“And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.” (Genesis 7:1)
The Ark wherein Noah and his family found refuge from God’s judgment is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ. As Noah was “in the Ark” and, thereby, saved from the judgment of the Great Flood, so is the believer “in Christ” and saved from God’s judgment, as well. There are many parallels that we can draw between the life of the believer in Christ and Noah’s experience in the Ark. Over the next few posts, I would like to consider six of these. Let us first consider God’s invitation to Noah to enter into the Ark:
“Come thou and all thy house into the Ark…”
God had given specific and detailed instructions to Noah about exactly how He wanted the Ark constructed. He had already told Noah what He planned to do and that He wanted Noah and his family to come into the Ark when the time came. Here, in Genesis 7:1, God extends the invitation for them to enter in.
“Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.” (Matthew 11:28)
As God invited Noah and his family to enter into the Ark, He invites us to enter into Christ. What powerful, life-giving words they are when God speaks and says unto men, “Come unto Me.” God is the One Who is seeking out people who will believe Him and accept His invitation; man is not the one who is seeking to know God. Yet God has sent the invitation out to all people and there are none who are excluded. In the closing words of the Bible, the Lord Jesus Christ extends His glorious invitation again:
“…Let him that is athirst come. And whoever will, let him take the water of life freely.” (Revelation 22:17)
“Whoever will.” The Door to the Ark stands wide open today and the invitation stands. Jesus is calling out to whomever will hear Him, He is bidding all to come inside. For those who are already in the “Ark”, let us remember that we would not be there had He not invited us in the first place. It was not our own cleverness, wisdom, or keen insight that caused us to come into Christ. It began with an invitation. “Come unto Me.” It was the wonderful grace of God that caused the scales of blindness to fall from our eyes and the hardness of our own hearts to soften; apart from God’s mercy, none of us would have ever come into the “Ark” (John 6:65).
God will invite man to Himself repeatedly throughout the Bible. He invites people to enter into the places of rest and safety that He Himself has prepared for them. There is but one place of safety and rest that we are invited to avail ourselves of now and that is in Christ. Next time, Lord willing, we will consider the direction that is in Christ our “Ark.”
To Jesus Christ goes all glory. In service to Him,
Loren
[This post was originally published October 14, 2009]
**All Scripture quotations in this post are taken from the King James Version (KJV) Bible
[If you do not know the Lord Jesus Christ or you are not certain where you are headed when this life ends, I invite you to read the article “Am I Going To Heaven?“]
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