2023_01_27 Insight Post- Emma Keeton
This week’s reading- Geenesis 6-9, Romans 5
Our reading this week has focused on the account of Noah’s ark. This is a famous children’s story for Christians and non-Christians alike, but it’s an interesting theme to decorate your child’s nursery with. The appeal as a children’s story probably stops at animals being led into a boat two by two and picks up again when God gives the covenant sign of a rainbow. The middle part is a harrowing tale of destruction. God wipes out every living thing He has made because of the great wickedness of the human race. “Every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” Genesis 6:5
And amidst all of this evil was Noah. “Noah was righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully and with God.” Genesis 6:9 (NIV) The Amplified version says that Noah walked in habitual fellowship with God.
Noah has been credited as a man of great faith and he appears in the Hebrews 11 Faithful Hall of Fame. “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” Hebrews 11:7. Some scholars think that it was 120 years between God deciding to send judgement on the world and then carrying it out via the flood. Noah may have endured 120 additional years of continuing to resist the wickedness of his generation and he showed confidence about what he did not see by building the ark.
How did Noah withstand the evil that surrounded him? How do we do the same? Our generation is inclined towards evil, and the human condition is still subject to sin. Reading the news headlines is a demonstration of the self-driven, self-obsessed and self-protecting ways of the world. And all that before we turn the magnifying glass on ourselves!
I found a verse this week that is an encouragement to me:
“For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him.” 2 Chronicles 16:9
God promises that when our hearts are committed to God he will strengthen us. We may look different from the rest of the world, and that’s okay because we should. God will likely not ask us to build an ark, but He will use us to point others to Jesus.
Let’s continue to show up and show willing, and God will take care of the rest.
Emma Keeton
Prayer Team Lead