The days of Noah

 August 15/16, 2020 (Saturday/Sunday)

 

We don’t know when Jesus will return. However, Jesus left a clue. “When the Son of Man returns, it will be like it was in Noah’s day.” [Matthew 24:37 NLT] Jesus went on to say, “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.” [Matthew 24:38 NIV] Some have suggested life will go on as normal. However, I suspect something deeper in Jesus cryptic clue.

 

But what were the days of Noah like? Genesis 6:1 – 2 raise speculative questions. Genesis 6:3 show God limiting human life to 120 years. Genesis 6:4 mention the Nephilim, who were giants or “men of renown.” I’m going to skip these things because, they are not significant to the question.

 

Genesis 6:5 describes the state of humanity, “The Lord saw that humanity had become thoroughly evil on the earth and that every idea their minds thought up was always completely evil.” [CEB] Another translation says, “…everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil.” [Genesis 6:5b NLT]

 

Kind of sounds like an election year, eh? Wickedness was unchecked, even encouraged and celebrated. This is an image of a world without the moral restraint of a Creator and law giver. It is the natural process of the progressive, addictive, and aggressive nature of sin. Jeremiah tells us, “The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” [Jeremiah 17:9 NIV] The idea “beyond cure” is also translated “desperately wicked,” “desperately sick,” and “incurable.”

 

This is a world without God. As our society and culture attempts to eliminate God, silence God’s witness, and turn churches into museums and flea markets, we should not be surprised at the depth of evil we are capable of…

 

Riddle me this: why do we care about the plight of some people because of skin color or other factors, yet not care about the person in the mother’s womb? Seems we are being selective and reaping what we deserve.

 

God’s feelings toward humanity at this point are not charitable. “The Lord regretted making human beings on the earth, and he was heartbroken.” [Genesis 6:6 CEB] This is the heart of a parent whose child has strayed into destructive and dark behavior.

 

But God is not helpless against the tide of human evil. Despite the resolution to destroy what He created, will within His right, “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” [Genesis 6:8 ESV] In this muddled, mangled mess, God finds a glimmer of light. Someone to have favor upon.

 

“And God did not spare the ancient world—except for Noah and the seven others in his family. Noah warned the world of God’s righteous judgment. So God protected Noah when he destroyed the world of ungodly people with a vast flood.” [2 Peter 2:5 NLT] Someone to champion righteousness.

 

These are the days of Noah…