Did you know even the world had to be baptized?
Back in the days of Noah it wasn’t just the city he in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
That’s a rather frightening thought, isn’t it? ‘Only evil continually.’ That means the people were choosing the wrong all the time.
God saw that a cleansing of every living thing on the earth would be necessary. Noah and his family were the only things to find grace in the eyes of the Lord.
So God commanded Noah to build an ark. We are taught that this ark, or boat, was so big it stood at almost five stories high and was as long as a city block. It was bigger than an airplane.
Noah was commanded to gather seeds of every living thing to plant when the flood was over. He was also told to gather two of every living thing like elephants, spiders, snakes, pigs, sheep, and lots more.
Of certain animals, ones called ‘clean’ animals, he was supposed to gather seven. Clean animals were the ones safe to eat. Some animals are unclean, or not safe to eat. So Noah only needed two of those.
Building this giant boat and gathering everything took some time. Lots of people made fun of Noah and his sons. These evil people probably said a lot of hurtful things, and laughed at the big boat. It didn’t stop Noah and his family from doing what they had been commanded. Noah even tried to do missionary work and convince the evil people to repent.
One week before the day of the flood Noah and his wife, his sons and their wives, all climbed into the big boat. It probably seemed pretty silly to everyone else. There wasn’t a drop of rain in the sky. They didn’t live near an ocean. Yet here was Noah and his family moving into a boat, and still the evil people didn’t repent. They just laughed.
They probably stopped laughing when the rains came, and the water began building up higher and higher. It was too late, though. Turned out the only ones to be saved were Noah and his family in the big, giant ark.
The floods covered the whole entire earth. They didn’t just cover everything a little bit. The water went so high it covered the tallest trees. When this happened the earth was baptized. Every evil thing on it was washed away. When the waters finally went away the earth was clean once more.
Just like the earth, we have to be baptized as well, so that all the bad things are washed away and we’re left clean.