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Lent Readings v. 3.0

 

 ^{5 -7} God saw that human evil was out of control. People thought evil, imagined evil—evil, evil, evil from morning to night. God was sorry that he had made the human race in the first place; it broke his heart. God said, “I’ll get rid of my ruined creation, make a clean sweep: people, animals, snakes and bugs, birds—the works. I’m sorry I made them.”

⁸ But Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah.
Genesis 6:5-8 (The Message)

We all know the story of Noah and the Great Flood.  Did you know that historians are actually beginning to concede that this flood must have happened?  It is all over ancient documents.

For example; “The Epic of Gilgamesh.”  This work is acknowledged as the oldest piece of literature ever written.  It is the story of the King, Gilgamesh, and his greatest adventure: he sought the meaning of life, and, if he could find it, eternal life.  He set out on his mission.  His goal was to travel far, far away, across a great see, to meet with the oldest, wisest man that lived at that time.  According to “The Epic,” this man was the one that survived the Great Flood.  He had three sons…

It sure sounds like Gilgamesh went to meet with Noah…

The reason that I bring this up is because I want you to see the fame of Noah.  We talk about him and think of him as merely the man that built a boat, but he was more.  He was the man that built a boat and proved the ENTIRE WORLD WRONG.

In the text above we get a picture of what life was like before the flood.  Did you notice that the word “evil” is used a lot (BTW, I typed that with my pinky at the corner of my mouth like Dr. Evil)?  It is not only used a lot, it is repeated three times.  You may have seen this sort of thing before through out the Old Testament (for example: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord”).  There is a reason for it.  Ancient Hebrew, the language of the Old Testament, did not have any qualifiers.

“What’s a qualifier?”

Words like “very,” “most,” and, “best” did not exist in this language, these are qualifiers.  So if you wanted to say that something was very holy you would say, “holy, holy.”  If it was the holiest, you would say, “holy, holy, holy.”  It would be like saying that the very big, very red dog was the “big, big, red, red dog.”  So when the scripture says “evil, evil, evil” we should take note.

It was as evil a time as the world has ever seen.

Evil, evil, evil.

All of their thoughts

evil, evil, evil.

All of their deeds

evil, evil, evil.

Are you getting the picture?

This is when Noah lived.  He was neighbors with someone that was evil, evil, evil.  His friends were all evil, evil, evil.  His coworkers were evil, evil, evil.  His cousins, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles; evil, evil, evil.  All day, every day, evil, evil, evil.

I know that there have been times when I have decided just to follow the crowd, good or bad, it was just easier to do what everyone else was doing.  It’s something that we all do.  If the people that influence us are doing one thing, chances are that we will too.  We will at least start to think about things that we wouldn’t normally think about.  Influence is powerful.

Think about how much advertising you take in during a day.  How much of it is true?  If you buy that body spray are girls going to literally hurl themselves at you?  If you buy that car are you really going to be happier?  If you buy that exercise machine are you really going to look like the model that is selling it?

We would probably all answer these questions with a resounding “No.”  Yet, we buy the body spray, we buy the car, and we buy the exercise equipment.  Why?  We are influenced.

Noah was surrounded by nothing but evil, evil, evil.  All of his influences were evil, evil, evil.

But Noah was good, good, good.

And God noticed, noticed, noticed.

Due to the absolute evil that had consumed the earth, God, was wrestling with whether or not He should scrap project earth.  He was trying to decide whether it was worth it or not.  He was beginning to regret making mankind.

But then He noticed, noticed, noticed.

The point of the story is really simple: because of one man’s goodness, God saved mankind.

That sounds familiar…

This is what Jesus did, He came to a world that was consumed in evil, evil, evil and He gave His life to make it good, good, good.

“But Matthew, the world is a messed up place.”

It is.  That’s why you and I are here.  The whole idea behind this Lent thing is to anticipate the celebration of the resurrection on Easter.  I can only think to do this by being someone that helps bring resurrection to a world that is dying all around me.  What if, in a world that appears broken, broken, broken we became like Noah?

We could be the people that bring life to a dying world.  That’s what Christianity is about: bringing resurrection wherever there is death.  When your friend is broken and hurting and you take the time to listen, you are bringing resurrection to a dead situation.  When someone on the street is begging and you feed them, you bring resurrection into their dead situation.  When you remember that you were made to live this day as a love letter to a Savior that gave you His life, it brings resurrection into the dead parts of your life.  

Why is the story of Noah important?  It is because this story proves to us that God will do whatever it takes to love us, that He has an undying hope in us.  He has looked at you, and seen something that He liked.

Remember, He loves, loves, loves you and has hope, hope, hope in you.  Just live in the resurrection this week, and see how things change, watch dead things come back to life.  

Grace, grace, grace and peace, peace, peace to you.

-m