Day 51: Provision from God
Read: Genesis 7:6–10
When I was 15, I signed up to go on a trip to Haiti that was two months long. I was young, my parents didn’t have a lot of money, and I didn’t have a job. Financially, it seemed like a pretty huge leap of faith to go to Haiti, because I needed to raise about $4,000. However, I really believed God wanted me there, so I trusted that He would provide. After months of hard work, prayer, and generous donations, my fundraising goal was met. When I walked into the process of preparing for Haiti, there were steps I took, but ultimately, I couldn’t make people give me money. There was a level of trust that I had to have in God and in His ability to provide.
After Noah finished the Ark, it was time for all of the animals to come in. However, Noah didn’t have the means to make sure that every bird and mammal, reptile and amphibian would make their way to the Ark. That was beyond his control. Imagine trying to grab birds out of the sky. It’s a laughable image. And, Noah was 600 years old! Although people lived longer at that time than we do now, 600 still is very old. It just made no logical sense for the animals to be retrieved by Noah or his sons.
We are not given an exact understanding of how the Lord brought the animals to Noah. Scholars have suggested that God used migration to bring the birds, which makes a lot of logical sense, if you take the time to go back and look at Genesis 6:20, which says, “Of the birds according to their kinds, and of the animals according to their kinds, of every creeping thing of the ground, according to its kind, two of every sort shall come in to you to keep them alive…” Regardless, what we do know is that the animals, in pairs of clean and unclean, came to Noah and went into the Ark.
It must have been such a wild sight to other people and to Noah. We aren’t given an exact number of how many animals boarded the Ark, but it wasn’t a small number. To congregate that big group of animals together must have raised a few eyebrows. You have to wonder if the people started to think about whether or not Noah was onto something.
My takeaway is this. When God calls us to something, He will iron out the details in our lives. It may not make sense or seem linear to you and me, but the same God who was able to create man from dust is able to bring the details of our lives together, even if the “how” seems beyond our imagination.
How have you experienced the Lord’s faithfulness in fulfilling His promises in the past? Does it ever seem too hard to keep walking in faith? It’s okay to acknowledge that feeling, but we can also realize that God meets us in our weakness. He is the author and provider of our faith, and we can rest in that truth.