END TIMES PROPHECY: As it was in the days of Noah

As a follow-up from yesterday, I decided to use a net like they did in Bible days. Our VBS Director had a cheapie net made of lightweight string – and I cut it in half this morning and painstakingly tied the two halves together, then threaded a nylon rope through the outside edge. It took time. Time for the kingdom. If it creates a visual that God can use for planting His Word in a child’s mind it will be worth every minute….

Yesterday I got a lot accomplished for VBS – the house will wait until after VBS. I am a project person – and this is the project I am immersed in. I decided to put the pictures we catch while fishing on cut-outs in the shape of fish – well, whimsical whales, to be specific. The colors of the fish will match the colors of the beads that will reinforce and hopefully remind the kids later of what they learned. I’m excited for the kids – and joy-filled to have the privilege of going on the journey with them….

As for the End Times Prophecy Pursuit – it rattles around in my brain while I am doing the tasks that need to be accomplished in preparation for next week.

Sunday morning while I was showering God reminded me of two things: One – as it was in the days of Noah, so it will be in the last days; and number two – He warned them.

Genesis 6 tells us how it was in the days of Noah. Man’s wickedness on the earth was great. God regretted he had ever made man. Men of God had married daughters of men who did not honor God – and their children were not brought up to love and honor the Lord. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. In all of that sin and corruption, there was one man who was righteous – who lived according to God’s standard – who lived such a good life that he was blameless even among the people of his time…. Well done, Noah!

As for everyone else, the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. All the rest of the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So God made a covenant with Noah. And Noah was obedient. He did everything precisely as God commanded him to do. Well done, Noah!

As it was in the days of Noah…people were preoccupied with what was going on in their lives to the exclusion of paying any attention to God. When Jesus talks about they were ‘marrying and giving in marriage’ – it wasn’t just about having weddings….it was about the reality that men who were supposed to know better – men who knew God – were drawn into a snare of following after beauty and sensual desire instead of keeping themselves pure by only marrying God-fearing women, and in that decision, they turned away from God, and were swept into lives that bred wickedness and corruption.

It only takes one generation of turning away.

God told Noah to build an ark. The people of his day thought he was a whack job. They mocked. They guffawed. They ridiculed. They certainly didn’t listen.

Can you blame them, really?

It had never rained before. Prior to that the earth was watered by dew. And now this bizarre over-500-year-old man was gathering a ton or so of wood to build something that floated on water – building it so far from any sea that he would never be able to get it to shore. No wonder they laughed.

Board by board, notch by notch, they watched Noah’s progress. He was sort of a public humiliation – that guy on the outside of town building some sort of ship….

They went about their business while he hewed out shapes according to the design God had given him, then coated it both inside and out with pitch, just as God had directed. It was a huge undertaking. It didn’t happen overnight!

As it was in the days of Noah…. God provided them a warning. If they had hearts inclined at all to the Lord, they would have asked Noah for wisdom, and God would have heard their heart’s plea – but their hearts were hardened against God.

As it was in the days of Noah. Does it sound like our world today? Corrupt. Wicked. People turning away from God by the droves, immersed in self-satisfying pursuits. And – even those who have known God diluting their faith by pursuing after what God warns against?

It is getting harder and harder to find something decent to watch on T V. Recently when we were flipping channels, I commented to Al that ‘this must just make God sick. ‘ and he responded, “Yeah. If there was a God, why would he let people get away with this kind of behavior?” “Grace,” I replied. But – I do wonder. The filth is beyond belief. Even when we try to keep everything we watch above PG-13, the line keeps getting moved further and further. When will God say, “ENOUGH.”

He has warned us very clearly that when we see these things happen, to look up for our redemption is nigh – very close. Just like at the auction – fair warning.