It Wasn’t Raining
Genesis 7:10 And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.
From years ago, I remember an old song that stated, “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark!” It was an admonition to be faithful even when things did not appear to make sense. This memory has stood me in good stead for lo, these many years. There have been times when I just could not make heads nor tails out of what was going on within my life. I’m not too far from that experience right now!
The last two years have been an exercise in recognizing that “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark!” The world ceased to make sense shortly after I learned of the name Covid and even now, there is little to no sense of what to expect. I watched with horrible fascination as churches across our land ceased to meet regularly in worship. My heart broke as relationships were strained to the point of breaking over decisions that no one could have predicted. And now, I wander from church to church hearing the anguished cries of believers who assail the gates of Heaven with the question, “When will it all get back to normal?”
There appears to be two accounts of the flood that appear in chapter 7 of Genesis. These two different accounts are confusing as they appear in the biblical narrative almost simultaneously making it hard to determine what should be simple mathematics: how long was Noah on the boat? There is no easy answer to formulating the calendar of Noah’s journey BUT there is one thing we can agree on. “It wasn’t raining when Noah built the ark!”
Verse 10 tells us that Noah and his family crew had to wait for one week before the waters began moving. Wow! Can you imagine the fact that you have spent so much time preaching and building a boat and then when you get on it, nothing happens for a week? I see this same challenging spirit facing our churches right now. You have worked hard to make it to this point and now what?!? I don’t know what but I do know the Who! He’s still in charge and He’s got the rain in His hand. Just stay on the boat until He says to do otherwise!