Table of Contents:
More detailed articles covering: Understanding our lives by looking at Noah’s life:
[2] Abuse of power and the corrupt being within
[3] Toil and tedium, drudgery and hard work
[4] Our hard work AND God’s miracles
[5] Hardships in life, does God discipline us?
[6] Knowing God doesn’t always mean an easy life
[7] Turbulent, out of control lives
[8] How and why to stop complaining
[9] No resting place – stranger in this world
[10] It’s so hard to wait for stuff!
[11] How to please God – a sweet smelling life
[12] Being consistent, no problem!
Looking at Noah’s life we can see some interesting situations that can also occur in our lives:
The world is held by God’s stabilising power.
Possibly within our jobs, our churches and our families we come across control freaks.
Many of us can experience the drudgery of employment or housework.
But God is working behind the scenes.
The modern world is always pushing us to buy the latest things and everything must be got now!
Does our life please God?
God’s dependability in nature
Can you imagine what the world would be like if there was a fickle God, one who was erratic in his behaviour?
The natural laws would then be variable, and unstable, depending upon God’s mood!
The force of gravity could be extreme one day, making it difficult to move about, then insignificant on another day, making it impossible to keep things down in the same position.
Our coffee could float out of it’s mug. It would be chaotic.
Paul tells us that:
..in Christ all things hold together.”
Colossians 1:17
I believe that all the molecular structures are held together by Christ’s unchangeable power. It is He who gives this creation it’s stability.
But that is not all.
God is trustworthy in relationships
If God was erratic, can you imagine what it would be like coming into relationship with Him?
Where would you stand with Him?
The Bible contains many, many promises, but if God was changeable, these promises would become useless.
But thankfully we have a God Who is unchangeable.
And this dependable God said to Noah:
I will establish My Covenant with you.”
Genesis 6:18
What does the word ‘Covenant’ mean? A dictionary would say something like: ‘A formal agreement between two parties’.
Because God is one of the parties, He will establish it.
He makes it sure, and He makes it everlasting.
When you stop to think about God making a Covenant, how incredible that circumstance was!
Here we have Almighty God, stooping to make an agreement with Noah.
But we’re not just looking at Noah. If we believe in Jesus Christ, God says to us:
I will establish My Covenant with you.”
Jesus said to His disciples, prior to His death:
This cup is the New Covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”
Luke 22:20
The thought of the Sovereign, Immortal, Majestic, All Sufficient God, coming to make an agreement, that would be binding upon Himself, and that could limit His workings is amazing!
And because that agreement is with mortal men and women, who came from the dust of the earth is even more extraordinary!
God is perfect in all His ways, He’s faithful, truthful, and yet He makes a binding agreement on Himself, with changeable, volatile mankind.
He is pleased to do that.
What security we can gain from this revelation.
Why? Because He is trustworthy!
I expect we’ve all known someone whose words cannot be trusted.
Perhaps they’ve got a colourful imagination, or they twist things.
So you end up never entirely trusting what they’ve said. But God isn’t like that.
When God makes a promise, a covenant, then that is more firm than the earth itself.
Jesus said:
I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth disappear, not the smallest letter, not the least stroke of a pen, will by any means disappear from the Law until everything is accomplished.”
Matthew 5:18
Every word that He speaks is rock solid, and is trustworthy.
How many of us have experienced a temperamental boss?
It is difficult to know where you stand with them. One day, you may be able to tease them, but on another you are shouted at for no apparent reason.
But God isn’t like that.
In Samuel it is written of the Lord that:
He does not lie or change His mind; for He is not a man, that He should change His mind.”
1 Samuel 15:29
We know where we stand with the Lord, because He has revealed His will, and His purposes through His Word, so we can have confidence before Him.
God took pleasure in Noah’s life
Lastly, in Genesis it says:
But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 6:8
This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time.
Noah walked with God. Noah had three sons.”
Could Noah have built such a huge boat?
How big was Noah’s Ark?
Noah’s timeline from God’s warning to disembarking from the Ark.
What did you notice from that reading?
What was repeated over, and over again?
Noah’s name is mentioned five times in five sentences. (The N.I.V. Bible misses one out).
Why say it five times, when once would have been enough?
Because the Holy Spirit took pleasure in the remembrance of Noah’s name.
If we have got a special, close friend, then their name is special.
When we come into covenant with the Lord, we come into friendship with the Living God.
God said to Noah:
I am going to bring flood waters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark..”
Genesis 6:17-18
[2] Abuse of power and the corrupt being within
[3] Toil and tedium, drudgery and hard work
References:
[i] Photo Credit opens in new windows: aha42 | tehaha Flickr via Compfight cc