Shut In

 DEVOTION

GENESIS

SHUT IN

Gen 7:6-16

6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth. 11 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, on the seventeenth day of the second month — on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. 13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the LORD shut him in.

NIV

The flood came at the specific appointed time God determined. He waited until Noah had finished the ark. We do not know the exact amount of time it took him. However, we know he was 500 years old when he became the father of Shem, Ham, and Japhet and that it was in his 600th year when he entered the ark. His sons had grown old enough to marry, but we do not know whether he had already started construction before or after their marriages. We are not told for a reason, because that is not the important issue; still, an estimate is somewhere between 50 and 75 years. The 100-year theory does not meet the time frame of Noah's life. Nevertheless, the important issue is God's almighty power and ability, combined with his sovereignty. First, God commanded Noah to use cypress wood, which God would have made in abundance, so Noah would have enough to build such a large ship. Second, God inspired and commanded pairs of each living thing to come to where Noah was building the ark. This was no small feat, but then nothing is impossible for God. Once all the animal kingdom was in place, Noah and his family got in, again, just as God had commanded Noah. Then this incredible statement: Then the LORD shut him in. We cannot be sure, but we can only imagine that as Noah and his wife stood and looked out, they may well have seen a crowd, because this was a sight to behold. Noah might have made eye contact with a brother or sister, aunt or uncle, niece, or nephew. He could have felt pain in his heart, knowing they would perish in the floodwaters, and maybe wanted to invite them to join him one more time, but the LORD shut him in. However big the door was, large enough for elephants, giraffes, and maybe even dinosaurs, with a ramp leading up to it, the LORD shut the door, not Noah. This was a supernatural shutting and sealing of the door so that it would be waterproof, as well as shutting Noah and his family off from all the evil and violence of the world. Could we dare say that in some metaphorical sense the LORD has shut us in, protecting us from the evil and the violence in this world? Surely the 12 Apostles experienced death at the hands of the wicked. Certainly, we know in some parts of the world believers are being murdered by the thousands. We know the Jews were persecuted by Hitler unmercifully. Yet, although man may kill the body, the LORD has shut and sealed our souls, our spirits, in safety in Christ Jesus.