"And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in" (Genesis 7:16).

The Scriptures show that when God appoints a time of great judgment He prepares a door of deliverance for the minority who repent and seek Him. In the days of Noah, there were only eight who had the faith to believe God's revelation of a coming catastrophe. No doubt the fateful day dawned as had many before it. But it was to be an historic day, for "the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark" (Genesis 7:1). Our text records how God Himself closed the door on an entire generation that had rejected Him.

Matthew 24 draws a parallel between the judgment of Noah's day and the impending Second Coming of Christ: "For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be" (vv.38-39). We live in a day when the door is still open. Revelation 3:8 records, "I have set before thee an open door, and no man can shut it." In John 10:7, "Jesus unto them again, Verily, verily, I say unto you, I am the door. . . ." But the day will come when God Himself will divinely shut that door (Revelation 3:7).

Let us be ready and waiting lest today should be the eventful day. The Bible tells how some will, once again, be unprepared. "When once the master of the house is risen up, and hath shut to the door, and ye begin to stand without, and to knock at the door, saying, Lord, Lord, open unto us; and he shall answer and say unto you, I know you not whence ye are" (Luke 13:25). DW