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'What's Rain Noah?'
'The Generations of Noah'
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"My Spirit Shall Not Always Strive With Man"
"Jehovah-tsidkenu" The Lord Our Righteousness"
*Hosea 10:12, "Sow with a view to righteousness, reap in accordance with kindness; break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the LORD until He comes to rain righteousness on you."
We all have heard it, "I'll bet he's your son. You look like your mother. You're brothers aren't you. Gee, you sure look like your sister." Reflections can define who we are and who's we are. It is difficult to walk by a mirror or window without staring at the image we see being reflected back. A smile, a brush, a fluff, and the image fades and is forgotten as we pass by or turn from it's view.
The superficial image which we reflect can often be altered by the scars which we harbor inwardly within our heart. Blemishes that can change the reflection of our appearance. What is hidden within our heart can have a deep impact with the way we live our lives and the choices we make in our lifestyles.
*Genesis 6:1, 4-6, 8"Now it came about, when men began to multiply on the face of the land, and daughters were born to them,.. The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown. 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. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD."
Noah was 500 years old when God warned him that he would destroy the earth and all its inhabitants with a flood. At that time it had never rained upon the earth. For 100 years Noah built an ark and preached righteousness to all his neighbors. Until the day the rain began to fall, "Men were eating and drinking and marrying and giving in marriage until the flood came and destroyed them all," (Luke 17:27). Of all the inhabitants of the earth only eight souls were saved, Noah, his wife, his three sons, and his sons three wives. *Genesis 6:9 "Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God."
God shut them up in the ark along with two of every kind of unclean animal, male and female. Seven of each kind of clean animal to replenish the earth. For seven days they waited. 1567 years after the creation of man in the second month on the seventeenth day the rain began to fall and the fountains of the deep overflowed their banks. For forty days and forty nights the rain prevailed upon the earth. The water covered the dry ground for 150 days until all its inhabitants were gone.
*Genesis 8:1, 4 "But God remembered Noah and all the beasts and all the cattle that were with him in the ark; and God caused a wind to pass over the earth, and the water subsided. And in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark rested upon the mountains of Ararat."
God established an everlasting covenant with Noah, his descendants, and with every living creature that came out of the ark with him. He set His bow in the cloud over the earth as a sign of this covenant between Him and the earth that He would never destroy the earth with water again. *Genesis 9:16, " When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."
Each time we see a rainbow in a cloud it is a remembrance that we have a loving God Who is a covenant keeping God. His Word is as good as His name. It never returns to Him without accomplishing the task for which it was spoken. Noah's faith and obedience to God's word brought him life in a dying world. The image which Noah reflected was one of righteousness. Blameless because he walked with God in all his generation. It was the attitude of his heart that made the difference in his reflection.
We have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ. One who comes alongside us and abides with us. In him we have new life and our appearance changes as we become more like Him. Through His blood we enter into a New Covenant with God. We are sealed by the Holy Spirit until the day of the redemption of our bodies. *I Corinthians 13:12, "For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face; now I know in part, but then I shall know fully just as I also have been fully known."
P What is it like to have favor in the eyes of the Lord? To know that God will protect you, guide you, never leave you, or forget you.
*February 12, 2006
