Why on earth do I ever doubt that God is in control?
His sovereignty is sprinkled all over Genesis 8 ... and all over this world and our lives.
The chapter begins with the reassuring truth that God didn't forget Noah and his arkmates. Well, of course not. After all, there wasn't anybody else left on earth.
But suppose it said here that God did forget about them, even for just a minute? Think about how disconcerting that would be. If I let myself imagine that, then I can appreciate the truth that God didn't forget Noah ... and He doesn't forget us as we bob up and down on our arks in this fallen world.
I see in Genesis 8 that at the right time, God conducted the forces of nature like a mighty orchestra to recreate our planet. He caused the wind to blow and the waters to subside; He closed the fountains of the deep and the floodgates of the sky; He restrained the rain.
And He did it all in perfect order, with perfect power and precision.
I see that in all the references in this chapter to specific dates and times:
... at the end of 150 days the water decreased
... the ark rested upon a mountain on the 17th day of the 7th month
... on the first day of the 10th month, the tops of the mountains became visible
... 40 days later, Noah opened the window
... he sent out birds every seven days to seek land
... on the first day of the first month of the 601st year, the surface of the ground was dried up
... on the 27th day of the second month, the earth was dry.
Honestly, it sounds like a woman describing something to a man who just wishes she'd skip all the details and get to the point.
But these time and number details aren't just irrelevant fluff. No, I think they confirm that the events in Genesis 8 actually happened, and happened according to God's timetable -- a God who obviously cares about details.
Do you ever feel like our eternal, transcending-time-and-space God forgets how long some of our hours and days and years seem ?
He doesn't. He counts them with us. He's not bound by time, but He is obviously quite aware of it.
"And on the 14th day of the 5th month of the 1,957th year, Mary Ann was born. And on the 28th day of the 8th month of the 2,013th year, Mary Ann sat down, read my Word and wrote this blog post."
And on any particular day of any particular month of any particular year, He knows what you're going through, how long it will last, and exactly how to unfold His plan in your life ... and in this world.
He sees and He knows.
I can't leave Genesis 8 without also mentioning the very first thing Noah did when he finally got off that ark: "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord ... and offered burnt offerings on the altar." (vs. 20)
Noah worshipped God.
After all he'd been through -- all those months tossed around by waves on a boat full of stinky, noisy animals; all those months of fear and uncertainty and discomfort -- after all that, Noah worshipped God.
He wasn't bitter over what God had done to him; he was grateful for what God had done for him.
Easy to see why God chose Noah, isn't it?
And God "smelled the soothing aroma" of Noah's worship and said, "'...I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.'" (vs. 21)
Worship matters to God.
God remembers. God restores. God notices. God responds. God rewards. God controls.
Don't know about you, but I'm glad I'm His.
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Friday, August 16, 2013
Genesis 7: Looking for People to Save
God was looking for people to save.
He found only one: Noah.
We have a choice to make when we read Genesis 7. We can choose to focus on all the people who died in the great flood God brought upon the earth OR we can focus on the one man God saved (along with his very fortunate, coattail-riding family members).
If we focus only on the horror of those who perished in the flood, we're likely to get the wrong idea about God's heart and character. If we go down that path, it's hard not to wonder how God could be loving and yet blot out children, puppies and literally everything "in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life" (vs. 22).
That's the very rock upon which many souls have shipwrecked, isn't it?
How could a good God not only allow suffering and death, but actually even cause it, as He did here?
Well, this is exactly why I believe it's incredibly important to look at all of God's Word to see what He is really like. If we pull isolated, admittedly tough stories like this one out of context, we're doomed to come to wrong conclusions about who God is.
That's why, in fact, I set out on this blogging adventure -- to have a truer, more complete knowledge of this God I've chosen to follow.
As I mentioned in some earlier posts, I think we just can't comprehend how evil evil really is, how pervasive it had become by Genesis 7, and how much destruction and pain it causes. In truth, God didn't destroy anything in the flood that wasn't already doomed to self-destruct anyway. The sinful choices of earth's inhabitants had already set the planet on a quick path to destruction. Things fall apart pretty fast when evil takes over, whether we're talking about individual lives or entire civilizations.
Let's not overlook the incredibly important truth here in Genesis 7 that God was actively looking for people to save, desperately looking for any whose hearts were turned toward Him. Yes, "innocent" children were killed in the great flood, but we mustn't forget that God sees all of time and He knew the path those kids were going down. There was obviously, literally no hope for any of them in a world gone so wrong. Removing them from such pervasive, destructive evil was evidently the most loving option. (Let me quickly add here that ONLY God can ever make a call like that. It's never ... ever ... okay for us to kill babies or children using this same rationale. We don't know what God knows.)
I see in Genesis 7 that sin is a big, big deal to God. It destroys all the good plans He has for His creation. It grieves Him and yes, it makes Him righteously angry. And even though God is full of grace, mercy, patience and longsuffering, we should never forget that sin is still a big deal to Him. Letting it go too far is playing with fire ... or water, in this case. Lots of water.
It's also clear in Genesis 7 that God sees those who honor Him. He sees. Sometimes we think He doesn't, but He does. And He so cared about righteous Noah that He even allowed him to bring his unrighteous loved ones onto the ark with him. Noah's wives, kids and daughters-in-law should have been pretty darn thankful for old Noah and his godly heart. He was the only thing keeping them from sleeping with the fishes. Why did God do that? Why did He spare Noah's family? Well, maybe to spare Noah additional pain. I mean, this whole ark and flood thing was no picnic for Noah, and he might have been completely shattered if he had lost everyone he loved. And really, would Noah have felt blessed and rewarded by God if he had been stuck on the ark completely alone with a bunch of stinky, noisy, high-maintenance animals?
Or maybe God spared Noah's family because, practically speaking, God obviously needed some people to survive and replenish the earth. Oh sure, He could have opted to replay Genesis 1 again -- sort of a "Creation Remix" -- but I think it's interesting that He chose not to go that route. Maybe because when God sets a plan in motion, He sees it through until the end. One garden of Eden, one sinless couple, one fall. Personally, I don't think God wanted to go through all of that again. He had a plan in place and knew that He could ultimately keep working His plan, even with fallen creatures constantly trying to thwart it, until He brings about the eternally perfect new heaven and earth Scripture promises.
Whatever the reason, Noah's family got a free pass from the flood.
It's theologically tricky to sort it all out -- way above my pay grade and beyond my intellect -- but throughout the Scriptures we see examples and indications that our own holiness in some ways and in some situations profoundly impacts the well-being of our loved ones. When we're blessed, they often are, too. Ultimately, we will all stand before God individually to give an account for what we did with God's offer of eternal salvation through faith in Christ, but this I know: The most loving thing we can do in this life for the people we love is to walk intimately and passionately with God. Some of our blessings are sure to spill out on them.
God was not looking for people He could sadistically destroy. He was looking for people He could save.
He still is.
That's the heart of the God I love.
He found only one: Noah.
We have a choice to make when we read Genesis 7. We can choose to focus on all the people who died in the great flood God brought upon the earth OR we can focus on the one man God saved (along with his very fortunate, coattail-riding family members).
If we focus only on the horror of those who perished in the flood, we're likely to get the wrong idea about God's heart and character. If we go down that path, it's hard not to wonder how God could be loving and yet blot out children, puppies and literally everything "in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life" (vs. 22).
That's the very rock upon which many souls have shipwrecked, isn't it?
How could a good God not only allow suffering and death, but actually even cause it, as He did here?
Well, this is exactly why I believe it's incredibly important to look at all of God's Word to see what He is really like. If we pull isolated, admittedly tough stories like this one out of context, we're doomed to come to wrong conclusions about who God is.
That's why, in fact, I set out on this blogging adventure -- to have a truer, more complete knowledge of this God I've chosen to follow.
As I mentioned in some earlier posts, I think we just can't comprehend how evil evil really is, how pervasive it had become by Genesis 7, and how much destruction and pain it causes. In truth, God didn't destroy anything in the flood that wasn't already doomed to self-destruct anyway. The sinful choices of earth's inhabitants had already set the planet on a quick path to destruction. Things fall apart pretty fast when evil takes over, whether we're talking about individual lives or entire civilizations.
Let's not overlook the incredibly important truth here in Genesis 7 that God was actively looking for people to save, desperately looking for any whose hearts were turned toward Him. Yes, "innocent" children were killed in the great flood, but we mustn't forget that God sees all of time and He knew the path those kids were going down. There was obviously, literally no hope for any of them in a world gone so wrong. Removing them from such pervasive, destructive evil was evidently the most loving option. (Let me quickly add here that ONLY God can ever make a call like that. It's never ... ever ... okay for us to kill babies or children using this same rationale. We don't know what God knows.)
I see in Genesis 7 that sin is a big, big deal to God. It destroys all the good plans He has for His creation. It grieves Him and yes, it makes Him righteously angry. And even though God is full of grace, mercy, patience and longsuffering, we should never forget that sin is still a big deal to Him. Letting it go too far is playing with fire ... or water, in this case. Lots of water.
It's also clear in Genesis 7 that God sees those who honor Him. He sees. Sometimes we think He doesn't, but He does. And He so cared about righteous Noah that He even allowed him to bring his unrighteous loved ones onto the ark with him. Noah's wives, kids and daughters-in-law should have been pretty darn thankful for old Noah and his godly heart. He was the only thing keeping them from sleeping with the fishes. Why did God do that? Why did He spare Noah's family? Well, maybe to spare Noah additional pain. I mean, this whole ark and flood thing was no picnic for Noah, and he might have been completely shattered if he had lost everyone he loved. And really, would Noah have felt blessed and rewarded by God if he had been stuck on the ark completely alone with a bunch of stinky, noisy, high-maintenance animals?
Or maybe God spared Noah's family because, practically speaking, God obviously needed some people to survive and replenish the earth. Oh sure, He could have opted to replay Genesis 1 again -- sort of a "Creation Remix" -- but I think it's interesting that He chose not to go that route. Maybe because when God sets a plan in motion, He sees it through until the end. One garden of Eden, one sinless couple, one fall. Personally, I don't think God wanted to go through all of that again. He had a plan in place and knew that He could ultimately keep working His plan, even with fallen creatures constantly trying to thwart it, until He brings about the eternally perfect new heaven and earth Scripture promises.
Whatever the reason, Noah's family got a free pass from the flood.
It's theologically tricky to sort it all out -- way above my pay grade and beyond my intellect -- but throughout the Scriptures we see examples and indications that our own holiness in some ways and in some situations profoundly impacts the well-being of our loved ones. When we're blessed, they often are, too. Ultimately, we will all stand before God individually to give an account for what we did with God's offer of eternal salvation through faith in Christ, but this I know: The most loving thing we can do in this life for the people we love is to walk intimately and passionately with God. Some of our blessings are sure to spill out on them.
God was not looking for people He could sadistically destroy. He was looking for people He could save.
He still is.
That's the heart of the God I love.
Friday, August 2, 2013
Genesis 6: Just Like Noah
Well, if you've ever wondered if God has a heart, here's your answer in Genesis 6. Check out verse 6: "The Lord was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart."
There it is. God was grieved in His heart. So, yes, God has a heart. A heart so real and soft that it can be grieved, and it surely was.
Have you ever invested so much in a dream and then watched that dream turn into a nightmare?
Have you ever wanted only good for someone you deeply love and then had that person completely misunderstand, ignore, betray and abandon you?
Have you ever watched someone close to you make choices that wrecked their lives?
Have you ever felt rejected by every single person in your world except one friend -- one true friend -- who believed in you, stood by you and sacrificed their own reputation to defend you?
If so, you understand how God may have been feeling here in Genesis 6.
Wow, just a few pages ago, God seemed quite delighted by all He had made. "It was good," He said. Now, four chapters later, He was sorry He'd made it. Things went south in a hurry on this fallen planet.
We may sometimes look around and think our world is going to hell in a handbasket, but we've never seen the kind of evil that had taken over in the days of Genesis 6.
"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Verse 5)
EVERY intent. ONLY evil CONTINUALLY.
Evil on steroids. Worse than bad.
So, we read these tragic words: "The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth ..." (vs. 6)
God's perfect, glorious, loving intentions for His cherished creatures had gone unrealized because He had given man the freedom and dignity to choose ... or not choose ... to live in relationship with Him.
We read in Genesis 6 that only one man -- just ONE -- chose to walk with God at this point in time. The rest went their own way, and their own way was evil. (Selfish and bad are the default settings in a fallen world.)
Noah was that one who chose God's way over his own: "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord ... Noah was a righteous man, blameless in His time; Noah walked with God."
Noah -- a tiny, tiny flicker of light in the vast, smothering darkness of a thoroughly evil world. But God saw the tiny flicker, and He loved that flicker, and He saved it, and fanned it. And here I am (and you too, I hope) -- millions of flickers of light who have chosen God's way, just like Noah did.
And here we are, just like Noah, in a world that is far too evil.
And here we are, just like Noah, with a chance to bless the heart of God by accepting the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, by being blameless in our time, by walking with God.
But, unlike Noah, we don't have to build an ark to escape the coming, just wrath of God. He 's already provided a lifeboat: Jesus.
All who climb aboard and trust Him will be saved.
Just like Noah.
There it is. God was grieved in His heart. So, yes, God has a heart. A heart so real and soft that it can be grieved, and it surely was.
Have you ever invested so much in a dream and then watched that dream turn into a nightmare?
Have you ever wanted only good for someone you deeply love and then had that person completely misunderstand, ignore, betray and abandon you?
Have you ever watched someone close to you make choices that wrecked their lives?
Have you ever felt rejected by every single person in your world except one friend -- one true friend -- who believed in you, stood by you and sacrificed their own reputation to defend you?
If so, you understand how God may have been feeling here in Genesis 6.
Wow, just a few pages ago, God seemed quite delighted by all He had made. "It was good," He said. Now, four chapters later, He was sorry He'd made it. Things went south in a hurry on this fallen planet.
We may sometimes look around and think our world is going to hell in a handbasket, but we've never seen the kind of evil that had taken over in the days of Genesis 6.
"Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." (Verse 5)
EVERY intent. ONLY evil CONTINUALLY.
Evil on steroids. Worse than bad.
So, we read these tragic words: "The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth ..." (vs. 6)
God's perfect, glorious, loving intentions for His cherished creatures had gone unrealized because He had given man the freedom and dignity to choose ... or not choose ... to live in relationship with Him.
We read in Genesis 6 that only one man -- just ONE -- chose to walk with God at this point in time. The rest went their own way, and their own way was evil. (Selfish and bad are the default settings in a fallen world.)
Noah was that one who chose God's way over his own: "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord ... Noah was a righteous man, blameless in His time; Noah walked with God."
Noah -- a tiny, tiny flicker of light in the vast, smothering darkness of a thoroughly evil world. But God saw the tiny flicker, and He loved that flicker, and He saved it, and fanned it. And here I am (and you too, I hope) -- millions of flickers of light who have chosen God's way, just like Noah did.
And here we are, just like Noah, in a world that is far too evil.
And here we are, just like Noah, with a chance to bless the heart of God by accepting the righteousness that comes through faith in Jesus Christ, by being blameless in our time, by walking with God.
But, unlike Noah, we don't have to build an ark to escape the coming, just wrath of God. He 's already provided a lifeboat: Jesus.
All who climb aboard and trust Him will be saved.
Just like Noah.
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