Noah’s Ark: Behold your salvation! (By the way, there will be poop to shovel…)

​My husband Jake had been reading in his devotions about Noah’s Ark and something struck him.  He began to think about all the dynamics involved in building that Ark and housing all those animals in that small place for that length of time.  He asked me: “Did you ever think about how much wood Noah needed to build the Ark?  He probably had to pay for it somehow, or at least go and chop it down; I wonder how long it took to build? And after they were all on the Ark, animals included, do you realize just how much poop they had to shovel?”  I laughed and thought about it.  If you’ve ever owned a dog or pet, it’s kind of amazing just how much bodily waste they let go of.  And what about the food to feed all those animals?  This must have been a huge amount to feed them all for approximately the year spent on the Ark.  We had a golden retriever, and I was amazed at how much food she consumed.  I can’t even imagine what all those animals consumed every day, never mind for the year they were on the Ark.  

​As I thought about this, it struck me that God worked their salvation from destruction in a very supernatural, natural way.  He didn’t place Noah and his family in a supernatural bubble for the duration.  No.  He instructed them to build the Ark, fill it with food, fill it with animals, and get ready for a flood.  He in essence provided their salvation, but there were very specific natural things they had to do in order to survive and thrive.  It’s like he said: “Behold your salvation!  By the way…there will be plenty of poop to shovel.”  They had to build it, stock it, work it, keep the animals alive in it, and survive in it.  It reminded me of our lives.  God has provided salvation, but we too will need to shovel poop—the sometimes-unpleasant task of getting rid of sinful ways and habits, the by-product of dying to the flesh and growing up, spiritually.    
 
What would have happened, if Noah and his family went into the Ark to be saved, but never lifted a finger to do anything else?  Their environment would have become pretty repulsive.  No, there was plenty of work to be performed, and if they didn’t do it, they might have perished from disease, even though they had been saved from the flood.  Hm.  The entire Ark would have been an open sewer.  Not a very healthy place to live even temporarily, that’s for sure.
 
We are very much like Noah and his family in many ways.  We too have been saved from destruction; but in the Ark of our salvation, how healthy is our spiritual environment?  What are we doing to dispose of sinful habits that have formed in our lives?  Do we let them hang around until our lifestyle gets really offensive to Jesus, or do we dispose immediately the sin that Jesus shows us, by repenting and asking for help to overcome next time, keeping our lives fragrant?

​Building our lives to float on flood waters, stocking our lives with spiritual provision—the meat of the Word of God so we can feed ourselves and others, working to keep on moving forward with where God needs us to go, and not only surviving our “floods”, but thriving in spite of them, will all take us through similarly what Noah had to go through in the natural.  We have at least one thing in common with Noah:  All he had to begin with, was a righteousness and faith in God.  We have one huge advantage, though.  God was with them, but better yet than that, He is now in us, equipping and helping us get rid of the sin that pollutes our lives by the indwelling Holy Spirit. 
 
Just as God got Noah and his family through, He will also work in very supernatural, natural ways in our lives.  People often expect God to miraculously intervene and deliver them from a sinful habit without them lifting a finger to do what obviously needs to be done, and although he does do that, God more often than not leaves us in our Ark until things get really smelly to motivate us to do something about it.  It’s amazing how God will supernaturally help us, if we’ll just try.  We all know the areas of our lives that do not please God, and we all have them.  The question is, what are we doing about them? Are you done with a sinful habit?  Then get rid of it!  Make a careful, thought-through quality decision.  God will back you up. Noah got a free ride, but he wasn’t on a Cruise Ship, but an Ark.  Surrendering all your struggles to Him, and keeping them surrendered, is a key.  Once you’ve made that decision, don’t back down. There will be work for us our whole lives, in keeping our spiritual environment clean and healthy.  We’ve all been saved from death, Hallelujah.  But the quality of your journey, is largely up to you.  Remember too, that a whole new world awaited them after it was over…