What practically do we, Jesus’ disciples, learn from the Flood?
It’s always good to ask, what does the new testament highlight about an old testament story?
Well, first Jesus says it really happened. Meaning, we might not think so, but God’s not disappeared, and His tolerance of human violence and evil isn’t infinite. He stepped in once in world-changing judgment, and He will do so again.
Second lesson from Jesus: It happened when no one expected, because they were absorbed by `normal life`, and it will be a very similar situation when Jesus returns (Matthew 24:36-44). `So be ready`, He says, `because the Son of Man will come at an hour when **you** do not expect him!` (Maybe Today!! Lord, please help me stay alert to that fact!)
Then Hebrews 11: Noah’s faith bore fruit in a `holy fear` (awe) of God, which meant he did something distinctive, he `built an ark`. It must have been hard: the mockery, the sheer `being different`, being the one sneered at… But wasn’t it worth it? And it seems this will be a bigger and bigger issue again as our own culture approaches crisis. (Lord, by Your power, please help me have the guts…) Jesus said we shouldn’t expect to fit, and something’s wrong if we do: `You do not belong to the world… Because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you` (John 15:19).
And lastly the end of 1 Peter 3 – the Flood `symbolizes baptism which now saves you also` – salvation not in the sense of being born again, but of that salvation spreading out from our innermost hearts, throughout our personalities. (Like in Phil 2:12 or 1 Tim 4:16.) So at baptism we’re paralleling the Flood, saying, Everything that doesn’t fit with Jesus shall be **drowned** for me, drowned as thoroughly as by the flood; so that I’m cut off from a drowned world, headed for a new resurrection world… (Chinese writer Watchman Nee is great on this, in Love Not The World.) (And Lord, every time I watch a baptism, may I renew that pledge…)
The Flood; a seriously practical piece of history, giving us at least four things to pray about…
