The story of Noah and his floating zoo is known to many people and is told near the beginning of the Jewish scriptures. Let us begin by finding out why we should want to learn anything from Noah.
Sometime during the first century AD, a person that we know as Luke wrote:
One very obvious thing about the events that Luke describes is that most, if not all, of the events are unpleasant. Luke is telling us about destruction, sudden devastation, separation from loved ones and painful deaths. Another point worth noting is that Luke begins his description by comparing these nasty events with what happened in Noah's lifetime. In fact Luke compares the events to come with two historical events — the flood of Noah and the destruction that came to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah a few hundred years later. In each case the destruction was sudden, devastating and only a few people survived. Luke also shows us that most of the people who were destroyed were apparently either unaware of what was going to happen or they didn't care because they did not stop their ordinary daily activities in order to avoid or prepare for the destruction that was soon to come.
In each case however, a small number of people were preserved. In chapter 7 of the first section of the Bible, the section called Genesis, we find the following excerpt from the story of Noah:
So it is clear that God intended to destroy almost all the creatures on the earth. Only the people and animals that were in the boat were preserved through the flood that came. Now there is a very simple but very important point to understand here, namely:
If you were in the boat when the flood waters came then you lived, but if you were not in the boat when the flood waters came then you drowned.
The difference between living and drowning was not complicated; to be in the boat was life, to be out of the boat was death. So which people were preserved? Were only good people saved? Were only those who believed that there was a God saved? Were only those whose lives were totally without sin saved? No! The people in the boat were saved. The boat was all that mattered. If you had been an idolatrous murderer and you were in the boat then you would have lived. If you had been a God-fearing, prayerful, peaceful man taking a walk in the fields when the water came then you would have died. The sins of the murderer would not have made him drown any more than the prayers of the righteous man would have kept him afloat. If you wanted to know whether a particular person lived through the flood or perished in the water you would not need to enquire about their church attendance or their good deeds or their prayer life or their sins. All you would need to know is the answer to the simple question:
“Was the person in the boat or outside the boat when the flood waters came?”
If they were in the boat then they lived but if they were outside the boat then they died. It really was as simple as that.
What is the relevance of this to us? Jesus, as quoted by Luke, gave us a warning that terrible things were going to come upon the earth again and that, as in the days of Noah, many would be caught unawares and would be destroyed. Noah's society was destroyed by flood water. The next destruction, we are told, will be with fire. The question we need to ask ourselves is “how shall we be preserved through this destruction?” We should ask ourselves whether there is anything like Noah's boat into which we can flee and be safe. A replica of Noah's timber-and-tar boat will be quite useless in a fire, but is there anything else that will serve the same preserving purpose?
If we turn again to the letters that the first Christians wrote we find that they often talk about being “in Christ”. For example, in the letter that Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome he was trying to make it very clear exactly how they could be saved from the wrath of God. He wrote:
Letter to Rome, chapter 6, verse 23: For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Letter to Rome: Chapter 8, verse 1. Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus ...
And, to give another example, on one occasion when Paul was writing to Timothy, his co-worker, he wrote:
According to Paul we need to be in Jesus to escape the forthcoming destruction. As the boat was the place of safety and refuge for Noah and his family (and quite a few animals), Jesus is the place of refuge and safety for those who want to escape from the power and consequences of sin when God again destroys societies that are irrecoverably evil.
This is not very helpful, however, if we do not understand what it means. It is easy to understand how Noah and his family could get “in” the boat, but it is not so obvious how we can come to be “in” Christ.