In our picture this week Noah is represented as offering up a sacrifice just after coming out of the ark.
What a solemn thing it is that God has shown His displeasure for sin by bringing a flood over the whole earth and drowning all the people. People lived then as they live now, for the Word of God tells us,
"They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came and destroyed. them all." Luke 17:2727They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. (Luke 17:27).
You may say, Surely there was nothing wrong in those things. That is true, but it was the way they were doing these things and leaving God out. God had looked down upon their wickedness, and He said,
"My Spirit shall not always strive with man." Gen, 6:3.
He told Noah to build an ark so that people could be saved if they wanted to, for He was going to bring a flood on the whole earth. Noah built it according to the directions God had given him, and at the same time he preached to the people. None outside Noah’s family believed him, so they continued living as if there were no God, and they would not be punished for their sins.
When the day came that God told Noah to come into the ark with his wife and their sons and their wives, the rest of the people no doubt thought it was very foolish of Noah to go inside. When they saw Noah shut in, and the rain coming down, and the fountains of the deep pouring forth water, it was too late for them to cry for mercy. God had ceased to strive with man, by His Spirit, through Noah, so they had to bear the awful results. God’s long suffering with them came to an end.
So it will be again; the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ, is like an ark for those who believe in Him. No matter how much water was poured forth, the ark was able to rise above it all, and Noah rose in it. So Jesus bore the full measure of God’s wrath for us and went through death and rose again.
The only way for us to escape the wrath of God, is to believe in Jesus as the One who has borne that wrath for us. If we refuse Jesus as our Saviour, it will be the same for us as it was for those who refused to go into the ark; they had to bear their own punishment, and so will the rejecters of Christ.
“He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.” John 3 :36.
Dear reader, if you have not believed in Him who has died for you, may you do so now, while He is still saying, “Come unto Me.”
But if you do not heed God’s plea to come to Christ as the Ark of safety remember, ’
Messages of God’s Love 3/25/1934