ARE YOU LIKE NOAH?

“For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth.
And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.” (Genesis 7: 4-5)

Most of us have read the story of Noah and the Ark. As a child we are taught the story of how God had decided to destroy all living things on land with one huge worldwide flood. We are made to understand that man had reached a “fullness” level of sin and apathy toward God, even to the point of totally ignoring him in every thought and action in life. And how God looked all over the Earth and the level of sin and apathy made him sorry in his heart he had ever made man.

I can imagine, how in that moment, God began to raise his hand to strike the Earth once and for all, and, as he had his mighty hand in mid-air, his eyes came across a beautiful sight, Noah. It seems this one lone man was still thinking about God, still walking right and talking right, holy before the Lord. The Bible says this; “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” (Genesis 6:8). Basically put here, Noah’s righteousness (obeying and living in the submission to God in his life) caused him to find grace (Favor) with God, sparing his life and the life of his family from destruction. Please focus on this, it was Noah, obeying the call of God, walking in fellowship with God, before God decided to stretch out his hand to destroy, that saved him, NOT the ark.

Let me say that again, it is most important you understand this. Noah, deciding to live for God and do the things that please him, long before the danger came, before God finally said “The end of all flesh is come before me”, that is what saved him and his family, not his obeying the call to build the ark. You see dear reader, had he not already been living for God, he would have never gotten the call. Why would God have saved him, had he been as sinful and rotten as everyone else? Look at our scripture reference today, because somewhere down the line, in Noah’s life, he made a decision to follow God wholeheartedly early on, he found grace with God, received the call to build the ark, and seven days early as well, went into the ark before the flood came and killed every living thing on land.

Dear reader, God’s timing is NOT our timing. And I proclaim to you now, the call to go into the “ark” of today (Christ’s rapture of the church) will come not only when you least expect it, but in a time and in such a way that only those who have prepared themselves NOW will time it just right to be ready to leave. Let’s be honest, God sees all, there is nothing hid from him. Ask yourself a question, if God looked down right now, would I find grace is his eyes? Would he tell me to build an ark because he saw me doing the things that are righteous, pleasing him with my life and heart? Or would I end up being one of the ones clawing and scratching at the ark door, while the rains came and I drowned with the rest of the crowd? You know where you stand with God; I pray if you are not ready, you make that decision now, before it is too late.