The Treasure Hunt

Whenever I am reading (even a fictional book) I always imagine what the characters are going through. I try to envision their surroundings, thoughts, course of actions, etc. And sometimes I carry with me what I have read my entire lifetime. As I am typing this I am remembering a book I read when I was no more than 20 years old and at that time I identified with one of the main characters. I could tell he was about to make a terrible and forever life-changing mistake.

As I was slowly turning the page to see what happened I was hoping he wouldn't be that dumb... but he was! I remember thinking, “You fool!” I never once dreamed then that I would actually live something in my own life which was very similar. The reason I told you that is two-fold. First: In the spirit of being honest sometimes I just can't help myself! And whenever I think of something as I am typing I include it. (lol) Secondly: and the more important reason is that I also do the same thing whenever I am reading the Bible. That is... I try to picture what is happening to these people during the time the Bible is recording their acts. With that background, I want to talk to you about Noah and the Ark.

I know that from experiences I have had even in my day as I have tried to witness to people that it is not much different than it was in the days of Noah. And that is the heart of man has always had doubt and there have always been scoffers. I know this for a fact because Noah preached many years during the entire time the Ark was being built, and he apparently didn't have a single convert!

In your mind what do you see whenever you think of the Ark being built? I know it would have been started in an area where there would be plenty of trees for harvesting. And he certainly didn't have to worry about an ocean to launch his boat because God was going to provide a beach front everywhere on Earth.

We don't know a lot about Noah other than he was “a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9b.) I also imagine his testimony was real: for his wife, his three sons, and their wives all believed him enough to board the Ark. In my mind I picture as the months drew down to weeks, and then to days... the crowds began growing exponentially. This Ark being built was not done in a vacuum, and crowds love to mock. Honestly, I know myself that I love to laugh so if I had lived at that time I know for certain I would have been there laughing along with the rest of the people, at least until the time the old man entered the boat for the last time.

Of course the Bible nowhere states how many years it took to build the Ark, but it was no small challenge and it might well have been decades. Noah is first mentioned in Genesis 5:32 and he is 500 years old at that time and when he enters the Ark it is his 600^th year. So, a period of no more than 100 years the boat was being prepared. (Now, how many scoffers do you think this huge boat being built on dry land over an extended period of time would have drawn?)

As the time began to grow short... perhaps the strangest sight for all of the believers, (besides this huge boat and Noah's crazy ramblings about “rain” going to fall) was the steady advance of animals that had been showing up for several days now, and they had been coming from all directions. And some of them were even walking up the gangplank and boarding this crazy contraption.

(Keep in mind that it was not until AFTER the Great Flood that animals and people had any fear of each other. All creatures... man and beast (before the Flood) were vegetarian (Genesis 1:29-31). Then, for the first time after the Great Flood man was given permission to kill and eat certain types of animals.)

Genesis 7:15-16: “And they went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the breath of life. And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the lord shut him in.” (AND THE LORD SHUT HIM IN)

Now that was the part that for a long time I could not grasp the significance of the act: I mean, Noah and his sons were all physically capable men, yet, they did not close the door after they were safely inside... God did! The Bible also declares that on the “selfsame day” that Noah and his family entered the Ark that, “... the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.” I now want to try and explain the two scenes in my mind I have from this great and terrible day! First, what those on the outside were seeing.

I imagine it was a great carnival atmosphere outside the boat as Noah had been warning people time was growing shorter. Perhaps thousands had gathered just to see this crazy old man exit the boat after nothing bad happened.

Then, with baited breath by some and probably many jeers and snide remarks by others who shouted toward Noah's back as he entered the gangplank for the last time... something strange happened? Of its own accord this massive gangplank began to lift off the ground and within seconds the door was tightly sealed... then it happened.

The ground began to shake and suddenly something started happening which had never before been seen... rain began to fall. But not just rain, it was a deluge! (The windows of heaven were opened.) I think men and women began to run gathering their families. I think that in any crisis if you are with people you love more than life itself, then “home” always sounds safe. I think that is what was on everyone's mind, get home and fast! I bet they did not run ten feet in the direction of home before they realized home was not a safe place at all. The only safety was the Ark, which was now sealed.

In voices that because of fear had great strength and they began to outshout the storm and to plead and beg Noah to open the door and let them in.. perhaps they were telling him they were sorry and they hadn't meant to make fun? Many who couldn't swim, and small children along with the aged were already succumbing to the waters: animals, men, women, and children were beginning to drown. There were bodies floating everywhere. A great many trees in the nearby woods had been harvested for the building of the Ark, but maybe some of the young men who were stronger might have started running in the direction of what trees remained. Maybe they thought that the old man was only partly right and though this water was bad, surely it couldn't reach them in the high branches? Outside there was wails and crying, and death... everywhere!

Inside the Ark I think it was completely different. I believe there would be a hushed awe... even the animals were silent. There is something about death that does this.

Several years ago we raised dogs. If you do that and if you have a lot of dogs, there will be death. Our high number at the same time on our yard was 33 dogs. Normally whenever I would go onto the yard there was a great cacophony of sound: barks, yips, shrieks... the dogs were all excited and vying for my attention. I had two acres and there was a place in the bottom end of the property that we were not doing anything with. Anytime a dog would die, I had to carry him through the middle of the runs I had built which were on opposite sides of the yard. Not once did I ever carry a dog who had died where any of the other dogs could see what I carried. I always wrapped them before burial. Yet, as soon as I approached the back yard to walk to the end of the property to dig a hole and bury the dog... I was met with stony silence. Somehow they knew? And it wasn't because of any smells. I never waited to take care of the hard part of burying an animal when something bad happened, I did it immediately.

As I passed by some of the dogs would quickly turn away and go back out of sight, and into their houses. A few would lay down and put their chin on their outstretched paws and quietly watch me as I passed. But, always they were very quiet. I think that is how it was on the Ark that first day. Even the animals knew a lot of dying was happening outside the walls of the Ark.

I don't even know if Noah and his sons stood near their wives? Each was probably lost in their own thoughts trying to understand what was happening outdoors. They could still hear some terrified screams, so they knew some had not yet perished. They might have heard people who were no longer begging for their own lives... but please, would Noah open the door and save their young children... their little babies... please!

A window was built high on the side and it ran around the boat. I imagine Noah scrambling up the scaffolding to the third story parapet and trying to peer out. I think the image of people who could swim holding children just out of the water, and begging for his help seared his mind.

Now, He was a preacher of righteousness and he had for many years warned them of the coming judgment. But, I think he thought to himself... was he really so very different than those outside? He was just a man after all.

I think at some point Noah fled to the door and began to push with all his might: the screams and what he saw was too much... he was going to save who he could. In my mind I can hear him screaming for his three boys to lend their strength to the door: it must be stuck. But you see, it was God who shut the door and if Noah had with him an army of capable men to help, the door would not have budged a single inch. Soon, the only sounds coming from outside were the sounds of an end-of-the-world storm: all people, animals... everything was now dead!

Noah and his family was on the Ark just a few days more than one year, and that is a lot of time to just think. Maybe he hadn't done enough? Maybe if he could have somehow warned people a little better, with more urgency? Maybe... maybe... what might have been... if only... all of these seeming possibilities of how things might have turned out better?

All I know for certain is that once Noah and his family were safely on the other side of the Great Flood that Noah planted a vineyard, then he harvested the fruit and he made alcoholic drinks with this fruit. After that he drank himself into a state of drunkenness! The Bible says nothing more about Noah and drinking after that episode. But we do know he lived 350 years after the Great Flood and maybe he never could get those awful images from his mind and he often repeated this act?

I had earlier said that all three things I would answer would tie together. God shutting the door, Noah becoming drunk... and every saved person's biggest regret as the “snatching away” (Rapture) is happening.

I found my answer one day while reading a very familiar passage in the Bible. Revelation 3:7-8a: “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things saith he that is holy, he that is true, he that hath the key of David, he that openeth and no man shutteth, and shutteth, and no man openeth; I know thy works: behold, I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it...” (HE THAT OPENETH AND NO MAN SHUTTETH, AND SHUTTETH, AN NO MAN OPENETH)

Noah and the Ark, while not a true archetype of the Rapture... because Noah and his family who had found grace (Genesis 6:8: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”) had to ride out the storm on Earth, while those in the Rapture will be carried safely away before the Earth is laid desolate. Incidentally, the grace Noah found is the same grace that is available to all who want it today. Simply put, it is “unmerited favor.” Christ did all of the redemptive work... your part is only to believe and accept.

You see the regret all who are saved and are taken in the Rapture will be the same angst Noah felt. Did he do enough to try and see people safely on board the Ark. Have you done enough to try and see your friends, work companions, loved ones saved... have you done enough? Have I? Although I would not try and speak for you, my own answer is a resounding, “NO!”

Maybe for mere seconds as the Rapture is happening there will be great joy, perhaps even a feeling of vindication? But, even though for those who are saved “time” as we now know it will no longer be in use after the Rapture. Yet, I think no more than what we would now call mere seconds will have passed before we might be sending our prayers to God for another day. “Please Lord... just one more day: an hour Lord... please, there is someone I love and need to talk with. Lord, just time for one phone call... please!”

As I sit here and type he has not yet closed the mercy door he has left open to all of us. That is to be saved or tell another person how to be born-again. But, believe this... as it was in the days of Noah... when God shuts the door man has no strength to open it!

And at the Rapture that door is forever shut... now is your only opportunity! It's sort of funny, but I hear some Christian's getting all worked up because some agnostic is threatening to do this or that and somehow forever harm Christianity? What a joke! All men, lost or otherwise have little strength. Some agnostic will get the ear of some local judge and a Gospel opportunity will be shut... then across town three more opportunities will open for the Gospel to be preached. Russia will close its borders to preachers and at the same time China will open theirs. It happens all day and every day all around this globe. 

All of the Voltaire's, O'Hare's, Hawkings's in the world (if their numbers were ten thousand times ten thousand) could not close the open door of the inviting Gospel until the Rapture comes to pass. At that time though, the open door of God's mercy will be shut. Because, remember: It is God who will be closing that door!!!