Today's Favorite Verse: Genesis 7:4-5, 10, 16

Today's Favorite Verse: Genesis 7:4-5, 10, 16

"For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.

And Noah did according unto all that the Lord commanded him.

And it came to pass after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the earth.

And they that went in, went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the Lord shut him in."

Somethings that stood out to me reading this story of the flood. The Lord prepared Noah well in advance to build the ark, but he told him 7 days before the flood came to go into the ark. He had a long warning, and then a relatively short warning. After Noah and his family went into the ark the Lord shut him in.

This made me think of food storage and preparedness. The earliest mention I could find of counsel from the church to have a food storage was in 1857, and that was for seven years.

“Brethren, go and build your storehouses before your grain is harvested, and lay it up, and let us never cease until we have got a seven year’s supply…we will lay up the grain for seven years.” (Heber C. Kimball, JD 4:336-339. June 7, 1857)

We are now given a goal of one year, but to start with a week and then 3 months and to never stop preparing.

Then I thought about the Lord shutting Noah and his family into the ark. This was their place of security. After all they could do the Lord would see to the rest, and that they were safe. It made me think of President Nelson's recent conference talk.

"I promise that as we create places of security, prepare our minds to be faithful to God, and never stop preparing, God will bless us. He will “deliver us; yea, insomuch that he [will] speak peace to our souls, and [will] grant unto us great faith, and … cause us that we [can] hope for our deliverance in him.”

(Russell M. Nelson, "Embrace the Future with Faith", Oct 2020 General Conference)

The greatest thing that blessed Noah and his family was he did as the Lord commanded. He was ready when the need came to turn to somewhere safe. I know if I listen to the prophet of the Lord, and do as the Lord commands me I will be ready for whatever comes.

"The revelation to store food may be as essential to our temporal salvation today as boarding the ark was to the people in the days of Noah."

(Ezra Taft Benson, "Prepare Ye" Ensign, Jan 1974)

The temporal preparation is essential, but it was the spiritual preparation that qualified who boarded the ark to begin with.

Day 2166