When God spoke, and a person answered
God and Noah
In a world grown so violent that God is grieved He had made man, one man finds grace in His eyes. The conversation God has with Noah is the blueprint for the ark and the beginning of a covenant.
“And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”Genesis 6:13
The conversation
The conversation. God tells Noah plainly what no one else will hear: "The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth." Then He gives him the design: "Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch." God specifies its length, breadth, and height, a window, a door in the side, and three stories. He announces the flood, "I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh." And He makes a promise before a drop falls: "But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee." Noah is told to bring two of every living thing, male and female, and to gather food for them all. The record of Noah's reply is not words but obedience: "Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he." That single sentence is his whole answer to God.
What God was doing
What God was doing. God was grieving over sin and refusing to let violence go unanswered, for the flood is the response of a holy God to a corrupted earth. Yet in the same breath He was rescuing. Before judgment came, He built an escape and named its builder. He was covenanting, binding Himself by promise to a family and, through them, to the world; the ark was mercy with a door. He was also entrusting; God let one man in on the coming end and made him a preacher of righteousness by the slow, public, ridiculous labor of building a boat on dry ground. This reveals a God who is both severe and faithful. He will not wink at evil that fills the earth with blood, and He will not leave Himself without a remnant. The covenant God establishes with Noah shows that His deepest intention, even under judgment, is to preserve life and keep His word.
How it leads to Christ
How it leads to Christ. Peter calls the flood a picture of salvation: eight souls "were saved by water," and "the like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us" through the resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Pet 3:20-21). The ark is a place of refuge from judgment, with a single door, entered by faith, and Jesus said, "I am the door: by me if any man enter in, he shall be saved" (John 10:9). Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD, and in Christ we find that grace made flesh, "full of grace and truth" (John 1:14). The God who once spoke the ark's dimensions to a righteous man has "in these last days spoken unto us by his Son" (Heb 1:2), and the Son Himself is the ark, the shelter, and the promise that judgment will not have the last word for those inside Him.
Questions people ask
Why did God decide to send the flood?
Genesis says "the earth was filled with violence" and "every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." The flood was God's judgment on a world wholly given over to corruption and bloodshed.
What was the covenant God made with Noah?
God promised to bring Noah, his family, and the animals safely through the flood, and afterward gave the rainbow as the sign that He would never again destroy all flesh by water (Gen 9). It was a covenant of preservation and promise.
How is the ark a picture of Christ?
The ark was the one refuge from judgment, entered by a single door, and all who were inside were saved. Christians see in it a picture of Jesus, who called Himself the door and who shelters His people from the judgment their sin deserves.