There are all kinds of questions that come about when you read the story of Noah in Genesis 6 and 7. Most of the answers are left to the imagination. For example:

Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah (Gen. 7:8-9).

They came to Noah? What was that like? Was it orderly? Were the animals friendly to one another? Lots of questions, but ones that the Bible is not particularly concerned with answering. The overall point seems to be that God told Noah it would happen, just as He did with the flood, and so it was.

Here is another moment in the same chapter that might cause us to wonder:

The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in (Gen. 7:16).

“The Lord shut them in.” What a wonderfully mysterious and imagination-stirring little sentence that is.

How did He shut them in? What did Noah and his family see, if anything? What did it sound like as the door was closed? We don’t know.

What we do know is that however it happened; whatever it looked like; whatever it sounded like – it was secure. Because the Lord shut them in. Sealed the door. And when the Lord shuts you in, you are in.

In the midst of all the tumultuous activity outside the boat – all the thunder and the rain; all the wind and the waves blowing the boat this way and that; all that noise and shaking as the water rose and rose and rose… surely it was a comfort to those inside to know that it was the Lord who shut the door. And because the Lord shut the door, it was secure.

What a wonderful thing it must have been, in the midst of all the fear and apprehension and anxiety about what was going on around them to know that God had shut them in. It must have been gloriously comforting… and it still is:

“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all; no one can snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one” (John 10:27-30).

How secure are the sheep? How safe are those who have been claimed by Jesus? We are firmly within His grip. And even if there was some power strong enough to grasp us out of the hand of Jesus, the Father’s hand is closed around His. God has shut us in. Here again:

And you also were included in Christ when you heard the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation. When you believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God’s possession—to the praise of his glory” (Eph. 1:13-14).

How secure are those included in Christ? They are sealed – shut in – by the Holy Spirit who lives within us. Feel it today, friend – feel deeply the comfort of knowing that you belong to Jesus. Though all hell might break loose outside, though you might be attacked and assailed on many sides, though you will inevitably face trials of many kinds – you are safe. God has laid claim to us, and we are His.

He has shut us in.