DAY 77 - BIG PICTURE IN A YEAR - THE FALL & THE FLOOD

“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time..."

Genesis 6: 9

Reading: Genesis 12: 1-4; Exodus 3: 1-4; Luke 22: 42

We get introduced to Noah in Genesis 6. God enacts a daring and risky plan that He had already seen gone horribly wrong - partnership with a human being. The earth was corrupt and full of evil, but Noah was spotted by God as being a man of a different heart and character. A blameless man.

Is it possible that God could have found someone who would co-operate with Him, through faith, to save the world? 

As it turns out, He did. When God asked Noah to build a boat of precise dimensions because He was about to bring rain on the earth, a substance no-one had seen before, Noah obeyed.

If you think obeying God is easy, I hazard a guess that you have never really been confronted with the call to obey God in the face of something that makes no sense or something that is going to wound and hurt you terribly.

But Noah did obey. And because of Noah's willingness to have faith in God, that fundamental third foundation stone of your Christian life, the entire human race was saved. Our Readings for today show that God always partners with a human being, who is willing to have faith and be sacrificed in some measure, in order to bring redemption to others.

As we saw yesterday, your sin is never private, it influences and corrupts the entire body - so we see today, neither is your righteousness and obedience a private matter. It too influences and sanctifies far further than just your own life.

God spoke to Noah when he was 600 years old and said, “Understand that I am bringing a deluge-floodwaters on the earth to destroy all flesh under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will die. But I will establish My covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives” (Gen. 17, 18).

With the promise, “I will establish My covenant with you,” Noah, the grandson of Methuselah, and his family, were chosen to carry out the command God gave to Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful, multiply.” Because Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord, he was tasked to perpetuate life on Earth and humanity was given a second chance. Although Adam was the father of humankind up to the flood, Noah is the second father of humankind.

The fact that you are here, have life and breath, is due entirely to the obedience of Noah through whom God was able to continue the human line. 

Prayer

Lord God, thank You for those human beings whom You find faithful and obedient and through whom You can work Your salvation plans. 

For the family 

Explain

Explain the study in an age-appropriate way. 

Engage

Watch this video together about the super-power of obedience, and then discuss why its so important to trust and obey God - He can use you to bring redemption to many others.