I have the habit of starting projects but never quite finishing them. Dear Lord, please give me time! I think of Noah. How long did it take Noah to finish his carpentry project? “The Lord said, ‘My Spirit shall not abide in man forever, for he is flesh; his days shall be 120 years” (Genesis 6:3). People assume Noah spent 120 years on that project, but a short article Bodie Hodge of Answers in Genesis suggests maybe 55 to 75 years. Governor DeSantis said that Sanibel Island suffered a “really biblical storm surge.” One definition of “biblical” is “very great, on a large scale,” but what was God teaching, what’s the biblical message of the Flood?
It is God’s patience, His long-suffering with sinful humanity. He gave Noah’s contemporaries 120 years to center humble, repentant lives upon Him. “He makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good and sends rain on the just and on the unjust” (Matthew 5:45). 120 years! “The sentence against an evil deed is not executed speedily, the heart of the children of man is fully set to do evil. Though a sinner does evil a hundred times and prolongs his life, yet I know that it will be well with those who fear God, because they fear before him” (Ecclesiastes 8:11-12). No doubt there were weather disasters during those 120 years. They were God’s way of saying, “Come unto Me.” Hurricane Ian is saying the same to all of us.
“From lightning and tempest; from earthquake, fire, and flood from plague, pestilence, and famine, Good Lord, deliver us. In all time of our tribulation; in all time of our prosperity; in the hour of death, and in the day of judgment, Good Lord, deliver us. That it may please thee to support, help, and comfort all who are in danger, necessity, and tribulation, We beseech thee to hear us, good Lord. (The Great Litany, Book of Common Prayer).
“My soul continually remembers it and is bowed down within me. But this I call to mind, and therefore I have hope: the steadfast love of the Lord never ceases, his mercies never come to an end” (Lamentations 3:20-22). The greatest project I have, we all have, is daily hope in God’s deliverance. One day our project will be finished. One day, “the sea was no more” (Revelation 21:1).
Comments