Monday, 31 July 2017

Genesis 7:6-24 – Our security is in God

The flood was God’s judgement on earth. It is one of the more significant events in the history of mankind. So significant is this event that both the Old and the New Testaments make reference to it. Even the Lord Jesus made mention of this event.  In Genesis 6 we are shown why such a judgement was necessary. It’s because of the rampant wickedness of humanity. The wickedness upon earth was beyond endurance. It was so way beyond the limit that even God’s patience could not bear. So He resolved to annihilate all on the earth. Evil is a direct contradiction to God’s nature. It is an affront to Him and He deeply abhors evil. It is impossible to act wickedly and expect God to ignore it. The very holy nature of God will move Him to deal with evil.   

Noah’s life tells us that it is possible to walk uprightly with God and find favour with Him. God not only preserved him, but also his family. This is a clear reminder to all fathers, that how we live our life will affect our family as well. God’s blessing upon us will be extended to our family, and what we do affect our family as well. We can set them in the right direction with God or we can put them at odds with Him. Noah’s life tells us that we must set our family on the path of God’s blessing by walking with Him, and seeking to build an upright life.

This account of the flood tells us many things. As Creator, God is sovereign and in control of all things. Creation is finally accountable to Him and He expects accountability from all His creation. He expects mankind, made in His image, tasked to rule the earth, to be more responsible. He gave man the greatest privilege to experience a unique relationship with Him, and that privilege comes with a greater accountability. God’s desire has been for man to choose to walk with Him in obedience. To choose evil is to be an affront to Him. The rampant evil resulted from the choice man had made. Undeniably we know that God cannot tolerate evil. His holiness cannot co-exist with evil and wickedness. So He will bring evil and wickedness to a swift end. The account of the flood serves to show us how greatly and intensely God hates sin and evil. The evil and wickedness that prevail only calls for one cataclysmic conclusion – total annihilation.  And that was exactly what God did.

While God must annihilate evil, He also prepared a program to work out His original plan. He found in Noah an instrument that He could use. Noah found favour in His sight. God mercifully preserved him and his family from the judgement - the universal flood. It was a universal flood because we read that every high mountain peak was totally covered and that every living thing was blotted out. The call of Noah to build the ark and the time he took to build it, reveal God’s patience in dealing with sin. In sparing Noah and his family, we see God’s saving grace. Peter in the New Testament tells us that God is patient. He still has no desire that any should perish but that all to come unto repentance.

Remember that we must stay within the confine of our relationship with Christ. He is the ark of our salvation. Anywhere outside of it spells danger. God will eradicate evil. We need to live circumspectly before Him and not allow evil to hold sway in any area of our life. Know that how we live our life also affects that of our loved ones as well. So we need to stay on the right course with God. Obedience to God is the way to go in life. And since God will not allow evil to prevail on earth, we must never allow it to prevail in our life. Deal with it swiftly.   

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