Tag: Jesus Christ

Why Seven More Days?

After Noah entered the ark, God waited seven more days before sending the flood. Those quiet days remind us that God is patient and merciful, but His warnings should never be ignored.

“For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights.”
Genesis 7:4, NKJV

Have you ever wondered why, after Noah, his family, and the animals entered the ark, God waited seven more days before sending the flood?

Scripture does not tell us exactly why God chose to wait. We should be careful not to claim more than the text reveals. What Genesis does tell us is that the ark had been completed, Noah had obeyed the Lord, his family had entered, and the animals had come to him as God commanded. Everything was ready, yet the rain did not begin immediately.

God said to Noah, “For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth” (Genesis 7:4). Genesis 7:10 confirms that “after seven days the waters of the flood were on the earth.” Between the warning and the first drops of rain stood seven quiet days.

We can only imagine what others may have thought as the ark stood before them. Noah had spent years building something that must have appeared unnecessary and unreasonable to those around him. Then the animals came and entered the ark. Noah and his family went inside, but the skies remained unchanged. Day followed day, and still there was no rain.

Jesus described the people of Noah’s generation as “eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark” (Matthew 24:38). These ordinary activities were not wrong in themselves. The problem was that the people continued living as though God had never spoken. They went on with their plans while ignoring the warning standing plainly before them.

The ark was not hidden. Noah’s obedience was visible. God’s warning had been given, and the coming judgment had been announced. Yet life continued as usual.

Those seven days reveal something important about the character of God. Judgment did not come without warning. God had already declared that human wickedness was great and that “every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). The earth was corrupt and filled with violence, but God remained patient while Noah prepared the ark.

Peter later wrote that “the Divine longsuffering waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared” (1 Peter 3:20). Every day the ark was under construction was another day in which judgment had not yet fallen. Every blow of Noah’s hammer bore witness to what God had said. God’s patience was not weakness, and His silence did not mean He had changed His mind. He was giving time before judgment came.

Then came seven more days.

Seven more days in which the ark remained visible. Seven more days in which the warning could be considered. Seven more days in which the patience of God continued.

Then Genesis records one of the most sobering sentences in the account.

“And the LORD shut him in” (Genesis 7:16).

Noah did not close the door. The Lord did. The same God who had warned the people, waited patiently, and provided a place of safety was also the God who finally shut the door.

Once that door was closed, the opportunity to enter had ended. When the rain began and the waters rose, the ark was no longer something to question or dismiss. It became the only place of safety from the judgment God had promised.

The account of Noah is not only about something that happened long ago. Jesus pointed back to the days of Noah when teaching about His own return. He warned that people would again be occupied with daily life and unaware of how near judgment was until it came upon them (Matthew 24:37–39).

God is still patient. He still calls sinners to repentance, and He has provided a place of refuge through His Son. Jesus said, “I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved” (John 10:9). Salvation is not found through our goodness, our efforts, or our intention to do better someday. It is found in Christ alone.

The door of salvation is open today. Jesus receives all who come to Him in repentance and faith. His death on the cross satisfied the judgment our sin deserved, and His resurrection assures us that His saving work is complete. We do not have to clean ourselves up before coming to Him. We come because we cannot save ourselves.

Yet the days of Noah remind us that God’s patience should never be mistaken for permission to delay. Peter wrote that the Lord is “not willing that any should perish but that all should come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). His patience is mercy, but His patience has a purpose. It gives us time to respond to His call.

Perhaps there is someone who has heard the gospel many times but continues to put off coming to Christ. Perhaps there is a believer who has grown comfortable ignoring an area in which God has been calling them to obedience. The lesson of those seven days is not that there will always be more time. The lesson is that while God is patient, we should respond when He speaks.

The people of Noah’s day could see the ark, but seeing it was not enough. They could hear the warning, but hearing it was not enough. Safety was found only inside the refuge God had provided.

The same is true today. It is not enough to know about Jesus, admire His teaching, or agree that the gospel is true. We must come to Him and place our trust in Him.

God waited seven more days. Then the rain began, and the Lord shut the door.

Truth to Carry

God’s patience is an expression of His mercy, but His mercy should never be mistaken for the absence of coming judgment. Today, the door of salvation remains open through Jesus Christ.

Resurrection Power

Scripture records several people being raised from the dead, but each one eventually died again. Jesus rose never to die again, and through Him, those who are spiritually dead are made alive and given eternal life.

Throughout Scripture, we see that God alone has the power to give life where death has taken hold. Elijah prayed over the widow’s son at Zarephath, and God restored his life. Elisha called upon the Lord, and the Shunammite woman’s son was raised. Years later, a dead man came back to life when his body touched the bones of Elisha. These were very different circumstances, but in each one, the power belonged to God.

The same is true in the New Testament. Jesus raised Jairus’s daughter, the widow’s son at Nain, and Lazarus. God restored Tabitha through Peter and Eutychus through Paul. The people were different, and the circumstances were different, but the source of life was always the same. Elijah did not possess resurrection power. Neither did Elisha, Peter, or Paul. They were servants through whom God chose to work.

Jesus, however, is unlike any of them. He did not simply raise the dead. He said, “I am the resurrection and the life” (John 11:25, NKJV). Life does not merely come through Him. Life is found in Him.

There is something important to notice about every person raised in these accounts. They all eventually died again. Lazarus died again. Jairus’s daughter died again. The widow’s son at Nain died again. Their return to life was real and miraculous, but it was temporary. Death had been delayed, not defeated.

The resurrection of Jesus was different. He rose from the grave never to die again. Scripture says, “Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over Him” (Romans 6:9, NKJV). Jesus did not simply return to earthly life. He conquered death.

Scripture also tells us that apart from Christ, we are spiritually dead in our trespasses and sins. We cannot give ourselves spiritual life any more than Lazarus could call himself out of the tomb. Yet God, in His mercy, makes us alive in Christ.

“And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins.”

Ephesians 2:1 (NKJV)

Those raised physically in Scripture received their earthly lives back for a time. Those who are made alive in Christ receive eternal life. The same God who raised the widow’s son, Jairus’s daughter, and Lazarus is the God who gives new life to those who come to Christ.

Truth to Carry

Unless Christ returns first, each of us will face physical death. But for those who belong to Him, death is not the end. We have been made alive in Christ, and we will live with Him forever. The One who conquered death holds our future securely in His hands.

It Is Finished!

When Jesus declared, “It is finished,” He announced that the work of redemption had been fully accomplished.

So much of life teaches us to begin with ourselves. What must I do to be accepted? What must I do to be forgiven? What must I do to make myself right with God?

The gospel begins somewhere else. It begins with what God has done for us through Jesus Christ.

The Son of God took on flesh and dwelt among us (John 1:14). He lived in this world and faced temptation, yet He remained without sin (Hebrews 4:15). He fulfilled the Law we had broken (Matthew 5:17), bore our sins in His own body on the tree (1 Peter 2:24), and took the punishment our sin deserved.

As Jesus hung on the cross, He said, “It is finished!” (John 19:30, NKJV). The work required for our redemption had been completed. Nothing was left for us to add, and nothing we could ever do would improve upon what Christ had already accomplished.

The cross was not the end. On the third day, Jesus rose from the dead, just as the Scriptures had said (1 Corinthians 15:3–4). He is alive, He intercedes for His people before the Father (Hebrews 7:25), and one day He will return and receive His own to Himself (John 14:3).

Salvation is not something we earn by being good enough or working hard enough. It is given by grace and received through faith, “not of works, lest anyone should boast” (Ephesians 2:8–9, NKJV).

We do not make our way to God by our own effort. God came to us in Jesus Christ and did for us what we could never do for ourselves.

Truth to Carry

Our hope rests in what Christ has already done for us, not in what we can do for Him.