Tuesday, June 14, 2005

The House of Noah

Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.” (Genesis 7:1)
Continuing the generations from Adam — Enoch (“Dedicated”) was the father of Methuselah, whose name, roughly translated, means, “When he dies there shall be an emission.”

Methuselah fathered Lamech (“Powerful”) and lived to be 969 years old. When Methuselah died, the Flood came.

Lamech lived 182 years and had a son, Noach, whose name means “Rest,” for Lamech said, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands because of the ground which the Lord has cursed” (Genesis 5:29).

The time in which these patriarchs found themselves was a time of great and growing evil. The life of Enoch stood out in bold relief. The name of Methuselah was the omen of coming judgment.
Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. (Genesis 6:5-8)
Noah has favor in God’s sight. He was pleasing to God — he must have been a man of faith, for without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).

So the LORD told Noah, “I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your son’s wives with you” (Genesis 6:18).

As the narrative continues, God gives Noah instructions about the ark, the dimensions, the design, and all the animals he was to bring inside. The judgment of God was about to fall, as it must, in order to set things right. For, in the beginning, God established a destiny for the house of Adam, and He was not about to see it fail. So Noah is a figure of God’s redemption, a fore-shadow of God’s promised Messiah.

Noah found grace in the sight of the Lord. It was by faith, then as now, for by grace are we saved through faith — the gift of God, not of works (Ephesians 2:8-9).

But what I really want you to notice is how the faith of Noah brought with it the destiny of his household. Noah was the one who found favor, but it affected his whole house. Noah was the only one found righteous in his generation, but his wife, sons and daughters-in-law reaped the benefit.

Remember that the house is a place of destiny and inheritance. By his faith, Noah not only established his own destiny, but by inheritance he passed that destiny on to his children.

God always honors His inheritance through the generations. That is, He works through fathers, who impart to their children. That is why the genealogies in Scripture are important (“these are the generations”). They show the line of inheritance and connect us to the purposes God has always had for the house of Adam (of which we are all a part).

What is the inheritance you are passing on to your children? Is it faith and the promises of God? Will it bring redemption for the world? The answer is found in your own relationship with God.

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