During the week that was left before the door of the ark was shut such a strange procession of creatures came from the fields and the forests, from jungle and mountain,—every kind of animal and feathered thing, and crawling worms and snakes too, came walking and flying and creeping to the ark, two of some kinds and seven pairs of others. Who but God could have made them all come there? And we can be sure that every kind of thing (except those that live under the water) was found in the ark, because chapter 6, verses 19 and 20; and chapter 7, verses 2, 3, 14, and 15, tell us so.
But did any boys and girls or men and women go into the ark? Sad to say, not one person outside of Noah and his wife, -their three sons and their wives! All they needed was to believe what God said; the door was open, and it was just to walk in! Perhaps some of them wait-. ed for others to go in, and the others didn’t go, and so they were outside when the door was shut. In verse 16 see those words, “And the Lord shut him in”; Noah and his family were surely safe then, but what about those that were outside? They were shut out, just as those who believed God were shut in. Very likely as the terrible down-pour of rain came on, and kept on day after day until presently the houses began to be covered with water, some would call out to Noah to open the door and let them in, but it was of no use,—Noah couldn’t open the door, for the Lord had shut it. The time of pleading with those that were outside was past; they had been offered salvation but didn’t take it at God’s time, and now it was too. late. Be wise, dear children, and make sure now that you are saved, -that you have put your real heart’s trust in Jesus through His word. There is a dreadful time, far worse than the flood, -coming and then it will be forever too late to be saved.
The great deluge of rain kept on until the mountains were covered, and there was no height left for anyone to climb to, and every living person and every creature that moved on the earth was dead, except those who were in the ark.