But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.
THE
LORD SHUT THE DOOR
Genesis
7:1-16 “The LORD then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole
family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you
seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind
of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven of every kind of bird,
male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven
days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and
I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.’ And
Noah did all that the LORD commanded him. Noah was six hundred years old when
the floodwaters came on the earth. And Noah and his sons and his wife and his
sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. Pairs of clean
and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground,
male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah.
And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. In the six hundredth
year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month - on that day
all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens
were opened. And rain fell on the earth for forty days and forty nights. On that
very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and
the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. They had with them every wild
animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every
creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird
according to its kind, everything with wings. Pairs of all creatures that have
the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. The animals going
in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then
the LORD shut him in.”
I STAND ON THE WORD OF GOD AND BELIEVE WE THE RIGHT
In His instructions for building the Ark, God told Noah to “set the door of the Ark in its side” (Genesis 6:16).1
The Ark had only one door to pass through to escape God’s terrible
judgment. By faith, Noah and his family entered the Ark. Once they were
all inside, the Lord shut them in (Genesis 7:16).
What is significant about God shutting the door of the Ark? It provides a wonderful demonstration of the twin truths of man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty that we see throughout Scripture.
After God shut the door, the time of judgment arrived. Only those who had gone through the doorway would be saved; no one else could enter. Noah and his family had to obey God’s command to build and then enter the Ark for salvation—but it was God who had commanded the Ark to be built as the means of Noah’s family being saved in this time of judgment.
The Ark pictures salvation in Jesus Christ, our “Ark” of salvation. Jesus said “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” (John 10:9).
The Bible makes it clear that we are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Nothing we can do can save us from our sin and its consequence of eternal separation from God. But the Bible also tells us that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Romans 10:9). It is “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Nothing we can do will save us from our sin—salvation is all of God. Yet our responsibility is to go through the doorway (Jesus), and God will save us.
How do we put all this together? Can we, as finite humans, ever understand the ways of an infinite God? Only God can bring man’s responsibility and His sovereignty perfectly together. We need to live with this tension and accept it—it is what God’s Word teaches.
“And the Lord Shut Him In”
What is significant about God shutting the door of the Ark?
by Gary Vaterlaus
April 4, 2007
What is significant about God shutting the door of the Ark? It provides a wonderful demonstration of the twin truths of man’s responsibility and God’s sovereignty that we see throughout Scripture.
After God shut the door, the time of judgment arrived. Only those who had gone through the doorway would be saved; no one else could enter. Noah and his family had to obey God’s command to build and then enter the Ark for salvation—but it was God who had commanded the Ark to be built as the means of Noah’s family being saved in this time of judgment.
The Ark pictures salvation in Jesus Christ, our “Ark” of salvation. Jesus said “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” (John 10:9).
The Bible makes it clear that we are “dead in trespasses and sins” (Ephesians 2:1). Nothing we can do can save us from our sin and its consequence of eternal separation from God. But the Bible also tells us that if we confess with our mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in our heart that God has raised Him from the dead, we will be saved (Romans 10:9). It is “by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God” (Ephesians 2:8). Nothing we can do will save us from our sin—salvation is all of God. Yet our responsibility is to go through the doorway (Jesus), and God will save us.
How do we put all this together? Can we, as finite humans, ever understand the ways of an infinite God? Only God can bring man’s responsibility and His sovereignty perfectly together. We need to live with this tension and accept it—it is what God’s Word teaches.
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