X Marks the Spot

 Read Genesis 8

 

Where are we in this story?

 Noah and family are embarked.  They have practiced man overboard drills and general quarters ad nauseam.  God could have thrown in a couple balcony rooms.  Except for the opening a foot and a half from the top, these people are truly shut in.

They were aboard for a long time.  Imagine being cooped up in the belly of a big ship.  You would be thankful that you were alive, but aching for sunshine and green grass.

Perhaps the darkened quarters keep the animals tranquil.  Perhaps it was like a mass hibernation.  This could have been a time of abeyance and repose for the animals, but people need sunshine and fresh air. With all of those animals onboard, one can only imagine that the ark had taken on an air all of its own

This chapter brings us to the center of the literary structure of the account of Noah.  What structure is that?  It is a chiastic structure.

Chiastic comes from the Greek letter Chi/Kai or X.  The Hebrew people did not call this a Chiastic style or structure or even use Greek letters.  They didn’t even know Greek at this time.  Later, when scholars noted the structure, they gave it this label.

Basically, it’s X marks the spot.  The structure builds to the middle—to the center. Let’s examine what that looks like in the story of Noah.  We start in chapter 6.

We have Noah.

Then there are Shem, Ham, and Japheth—those few who would be saved from destruction.

The ark is to be built.

The flood is announced.

God makes a covenant with Noah.

There is to be food in the ark.

God commands Noah and family to enter the ark.

There are 7 days until the flood is to come.

There are 7 days embarked waiting for the flood.

Noah and family enter the ark.

God shuts the door.

There are 40 days of rain.

The waters increase.

The mountains are covered.

There are 150 days where the waters prevail.

There are 150 days when the waters recede.

The mountain tops are visible.

There are 40 days while the waters continue to recede.

Noah opens a window he made in the ark.

Raven and dove leave the ark.

There are 7 days for the waters to subside.

There are 7 more days for the waters to subside.

God commands Noah to leave the ark.

Food outside the ark.

God made a covenant with all flesh.

No flood in the future.

The ark is ready to exit.

Then we see Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the people who will populate the world.

And we come back to Noah.

The story builds up to the 150 days when the waters are at their peak and then another 150 when they start to abate.  But right in the middle of these two periods is one very important statement.

God remembered Noah.

That does mean that God had forgotten about Noah.  It’s not like he forgot to pick up the kids.  It’s not like me walking to the fellowship hall and forgetting why I came.  I already have coffee.  Why am I here?

This wasn’t an aha moment for God where he smacks his own forehead and says “Noah!  I knew I was supposed to keep up with somebody today.”

God didn’t forget Noah.  He remembered that this was a man who was blameless in an evil world.  He remembered that his favor had been poured out on Noah.  He remembered that this was the man who did everything that God commanded him to do.

He remembered that this was how he would continue humankind after the judgment of the flood.

He remembered a man and his family that were shut in an ark with every living creature of the land and sky that would once again fill the earth.

Why would this read God remembered Noah?

Consider that God was saddened that he had made humankind.  The world had gone from very good to something that God regretted making. Some translations even read that God repented of having made man.  Ouch!

Perhaps the words, God remembered Noah, tell us that God once again had a smile on his face for he had found Noah blameless and had given him his favor.

I won’t add words to the Bible, but I think that God remembered Noah and he smiled.  The thoughts of a creation that was good, even very good, came once again to God.

Sometimes remember means to think back to.  Remember those days.  Remember your childhood.  Remember that groundball with eyes that you hit and drove in the winning run.

Remember the Alamo!

Do you remember the movie A Few Good Men?  There is one scene where the night before the Tom Cruise character—Lt. Caffey is going to take on the Jack Nicholson character—Col. Jessup, he thinks that Demi Moore is flirting with him.

She starts to say something about tomorrow but Tom Cruise interrupts.

He goes into his boastful diatribe about how if you have somehow grown to respect how I do things or something like that—some real build-yourself-up language—the whole this girl is hooked on me thing.

Demi Moore answers, “Remember to wear matching socks.”

Remember is an interesting word.  The word in the original text is זָכַר or zakar (zaw-kar').

Its meanings are generally something other than the opposite of to forget.  They are to be mindful, to bring to remembrance, to bring to mind, to celebrate, to still remember, to call or come to remembrance, to extol, to mention, to preserve, or to take thought. 

God didn’t forget Noah. He remembered Noah like we might remember a first date or first kiss, a homerun in the bottom of the ninth, or a state fair corndog.

When God thought of Noah, he remembered—and rightfully so—the humankind that would bring glory to his name one day.  He remembered making humankind in his own likeness.  He remembered—as only God can remember an event that would be in our future—the reconciliation of all things.

God was sad that he made humankind.  The sinful inclination of every human heart made him regret that he had made us. He judged the world and destroyed all life on land and in the sky by a great flood.  God was sad, but God remembered Noah.

Noah was not forgotten. Noah was God’s bright spot in the middle of a sinful and rebellious creation.

God remembered Noah!

When God remembers us—when he calls to mind the person that we are—will he be joyful or will we make him sad?

He has done everything for us to be right with him.  Will our response to this wonderful gift that we call mercy and grace put a smile on God’s face?

Will our faith be the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen?

Will our trust in the Lord prevail over our own understanding?

Will we walk by faith not by sight?

When we come to mind—to God’s mind—will he see the creation that he made very good?  Will he see his own likeness? Will he see one of his children bringing glory to his name? Will he see his love manifest in our time through us?

God remembered Noah, and I think that made him smile.  I think it broke his sadness over making humankind.

Know the story of Noah, but be a person that makes God smile every time he remembers you—every time he thinks of you.

Amen.

Guess what else survived the flood

 Read Genesis 8

We are going to talk some more about Noah and the flood, but we are going to have to talk about profanity before it’s all said and done.  Just warning you.

Let’s jump to verse 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.  The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

“As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

will never cease.”

What can we learn from this pericope?

Most people say that God promised not to judge the world again by a flood.  That doesn’t mean there won’t be flooding.  We see flooding all over the world, sometimes even in western Oklahoma.

It means that God will not destroy the world again by means of a flood.  There will be a time when this sinful world is consumed and a new heaven and new earth are bestowed upon us, but these things will not be manifest by a flood.

It tells us that the flood was not a natural event.  It was a judgment.  What would be natural?

Seedtime and harvest.

Cold and heat.

Summer and winter. In Oklahoma, those can be on the same day.

Day and night.

God said that as long as the earth endures—however long that may be.  Only God knows.  But as long as this earth endures, we will have the natural order of things as God set them in motion at the creation.

What else did we learn?

Noah made a burnt offering to the Lord.  The Lord was pleased.  Those animals that were considered clean, especially some of the birds, might not have been as excited about this, but Noah’s offering pleased God.

Anything else?

How about our sinful nature surviving the flood.  Noah was found blameless before the Lord, but that does not mean he didn’t have sinful nature.

His sons and their wives still had a sinful nature.

God stated that every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. What the…!

God just pronounced judgment upon the world because evil had become so commonplace.  Sin abounded like never before.  Noah was the only bright spot in a sinful world.

Why did God not purge that righteous remnant of evil and sin?

We are meant to struggle with God’s ways and the ways of the world.  God already chose us for salvation and right standing with him.

He wants us to choose him, his kingdom, and his righteousness over sin and evil.  God gives us the ability to choose him over our sinful nature.

We are meant to struggle.  We are meant to choose God.  We are meant to be overcomers, not for our salvation but to bring glory to God.

God did everything that righteousness required—and God defined righteousness and then abided in his decision—to make us right with him.  The blood of Jesus was the atoning sacrifice. Our profession of faith is the beginning of our salvation.

But every thought, action, lack of action, and everything else that we do while we still have breath is how we live out our salvation.

God judged the earth with a flood.  Only 8 people were preserved because Noah found favor with God, but our sinful nature survived as well.

We are meant to struggle with our nature and our own understanding but we were created to bring glory to God and to enjoy him very much.

What else survived the flood?  Our free will.  We are blessed to choose.  Sometimes we have those hold my beer moments where we wish God would have removed our free will and made us do the right thing, but we still have free will.

We still get to choose.

Sometimes we know what God wants us to do but we don’t want to do it.  The biblical term would be kicking against the goads, but God lets us choose anyway.

We should be singing Have thine Own Way, Lord! Have thine own way! Thou art the Potter, I am the clay.

Instead, we sing I did it my way.

You might think this is a dichotomy, but it doesn’t have to be. When we trust the Lord and his ways become our ways, then our own understanding is in accord with God’s directed steps.

Our sinful nature is an opportunity for us to say, I choose God’s ways as my own, before encountering the circumstances of the world.

What am I saying?  Before the problem or decision or set of circumstances arises, we have chosen God’s way and eliminated the dichotomy between trusting God and our own understanding.

I used this principle to teach others how to overcome profanity. The premise is that every word that we utter is a decision.

The counterargument is that when you hit your thumb with a hammer, there is no decision point between the stimulus and the response.

But there is, though it may be ever so brief.  So how do I or how do you make the decision not to use vulgar language?

We move the decision point. It no longer exists between the stimulus and response.  It comes well before anything requiring an immediate response.  You might call this training or discipleship.

With profanity, we change the lexicon.  We learn and use a new vocabulary.  We don’t use vulgarity. We practice the use of effective words.  We are filled with good words.

When the stimulus comes that might provoke vulgar speech, we don’t have the vulgar words to reach for, but we do have an abundance of other words.

Do you know the definition of vulgar? Usually, this is the first or second definition that we encounter when we go to the dictionary.  It’s characterized by ignorance.

How do you overcome ignorance?  Education and training. This is done before the decision as to what words to use are prompted by some event.

Think of sending soldiers into combat and not training them before they went.  They can just figure out how to shoot, move, and communicate once they get there and the enemy is trying to kill them.

That would be absurd, yet that is what we do so often when it comes to trusting God or leaning on our own understanding.  We have free will.  It survived the flood along with the sinful inclination of our hearts, but our free will lets us choose to choose God and his ways before the circumstances of the world are upon us.

When you take your car in for service, don’t you hope that the mechanics have been properly trained before you turn them loose with power tools on your vehicle?

Why then, do we wait for a moment of crisis to think about what to do when we could decide long before just to do everything God’s way.

Our sinful nature survived the flood.  Our free will survived the flood.  We should use our free will to choose God, his kingdom, and his righteousness if we want to lessen the struggle between trusting God and leaning on our own understanding.

If we want to please God, we need to make that decision now and start learning, understanding, and practicing his ways now.

And you thought we were going to talk about spending a year aboard a ship full of animals.

There’s still a rainbow coming.  Hang in there.

Amen.

Noah found Favor

 Read Genesis 7

How did Adam and Eve know how to make clothes?

How did Cain and Abel know to make offerings to God?

How did Abel know what would please God?  Or was it a lucky guess?

How did Cain know that there were other people in the world?  He was afraid that someone would kill him if he was sent away. How did he know that there was someone out there?

How did Noah know that it was God talking to him?  The Lord walked with Adam and Eve, but a lot of evil had come into the world and we don’t hear about the Lord out for walks.  How did Noah know that it was God calling him to this impossible task?

How did Noah know the difference between clean and unclean animals?  Sure, there is a list in Leviticus 11, but that was hundreds or years down the road.

We talked before that we might just have more questions than answers during this time of study.  That’s just fine.  It’s often the case in adult education.  The inquisitive adult usually completes a course of study with more questions than answers.

The more we know, the more we hunger to learn more, but we do want some answers.

The answers are:

God created.

He created good.

Mankind sinned.

There were consequences.

Mankind sinned profusely.

God judged the world.

A remnant was saved.  Humankind was worth saving.

We don’t know:

Where Cain’s wife came from.

How Abel knew to make a pleasing offering.

How Noah knew clean from unclean animals.

We do know that Will and Ariel Durant did not write Genesis.  Every detail is not put into writing. We do have what we need.

What do we need for what? To follow the story of God’s relationship with his creation with special attention to humankind. 

I like to study history, especially military history and political history.  I like to see the strategy and tactics of historical battles.  I like to see how our constitution and branches of government came to be and evolved into what they are now. 

My mind is not as sharp as it once was, but there are still political, social, and historical things that pique my interest.  The more I study, the more questions I have.  Sometimes I find answers.

As we study Genesis, we get some very clear answers and we get  some things that are not answered.  The world, including Christians, will speculate.  Be careful not to give theories and speculation—sometimes defined as interpretation—the same credibility as scripture.

Explore, but hold fast only to scripture.  Secular history should be secondary to scripture. It’s good to buttress our understanding of scripture, but should never contradict scripture.

Explore, but trust God over your own understanding. We have talked about this wrestling match.

Explore, but be Berean.  Test what someone has to say against the scriptures.

So where does that leave us in this beginning account of Noah and the flood?

Noah did everything that God commanded him.  Noah—to include his family—found favor with God.  Noah had trusted God through this entire process and now God would save him and his family as a righteous remnant.

God judged the wicked but preserved a righteous remnant.  Surely Noah and his family had all sinned, but somehow Noah had a right relationship with God.

The story of God’s relationship with humankind would continue through Noah.  We are all here today because God’s favor fell upon Noah.

If we don’t remember anything else about the flood, remember that Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Keep reading.  There’s a rainbow coming soon.

Amen.

God Shut the Door

 Read Genesis 7

Grammatically, this chapter is not entirely chronological, but you can see the chronology. The floodwaters are described and then the animals come, but we can see that Noah had the ark loaded with every creature, some more than others, and food for the lot of them.

You have to wonder if there was any disparity in accommodations between the clean and unclean animals. That’s food for concurrent discussions on another day.  For the moment, let’s consider that Noah had done all that he was commanded to do.  The ark was loaded.  The rain was coming.

Don’t you just love it when a plan comes together?  Wait!

The door was open.

The door to the ark was open.  Noah had done everything just as the Lord commanded, but the door was open.  Noah had never been to a flood before, but this open-door business surely wasn’t going to work.  The door was open.

Noah had built the ark.  It had never rained.  Noah probably didn’t know what a flood was, but he did exactly as he was told and built this massive ship.

Noah made sure that he had the right number of animals.  He had seven pairs of clean animals.  He had seven pairs of each sort of bird.  He had two of each of the other animals.  They were paired for mating and furtherance of the species.

Noah didn’t have to organize a safari to round up the animals.  They came to him.  That part falls under the category of cool beans.  The animals came to Noah.

Noah did all that God commanded him to do.  He was 600 years old.  On the seventeenth day of the second month of the year that Noah turned 600, water started emerging from the ground and rain began to fall. This flood thing—this thing never seen before—it was happening.

Some people give CCR credit for the song Have You Ever Seen the Rain, but I think Noah might have written an early version.

And on that same day, Noah and his family entered the ark.  The flood was beginning and the door to the ark was open.

Maybe Noah could rig a quick pulley system and put those elephants to work and pull that door closed.

If they tried to push it closed from the outside.  Someone would be left behind.

Noah had done everything that God commanded, but the door was open.

We don’t know if Noah wondered how to close it or if this whole thing was just a test of his faith before he and his family drowned.  We don’t see any thoughts or conversation about the door being open.

Noah had trusted God this far and completed this seemingly impossible task, but he had been given no instructions on how to shut the door.

Those that entered, male and female of all flesh, entered as God had commanded him; and the Lord closed the door behind him.

The Lord shut him in.

Imagine having done all that Noah had done and wondering if he would be undone by this single detail.  Noah couldn’t shut the door himself.

If God could have held off on the flood for a couple more months, Noah surely could have rigged a pulley system.  Noah could have built a small raft and rounded up some extra elephants and had one of his sons have them push the door closed, and then floated on the raft attached to the ark by a rope, until he floated high enough to climb the rope to openings at the top of the ark.

If Noah had only been given instructions as to how to close the door, he surely would have done it.  He did everything just as God commanded him, but God had not commanded him to find a way to close the door.

We don’t know how big the door was, but it would need to fit giraffes and elephants, rhinos and hippos through it.

If it wasn’t something that could also double as a ramp, it would need a pier built next to the ship for boarders could walk straight across and the door could close in a lateral motion.   We just don’t know, but closing the door would seem to be another monumental task, except this time God did not give Noah instructions on what to build or what to do other than entering the ark.

The Lord closed the door behind him.  The Lord shut him in.

Noah trusted God throughout this entire endeavor.  Noah loaded the ark with the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.  Noah had faith that God had told him exactly what he needed to know and needed to do.

Noah trusted God that God himself knew best.  Father knows best and Noah stayed the course of faith throughout.

Do you know what else was missing from God’s instructions to Noah? There was something else not in the design.  Maybe there was more than one thing.

Let’s start with lifeboats.  There was nothing in the design about lifeboats.  No modern ship would be allowed to leave port without sufficient lifeboats for all aboard.  Modern lifeboats are supposed to be unsinkable.  It makes you wonder why they don’t build the entire ship out of the same stuff that they build lifeboats.

There were no lifeboats.  Once Noah did what he was told to do, his life was aboard that ark.  His salvation was in the ark. God did not give a contingency plan.  There was no Plan B.  There were no just-in-case instructions.

Once Noah had done his part, it was like God said:  “I’ll take it from here.”

Yes, Noah and his family would need to tend to the animals.  They needed to be fed and the stalls needed to be cleaned.  I bet Noah had the best compost pile ever.  Those two worms that came aboard were probably two million worms by the end of the voyage.

What else was missing?  There were no sails.  Noah had no means of trying to keep this huge ship on course, if he could even figure out what course to set it on.  John Masefield’s words would not come for millennia.

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,

And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by;

And the wheel’s kick and the wind’s song and the white sail’s shaking,

And a grey mist on the sea’s face, and a grey dawn breaking.

 

There would be none of that.  There were no sails.  There was no rudder.  Any and everything having to do with navigation belonged exclusively to the Lord.

God shut the door to the ark.

God knew that lifeboats would not be needed.

God alone would direct the ship while all were embarked.

Noah did exactly what God had commanded him to do. His part was to trust and obey.  His part was faith.

Noah did what he was told but Noah trusted God to do whatever needed to be done for the salvation of his family. That included shutting the door.

I’ll just bet Noah composed an early version of Trust and Obey.  While we do his good will, he abides with us still, and with all who will trust and obey.

The Psalms would not come until much later, but I’ll venture a guess that Noah’s crew might have had their own version of Psalm 150:6. 

Let everything that has breath praise the Lord.

Praise the Lord.

Having breath surely took on a whole new meaning when all of the lifeforms on the planet that needed air to breathe were drowning. Countless people and animals took their last breaths at this time.

As we consider Noah’s family entering the ark and God shutting the door, I ask us to consider two verses that most of us have memorized.  They are Hebrews 11:1 and Proverbs 3:5-6.

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.  Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not on your own understanding.  In all your ways acknowledge him and he will make your paths straight.

Noah trusted.  Noah had faith, but more than that, he trusted and probably didn’t understand much of what he was instructed to do.  He couldn’t see each and every part of where God was taking him.

Noah surely walked by faith not sight. Let’s consider what we have learned today in the context of the full biblical witness.

As we walk with the Lord, we must live by faith not sight much of the time.  We must trust even when we don’t understand. We must live in the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

OBTW—these things are contrary to the patterns of the world.

We need to obey the Lord and what he has commanded us will not be a burden to us. We are to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.

We must know that the Lord delights more in our obedience than in our offerings and sacrifices.

We are studying Noah and the flood.  Let’s through in a vocabulary word for you to use at lunch when you are eating with your other friends who worship elsewhere.  It’s antediluvian.  That means before the flood.

Postdiluvian would be after the flood.

Why did I through those two words in?  So, people will know that you are studying Noah and the flood because today’s message was about trust and obedience.  It was about walking by faith not sight.  It was about living in the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

It was about trusting God will do what he needs to do even when we don’t understand it.  It’s about stepping out in faith even when God doesn’t give us all the information.

We are studying Noah but singing Trust and Obey. The author of Hebrews tells us:

By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.

Through Noah’s faith, God pronounced judgment upon the world while preserving a righteous remnant.

Through obedience to God and the fear of the Lord, Noah manifested faith and trust in his actions.  He did what he was commanded to do by God and trusted that God would do whatever else needed to be done.

I am going to speculate that Noah did all of this without anxiety.  Could you imagine building a huge ship year after year, decade after decade with an anxiousness abiding within you?  You would have a heart attack or nervous breakdown before the end of the first decade. You would be toast.

Noah obeyed God and trusted God and had faith in God and did everything God told him to do, even when he didn’t see how all the pieces fit together, and I believe he did it without anxiousness. I think somehow he knew the peace of the Lord.

Are we up for that?  Can we obey and trust?  Does our own understanding have to be satisfied before we will act on God’s instructions to us, or will we simply trust and obey and be at peace because God knows exactly what he is doing and telling us to do?

My prayer is that we answer in the affirmative.

Amen.

Just as God had commanded him

 Read Genesis 6

This story has two themes.  Humankind rebelled against God and all that is Good and a remnant was faithful. There were a faithful few, at least there was Noah and God’s favor extended to Noah’s family.

The human heart sought after its own desires.  It sought self-gratification and relied on its own understanding.  Evil prevailed among the people of the world.

God decided to put an end to this evil that thrived upon the world.  He would bring an end to humankind and all over which he had given humans stewardship.  Both men and the lives of the creatures entrusted to him would be put to an end.

God saw the evil that had manifested itself in every human heart and was saddened at what his creation had become.

Noah was a bright spot in this dark world. 

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

God told Noah that he would bring a flood upon the earth.  Noah surely had no idea what  a flood was, but whatever it was it was coming and God told him to build a huge ship and stock it with provisions for all aboard.

All aboard would include animals as well—paired for the furtherance of the species. This would require a huge ship.  Noah couldn’t just hook up the trailer and get something at the Bass Pro Shop.  God told him to build this huge ship.

Most of us don’t use cubits in measuring things these days, so just how large was this cruise ship going to be?

The length was 510 feet.  That’s over one and one-half football fields in length.  Today, we see cruise ships that are 1000 feet long, but the ark was built from wood and without a modern shipyard.

The height was 50 feet.  That’s as tall as a modern 4 story house.  It only had 3 decks so these decks had high ceilings. 

The ship was almost twice as wide as it was tall.  By modern standards, it could have held 450 40-foot containers.  Today we see container ships that haul much more with containers stacked high above deck but imagine the storage capacity of this ancient ship that would be made only by human hands.

I have spent some time aboard ship and know a little more than the average bear about loading and unloading them for amphibious operations, including the supply and logistics behind them.  But I had never thought too much about those container ships.  I found that in 2020 it cost $1500 to ship one container from China to the United States.  It seems like a lot, but considering the time and distance, I guess it was the market price.  Today it cost $20,000 to ship the same container.  It’s no wonder the Dollar Tree is now the Dollar and a Quarter Tree.

We are reading Genesis 6 but the world economy is starting to look like Revelation 6—a pint of wheat for a day’s wage.  Let’s get back to the ark.

Modern estimates put the lumber used for construction at approximately 3.1 million board feet.  A board foot is a 1-foot by 1-foot by 1-inch piece of lumber.  To give you some perspective, 3.1 million board feet would mean you could lay lumber from here to Memphis, make a quick stop at Graceland, and have enough lumber to get out of the city on the east side.

And it had a huge door on it.  Most conceptualize a gangway sort of ramp that acted as a door.  What was not given by God was the mechanism that would be required to shut this huge door.  There was no introduction to hydraulics or mechanics or even pneumatic devices.  We will see how the door was closed in the next chapter.

It was the biggest ship of its time and perhaps still the biggest wooden ship ever built.  This was not only a huge ship. It was a huge undertaking.

God did not put out a ship-building contract among major shipbuilders and wait for the bids to come in. God told Noah what he was to do. This impossible task was all on Noah.

Imagine God telling us to do this today.  OK, the guys would get excited because they had a God-given excuse to buy loads of new tools, but eventually, the magnitude of the task would set in.

God is telling me to do the impossible

So, what was Noah’s response to being told to do what had never been done before and what might take 100 years? 

It had never rained.  Noah had never seen a flood. God told Noah to build this huge ship and fill it with every kind of animal and enough food for all on board.

What did Noah do?

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

There is a meme going around that reads Noah was a conspiracy theorist until it began to rain. Imagine the ridicule of the general population as Noah pursued what had to be a senseless, if not insane task.

Noah’s God—if there even was such a being—was surely just tormenting Noah.

C’mon man, walk away from the ship-building madness and enjoy life.  Come and gratify every desire of your human heart.  You are crazy to continue this madness.

That would have been the friendly banter, but surely there was something with hate and disdain for actions that went contrary to the narrative of the world. But Noah…

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

It is good that we see Noah’s faithfulness to God.  It’s good that we have this incredible story of a man who in spite of the many unknowns in what God commanded him to do, just did what God told him to do.

Today, very large undertakings are accompanied by an estimate of supportability.  Can we do what we need to do?  How much will it cost? What are the material and labor requirements?  What are the long lead time items? Will we have public support? What are the consequences of failure? What are the consequences of success?

But Noah…

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

It’s good to know the story.  We get more details in the chapters ahead, but are there lessons for us now?  Is there any insight for today?

The straightforward message is if God commands you to do something, then do it.  Just do it. You know the verse.  Trust in the Lord with all your heart…

If God commands you to do something of impossible magnitude, consider that you may have found favor with the Lord.  Perhaps we should see God’s favor when he asks the impossible of us.

Most of us won’t be called to ship-building, but we might be called to cook or teach or shepherd a group of believers.  We might be called to evangelism.  Some would rather build a ship from scratch than talk to their neighbors about the love of God.

Some may be called to witness to someone who is lost in the world.  We might be called to encourage other believers by our testimonies. 

You might be called to preach.  You might be called to be on a planning committee.  You might be called by the Spirit that lives within you to do something that is out of your comfort zone.

Your human nature might try to talk you out of it.

You do enough already.

Don’t fall for that.  It’s a trap.  The next thing you know you will be living fully for God.

You don’t have time.

Somebody else could do a better job.

Why me, Lord?

Is that really God speaking to me or is it those jalapenos from last night?

If God is calling you to do something, be Noah, not Moses.  Don’t try to talk God out of it.  Just do it, even if it is more than you think you can handle.

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

When you feel the Spirit within you calling you to something impossible—you know it is God’s Spirit because his sheep know his voice—then consider that you have found God’s favor in the impossible task set before you.

What does the impossible look like today?  God is calling you to do something that you can’t work into your day, but he has charged you to make it the most important thing in your day.

What will we do?

Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

What will we do?

Are we ready to do everything just as God has commanded us?

Amen.

Hold My Beer

Read Genesis 6

Did you ever do something that you regretted?

Have you ever made a really, really big mistake and wished that you could take it back?

Have you ever been sick to your stomach and even to your inner being over something that you did?

I know some of you regret doing the horns down thing this year. Was this the wrong year for that!

I’m talking about serious stuff.

The first cruise that I went on was about 8 years ago. I was riding the bus back to where I parked my car.  The driver asked a couple young ladies seated near the front of the shuttle how their cruise was.  One of them said, “It was great.  I just can’t tell my boyfriend about parts of it.”

What a great cruise!  There’s some stuff that I regret.  What a contrast of emotions.  What a dichotomy.

Think about and God saw what he had made and called it very good in contrast to God was saddened that he had made humankind.

The creation was good—very good.  Humankind was set atop of this creation.  We were the crown of the creation, but we embraced sin and not God.

God was saddened.  He grieved.  He regretted.  Some translations say he repented of making mankind. 

This whole creation business, especially mankind, sure caught God off-guard. Or did it?

If God is truly all-knowing and all-seeing and beyond this physical universe that we know, he had to see this coming.  Right?

I would surely say, “Yes!”

God could see what was to come.  God could see man embracing sin.  God could see his regret at the same time he saw what he made was very good.

And yet, he created us anyway.

And yet, he created us in his image anyway.

And yet, he breathed life into us anyway.

God saw what he would make, how we would rebel, the consequences of our rebellion, our redemption, and the price required for our redemption, and he made us anyway.

God knew what was ahead of us and he made us anyway.  God knew that our rebellion and our relationship with sin would grieve his heart; yet he made us anyway.

What do we make of this?

Consider that you are so very valuable to God.  You are valuable to God not because your obedience was or will be perfect, but because you are his.  You are made in his image and likeness.  We are to become like him. We are not there yet.

The road that we take to get there is full of struggle and pain and hurt and broken hearts and the list goes on, but it is the road set before us.

It is a road that you can’t find on the map.

It is a road named by faith not sight.

It is a road that goes through the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.

It is a road that God must have thought worthwhile for us to walk for he knew the price he would pay.

God knew ahead of time the cost of creating humankind.  He did it anyway.

Sometimes, we know ahead of time that if we do something, we are going to regret it.  So do we do it anyway?

If we know that we will regret something, we probably shouldn’t do it.  We should consider the cost of our decision for us and for others and for our relationship with God.

Most of the time, if we know we will regret something, we shouldn’t do it.

West of the Mississippi, there is a phrase for I know that I will regret this.  Do you know what it is?

Hold my beer.

So, if those hold my beer thoughts come to mind, you probably shouldn’t do what you are contemplating.

But if you do and if you have those regrets, if you grieve your decision, if you are lost in a world of I knew better and did it anyway; don’t give up.

God already factored in the hold my beer factor into his creation.  He preserved a remnant that would lead to the One who could redeem us all.

The better choice is not to do things that you know you will regret, but God has already factored in your bad decisions.  He still made a way for us to be redeemed and reconciled.  God’s heart has already ached for our sin; yet he made us anyway.

Yes, we will have trials and tribulations and suffering and temptation.  Some of these will come from our own poor decision-making.  We may be persecuted because of our good decisions to follow Jesus as Lord and be known as his disciples by our love.

But whether our decisions are good, bad, or too close to call; God has made a way for us to come home. God knew what we would do before our thoughts and actions were manifest in our lifetimes, and yet he continued with the very part of the creation that grieved him so.

You must really be worth something to God for him to still love you in spite of what you have done, I have done, or humankind has done throughout history.

God will not tolerate wickedness or rebellion, but he loves you.  His love is greater than our rebellion.  Let’s do our best not to do things that we will regret or will grieve God, but never forget that in the height of our rebellion, God still loved us more than we can comprehend.

Know the story of Noah, the flood, the destruction of the evil world that had developed, and that God found favor in Noah.  These are important to understanding our relationship with God.

But know with absolute certainty, that God loves you.  He knew what humankind would do and he knows how many hold my beer moments you have while you are on the earth, and he loves you.

Even though we break God’s heart, he loves us.

God is just.  He is righteous.  He will not tolerate sin.  He has wrath for the wicked, but know this:

God loves you.

Amen.