Windows, Yet Door

"One door and only one, and yet its sides are two?  I'm on the inside.  On which side are you?!"1

Why do you suppose there was only one door into the Ark?  Pictured above is the representation of Noah's Ark found at The Ark Encounter, in Williamstown, Kentucky.

16Make a roof for the ark and finish it, leaving 18 inches from the top. Put a door in the side of the ark, and make lower, middle, and upper decks.

Genesis 6:16 (NET)

The "cubit" of space between the top of the Ark and the roof allowed for windows of light and ventilation, but it was not enough space to permit water to overwhelm the Ark during the many tempestuous days of the Great Flood.  The windows figured prominently in determining when the judgment was concluded.  (See Genesis 8:6-12.)

There is little we actually know about the door of the Ark, other than God commanded Noah to set it in the side of the large boat.  However, it would make sense for the door to be located "on the middle deck".  In The Ark Encounter photo, you can see a ramp that extends diagonally up the side of the Ark, to a door in the middle deck.  There were so many animals to load, though....why only one door?

We see, further, in Genesis 7:16 that the Lord shut the door to the Ark, sealing inside all the human and animal and plant life.  This is significant.  Why mention the shutting of the door at all?  Or, why did Noah or his sons not shut it?

When we think of a miracle, what comes to mind?  We need to remember that not all of God's miracles were miracles of healing or of restoration.  Some, as in the case of the Flood, were miracles of judgment.  The Flood was not just some "natural disaster".  This was a supernatural judgment of God (and a foreshadowing of the work of Jesus Christ).  How else could this overgrown boat, albeit impressive, have survived such catastrophic upheaval, where the very "fountains of the deep" burst open? (Genesis 7:11)

God Himself shut the one-and-only door to keep the living inside safe through the year-long cataclysm.3  In Revelation 3:7 we read that when God opens a door no man can shut it and when He closes a door, no man can open it either.

There is a symbolic meaning in the Flood judgment.  As He did in the case of the Ark and the Flood judgment, God provides a way for people to escape eternal judgment through Jesus Christ.  Jesus referred to Himself as "the door", in John 10:9.  In that specific instance, Jesus was referring to the door or gate of the sheep pen, but the principle is the same.  He is the one and only way God has provided to "enter in" and receive salvation, eternal life.

The italicized quote at the top of the page is from a song I learned as a child.  It asks the question, "On which side of the door are you?".  Have you entered through the Door into God's Ark of eternal security?  If not, please enter in today!

Through the writing of the apostle John, Jesus uses the "door" metaphor again, in a slightly different way.  Open the door of your heart to Him today!

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.

Revelation 3:20 (ESV)

Sources:

1    http://www.digitalsongsandhymns.com/songs/7817

2    http://www.alfredplacechurch.org.uk/index.php/sermons/genesis/71-16-the-lord-shut-the-door/

3    https://answersingenesis.org/bible-timeline/biblical-overview-of-the-flood-timeline/