THE same God who in His righteousness had judged the “world that then was” and swept the ungodly away in His indignation, kept Noah and his family in mind and brought them in safety through the flood. Peter tells us they were saved through the water. Often, as the ark floated on the crest of the waves, doubts and fears may have beset the family within, as to what the final outcome would be. But their questionings, if there were such, could not change God’s love for them or alter His purpose to make Noah the head of a new race to inhabit the renewed earth.
The raven and the dove speak of the two natures in the believer. The one feeds on carrion, so never returned to the ark; but for the dove there was no rest save in the ark until the flood was assuaged. When the dove returned with the olive leaf Noah saw in it an evidence that the flood was receding. When it did not return at all he knew it was time to leave the ark.
“Though battles rage, and foes oppress,
And Satan’s darts be hurled,
Above the very real distress
That haunts a stricken world,
I lift my head. Though shoulders bend
Beneath the chastening rod,
Secure I’ll walk unto the end—
For I remember God.
And even though the flesh should fail,
And faint this heart should grow,
When fears confound, and doubts assail,
Still am I safe, I know—
As safe, when floundering in clods
As clothed with dignity—
For I am Christ’s, and Christ is God’s,
And GOD remembers me.”
—Helen Frazee Bower