Time in the Ark - All The LORD is near Daily Devotionals for 2024

The Lord said to Noah, "Come into the ark" All the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights Then God spoke to Noah, saying, "Go out of the ark."
Genesis 7:1, 11-12; 8:15-16

Time in the Ark
It is easy to skim over the experiences of Noah and his family in the ark. It was actually their home for more than a year. First came 40 days of torrential rain, along with explosive fountains of water from the depths. Although the ark was quite stable, with proportions nearly identical to modern guidelines for cargo vessels, its movements on the floodwaters were certainly not calm!

After the rain, the ark simply floated for an extended period. Then came strong winds to hasten the process of evaporation. After five months of motion, buffeted by rain, waves, and wind, the ark went aground on the mountains of Ararat in the eastern region of modern Turkey. Yet it was another ten weeks until the mountains could actually be seen; then three more months before the waters fully receded; and nearly another two months before the ground was dry enough for Noah and his family to leave the ark.

What were they doing all that time? They were waiting—an obvious statement, perhaps, but an important one. Many in the Bible had similar experiences. Joseph waited more than 20 years before his dreams from God became reality. Caleb waited 45 years to receive his inheritance in Canaan. Paul, a few years after his conversion, went home to Tarsus, and we don't know one thing he did there while he waited for God's door of service to open again.

Much of our lives might be spent waiting, too, as we trust God in times of seeming inactivity. Are you waiting for hopes to be realized, promises to be fulfilled, relationships to be restored? , and He has not forgotten you.

Stephen Campbell