Summer At Sea: Week 1 Day 4

Genesis 7:11-16 (ESV)

11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, 14 they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. 15 They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. 16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

There are two things that stand out to me as I read this passage. First, I am reminded of Genesis 1:6-8, “And God said, ‘Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let us separate the waters from the waters.’ And God made the expanse and separated the waters that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse. And it was so. And God called the expanse Heaven.” The description of the beginning of the flood as a bursting forth of the fountains of the great deep and the opening of the windows of the heavens feels like the inverse of what God did to the waters at the time of creation. Instead of being separated, it seems they were collapsing back in on each other.

The second thing that stood out in today’s verses was that God shut the door, not Noah. God preserved the life of Noah and all that went into the ark with him. Noah’s role was to do what God commanded. God is the creator, sustainer, and preserver of life and has had power over the waters from the beginning.