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| God’s Promise to Noah
Genesis Chapter 9 |
So a couple of weeks ago we looked at Noah’s Flood. That God flooding the world and sparing Noah and his family was actually God giving us undeserved Mercy, by the Grace of God we have Mercy. God is Holy and Righteous and would have been fully justified if He destroyed all of mankind because mans ways had become wicked – always. But God chose to cleanse the Earth from wickedness and sin and give mankind a fresh start. Let us remember that the flood happened because in the beginning Adam and Eve were disobedient having been deceived by satan. When in the Garden of Eden Adam disobeyed a direct commandment of God by eating the forbidden fruit, and because of this act of disobedience, death entered the world. Death is the consequence of disobedience and because God is a Holy God, He had to remove Himself from us, Life is being in God’s presence, so becoming separated from God brought upon us death. So anyway, animals of every kind had boarded the Ark, and God flooded the Earth and water came up from underground, and it rained for forty days and forty nights, Noah and his family also on the Ark would have heard the noise of destruction and many people crying but Noah could not see what is happening due to the only window on the Ark being the roof. It would have been a very testing time for Noah, for 40 day and 40 nights the storms raged, which reminds me of how Jesus was tested in the wilderness by satan for 40 days and 40 nights ….. Before the flood, the rain is something that had never happened on Earth. So everyone laughed and mocked Noah because he said to them it will rain and he began to build the Ark (a huge boat)… and Noah was right to believe and endure all this mocking and remained faithful to God because it did finally rain, like Noah we have to show patience because it took 120 years! everyone would have been shocked and in disbelief because it had been so long and they thought water falling from the sky was impossible. Noah spent 120 years preaching the message God had given him, telling the world to repent or die in a great flood. Nobody believed him and now it was too late for them to chose to believe the message. The time to believe in God and Trust in should have been immediately! Just as it is today. We are told to preach that Jesus died on the cross and bled for us washing away our sins, to give us forgiveness for our sins, and the time to believe is now, immediately and trust in Him. The world is once again very wicked and ungodly like it was in the day’s of Noah and Jesus who is God will be returning again, I believe very soon to judge the world. God has rescued everyone who believes in Him, just like He rescued Noah and God will protect us from His wrath to come just as He protected Noah from the flood. He shall pour out His wrath on all the ungodly and wicked again, but not by using a flood – because God promised us He will never again destroy the world by using a flood and He gave us the rainbow that you see in the sky as a reminder of that promise. Before God pours out His wrath on the whole Earth again, anyone who is still alive shall be raptured, meaning taken away to a safe place to be with God who will personally protect us, just like Noah and his family were protected inside the Ark.
So after the flood subsided the Ark (boat) came to rest on mount Ararat and at God’s command Noah let all the animals out of the Ark. Two by Two they left the Ark and went to replenish the Earth – but for us Humans, God had a greater command. He said “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the Earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the Earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the Earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.” Therefore we were commanded to rule and reign over all of God’s creation as well as to be fruitful and multiply to consume the Earth once again. And as mentioned earlier, God made a covenant with mankind to never destroy the whole Earth with a flood again. God said “Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth. I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth and from these three the whole earth was populated. And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died. Noah was 950 years old – imagine! (Surely in Heaven) And mankind began to replenish the Earth. |
| The Tower of Babel
Genesis Chapter 11 11 Now the whole earth had one language and one speech. 2 And it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there. 3 Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. 4 And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” 5 But the Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. 6 And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them. 7 Come, let Us (Us = indicative of the Trinity?) go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” 8 So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. 9 Therefore its name is called Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth. |
Naturally after the flood everyone spake the same language because they were all related, they had the same mother and father, they were brothers and sisters, sons and daughters. They could all talk to each other easily and understand one another and as time went on and they grew in number. Those who were born after the flood would have only heard stories from Noah (who must have been considered a hero), and his sons of how the world looked, of Adam and Eve and all the people and perhaps of great cities. Then of how God destroyed the world by a flood, to remove it of all the wickedness, changing the world completely and reshaping it. The problem with mankind is we mostly learn from our own mistakes, our fathers can tell us and try to teach us to not make the same mistakes they made, and it is good to learn from one another, but ultimately it is from our own experiences that we learn. So despite hearing these stories, something happened and they became disobedient to God once again, they had to learn the hard way. So what is it they did that was disobedient?
God tells us “it came to pass, as they journeyed from the east, that they found a plain in the land of Shinar, and they dwelt there.” Then they said to one another, “Come, let us make bricks and bake them thoroughly.” They had brick for stone, and they had asphalt for mortar. And they said, “Come, let us build ourselves a city, and a tower whose top is in the heavens; let us make a name for ourselves, lest we be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth.” I wonder, did hearing about the wickedness that existed before the flood cause them to realise that they too had done wicked things? and so they feared that perhaps God will seek to destroy them also? And by building a tower that reached the heavens they might have believed they will be safe from any destruction that God might unleash…. In any case, they were avoiding being scattered and Nimrod was their leader. He was full of pride and He ordered the grouping together of all men to build a big tower which would make a very big statement because it could be seen from miles away. This was disobedient to God because they were told to “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the Earth.” Yet here they were all in one place building a sky scraper! When they should have been spreading throughout the Earth. This was only a few short years after the flood, less than a few hundred and this angered God. Nimrod wanted to elevate himself and probably wanted to be worshiped like God and many people followed after him instead of following God. Also, every man having the same language and living within the same vicinity might sound great but it was not a good situation. Everyone was united together following Nimrod and this meant all of mankind were viewed as one nation in opposition to God, we had one identity in God’s eyes. This meant that if God should pour out His wrath upon mankind again, it could be total extinction because men were all as one. Because this is what the Bible says: “The Lord came down to see the city and the tower which the sons of men had built. And the Lord said, “Indeed the people are one and they all have one language, and this is what they begin to do; now nothing that they propose to do will be withheld from them.” And if we are as one then we will be judged as one. Everyone was part of this building project, instead of filling the Earth – so mankind was in danger again of being destroyed – although not by a flood because God does not break His promises. “Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, that they may not understand one another’s speech.” So the Lord scattered them abroad from there over the face of all the earth, and they ceased building the city. What could they do if suddenly they could not understand one another? Work would have stopped and everyone would search for someone they can speak to and understand and they would naturally stick together. God’s plan might at first look like a punishment but God’s ways are unsearchable, God is all knowing and does Good always. If we really think about this God was actually very merciful and gracious toward us. Once again we deserved to be destroyed but God spared us. God confounding our tongues forced us to scatter and this fulfilled God’s command, causing many new nations to be formed. Mankind now had many identities and this was an amazing act of mercy on God’s part, because now if God was forced to pour out His wrath to deal with sin, God knew He can do so by judging individual nations rather than mankind as a whole. God’s command to scatter was for our benefit. God is good and righteous yet we are blind and resist! God is Holy and sin or disobedience must be punished, yet in His Wisdom God engineers a situation that restrains His wrath. And so the sky scraper “became known as Babel, because there the Lord confused the language of all the earth; and from there the Lord scattered them abroad over the face of all the earth.” And the place where Babel was built is mentioned many times in the Bible, this city that mankind began to build became a major part of Bible prophecy. Babel became known as Babylon and is where the Babylonians came from. They destroyed Jerusalem and took Daniel as captive (whom is mentioned in the book of Daniel). The King that did this is Nebuchadnezzar, I’m sure you remember Nebuchadnezzar as the King whom went crazy and ate grass in the wild? Ilir has spoken about him. Nebuchadnezzar was also full of Pride and sought to be worshiped like God. When he looked at his magnificent city he was thinking “look at what I have achieved, what I have built, how great am I?” which sounds a lot like Nimrod before him. So he failed to glorify God but glorified himself. But God dealt with Nebuchadnezzar and removed him from his throne and humbled him causing him to eat grass like an animal for 7 years! Eventually he learned to glorify God and became a Godly King and he served God and understood that God is in control and God reigns over all the Earth. Babylon today is in the country we now call Iraq and Babylon is still an important part of Bible Prophecy , because…. (and this is really important) The world is once again pushing for a one world order like that of Babel and we know this is necessary for prophecy to be fulfilled, but I wonder if by establishing a single world order, will mean God will no longer perceive us to be formed of individual nations so God will be justified in pouring out His wrath not nationally but globally for the first time since Noah’s flood, it will be the whole world. This makes me believe that Jesus is coming back – very soon. So I pray that you all will believe in Jesus and remember that He died for you and all of us on the cross, His blood cleanses us from our sins and He forgives us if we repent. We are not appointed to God’s wrath but we are safe in Jesus – whom is also God. Noah.. was safe in the Ark just as God promised, whilst the rest of the world drowned. Imagine if Noah gave up and did not finish the Ark? None of us would exist today. Let us be brave and obey God’s command to speak to others, just as Noah was brave even though they laughed at him. He never gave up. Never give up in the name of Jesus. Trust in God and He will reward us in Heaven for believing and speaking in Jesus name. Notice – thinking of Noah, I think of a humble obedient man. But Nimrod, I think of an egoistic man, with too much pride. |