The Great Flood

 

In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark, they and every beast, according to its kind, and all the livestock according to their kinds, and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, according to its kind, and every bird, according to its kind, every winged creature. They went into the ark with Noah, two and two of all flesh in which there was the breath of life. And those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him. And the Lord shut him in.

Genesis 7:11-16

Imagine the opening of the floodgates of heaven and earth. 

Noah safely ushers each member of his family inside the vessel that he has built according to God's holy command. He has been told what will happen next, he believes the words and promises of God. He and his family stand alone among mankind. His faith is counted to him as righteousness. And as the last pair of creatures flees into the ark from the tempest to come, the light fades and a resounding boom sounds through the timbers as Jesus Christ closes the door. 

The world erupts in a cataclysm of raging water. It bursts forth from the ground, sending tremors through the doomed earth. A clap of loudest thunder sends the animals into a frenzy. And then the screams begin outside. A shrieking wind slams into the massive walls of cut wood, and with it the driving, relentless, unstoppable rain. 

For forty days.

The rivers rise relentlessly, then break outward from their banks, rolling across the masses of human flesh. The driving rain is everywhere, inescapable, and unstoppable. The waters rise, rise, rise. Thousands upon thousands flee to the hills, to the mountains, and climb. But as day turns to night, and night turns to day, the rain is unending, for the waters of the deep have been unleashed and the floodgates of God almighty have been opened.

For forty days the waters rise.

The wicked flee ever higher, hoping that it will stop, hoping that His hot anger will relent. But as they stand upon the highest peak and see the water still rising, they realize that death is beckoning, and hope is vain. For the wrath of a just God has been poured out upon the ungodly, and only eight souls will be spared from the floodwaters of heaven's King. Only eight souls will rise upon the roiling waves, high above the raging water.

Day and night, night and day, for forty days.

Only Noah and his family and a remnant of God's creation float safe above the endless waves. And in forty days, when the first beam of sunlight finally breaks through the shadow of the storm, it rests upon a new creation - eight lives redeemed by the mercy of their Lord Jesus Christ. 

Death and dark waters stretch out in every direction below them. But through the flood, God has brought forth new life.

Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you.