no flood.
That certainly required a great deal of faith, and praise the Lord that He gave it to them. Noah did according to all that Yahweh had commanded him (v5). Things were done just as God had commanded Noah (v9).
Why? Yes, so that He to whom the Lord had provided righteousness (cp. the use of “seen” in v1 with the use of that word in Gen 22) could be saved. But that salvation also had a purpose. The worship of God.
Noah knew this because he had at least seven of every clean animal. Probably 14, if the “sevens” of v2 are distributed over “male and female”—it is saying 7 pairs. Noah didn’t know that they were for eating—that grace would come later in 9:3. To this point, clean animals were only for sacrifice, only for worship.
The earth ought to have filled with the worship of God, but now it was filled with violence. God was cleansing it with the flood, and preserving a family in the ark to repopulate it with worship.
Noah knew that he was being saved for the worship of God! We too are saved by Jesus for the eternal worship of God!
How many days this week did we miss private or family worship? How many days this year did we miss corporate worship? What are we most looking forward to in glory? What does this data show about the priority of worship in our lives? God generously gives us food, but we aren’t saved to eat!Suggested songs: ARP130 “Lord, From the Depths to You I Cried,” or HB26 “O Worship the King”
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