Daily devotion – my hero Noah!
Genesis 7: 12 And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13 On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark—
16 So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.
17 Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth. 18 The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 19 And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. 20 The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. 21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth.
Only eight people out of the total population living on the planet at that time obeyed God and were saved from the judgment that fell on the whole earth with a flood.
Why did not anyone else heed the warnings from God? Noah preached for over 120 years the righteousness of God and lived it out before them practically by he and his family building the ark.
This staggers me…just 8 souls!
Jesus gives us a bit of insight as to what the rest of the world’s population was doing all this time of warning and preaching and when it began to rain – Luke 17:26……. it will be like it was in Noah’s day. 27 In those days, the people enjoyed banquets and parties and weddings right up to the time Noah entered his boat and the flood came and destroyed them all.
28 “And the world will be as it was in the days of Lot. People went about their daily business—eating and drinking, buying and selling, farming and building— 29 until the morning Lot left Sodom. Then fire and burning sulfur rained down from heaven and destroyed them all. 30 Yes, it will be ‘business as usual’ right up to the day when the Son of Man is revealed.
I see the nation of Australia and many people who have heard the Gospel preached, some even attended Church. But now their lives are busy, as now they are consumed with living without any consideration of God. Their sinfulness resides still within them and the judgment of God rests on them, but they carry on their lives ignorant of all that is coming and all that God has done.
When we choose to live our lives giving no attention to the Lord who created us and the sacrifice His Son Jesus offered for our salvation, we deceive ourselves with our own foolishness.
The Bible tells us that the Heavens declared the glory of God….Rom 1:18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness. Rom 1:19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. Rom 1:20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God.
Many people would have heard Noah’s preaching, heard his warnings, but chose to go about ‘their business’ content to be still living for themselves!
When Joshua was coming to the end of his life of serving God, having taken the baton over from Moses, and leading the people of Israel into the promised land. Do you remember what he said about he and his family?
Jos 24:15 “And if it seems evil to you to serve the LORD, choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve, whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
Noah could not make decisions for all those that heard his warnings, but he made well certain that his family, his wife, his three sons and their wives, were in the ark when God closed the door.
Let us examine ourselves and our walk with God, let us make sure we will be ready for when Christ calls His Church to meet Him in the air, and not be left behind going about our selfish busy lives instead.
The flood was real, sin and God’s judgment is real, but so too is the sacrifice that Christ made to pay for our sins, real.
Learn from Noah…live for God and you too will be saved from the judgment to come!