Shut In – Day 227: Land, Ho!

My dates for this series may not be quite accurate for at least two reasons:

- When the historical account says anything like “after one month,” I estimate 30 days.
- Plus I am not using an ancient calendar.

But if you remember from when this series began, the goal was simply to glean real-time insights into the long months that Noah and his family were “shut in” the ark by God. So when the account in Genesis 8:5 reads, “in the tenth month, on the first day of the month”… I think October 1^st.

So, what happened on this day in history, 227 days after God closed the ark?

“the tops of the mountains were seen.”

As autumn quickly makes us forget summer here on the prairie, my mind heads toward the Thanksgiving observance coming up. So this first sighting of land after months tossing on the ocean reminds me of the joy of the Pilgrims upon their arrival to the land where they hoped to build new lives with the freedom to worship God and also raise their children without such worldly influences.

But the sighting of mountain tops from the ark was rather different. There would have been no forests or farmland to be seen. No place to build cabins and hunt for food. No natives to meet, trade with, and learn from.

Instead the tops of the mountains would have been dead and barren as the flood waters left them high and drying. This was no place to land and start a new life. Noah still had to wait an unknown amount of time.

As he daily cared for all the land animals still in existence, he must have had time to think, to wonder about the future, and to ponder what he had been through.

Even though Noah knew he had found favor with God, that did not exempt him from suffering... and lots of it.

First, God called him to build what must have been a laughing-stock to the evil-hearted world – a monstrous ship filled with outrageous amounts of provisions.

Then God shut Noah and his wife, three sons, and their wives into this ark.

Next came the terror and grief of the flood and the death of every person and animal left outside on the land.

Then the survival mode of daily life, learning to care for every animal’s needs when God may have felt very far away and silent in the storm. At least every bit of Noah’s surroundings could serve as a reminder that he was being kept in the covenant care of God.

When 40 days later the rain finally stopped, what a relief it must have been!

But then came the wind sent by God, which – though all the while working for their ultimate relief – may have tossed them about as much as ever.

Finally, enough of the endless ocean had dried and settled to allow the ark to get caught on a mountain and sit still for the first time in months. Imagine the renewed hope that an end may actually be in sight! (But I do wonder how crooked the ship could have settled – making life hard in a new way.)

Now Noah had to wait and wait to even get a glimpse of anything but water. And when the first land appeared, it was uninhabitable desolation – nothing like the lush and living world before the storm.

And there was still nothing to do but wait… still shut in! But seen from our perspective, we know that every stage of this journey was a sign of God’s favor and grace on Noah.

I'll let you make the application to your own life again.

See previous posts in series here:

Part I: The Lord Shut Him In
Part II: Day 10: The Animals
Part III: Day 20: The Man Noah
Part IV: Day 30: The Walls
Part V: Day 40: What God Says... He Does
Part VI: Day 70: After the Crisis
Part VII: Day 100: When Waiting Turns to Years
Part VIII: Day 150: Touch Down!
Part IX: Day 181: Survival Mode while Shut In

Next Post:
Part XI: Day 267: Testing the Waters