Noah "walked with God", as Enoch, at a time when "wickedness was great and every thought of man’s heart was always evil." So God spoke to Noah and saved him and his family from the coming judgment on mankind. He planned to destroyed the world and its inhabitants by a flood. But God told Noah to build an ark for salvation… and he obeyed. (Gen 6:9;13-22) I have come to believe: “If he had tried to make an ark of his feelings, or of his prayers, or of his life, he would have been swept away. But, you see, it was the ark that saved him." (D. L. Moody)
Jesus said that people in His day were a lot like the people in Noah’s day— "eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage." (Matt 24:38) And the destruction of Jerusalem and its temple were at hand. Nothing is wrong with these activities; but they became the focus of life, instead of worship and service to God. And it did not deliver anyone from the sentence of death.
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear’ — a reverential fear it is of God’s threatenings…” (John Owen) "‘prepared an ark for the saving of his household’—Thus did Noah: 'according to all that God commanded him, so did he’ (Gen. 6:22). Privilege and duty are inseparably connected, yet duty will never be performed where faith is absent.— ‘by the which he condemned the world.’— One man is said to ‘condemn,’ another when, by his godly actions, he shows what the other should do, and which by doing not, his guilt is aggravated; see Matthew 12:41, 42. The Sabbath-keeper ‘condemns’ the Sabbath-breaker. He who abandons a worldly church and goes forth unto Christ outside the camp, ‘condemns’ the compromiser. Likewise, the act of preparing ‘an ark to the saving of his house’ condemned the mockers.” (A. W. Pink)— ‘and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.’” (Hebrews 11:7)- contrasted with self-righteousness, based on good works, after the example of Cain's bloodless sacrifice.
After the deluge, the God of Israel said "the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh." (Gen 9:15) The rainbow is a sign of His promise. However, we cannot ignore the Word of God concerning Christ’s Second Coming. Christ will destroy the world again. At that time, "the earth and the works that are in it will be burned up." (2 Pet 3:10) The prophet Malachi asks, "But who can endure the day of His coming? And who can stand when He appears?" (Mal 3:2) Destruction awaits the ungodly, says Jesus: "And as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man… the flood came and destroyed them all…" And "Likewise, as it was also in the days of Lot: They ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but on the day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. Even so will it be in the day when the Son of Man is revealed." (Luke 17:26-27)
"Christ is the ark; we must get in Him..." (D. L. Moody) by a believer’s baptism. Paul compares the flood to our baptism and concludes: "There is also an antitype which now saves us-- baptism (not the removal of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God), through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him." (1 Pet 3:21-22)
Noah covered the ark inside and out with pitch. (Gen 6:14) This covering pertained to protection from the flood waters—temporal harm. But there is also a spiritual covering. "Cover" and "pitch" are from the same Hebrew word—"kopher"- rendered "ransom" in the NKJ and points to a covering from eternal harm. It has an added meaning of paying a "price of blood" as satisfaction for a debt. (Exod 30:12; Num 35:31-32; Job 33:24, 36:18; Ps 47:17; Prov13:8, 21:18; Isa 43:3 Hos13:14)- the wage of sin.
The children’s story that I remember is that Noah took pairs of all types of animals into the ark. That was my take way anyway, but he actually took seven pairs of all clean animals in (Gen 7:2). Thus, afterwards: "Then Noah built an altar to Yahweh, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar and Yahweh smelled a soothing aroma." (Gen 8:20) His deliverance from the flood waters was by the ark, but his eternal salvation was by faith in the blood of Christ.