The Children's Bible in Sound and Pictures

There is an image that has been burned in my brain ever since I was a boy.  The image came from this 2 record set, which of course, I still have proudly displayed in my office.

click any image to make 'em bigger

The Children's Bible in Sound and Pictures includes about 2 dozen of the more well known Bible stories from the Old and New Testament.  The illustrations are very well done, and though the stories were mostly paraphrased, they are surprisingly accurate.  

The only thing I remember from reading and listening to these records, over 30 years ago now, is from the story about Noah's ark and the flood, particularly, the bottom-center frame on the page above.  I've enlarged it below.  This image of the ark floating away in the stormy flood waters has stuck with me all these years, primarily because of the two people in the foreground of the picture, with their hands waving helplessly in the air as they are being consumed by a violent, wrath-filled, world-destroying flood. 

I probably knew that the perishing people were very bad, according to this story, but I didn't comprehend the fact that they were being punished by God for their exceeding sinfulness.  Moses describes it this way:

The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the LORD said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
(Genesis 6:5-7 ESV, emphasis mine)

And so He did.  He blotted them out.  With a lot of water.  And it is illustrated in this frame.  And it is still etched in my mind.

I shared this very story and this very picture (I enlarged and printed it on a small poster) with the kids in our Backyard Bible Club this week, as we discussed the great flood.  I explained how even though everything was "good" after God created it in six days, it very quickly got bad.  In just the 3rd chapter of our Bible we have the Serpent entering the scene and successfully tempting Adam and Even into sin, immediately changing the whole world forever.  Chapter four gets even worse with the first murder - between brothers!  After a list of generations in chapter five, the stench of the fall grows even fouler, as described in the verses above.

This is why the flood was necessary.  God could no longer allow sin to run its course.

I didn't understand, back then, that I was one of those people in the frame, left outside of the ark to perish. In fact, knowing what the Bible teaches about sin, mankind, and my own evil heart and life before Christ, I'd speculate that those people aren't waving and crying for help.  I think they're shaking their fists and cursing Noah, his family, his boat, and his God. 

I didn't understand, back then, the great act of mercy that was shown to Noah and his family. I do now, because I have been shown grace and mercy from my Creator. This grace and mercy saves me from the punishment of my sin - the flood of God's wrath that awaits those who reject Him.
 
I am safely hidden in the greater Ark which is Christ.  I have taken refuge in Him, from Him.

Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and you perish in the way,
for his wrath is quickly kindled.
Blessed are all who take refuge in him.
(Psalm 2:12 ESV)