Isolation
This morning, because they are a little shorter, we will read through Chapter 10 of Genesis. There is a lot happening in every chapter of the Bible, and these contain the story of Noah and the flood. I read through many commentaries about these verses on Biblehub.org and there will never be enough days for me to dig into all that there is.
What I found interesting was only one of the commentaries Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament mentioned the 150 days. That timeline had struck a note with me. Can you imagine the emotional turmoil that had to be going on within each of the members of Noah’s family that was on that ark?
First, although they knew what water was, they had rivers, there were wells to draw from, they had never seen it fall from the sky. God tells Noah to build an ark, in the middle of the desert, and that He is going to send a flood. The wells bubble up, the rivers breach, tides from the seas encroach upon the land. Suddenly the skies even open up and for six solid weeks they continue to pour out on the land.
The inhabitants of this boat are living with the smells of all these animals, while floating upon the waters. The rain stops. They bob along, being tossed about as the winds gently move them. Knowing that everyone and everything they ever knew was now gone, they look out at the horizon. Would this be it? Will they spend the rest of their lives aboard this floating zoo?
Days turn into weeks, weeks into months. Now five months pass. Would they have been better off to have drown with their friends? I’m sure they loved each other, but imagine a life where all you have to look forward to is another day of caring for the animals.
The Fog
In the early 1980s, I moved to McKinleyville, California, with a girlfriend; her grandfather would take me fishing in Trinidad Harbor. As you leave the bay, you can see the shoreline, but only for a while. Soon, every direction looks the same. It is easy to become disoriented since everywhere you look is just the gentle slope of the earth falling away into more water. Sky and sea to the left, sky and sea to the right. In front of you and behind. As the days went by, I often would grow tired because of the monotony. The occasional challenge of catching a fish would revive me.
Now imagine that same scene, for 150 days. God had told Noah that he would send rain for 40 days, and He had. We do not read that He told him how long he would be adrift. Was this his fate?
Application
Even in our daily grind, we can experience this sense of pointlessness. We wake every day to shower, eat some breakfast, go to work and then relax with the family and go to sleep. Only to repeat it all the next day. We can sense that there has to be more to life, but have no reasonable expectation of what that is.
We become anesthetized by the surrounding wonders, bored in a world of marvels which would have blown the minds of our ancestors. For us, it is just so mundane. We have 180 channels with nothing on worth watching, so we watch reruns from the 90s.
If that is how we feel, can you envision what seeing water in all directions for 150 days with no expectation of anything changing would be like?
Noah had to have a steadfast faith that God would not have saved him for this. We also believe that God has a purpose for each of us. If we still breathe, God’s work with us is not finished. I look forward with eager anticipation to the day when the Lord says I am finished and can come home. Every day until then, we must ask ourselves. What is God doing today that I can take part in?
We know a day is coming when God will save all who can be saved and then close the book on this world. But each morning I awaken and ask myself what remains to be done. Maybe I can’t even leave the ship that I am on. I have to do the same tasks I did yesterday, but there must be details I have not noticed that will guide me to where God needs me to engage.
Do not grow weary that we are still in the battle of life, instead seek God’s will on how you can help glorify Him.
Today I was thinking about the fish. Sure, fish an other ocean creatures are the only things that can survive a flood, but there are freshwater and saltwater fish. During the flood, the fresh and saltwater got mixed. And the rain would have probably been fresh water. And the Bible says that the underground waters also erupted; who knows what they were like? I mean, a lot of wells are nice, but some are contaminated with poisonous naturally occurring substances. It stands to reason that the water would have been somewhere between salt and fresh, with some unhealthy stuff in it. I think God had to do some miracles for the underwater creatures to survive.
I completely agree. The entire event was a miracle from God. That the animals lived harmoniously together in a confined space. The birds had no place to land. The fish had the issues you mentioned.
Yet, even I often realize I am lacking faith that God can provide a path for me to get through relatively minor obstacles in my life.
God is so much larger than any challenges we may face.