Noah's Journal

"Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation" Genesis 7:1

Sometimes what the Bible doesn't say is as interesting as what it does say. Of course, "the secret things belong to the Lord" (Deut. 29:29), but still...one wonders. For instance, I wonder if Noah kept a journal during his approximately 370 days at sea, and if he did...what would it have said? All terrestrial life was confined to this one floating island drifting upon an open and endless ocean. What awesome thoughts, what fearful wonders, what weighty concerns would have harbored within the silent shores of Noah's heart! And yet all we know of all that time upon the ark is contained within a few short verses, and not a word from Noah himself.



But what if he wrote a journal every night? What if it were found? What thoughts of God and man would have occupied his holy mind! I suspect they would have been very different than our modern and casual approach to thinking about God, about life, death, judgment, and the life to come.



What might his journal have said? What would he have recorded before retiring every night? I wonder....

NOAH'S JOURNAL:

DAY 1

"The Lord commanded us to enter the ark today. I think the Almighty is about to perform what He had promised 100 years ago. Will my neighbors continue to mock, even now? I wonder if some were moved when they observed both predator and prey evenly entering this (as they called it) irrational raft. What awesome power dwells within Him who calls the beasts of the field and orders their approach unto His appointed preservation! Creatures yet untamed by man appeared and advanced into the ark as by a secret counsel and hidden decree which they dare not disobey. Oh my soul, are not herein the animals even wiser than man? They have sufficient sense to hearken, while man so filled with sin is hardened of heart. What a contrast did I see today! Dumb animals obeying the invisible voice of their Creator, while man in his self satisfied wisdom denies the Deity that even the donkeys discern."

DAY 2

"Creatures keep coming. Now I see more clearly than ever before both the need and power of God's grace. My community cried out for a sign, and here it is, yet they will not be convinced. I preached for years to their ears, now the Lord has preached to their eyes, but still they will not be softened in heart. I doubt not that if God Himself came down in human flesh this rebellious race would yet rather choose their own ruin than repentance. Oh the need of grace! But oh the power of grace as well! Why should I be saved? Why should my eyes see and my ears hear when all the world is blind and deaf to Him who made and governs all that is? I have no answer but this: the grace of God. And what a mighty powerful grace indeed! By nature I was born God's enemy, but by grace I have been made His friend. I should have been drowned in the sea of my own sin, yet here I am free from danger by this unmerrited mighty mercy of God! Oh the power of grace!"

DAY 7

"Words cannot express the fear and awe that fell upon us all when the unseen hand of God closed us in today. I think all creation fell silent for a spell. It was as though the very gavel of God pounded down in a final pronouncement of punishment upon this planet. What a contradiction is this casket within which we are now confined! Within are those preserved, and without are they who perish. Now the very fate of every creature has been forever sealed. Now every living soul finds itself immortally imprisoned to its own unchangeable choice. Oh what madness exists in men's eternal souls! Oh what a mischievous merchant is sin! For by it man will trade away a millenium for a mere moment, eternity for an evening, pardise for a penny. Wait now...I think...I think...yes it is...water has begun to fall from the sky as though heaven itself were crying over man's refusal to repent."