Remembering Noah

This post is from my previous blog, Ear to the Heavens. Enjoy.

In light of recent tsunami, flash flooding, and torrential rains, I am reminded of Noah. The floods and storms we have suffered of late are nothing on par with that which Noah experienced. Noah was to witness a global deluge with which God would destroy all life. But Noah was also faced with a deluge of social and moral decay that Satan sought to use to destroy mankind.

We, like Noah, are faced with a torrent of assaults against biblical morality and godliness that threatens to destroy us and the world. At every turn, another socialist group, activist, or politician is demanding that we abandon conservatism and embrace hedonistic behavior that grates against the very fiber of our spiritual conscience.

Some of us, so grieved by our culture, have adopted an escapist attitude and are awaiting the rapture- not only to deliver us from the coming judgment, but also from the decaying culture around us. In that respect, the work done on our behalf on Calvary and the cross has become our ark - our ticket to ride when the rapture comes.

But it is important to recognize that, apart from the coming wrath, a catastrophic and world-destroying flood has already come. All about us, the world is drowning in darkness and the cross is our - and their - only hope: God's provisional ark to keep us afloat in the surrounding sea of decadence and ungodliness.

In the midst of the decadence that swirled about him, Noah clung to the ark of God's sanctification. But instead of cowering inside the ark awaiting mankind’s final destruction, Noah was a light and a voice of prophecy crying out against the great sin and debauchery of his time.

Peter tells us that God was faithful to rescue Noah and his family from the coming judgment. We, too, have that assurance. But, Peter also tells us that the Holy Spirit which raised Christ from the dead also preached in the days of Noah. In Noah’s case, all hope was lost and instead of evangelizing, Noah proclaimed God’s truth, in effect, silencing on the Day of Judgment all those who perished in the flood.

Regardless of the outcome, God’s word will not return void: men will be saved or condemned by His word. How men respond to God’s message is not of concern to the messenger. Yes, we should rejoice when God’s Word is received and repentance is the outcome, and we should grieve when the opposite is true. But the outcome cannot become a barrier to our responsibility of being salt and light.

Nor should we ever allow our perceived depth of the world’s depravity and our desire to escape it cause us to imagine that God’s Word and our proclamation of it will be of no affect.

It is interesting that Peter is also the writer who cautioned us to remember that from which we were saved. Too often, in our Christian comfort zones we develop a sense of self-righteousness and we see ourselves as above or better than those who are perishing around us.

Unlike the time of Noah, when he alone was seen as upright and worth saving, God is still reaching out and calling men to Himself. Every new day is a day of salvation and we are God’s primary tool of reaching those who are perishing with the living water and life-giving Word. As Peter also reminded us, God is not slow in His coming but is patient, wishing that all men might be saved.

While Noah was shut up in the ark and subjected to the horrible screams and laments of those around him who were perishing and damned eternally, we have the privilege to throw the lifeline from the deck to those struggling in the undertow and to rescue them from the present deluge and the coming judgment.

In a time when we are so greatly reminded of the death that surrounds us, let us focus not on the condemnation or wrath of God, but on being light and life bearers and with a sense of urgency that the times demand.