THE TWO-EDGED FLOOD

And the flood was forty days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and it was lift up above the earth – Genesis 7:17

After more than a hundred years of building the ark and warning his generation, God granted seven days' longer space for grace and repentance. These seven days were unfortunately trifled away, like all the preceding years. One week more, one Sabbath more to improve, repent and consider the things that belonged to their peace; but the damned world headed for destruction. The covenant-keeping God continued His care of Noah. God shut the door, to secure him and keep him safe in the ark and to keep all others for ever out (Gen. 7: 16). And on the day Noah was securely fixed in the ark, the fountains of the great deep were broken up. The earth had within it those waters, which, at God's command, sprang up and flooded it. The flood was increasing forty days. The waters rose so high that the tops of the highest mountains were submerged.

There is no place on earth so high as to set men out of the reach of God's judgments. Ironically, as the flood increased, Noah's ark was lifted up, and the waters which broke down everything else, bore up the ark. The DROWNING and destructive flood for the unbelieving world became the LIFTING and SAVING flood for Noah. That which to unbelievers portends death unto death, to the faithful promises life unto life.

Every soul that were in the world, excepting those in the ark, died. What horror must have gripped them! What terror must have seized them!! Till the very day that the flood came, they were eating and drinking, deaf and blind to all divine warnings (Lk. 17:26, 27). It was too late by the time they were convinced of their folly. All attempts to save themselves were but all in vain.

Noah’s account depicts how those that are not found in Christ – the Ark – would be doomed and undone for ever. Who can stand before the Lord in His wrath? The righteous God knows how to bring ruin upon the world of the unbelieving and ungodly, and how to rescue the godly (2Pet. 2:5,9). Those who neglect, refuse, or abuse the salvation of Christ shall be destroyed in the common ruin of an unbelieving world. Those who come into the Ark will be lifted and saved from the floods of destruction.