Time line
Adam 130 years becomes a father to seth
Seth at 105 became a father to Enosh
Enosh at 90 became a father to Kenan
Kenan at 70 became father to Mahalalel
Mahalalel at 65 became father to Jared
Jared at 162 years became father to Enoch
Enoch at 65 became father to Methuselah
Methuselah at 187 became father to Lamech
Lamech at 182 became father to Noah.
Noah was 600 by the time of the flood.
130+105+90+70+65+162+65+187+182+600=1656 years from creation to flood
Lamech 182, lives 595 years longer total 777 years
Noah 500 years old lamech is 682 becomes grandfather.
Noah aged 600 boards the ark, Lamech had been dead for 12 years.
Genesis 5:28-32
28 When Lamech had lived 182 years, he had a son. 29 He named him Noah[c] and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” 30 After Noah was born, Lamech lived 595 years and had other sons and daughters. 31 Altogether, Lamech lived a total of 777 years, and then he died.
32 After Noah was 500 years old, he became the father of Shem, Ham and Japheth.
The story of Noah starts in Genesis 5, in all honesty, the story of Noah starts some 5 chapters earlier at the very beginning. At the start is a story of a Man who is made in the image of God, God’s perfect plan. Made in the simple and pure ideal of what man was. No hindrance, no mistakes and he is given the most wonderful garden to spend his time and commune with God, and so they did. God would come and walk with man in the cool of the evening. Man and God communing in the most intimate unhindered ways. For a lot of Christians the story of early Eden sounds like the greatest of Christian walks. The great news is that there is more to come. We will have a greater and closer walk than even Adam experienced in the early days.
Sadly, the story takes a turn, Man falls and hides from God, and God curses the ground. over the years, God and man no longer walk in communion, no longer walking in the same direction. God searches for someone, who understands his ways and walks with a pure heart. the problem is that Sin brings forth more sin. Its a hard transition to change your ways without a new heart. The heart wants what the heart wants. So when the desires of man are against the will of God, we see man naturally turning to sin. The problem of the time was that, sin has not only effected mans heart, but it had effected the very ground. Food was no longer in abundance, becoming like the hearts of men, hard, void and barren.
Enter the son of Lamech, called Noah. Lamech lived in a time, when the cursed ground failed to bring forth food without hard work and the sweat of the brow. Lamech seeks a reprieve from the hardship of the cursed ground. His son is named NOAH literally meaning rest or comfort. the pursuit of something better, a changing of the situation of man.
And so it is following the sad demise of man and Gods relationship, that Noah comes forth with a call upon his life. In Genesis chapter 6 we read of the effect that the wickedness of man has had on the Lord.
Genesis 6 (NIV)
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
There is much said about the heart of God through scripture. from David and his psalms, to Jesus himself, we read of a God of love. Hear, for the first time in scripture, we read of a God who is open and broken. God reveals something of his nature that although heart breaking shows of his very nature. “and his heart was deeply troubled”.
In Genesis chapter one, we read of God creating all things. By the end of Day six, God looks upon his handy work and sees that it is very good. He has made man in his likeness, achieving his intention, he gives dominion over all the earth to man. There was an intimacy between God and his created man, all things including light and Dark had simply been called into being. Galaxies thrust into existence from nothing other than his word. Creatures of all kinds appearing, simply by a whisper of the Lord. However, for man, God takes time to mould him and form him, he breaths into him the breath of life, imparting into man the very life breath of the spirit of God.
Hearts are not something that just break, God has been through a lot by the time that he looks upon man with such sorrow. As man eats of the forbidden fruit in the garden of Eden, God calls for the first time “where are you”. This is of a spiritual cry, as it would be foolish to think that man could hide from God. But man had gone, that day. He was no longer the same, no longer recognised as the same, no longer in the perfect image of his creator.
In just 1000 years, man has gone from the very image of God, to the heartbreak of God.
In the fall of man from God, Man moves from the original image no longer recognisable to God, no longer reflective of the very image of the creator. God regrets his work, for what it has become. Understanding the intention of God and man, reveals further of the heartbreak in this situation. Mankind set themselves on a path of destruction. we read that every inclination of the thoughts of a mans heart was only evil at all times. The heart and mind of man was corrupted. sin and reason of sin had passed from generation to generation. It had become inherent, natural, unrestricted. that man had reached a place that every path and every thought of man was evil.
It may be a hard thing to imagine, that man could become so vile. many have argued through the years as to if morals come from God or nature. It has been argued that there is a natural way with man. a knowing of right from wrong that is inherent. We know it is wrong to kill, yet Allport’s reports in his scale of prejudice how the thoughts of man are moved quickly from that of good loving people, living amicably with fellow man. to people willing to see an entire nation taken to the gas chambers in 5 simple steps.
1. Antilocution: means a majority group freely make jokes about a minority group. Speech is in terms of negative stereotypes and negative images.[2] This is also called hate speech.[3] It is commonly seen as harmless by the majority. Antilocution itself may not be harmful, but it sets the stage for more severe outlets for prejudice
2. Avoidance: Members of the majority group actively avoid people in a minority group.[2] No direct harm may be intended, but harm is done through isolation
3. Discrimination: Minority groups are discriminated against by denying them opportunities and services, putting prejudice into action.[2] Behaviors have the specific goal of harming the minority group by preventing them from achieving goals, getting education or jobs, etc. The majority group is actively trying to harm the minority.
4. Physical Attack: The majority group vandalize, burn or destroy minority group property and carry out violent attacks on individuals or groups.[2] Physical harm is done to members of the minority group.
5. Extermination: The majority group seeks extermination or removal of the minority group.[2] They attempt to eliminate either the entire or a large fraction of a group of people
And so I am sure it was for any that were to seek the face of God in such times. The pressure of the majority, by anti-locution, avoidance and discrimination. further supported the affront to God setting the hearts of men to wickedness and turning a nation from the ways of the creator.
God looks on as a loving father looking on to the heart breaking actions of his wayward sons. someone so vile, so lost that the love is not lost but the regret of their birth was present in the fathers mind. We read of Gods heart deeply troubled, the representation of a torn and distraught God. a father in tears as he looks upon the failings of his children.
Acceptance of normal, is the defining of a mans moral standing. What we see and read on a regular basis is what we view as acceptable and true. We walk in the ways of our fathers, and mentors. Take a look at society, it is a reflection of that which has been shown and distilled into them. we are a product of our own making. Society is messed up because man has messed it up!
7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
The word used, is a reflection of wiping away a stain or mark, as one would with a cloth. The results of sin is death, man brought to himself that which he had chased after. When something becomes stained, there is only one option that of cleansing.
Gen 6:8
8 But Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord.
Noah found favour in the eyes of his God, in a world set on the seeking of their own desires, with wickedness instilled from generation to generation, Noah found favour.
Many christians would like a how to guide at this point, but there are no steps explained. Like much of the bible, a large chunk of Noah’s life is unmentioned and unexplained. Understand that there is no expectation of perfection of man. God never called for his people to be spotless when they come to him, but that they be willing. We can spend years in desperate attempts to find the favour of God, there is nothing that we could do to impress God.
Isaiah 64:6(NIV)
6
All of us have become like one who is unclean,
and all our righteous acts are like filthy rags;
we all shrivel up like a leaf,
and like the wind our sins sweep us away.
The favour of God was not something that was achieved by the good works of Noah. To think such things would be to miss the whole point of Grace. Noah, had found something greater than good works. He had discovered something beyond righteousness. Noah had found God’s heart! And so it was that as God looked down upon the creation of man, with a broken heart at the ways that man had turned, he found one looking back. Noah had found righteousness and favour with God by the perception of his eyes. We are effected by what we watch and read, and we must be mindful of this to guard our hearts and protect ourselves from that which can corrupt. As men looked to themselves for the way, trusting in their own wisdom and pursuing their own desires, Noah looked unto God and became a pursuer of the path of God. Ask yourself what your focus is on, are you chasing something adverse to the desires of God? Favour is found in the perception of the heart.
Gen 6:9-22
9 This is the account of Noah and his family.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14 So make yourself an ark of cypress[c] wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high.[d] 16 Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit[e] high all around.[f] Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.
18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.
God reveals his plan to Noah, its specific and direct. no messing about with cryptic messages or hidden meaning, God speaks to Noah in direct terms and specifics critical to the structure of the ark.
I have always said, be careful when God speaks; for a lot of christians, they get excited about the idea of a prophetic word. Get a prophet in the house and people will come looking for their own specific and direct word from God. I have had a number of times where people have come to me after a meeting and asked for a word. God is not someone that will speak on demand. such life changing words are rare and come once in a life time.
The rear danger of a prophetic word, is that when we are doing as we need to, there is no need for direction. For everyone that I have given a word, they have either been about to go through a very hard time and God give them something to hold onto or they were off course.
For Noah, this was a mixed bag, I envision that at first Noah would have been frilled to have received something so direct from God. However, as the word continued Noah begins to realise the implications of what God is planning. The pain that must have come upon him as God spoken. This was more than just a bunch of wicked sinners, they were family and loved ones. brothers and sisters, cousins, aunts and uncles. neighbours and co workers. This is no light message to hear. God sets into motion his plans, and Noah is changed by the words, taking on a mammoth task that would encompass the support and labour of his family. I’m sure that Noah went home that night and hugged his wife and children a little tighter, that from that day forth he loved them a little more.
There are a few points to see from God’s call to Noah:
1- The call of God is direct and specific
2- The gifts and skills required will be imparted
3- The covenant is set for family
4- the call is timely
1 The call of God is never vague in description. That is not to say that God will be as specific as he was with Noah. But he will call; we all have a call, to each is a ministry set before them. How we respond to the call is something thats down to ourselves. God is not in the business of forcing a man to take up his mantle, but he is in the business of making a man willing. For Noah, it was a deep and desperate desire to save. The words come with a sense of urgency, and so it is that I am sure Noah was driven to move quick. Your call can not be put off until tomorrow, it can not be next week. The time of preparation must be now! Don’t sit on the church bench awaiting the big call of God, it may never come. Don’t wait until the clouds are forming, get to building. God is calling “Go into all the world” Mark 16:15
2) Little is known of Noah before his call to build one of the worlds biggest boats in history. We read in Genesis 9:20 that Noah is referred to as a man of the soil, literally a gardener. It is fitting that the call placed over his life by his father in Genesis 5:29 “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” would be the very thing that he turns his hand to in later life. However, its somewhat ironic that God choses to use a grounds man to build a boat is size and magnitude to that of the QE2.
Genesis 9:20
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded[a] to plant a vineyard.
Had Noah any joinery skills? possibly, as to if he had the skill to build such a sea worthy vessel is another matter. It is my believe that God imparted the required building skills, far exceeding the skills in construction shown at the time. That as God spoke into Noah his plan for the future of man, he imparted master carpenter skills. Mechanical and structural engineering skills and Husbandry skills of life stock.
Be sure that God is not limited by your skills or lack of them. He can use workers of the ground to build ships. Fisherman as preachers and call Shepherd to be kings of nations. Whatever you do, and whatever skills you lack are no object to God. Have faith in the call that is laid upon you. Where there appears to be no way God will make a way.
3) Between Genesis chapters 5 and 7, there is some 100 years of time that passes. We know from Chapter 5 that Noah is 500 years of age when he becomes father to his three sons. At the point of the flood in chapter 7, we are informed that Noah is 600 years old. We also know that his sons are around 100 years old at the time of the flood. What is not truly known is the age of Noah when he receives the call.
I anticipate that Noah would have received the word when his sons were still young. It is expected that the Arc would have taken over 60 years to build with ancient building techniques, with the assumption that Noah had a team of builders. Many people believe that the arc took 120 years, this was due to the statement made by God of mans life being 120 years. the time required for building the ark would have given time for repentance, a generation to pass.
Reading between the lines, Noah a simple worker of the land receives a life changing call to build an ark of mammoth proportions. I find it hard to believe that he would have had a team of persons that would assist. The call comes at a time when Noah is a man with three young boys at home. At 500 years old, he is newly wed and worried about the future of his family. He has taken the time to know his nation, to understand the ways of mankind. He has searched the land for long enough searching for a wife who is like minded. He understands and aggress with the verdict of God upon the views of man.
Taking this into account, shows the real grace and beauty of the Lord and his love for mankind. Noah, lives in a wicked world, like all fathers, he is bound to be worried about his sons. When God lays the call upon Noah’s life he also sets a covenant,
Genesis 6:18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you.
God makes a promise rewarding the faithfulness of Noah by stating and your sons wife’s. This is a blessing to Noah and his that his wife, his sons and his sons wives will be coming. God shows that there is hope still of finding from a wicked world, three good women for his sons. people worthy of saving from this wicked world.
The devil likes nothing more than picking of the children of christian workers. Take a look around at the churches and we find countless examples of families under attack. Pastors with wayward children and families that have lost the way. Marriage in distress and the latest issues in the press are pastors on adultery websites. The family life has taken a beating. Take a moment to understand the call of grace upon your life and the lives of your loved ones. It will always be hard when we see loved ones outside of the will of God. Stand faithful in the word that “as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord” Joshua 24:15
Call them home, Pray for them and stand strong in your faith, like the father of the prodigal son, go out and look into the distance expectant of their return. God is setting a covenant between you, your wife and your children. hear the voice of God in your situation as he whispers “I will bring all of you through this”
To the lonely christian, looking to a world of lost sinners and wondering where is my husband or where is my wife. God has someone set to one side for you. predestined for just the right time. Have faith in the promises of God, for they are “yes and amen”
2 Corinthians 1:20 (NIV)
20 For no matter how many promises God has made, they are “Yes” in Christ. And so through him the “Amen” is spoken by us to the glory of God.
Genesis 7 (NIV)
7 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2 Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3 and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4 Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”
5 And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.
6 Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7 And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8 Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9 male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10 And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
11 In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. 12 And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. 14 They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. 15 Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. 16 The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.
17 For forty days the flood kept coming on the earth, and as the waters increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. 18 The waters rose and increased greatly on the earth, and the ark floated on the surface of the water. 19 They rose greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered. 20 The waters rose and covered the mountains to a depth of more than fifteen cubits.[a][b] 21 Every living thing that moved on land perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. 22 Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. 23 Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; people and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.
24 The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days.
And God shut the door.
We often have a problem with shut doors, You don’t have to look to hard to find a christian banging on a door shut by God demanding that it be open. God shuts doors for a good reason, what lays on the other side is often unwholesome and distance from God, or simply just not the right time for the door being open for you. We can often chase after a ministry or an opportunity that is not intended for ourselves. Chasing after a man made dream, spending years pushing against a door closed by God, will achieve nothing other than heartache. Take the time to listen to the Lord, he leads people in the direction that they are intended to go, the path prepared for them, that is not to say that the way will be easy. but doors will open. Remember man fails and God prevails. There are no closed doors in the will of God, take the time to realise what doors God has shut have been shut for a good reason.
The Lord sealed them in; For Noah and his family, they were about to go through the biggest storm of their lives. It starts some 7 days before hand. God instructs Noah to take his family into the ark. For 7 days there is nothing, possibly just some clouds forming in the sky above, a change in the atmosphere as the humidity rises. The remaining cattle take up their dry ground laying down in preparation. The 7 days in the ark would have been hard, bar the smell and the noise. the unsettled animals squawking and chirping away in fearful expectation. Noah and his family huddling together begin to pray.
100 years in the making, Noah has seen some great miracles of God over the years. The finding of three good women for his sons. the bringing together of the animals. dragging huge chunks of lumber into position, all amazing in their own ways. Now huddled up awaiting the rain, Noah has the time the think on the years gone by. Its fair to say that the last 100 years have been hard. After all, it is a huge task to build a big boat as it is. Add to this the provision of the lumber and pitch, the claimed space taking up a field. Non of the building of the ark provided any provision for the family. Noah would have still had to undertake his day job.
However, there was something else that Noah had to undertake, something that would have played on the mind of Noah and his family as they sat there waiting; Those on the other side of the door. For Noah and his family, there lay a world outside of the ark, unreached, unchanged and unrepentant. Its easy to think of the story of Noah and his ark as a beautiful story of God’s hope and grace, which it is. But deeper that this lays one of the greatest tragedies of the bible. Thousands possible millions of people killed in a single devastating act. Noah driven by is vision or word from God holds in his mind the full view of what is to come. The sad reality of God closing the door is that it would have been impossible for Noah to have closed it.
Every day that Noah took the ark a little closer to completion would have rang as a stark reminder for the horrors to come. Out in the wayward fields worked and played family and loved ones. Children playing in the shadow of the ark as Noah worked above. Even now, sitting in the ark, Noah and his family could hear the movings of the people outside. The cattle in the fields, men working, the laughter of children as they run about and play. I’m sure that a tear formed in the eyes of Noah as he quietly prayed to God hugging his family.
2 Peter 2:5
5 if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others;
Noah is described as a preacher of righteousness, he had taken the time to proclaim the ways of God. Proclaiming his message, not of doom and a coming flood, but of Righteousness and Grace and something that could actually save. It was bound to raise interest. There is no way that someone could build a monstrous wooden structure without someone asking, “so whats that then”?
Despite the wicked ways of Man, despite the roaring sound of laughter when Noah explained that he was building a boat. Despite the anti locution, Noah proclaimed the path for righteousness. A call of one to the masses, Noah in a desperate and loving outreach for the sake of the people.
Matthew 24:36-42
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,[f] but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 40 Two men will be in the field; one will be taken and the other left. 41 Two women will be grinding with a hand mill; one will be taken and the other left.
42 “Therefore keep watch, because you do not know on what day your Lord will come.
As the rain began to come down, I’m sure that Noah was stood at the door to the ark shouting out proclaiming for the last time his message of grace, then the door closed.
There will always be a line in the sand, there is always to be a full time, there is always going to be a tolling of the bell. And so it was that the end had come. Noah and the 7 others sealed by God, sealed by grace. Set in an Ark of salvation in the midst of what was soon to be the abyss.
Outside as the rain came down, initially the people would have taken little note. Children loving the reprieve from the heat of the day dance about in the rain. Suddenly the ground begins to rupture forth water, the floods role in. As people run for higher ground, Noah and his family sealed in the dark feel the ark beginning to rock the deafening sound of people banging on the door to the ark screaming to Noah for him to open the door. How he longed to open the door, but locked and sealed. it remained closed. As the water becomes deeper, mothers lift their young above their heads holding them high for as long as they can. Holding their breath as the waters laps up against their face, eventually they become subdued by the waters. their arms drop plunging the small children into the cold waters. And then it came, the sound that would eco in the ears of Noah for the remainder of his days. silents, all the animals of the arm became deadly silent laying down on the hay. The screams silenced all became still, the boat creaked before lifting from the carriage. occasionally, there would be the loud bang as rubble, trees and corpses as they crashed into the ark. for hours the boat would violently rock as it was thrust back and forth pushed about by the rising waters, battered by the debris. Then all became still. Noah and his family still in the dark, the sound now of only the gentle tapping of the rain on the ark.
Genesis 8(NIV)
8 But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded. 2 Now the springs of the deep and the floodgates of the heavens had been closed, and the rain had stopped falling from the sky. 3 The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, 4 and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. 5 The waters continued to recede until the tenth month, and on the first day of the tenth month the tops of the mountains became visible.
6 After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth. 8 Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. 9 But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark. He reached out his hand and took the dove and brought it back to himself in the ark. 10 He waited seven more days and again sent out the dove from the ark. 11 When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. 12 He waited seven more days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him.
13 By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry. 14 By the twenty-seventh day of the second month the earth was completely dry.
15 Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 17 Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.”
18 So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives. 19 All the animals and all the creatures that move along the ground and all the birds—everything that moves on land—came out of the ark, one kind after another.
20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though[a] every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
22
“As long as the earth endures,
seedtime and harvest,
cold and heat,
summer and winter,
day and night
will never cease.”
God remembered Noah and his family, the waters resided and cutting a long story short, Noah goes back to gardening, and people get on with restarting the population of the world.
We can all go through storms of life, being a christian will never guarantee that you will be storm free. Storms will come, its OK, God has said that he will be with you. As you call on him, he will remember you. The waters of trouble and strife will reside.
The call of Noah, is one passed to you. Hear the call of Jesus as it echoes through the years from Christian to Christian. “GO” Mark 16:15.
There is a line in the sand, and sounding bell. Stop and listen, do you hear them crying for the door to be open. Mothers lifting their young for the final breath. We still have time, we still have time! No man knows the hour or the day, what we do know is that it is coming. Open your spiritual ears to the rain, as it gently taps on the roof of your ark. Look to the fields of the world to see the cattle laying down in the spiritual fields. look up and see the clouds forming, the spiritual barometer as it points to the end. Take the time to look into the fields of life. They are not the hated, they are not the enemy. They are the brothers and sisters, the sons and daughters. aunts and uncles. mothers and fathers of someone. For every family member for every loved one, we have the obligation to reach out with the preaching of righteousness and love. the message of John 3:16, share the grace of God. For as sure as the pain of the sounds from the ark, there will come a day. Ensure that they had the opportunity, ensure that they had the chance of grace. There is room in the ark for more.