Like the Days of Noah
Children and adults all over the world are familiar with the story of Noah. From childhood we are taught songs about Noah and the ark. We all know about Noah building an ark where animals entered into. The account of Noah is a big message to the church. It is actually a guideline on how to prepare for the Lord.
Matthew 24:37-39 tells us that the coming of the Lord will be like the days of Noah. This means that the preparation Noah made towards the building of the ark is similar to the preparation one needs to make in order to be ready and prepared when the Lord Jesus returns. It also follows that the people of Noah’s time who didn’t enter the ark and were swept away by the flood, are similar to those who will not enter heaven; those who will be swept away by the pleasures and cares of this world.
Genesis 6:5 gives us a general description of the people of Noah’s time. They were involved in all kinds of wickedness; they were committing all kinds of sins. Their thoughts were evil. But Noah was different from the people of his time who were out of control and living for sin. Noah didn’t follow the crowd, he didn’t live for the crowd.
Unfortunately, for many of us there isn’t any significant difference between us and unbelievers; those that are yet to surrender their lives to God. We dress like them, talk like them, react the same way they would when someone steps on our toes. We respond the same way they do when problems come our way. The people Jesus is coming back for are different. Not just because they say they are, but because God sees something in them He doesn’t see in everyone else. They are different because the Holy Spirit lives in them and they have allowed the Spirit of God take full possession of their lives. In 1 Samuel 10:6, we are told that when the Spirit of God came on Saul, he became a different person. The Spirit of God is the Spirit of transformation; the Spirit that makes us different from what we have been before. If we are still talking, acting and thinking the same way we were before we gave our lives to Christ, then there’s something wrong somewhere. We have not yielded ourselves to the work and ministry of the Holy Spirit.
The people of Noah’s days were living for self not for God. Their flesh dictated their every step and action. Their minds were set and focused on the things of the flesh (Romans 8:5). In Genesis 6:5, we see that the unpreparedness of the people of Noah’s time began from their mind. They were continually thinking of the wrong things. It was what they allowed fill their minds, what they focused on that made them unprepared. Proverbs 4:23 tells us to guard our heart for everything we do flows from it. The unpreparedness of the people of Noah’s days flowed from their mind. Their minds were just fixed on the things of this world; getting married, attending wedding ceremonies and other social events, busy at work, business and making money. None of these things in themselves are wrong, but if they are all you are living for, you can’t be fully and properly prepared for the coming of the Lord.
Colossians 3:2 tells us to set our minds on things above. The people of Noah’s days had their minds set only on the things of this world. They were so carried away by the activities on earth, they had no idea what God was planning and doing. Their thoughts and lifestyle kept them away from God. It kept them outside of the ark; outside of God’s safety zone. I pray our minds are daily renewed by God’s Word, our minds are focused heavenwards, so that faulty thinking and living doesn’t keep us outside of God’s safety zone; outside of heaven. When the roll call and selection is made for people to enter God’s heavenly ark, may you and I be in that number.
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