By Pastor Michael Brigmond

The waves rocked the ark as Noah and his family waited for the rain to stop. With the fear of the unknown fresh in their minds they waited. With the sound of the screams and the shouts for help still resounding in their ears, they waited. Knowing that death was so near, as near of the thickness of a board! And, so, they waited.

God had spoken to Noah 120 years earlier. Words that, perhaps, Noah did not want to hear. Words that he had to believe by faith and nothing more. Words of impending death, the death of a world. Noah heard and obeyed. What a lesson we all could learn. God speaks - we obey. What a concept!

Surely during the 120 years of ark building Noah and his family had many discussions about the task at hand. There must have been times of doubt, weariness and character building as they stood firm against the ridicule of the sinners. They were going to face the most horrible event the world had ever known. Never in the history of the planet had anything like this happened before. There were no self-help books to read on the subject. No historical research to be done to see how others had faced and conquered the same plight. All they had to go on was the spoken words from God and their faith in Him.

One can almost hear the questions in their minds: How is God going to destroy every living thing? How are we going to survive? We are going to be inside of a boat that we will build ourselves and be safe while everybody else is drowning? How can this be? How is God going to protect us from the same fate? How close will we be? How is it, they will drown and we won’t? Questions, so many questions.

Yet, today we can look back in history and see how close they were to destruction, only the thickness of a board away. Still, God delivered them from it all! Completely safe! All they had to do was Listen to God, Believe Him, Trust Him, Obey Him, and Wait. They were in a place of safety, yet without human controls: no motors, no sails, just faith. Spared by the thickness of a board!

Moses and the Israelites found themselves in a similar situation. In bondage with God as their only hope of deliverance. Here they were in great distress and God was giving them strange instructions. Pharaoh had a mighty army. He was powerful and cold hearted. This was the night the Lord had said he would deliver this people. Instead of setting them free, he sends them to their homes.

Here they are shut in with God, living by faith and following what seems to make no natural sense at all. He instructs them to kill a lamb and place the lamb’s blood on the door posts and on the lintel. Blood on a board. Such a strange method of deliverance.

They Listen to God, Believe Him, Trust Him, Obey Him, and Wait. At the appointed hour death begins to take its toll. They listen to the screams and cries of the unbelieving, uninformed or disobedient sinners. The first born in each house throughout the land of Egypt is dying and nothing can save them - absolutely nothing.

By the time the first death occurred, it was too late for all the others who had not obeyed God’s command to put blood on a board. As far as is known, the Death Angel was silent and invisible. And once again, by the death of the wicked, God saved those who belonged to Him. With death all around them, the children of God were spared by the thickness of a board!

Both of these events, the life of Noah and the life of Moses, changed the course of history. But not as much as the day Jesus Christ, God himself manifest in the flesh, God in human form, being crucified, shed his own precious blood. In his death he purchased salvation for anyone who would Listen to Him, Believe Him, Trust Him, Obey Him, and Wait for the promise given to Abraham, the Promise of the Holy Ghost. Again we find, by God’s design, blood on a board. Salvation to whosoever will. The sins of all mankind and the forgiveness of God were separated only by the thickness of a board.

One day the final wrath of God will be poured out on this wicked generation. When it is, the Church will be in a familiar place with God. Not worrying about what is happening to the rest of the world, but rejoicing in Him. Where will the church be? A million light years away in another galaxy? In Heaven, perhaps? No, the Church will still be here on this earth and by Listening to the voice of the seven Thunders, Believing, Trusting, Obeying and Waiting (In your patience possess ye your souls, Luke 21:19) the Church will be saved, and perhaps by no more than the thickness of the board.

The promise is found in Psalm 91, verses 1-11: