Genesis 7: Salvation into New Creation

Key Verse
16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in. 
 
Meditation
God provides a way of salvation, an escape from the flood of judgement and entrance into new creation.
 
The flood was God’s just judgement on a world in rebellion. The earth was utterly corrupt, yet Noah was found righteous (6:5-8). By faith, Noah trusted God would save him and his family, God preserving His promise from Genesis 3:15. Flowing from that faith, Noah “did all the Lord commanded” (6:27; 7:5, 16). He built the ark, gathered the animals, said goodbye to the world he had known… “and the Lord shut him in” (v. 16).
 
In almost an exact reversal of creation, the waters covered the land, destroyed all living creatures, and wiped-out humanity (vv. 20-24). Only Noah and his family were saved. As the flow of the flood points back to creation, so too it points forward to the cross of Christ by inviting believers to both salvation and new creation.
 
On the cross, Jesus bore the judgement His people deserve. The Author of life Himself entered death. Jesus was flooded by the Father’s righteous wrath against our sin, dying as our representative. Through faith in Jesus and His work, believers are secure in God’s salvation from the coming flood of judgement.
 
God promises a “time of restoration of all things” (Acts 3:21), made possible by the peace Christ offers through the blood of His cross (Colossians 1:20). Those who do not put their faith in Jesus will experience the flood of God’s just judgement. All whose trust in in Jesus as God’s provision of salvation will escape the coming judgement and enter comprehensive new creation.
 
Today’s Reading
Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of all clean animals, the male and his mate, and a pair of the animals that are not clean, the male and his mate, 3 and seven pairs of the birds of the heavens also, male and female, to keep their offspring alive on the face of all the earth. 4 For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” 5 And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.
 
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, 9 two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after seven days the waters of the flood came upon the earth.
 
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.
 
17 The flood continued forty days on the earth. The waters increased and bore up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the face of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed so mightily on the earth that all the high mountains under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed above the mountains, covering them fifteen cubits deep. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, livestock, beasts, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on the dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. 23 He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens. They were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those who were with him in the ark. 24 And the waters prevailed on the earth 150 days.
 
Richly Dwelling
-What stands out to you about the judgement of God through the flood and God’s pleasure to provide secure salvation for Noah and His family?
 
-Do you believe Jesus is the only way of salvation from the coming just judgement of the Lord? If so, does your life show it, as Noah’s was set apart from people in his day?
 
-How does the promise of comprehensive new creation through the cross of Christ draw you to endure until Jesus returns again?
 
Key Verse
16 And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.