The lighting is dim and the thunder is loud. An eerie way to board a ship.
Though you know it’s “just” a replica, it’s impossible to avoid the sensation that you’re standing on the real ark that the real Noah built. The biblical boat in Williamstown, Kentucky is the largest timber frame structure in the world, constructed of 3,300,000 board feet of wood. In fact, the ark is so large, you could plop three NASA space shuttles nose-to-tail on the roof, while storing the equivalent volume of 450 semi-trailers below decks. That’s a lot of boat.
The team at Answers in Genesis has done a masterful job of creating not just the ark, but detailed models of systems that might have been used for water collection and storage, food distribution, waste management and more.
Hiking the three decks of the ark, you see for yourself that eight people (Noah and his wife, along with their three sons and daughters-in-law) really could have managed the care of the thousands of animals on board.
Along with a camera card full of pictures, we left the Ark Encounter with two takeaways. First, there’s Noah’s long obedience in a single direction. Imagine decades of sawing, lugging, pounding—and waiting. All of this while skeptical neighbors jeered and mocked. Remember—no one had ever seen a single drop of rain, let alone a storm.
The other takeaway snuck up on us. On a wall was posted the text of Genesis 7:16, “…Then the Lord closed the door behind them.” Consider: some of the skeptics may have been hard core, even vicious. But some of them might have secretly wondered if straight-as-an-arrow Noah was actually right.
Then God shut the door. And thunder blitzed. And lightning blazed.
No more chances.
No more warnings.
No more opportunity for rescue.
God shut the door (see photo for what that door may have looked like).
What a metaphor for God’s offer of salvation. Today, the “door” is still open. There’s still time for people to be rescued from sin. But there will come a point when once again, God will shut the door—and it will be too late. Are we courageous with this message? Or are we cowards?
Noah was faithful in his generation.
You and I must be nothing less.