Then God spoke to Noah: "Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come unto thee, to keep them alive." (Gen. 6:20) As they prayed and waited on the LORD, suddenly, there came a sound from outside the Ark, like the rolling of thunder. Noah and his family climbed up to the lookout atop the Ark where they could best see what was happening. From all directions, animals of every kind were moving hastily albeit noiselessly toward the Ark! Although there evidently was great urgency in their movements, yet, that great migration of creatures appeared as if an invisible hand was orchestrating their march. They traveled together in pairs, each with his own kind; and none was molesting any other. Tigers weren't hungrily eyeing the sheep~which, remarkably, seemed uncaring of the tigers' presence nearby. Neither were the elephants trampling the myriads of smaller animals, which moved unseen through the grasslands like waves of the ocean. All headed toward the open door of the Ark, where Noah and his sons hurriedly led them to their respective stations which had long been in preparation for the arrival of that last, great ingathering from the world~which, within days, would be utterly destroyed.
Men would not come to the Ark ~ not even those who once were Noah's friends. Even the curious onlookers had long ago ceased to find amusement in observing and, sometimes, mocking Noah's seemingly eccentric building crew. There was not then another human being in sight, other than those of Noah's own family.
When the remaining stragglers finally creeped or slithered up the ramp onto the Ark, and the great clouds of dust silently dissipated with the wind; that massive ramp began to lift itself up and then closed with a solid 'thud'~ and a haunting finality. Outside the Ark, all was quiet, as dusk gave way to the darkness of night.
For more than a hundred years, the wide field where the Ark was being raised had daily been a scene of busy activity. The felling of trees, sawing of wood, and the almost constant pounding of hammers, resounded across that valley until that Noah's neighbors grew vexed; not so much by the distant sounds of hammering and sawing, but by what all of those sounds reminded them of ~ that is, of Noah's relentless preaching. When Noah could no longer reach his neighbors with his own spoken words, he began to swing his hammer with a little more determination at every blow.
One day, without any notice or fanfare, the hammering stopped. Then, a couple of more days passed without any sounds of building. Yet, the people cared not why; only, that at last they might be delivered from Noah's incessant "preaching."
But when the hammering stopped and did not soon resume, there began to fall a deep hush over the valley and the surrounding hills. All of Creation noticed, that is to say, that the "uncivilized" creatures of field and sky, they noticed that something had changed. Throughout the entire lifetime of every one of those creatures, the air had every day been filled with those uncertain sounds which, nevertheless, did come from a certain direction. Now, for the first time ever, nothing but the wind was heard coming from that same direction. And it seemed as if that wind itself now bade the creatures, "Come and see."
Come, they did. Not by any means all of them, of course. But those that came left herds, and flocks, and holes and nests behind. They moved toward that source from whence they'd long since grown accustomed to hear the "sounds," but now heard those no more.
One week ~ seven days ~ later, the unusual silence of that valley was violently shattered. Thick black clouds appeared as if from nowhere; and the ground began to shake and move with great force. Thunderings and lightnings from above, together with loud rumblings and booms from beneath the ground, filled the atmosphere with deafening noise ~ as great sheets of water began to fall literally from out of the sky: a thing unseen and unheard of in the world previous to that day. In that moment, the whole earth wondered with unspeakable horror ~ although, Noah's neighbors all knew ~ what was then happening to them. But it was too late.
The dumb animals heard the call of that "still, small voice" in the Wind, as it were, saying:
"Come, come to the place from whence you used to hear the sounds of warning of Judgment, and of preparing yourselves against that Day, and of invitation to find shelter and safety from the coming Storm. The fact that those sounds are no longer heard in the land, is a sign unto you, that that Day is now at hand! If you hear the Call, then, come, and come quickly!"
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