May the mumbling
commence!
Have you ever
wondered what might happen if God refused to speak? I was thinking about just that when I was
reading the story of Noah today. The
thoughts and activities of men were frustrating God. They were evil all the time. So the Lord chose to be silent. Yes, God spoke to Noah, an upright man. But he spoke only to Noah. And Noah always did all that God commanded
him to do. He knew the Lord existed,
expected Him to speak, listened to Him, and obeyed.
Noah obeyed God
and built an ark. Noah loved God and
preached of the righteousness of the Lord and of the coming judgment of the
flood (2 Peter 2:4-10). Noah thought and
did and spoke for the Lord, whom he loved.
Maybe that was why the Lord spoke to Noah in the first place. In this way, Noah gives us an example to
follow. Seek the Lord earnestly enough,
and He will speak to you.
Yes Noah spoke,
but God was silent. What happened when
God was silent? Read about it below:
For forty days the flood kept
coming on the earth, and as the waters
increased they lifted the ark high above the earth. The waters rose
and increased greatly on the earth, and the
ark floated on the surface of the water. They rose
greatly on the earth, and all the high mountains under the entire heavens were
covered. The waters rose and covered the
mountains to a depth of more than twenty feet. Every living thing
that moved on the earth perished – birds, livestock, wild animals, all the
creatures that swarm the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of
life in its nostrils died. Every living
thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures
that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped out from the
earth.
Only Noah was left, and those with him in
the ark.
The waters flooded
the earth for a hundred and fifty days. (Genesis 7:17-24)
The rains came
down and the flood came up. This written
formula is repeated four times, and the water had covered even the highest
mountains by twenty feet. What happened to
all the living things upon the earth? We
are told four times that all living things died. The silence of God means death. The word of God breathes life into all
things. When that word stops, so does
the breath of life. The breath of life
is smothered under water.
And what happened
to Noah? Because of his righteousness
and obedience to God, the ark that Noah built was lifted high above the
earth. The ark floated on the water of God’s
judgment. Only Noah and those with him
were left with the breath of God in them.
Which is more
fearful – when God speak or when God remains silent? That’s a tough one to call, as we look at the
Hebrew Bible! God’s silence in the days
of Noah caused a flood. God was silent
for over a year – even to Noah. What
must Noah have thought about God’s silence?
How Noah must have been tortured knowing that all who refused the ark
were dying! But then God spoke. And, oh, the beauty of His speech! Read the Noahic Covenant:
Then God said to Noah and to his
sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with
you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was
with you – the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that
came out of the ark with you – every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all
life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to
destroy the earth.”
And God said, “This is the sign of
the covenant I am making between me and you and
every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come:
I will set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant
between me and the earth. Whenever I
bring the clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will
remember my covenant between me and you and
all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I
will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God
and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.
So God said to Noah, “This is the
sign of the covenant I have established between me
and all life on the earth.” (Genesis 9:8-17)
No longer would
God remain silent and allow some of the chaos before creation return. The light shines through the falling water and
a rainbow happens. Never again will God
remain silent. And this covenant is
between the Lord and all living things.
This fact is repeated no less than five times in the passage above. Repetition means something is important. We should pay heed and respect all life –
especially human life (Genesis 9:6).
Enough mumbling
for now…
Peace Out
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