Listening to Noah

Listening to Noah

7/6/16

The story of Noah is a popular one that even people who do not believe in God or regularly attend church recognize.  But what type of recognition is present in the people who say they understand the setting of Noah and if we have any inkling of an idea of what the conditions were in the days of Noah, the question remains if we are ignoring those settings or are we changing our ways to avoid a similar disaster?  The answer to that question is clear and until we first recognize that God is in absolute control of everything, we shall have no idea how to stop the impending devastation that is headed our way.  God still hopes that we turn our ways soon for while we are laughing in God’s face He is still crying out for us to repent.

For the last couple of years, I have heard nothing but negative comments concerning the epic movie that came out entitled “Noah”.  At first, many people in the church communities were excited about this movie because it was touted as one of the best movies that would be released in 2014.  After a while, it became clear that the majority of Christians who saw this movie were disappointed and in fact many walked out in protest before the movie ended.  I have to admit that I refused to see this movie for many reasons and held on to all the “reviews” that my eyes had read and ears heard.  I had no problems with this because in my opinion there are not many movies that I would want to see anyway and this “Christian” movie would be one of them.  Boy, what a huge lie this movie turned out to be on many levels.

Until God decided to drop a short article title in my lap in which I sat on until very recently; it was this article.  God also provided me and my wife the opportunity to watch this movie and I now know why it was so controversial and labeled terrible according to Scripture.  While the movie is considered to be a fairly decent movie in theatrical terms the biblical content left something to be desired, for it portrayed the worldly version of how mankind should act towards God based on a sinful nature and how to ignore the real meaning of why the ark was created, and all the while leaking out the unadulterated truth of why God had to restore mankind.  Manipulation and downright lies according to Scripture thrown in with a bit of Hollywood scenery and you have a blockbuster blasphemous movie that promotes a false concept of God’s love and restoration process.

In order for me to write this article, it was necessary to define what God saw in the world when Noah was alive on this earth.  The Hollywood version of this account saddens me because while it depicts the acts of mankind being evil it minimizes the fact that it was the wickedness of mankind that pushed God into the decision that He made.  It also portrays that when God says something to a person that they have the power to choose to accept God’s Word and complete it or to override His authority and “do” the right thing.  I can understand why people believe that they are higher and stronger than God for this movie makes it abundantly clear that mankind’s love far outweighs the audacity of the voice of God.  On the other hand, some points in this movie set my mind on fire with some concepts that only God could really accomplish, like gathering all of the animals into the ark; this is a fascinating and miraculous truth. 

This article will not be based upon the Hollywood version of the story of Noah but the biblical one which contains the entire truth of what was going on in humans when God spoke His Word into Noah’s heart.  The state of fact here is that God established three settings that He deemed to be very important during the telling of Noah; the condition of mankind, obedience to God’s commands, and the provisions of God and it is through these three settings that God unfolded one of the most spectacular occurrences of human history that has yet to be repeated; however, we must consider this that once God establishes a standard He must always and continually follow that standard no matter what period of time it is during human history including today.

In Genesis Chapter 6:5, God’s Word states that God saw that the wickedness of man’s hearts was filled with complete evil and that everything that they lived centered around themselves and everything that they understood to be their environment.  This was no overnight change of heart in the people of the world but a step by step process that continued to progress as time went along.  These selfish ideologies came about from, amazingly enough, those who knew Creation and understood what occurred after the time of Adam and Eve, and over time had deemed their ways to be sovereign over God’s.  Because if they had continued to believe in God’s ways, His Word would 

not state that their hearts were filled with complete and continual evil.  The key word in this specific verse is the uses of “every” which details that mankind had no desire to do anything else but evil; by choice.

While we have no idea of how many people inhabited the earth during Noah’s day, God’s Word does say that mankind had begun to populate the earth according to the command of God, and through this statement it must be agreed that several cities had been built with a large number of inhabitants in their confines, not including all of those who chose to live outside the cities.  This represents a significant number, large enough to witness God’s eyes and heart torn apart for creating such prized possessions.  Another aspect of mankind that we must acknowledge is the fact that humans during this time period had no inkling of an idea about what their actions were doing to God and His heart which meant that when the time came for God to enact His judgment on the earth that they would not understand why that disaster was occurring.  A scary comparison to other time periods in the Bible and our time period as well.

It came to the point where God had noticed enough evil in the heart of mankind that He had to do something because He could no longer support the lifestyles of what man had become.  It grieved God so much that He states that He repented concerning the Creation of mankind and that He had no choice but to destroy mankind because of their actions against His Creation.  An important item to consider here is that humans had totally forgotten about their dominion and had raised enough generations that had no concept of what their true dominion was and what it meant for their existence.  These words of God are exemplified in Genesis 6:6-7 and further lament the truth about how mankind can become step by step if God is not 100% first in their lives.

It took a huge gamble and risk for Noah to listen to the voice of God and to follow what He wanted him to do.  The building of a building that would be large enough to house all living things must have been a mind-blowing image and a task that might have been interpreted as impossible, but it is at this time that Noah understood what God was saying even though Noah knew that the entire world was about to be destroyed.  We have trouble with telling us to go bake a cake and then taking it over to our next door neighbor for no known reason, and what God spoke to Noah to complete was completely out of the ordinary, or was it?  While God spoke these things to Noah, there is no mention or idea that Noah did not understand why this boat had to be built which means that he understood God and His ways and what it meant to follow God and not to follow God; the accompanying consequences of both sides included.  And with more than 100 years to complete this task Noah had plenty of time to converse with God about the conditions of the world, his heart and the fate of the world. 

Many people like to listen to God and then wait for His returns to come in according to human time frames, but in Noah’s case it took over a century for the rewards of God to be enhanced enough that his eyes witnessed the fulfillment of God’s command.  Would you have become depressed, discouraged, or even quit because of the seemingly overwhelming task that god asked of Noah (you)?  God’s Word does not mention that anyone around Noah came to salvation while Noah completed the work that God had required of him, but you know that after a certain amount of time that ark could not be kept hidden from the “public”.  I can guarantee that there were those who came up to Noah and asked him what he was doing and then scorned, ridiculed, laughed at him because of his answer to them.  I also can guarantee that Noah did not shy away from telling them the truth about God and what God desired from their lives either, and not just offer them something fruits and veggies.  For something that took so long to complete, God still had His witnesses out searching for those who wanted to know the truth.  The people that stood by Noah and watched the ark being built continued to override God with their snickering and blatant disregard of their surroundings.

It is amazing that this entire process of building the ark took so long, but when you break down the verses into specifics we must contend that this amount of time had to occur because of all the provisions that had to be made in order for the ark to sustain life as it was supposed to be doing.  The amount of time that each provision for the animals and Noah’s family needed would take a great deal of time to acquire and then store, hence the rooms inside the ark.  Everything from the wood to the pitch was required and then used, and can you imagine how the people around Noah laughed at him when they saw him and his family storing up those supplies?  God does not speak to His children telling them to do something unless He provides the provisions to go with that task.  Nowhere in God’s Word does it state that God uprooted His people and then left them hanging and did nothing to provide for them through their obedience.

For those of us who have read the story of Noah know that eventually, God told Noah and his family to go into the ark and then God shut the door.  For many, the story ends there and no further studying of the story occurs which is a shame because the detailed truth of what God had done, was doing and did in the future of Noah’s life is nothing less than a miracle.  Because even when the ark was floating along the turbulent waters God knew exactly what was occurring around the ark and all of its surroundings, in other words, God was in control of everything even when the storm was ongoing.  Turbulent waters?  How do we know they were turbulent?  Because when God restores something it is a hard and difficult process to go through, it is not a cakewalk process; it is a healing process, one that takes some scrubbing or in this case washing machine techniques to begin again – holy ones of course.

The point to this article is that God wants us to understand what exactly is occurring around us.  This nation and what its origins stand for has been totally annihilated by choice and our dominion has been ripped to shreds in the name of personal choice and worldly freedom.  We have locked out God and have given ourselves complete credit for the standards of living that we enjoy.  We throw rocks and tomatoes at those who stand up for the Word of God then wipe our hands on our priestly robes of religion after those objects strike their targets.  We care nothing for those who are in trouble while we sit back and recite biblical poetry with our mouths full of condiments from our manmade pews.  Besides the modern amenities, we are identical to those people in the days of Noah.  Wait a minute!!!  I have heard that term used before.

Now is the time that the Church turn her heart back to God and instead of watching a few people proclaim the ark of salvation to the dying world while laughing at them, to actually teach the exact same truth in accordance to what Jesus (the Ark) commanded us to do.  There is a devastating disaster coming to this nation that will change the world itself and usher in another season of restoration, but if the world continued to operate in sin after the flood, what type of leaders will we expect after our flood occurs?  Will not happen you say?  “The Bible says that God will not destroy the earth by water again!” you say.  That is correct, He shall not destroy the earth by water again; however, He never mentioned anything about nations!  Think about these words that God has shared with us and place them into your heart and allow them to grow according to His Word

Church, wake up and once again place your trust, hope, and faith in God alone.  Proclaim none other than God’s entire Word in your life and be the committed witness that Jesus commanded us to be to the dying world.  Yes, the world is dying in their sins and will spend eternity away from the presence and choice of God.  This is what the leader of the world wants and it is the one nightmare that God fears for each of His children.  If we continue to teach a false bible and then accordingly ignore the true Bible, we are reenacting the people in the days of Noah and will perish in our sins just as they did.  No Hollywood theatrics here, just the honest truth as the Word of God states it.  Listen to what Noah has to say in his story, for as of this second we can prevent what occurred in his day, but if we ignore this truth his day shall come to our lives.  God cannot provide any greater warnings than the single ark He built for our eternal lives; this was mentioned in the story of Noah and in the truth about His only Son Jesus.

DLB