AS THE DAYS OF NOAH - PART 2

In many respects, Noah is a foreshadow of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Noah's name in the Hebrew language means "rest," and it was Jesus Who said, "Come unto Me...and I will give you rest."  The New Testament describes Noah as a preacher of righteousness.  Jesus said, "the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek."  Jesus made the correlation between Noah and Himself clear when He said, "But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be."  (Matthew 24:37).

Just as Noah begged the people of his generation to trust in the work that God had called him to complete, we, too, are asked to trust in the finished work of Christ Jesus.  In both cases, the work that they were sent to do would mean salvation to the world.  Noah, with the help of his family, worked 100 years to complete the ark.  He did not expect any help from the world - God had given this task to him to do, and he did not resent the fact that some might come on board without having lifted a finger to help him.  God had placed this work on his shoulders alone.  For those who might accept his invitation, everything would be provided.  Not only would the ark be finished for them to board, but everything that they needed to sustain them while the waters would cover the earth was supplied. 

"For in Him [Christ] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.  And ye are complete in Him, which is the head of all principality and power."  (Colossians 2:9,10)  Beloved, everything has been provided for you in Christ also.  He is the supply for your every want, and the solution to your every problem.  He has done the work, so there is no possibility of our messing it up as long as we place our trust in Him and the work that He has accomplished.  When on the cross He uttered the words, "It is finished," He knew that He had left nothing undone.  He does not need our help to put the "finishing touches" on His great work.  All that we need now, or ever will need, is supplied for us in Christ.

When Jesus entered into the synagogue in Nazareth, He read a prophecy of Himself out of the book of Isaiah.  He only read part of the prophecy, however.  The portion that He read was,  "The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me; because the LORD hath anointed Me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent Me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD."  (Isaiah 61:1,2).  The portion that Jesus did not read was, "and the day of vengeance of our God."  Jesus was sent to earth to usher in the "acceptable year of the LORD," or the time of God's acceptance.  We are still living in this period when God's salvation is being offered to all those who will believe and accept it.  This period will one day end, and the "day of vengeance of our God" will begin when all who have rejected Him will be judged. 

Similarly, Noah spent 100 years building the ark and preaching to the people of his generation to repent and believe.  When the ark was completed, though, the time of judgment began.  Once the door of the ark was shut, there was no turning back for Noah and his family.  God Himself had shut the door.  Not only were Noah and his family then shut in, but the world was then shut out.  Had it been left to Noah, the screams and pounding of the people begging to be let in may have tempted him to open the door once more.  At that point, however, it was too late.  Once judgment begins, everyone is sorry; but it is because they are sorry for being judged, not sorry for their sins.  "Let favor be shown to the wicked, yet he will not learn righteousness: in the land of uprightness he will deal unjustly, and will not behold the majesty of the LORD."  (Isaiah 26:10 Webster Bible).  God is not willing that any should perish, but once the door was shut, then Noah was dead to the world, and the world to Noah.  The separation was meant to be permanent.

We, too, are asked to renounce the hidden things of dishonesty, and turn our back on, not the lost of the world, but the system of the world that has been shaped by Satan to deceive and ensnare us.  "But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by Whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world."  (Galatians 6:14).  We who have believed in Jesus are they "who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us: which hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and stedfast."