My husband surprised me with a trip to the Ark Encounter in Kentucky last week. If you have never visited the Ark and you get the opportunity to do so, take it. You won’t be disappointed. I think every time I have been there, I leave with a different takeaway. This time the size of Noah’s real-life undertaking was intriguing. However, beyond that I acquired a new measure of the magnitude of God’s mercy.
Mercy is linked with an action and brings good to the one who receives kindness. Furthermore, mercy is given by one who can give help to one who is needy and unable to help himself.
At the Beginning
As I walked through the panels depicting the creation story, I got a glimpse of the joy of God’s heart as He spoke and saw the world coming into existence.
The mountains rose tall and majestic, the trees stretched out their branches with grace, the land filled with plants of every kind for beauty and for food, the oceans gleamed and then filled with colorful fish and intricate sea creatures. The earth teemed with life as God’s creation trumpeted praise to their Creator.
Then at the climax of His creation, God lovingly created man, in His own image. It was the very breath of God that brought life to this created being. Man was made to bring glory to God. He was to reflect the image of his Creator. Moreover, God brought mankind into the world for the joy of intimate fellowship with Himself.
Those days of fellowship with God and man were beyond compare. Man was the jewel of God’s heart. Everything had been made for them to enjoy. Yet there was an enemy that cared only for the destruction of what was nearest and dearest to God’s heart.
The Effects of Sin
In the end of that beginning, sin entered the world and changed everything. With an act of disobedience Adam and Eve shattered God’s beautiful world. Man’s rebellion against God became the catalyst for that change. No longer was there peace and sweet fellowship. Guilt and shame became constant companions.
God’s heart filled with sorrow as He saw the far-reaching effects of evil loose in his perfect world. Yet, right at the onset God already had a redemption plan. A plan that would reach farther than sin had gone. A plan of action filled with loving-kindness and mercy.
God’s plan unfolds as we walk through the pages of Biblical history. There are depictions, shadows and types that help us to see the length of God’s abundant mercy.
It was only three chapters after God’s assurance to Adam and Eve of provision for redemption that we grasp the cosmic effect sin had on the world.
The lives of individuals march by marked by hundreds of years. Those years brought humanity to the height of evil and violence that corrupted the earth. (Genesis 6:5, 11 & 12)
A Mission of Mercy
Found within the teeming mass of wickedness we find Noah ‘perfect in his generation.’ (6:9) This man and his story opens a window into God’s mercy to mankind.
It was a never-done-before kind of plan that God unfolded to Noah. A plan of such proportions that one can only admire the faith and obedience that was Noah’s.
Noah was to build a real-life depiction of God’s mercy found within the specific measurements of a huge ark on dry land. It was an ark built for saving and keeping. A vessel built to make it safely through the torrential storm that would flood the whole earth.
Genesis highlights Noah’s obedience. (Genesis 6:22) Hebrews shares Noah’s faith. (Hebrews 11:7) Peter shines the spotlight on Noah as a preacher of righteousness. (2 Peter 2:5) These snapshots challenge us to anchor our faith in God while remaining obedient to God’s commands.
However, more than a picture of Noah’s obedience, the Biblically based, full-scale ark found at the Ark Encounter depicts the broad expanse of God’s mercy to all. It was 120 years of faithful obedience for Noah. But God’s rich and abundant mercy is found in His continued action on our behalf.
When God Steps In
As you walk through the ark’s structure you will be amazed at the extent of the skills Noah must have possessed. Yet God’s mercy exceeds the 510 feet of the ark’s length. In fact, God’s mercy is broader and higher than the mountain the ark landed upon after the flood.
It was the mercy of God extended despite the wickedness of humanity that brought about the building of the ark. There was nothing that they could do to rescue themselves. That is when God stepped in. Jesus, God’s Son came to our sin-filled world. He came as a message of love and mercy to all people.
God continued to show up in the lives of individuals, families, and groups of people throughout the Biblical narrative. Unable to help themselves God repeatedly shows up with actionable undeserved mercy. Down through the pages of holy script the mercy of God is shines with undiluted clarity.
“Nevertheless, for thy great mercies’ sake thou didst not utterly consume them, nor forsake them; for thou art a gracious and merciful God.”
Nehemiah 9:31
Mercy Extended
In this fallen world, there is nothing we can do that will get us back to God. It is only through God and His unfailing mercy in providing redemption that we can ‘draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith’. (Hebrews 10:22)
Paul writes in the book of Ephesians of God’s mercy and riches contrasted against our putrid sinful selves.
“But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved)”
Ephesians 2:4 & 5
God is still showing up today with mercy extended. There is nothing we can do to save ourselves. Because of the mercies of God, He will redeem and rescue us from the storm of sin when we turn with outstretched hearts toward Him.
What can we do but bow in worship and obedience when God’s mercy shows up in our life?
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