The Arks of the Bible

God used two arks in the early lives of His people. One was to save them from the world-encompassing, cleansing flood. The other was to save them from eternal damnation. After creation of the world and eviction from Eden, the peoples of the world grew increasingly bad.

At one point, it was so bad that God was grieved. Genesis 6:6-9 Verse 6 says: "The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain." Verse 8: "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD." Verse 9.... "Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." This time God had Noah build an ark with instructions that upon completion he was to load it with his wife and sons with their wives along with a boat load of animals. Thus the animal part of God's creation was saved from destruction.

The second ark was quite different but had a similar function - to save God's creation from destruction. This ark held the tablets that were written by God's own hand noting the Ten Commandments. How were these tablets going to save mankind from destruction? Easy, these commandments illustrated how unworthy we are and how impossible the task to live in God's favor. Once we were aware that we couldn't live up to our part of the covenant, we had only one place to turn......to Jesus Christ, the only one who can save us.

God gets our attention a number of ways. Sometimes it is a flood of destruction and devastation followed by the bright hopeful rainbow. Other times it is using our own arrogance and self-righteousness when we utterly fail at obedience. We can't even obey ourselves much of the time. How can we live in complete obedience to God's will? We can't. But Jesus already took the hit for us. Jesus already accepted all our punishment for our failures. AND Jesus steps in to help us along the way. Guiding us. Protecting us. Whispering words of wisdom and strength in our ears right when we need it. Jesus, the redeemer, and our salvation. Because the arks were inadequate. They were only a way to show us that we cannot do it alone.

Father, I am so sorry that we were so awful and disobedient that You were grieved that You created us. I am so sorry after we were given another chance that we were still no better. Thank you more than I can ever say for coming here to redeem us and forgive us. Amen.

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