Thursday, March 8, 2018

Lenten Walk - Part 16

Thursday, March 8, 2018
Then God told Noah and his sons, “I hereby confirm my covenant with you and your descendants, and with all the animals that were on the boat with you—the birds, the livestock, and all the wild animals—every living creature on earth.  Yes, I am confirming my covenant with you.  Never again will floodwaters kill all living creatures; never again will a flood destroy the earth.”  Then God said, “I am giving you a sign of my covenant with you and with all living creatures, for all generations to come.  I have placed my rainbow in the clouds.  It is the sign of my covenant with you and with all the earth.  When I send clouds over the earth, the rainbow will appear in the clouds, and I will remember my covenant with you and with all living creatures.  Never again will the floodwaters destroy all life.  When I see the rainbow in the clouds, I will remember the eternal covenant between God and every living creature on earth.”  Then God said to Noah, “Yes, this rainbow is the sign of the covenant I am confirming with all the creatures on earth.”  Genesis 9:8-17(NLT)
Noah needed this!  After a year like he’d just had he needed a rainbow!  The beginning was bad enough; through years of struggle to build the ark he’d endured the insults of the whole community referring to him as that crazy old man building a boat the size of Kansas…and not even a pond nearby.  His wife and three sons helped, but, in the backs of their minds even they must have wondered if the community naysayers were right; had their father lost it?  Was Noah deranged?  And then God brought all those animals…messy, smelly, loud, and some dangerous.  If this was going to be a fun cruise, Mrs. Noah and the boys didn’t recall seeing anything like that in the brochures!
And then it started raining!  And God shut them in the dark ark!  And they could hear the screams, people begging to let them come aboard; and then it was silent.
A year later it was silent again as they stepped off their floating houseboat onto dry, uninhabited, silent earth. 
Although I cannot say for certain, my guess is one of two conditions existed:
·       Planet earth was the smelliest place in the universe with all the corpses of animals and humans rotting everywhere, the devastation of the mother of all tsunamis worse than the path of a midwest twister.
·       Planet earth was new and pristine, God having miraculously restored some order to what man managed to mess-up since the time of Adam and Eve.
Either way, there is one thing you couldn’t mistake:  once all those animals, snakes, birds and mosquitoes disembarked the ark and dispersed into the surrounding mountainous areas, Noah began to take-in just how very alone he and his family were.  And it was quiet…very quiet.
And at that moment came the words Noah needed:  Never Again!  With that short, powerful promise God spoke comfort to the whole human race – all 8 people – it was assurance that God would never again let the floodwaters destroy everything.
You don’t have to fast-forward very far to see who broke the covenant; Noah laying drunk in his tent, and his family’s fear and disobedience, evidence that we forget very quickly…even when God has led us through the worst storms.
We also need those words, never again.  I believe these are the same words we hear echoing from heaven after the cross, God having endured the pain of forgiving our sins at the cost of His own dear son:  Never again; this sacrifice is sufficient and permanent!
These are the words we hear about our forgiven sins when the enemy tries to bring them up, to trip us up:  Never again; those sins are under the blood!
These are words we need from time to time in our walk through a season of Lent; these are the words we need in our walk through life. 
For You Today
Keeping the right perspective on the promises of God is vital.  When God says never again, His nature and character have the power to sustain such a promise.  We, on the other hand, must remember when we say never again, to include:  with God’s help!
You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day.

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[1] Title Image:  Courtesy of Pixabay.com

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