The Days of Noah

So much is happening in the world each day! Prophecies from Scripture about the end times are being fulfilled. The seals on the scroll in Revelation are being pealed away. War, religious deception, famine, martyrdom, earthquakes. HUGE amount of unrest in the Middle East. We get so "Ameri-centric", and often forget that Israel is the bell weather of Scripture and all history. As Mubarak prepares to leave Egypt, and the former head of Egypt's secret police is poised to take over, I wonder what it bodes for Israel. I have no good feeling about what is ahead. It SEEMS like the movement there is to have more freedom and democracy, but can it truly happen in an Islam dominated country? The Christians there have been persecuted for generations. Will that change? There are reports of turmoil in Jordan, Yemen, and even Syria. To what will all these events lead? 

Concerning famine, there are headlines every day of food prices going up and up. China has had persistent drought in some of its provinces. Australia has had floods, cyclones, wildfires, and now locusts attacking crops. Russia had such devastating wildfires last summer that it suspended all exports of wheat. Since food commodities are so internationally linked now, it doesn't matter so much where we stand in America as far as grain supplies go, our prices are based on international circumstances. Today a headline said our corn reserves are very low. Everything points to famine knocking on our doors. Lindsay Williams and others have said that we will have food on the shelves but the dollar will be so severely devalued that we won't be able to afford to buy it. (Of course a day or two of food riots will clear the shelves.) 

Joe Bastardi, one of the head meteorologists for AccuWeather.com, is so bumfuzzled by the current weather patterns that he figures we are in for much cooler than formerly predicted winters. He really cannot understand what is happening. He links it somewhat to what the sun is doing-NASA has had to revise down its sunspot activity predictions-things are staying way too quiet. And  you have probably heard that the magnetic north pole is galloping toward Russia at such a pace that many are saying a complete magnetic reversal of the north and south poles is imminent. Perhaps by March 15th even! A reversal could open up our atmosphere to deadly UV and other cosmic rays-increasing skin cancers, etc. 

With so much information crashing down around our eyes and ears, it is rather remarkable that the Lord said in Matthew 24 that the end of this age would be like the time of Noah. NOT because of all the wickedness and violence, but because things were going on just like "normal"-weddings, feastings, family routines. The people were absolutely CLUELESS until the flood came and carried them away. Now Noah had preached to the people for many, many years-both verbally and by building a big boat right in the middle of dry land as a testimony of his belief that what God said was actually going to happen. He was mocked, laughed at, derided. HMMMM, sounds familiar. How ironic that on the one hand the Bible says that men's hearts are going to fail them for fear, and yet they also continue on with their heads buried in the sand and lose themselves in the everyday routines of life to the point of completely missing the warnings of God's impending judgment. Of course, how many of our so-called pastors are preaching a Noah-like message today? The word "judgment" seems to have been lost from the Christian vocabulary. Maybe it will be more of the complacent Christians that will be like those in the days of Noah-resting in a false pre-trib Rapture belief-thinking that nothing of the "flood" will come near them or touch the lives of material comfort they have built up. What groanings will there be and pounding on the doors of the "Ark" when those whose lamps are full of oil and ready for the bridegroom's return have already been taken to a place of safety (here on the earth), and those whose lamps are empty cannot go in? Perhaps I'm mixing Scriptural metaphors, but the idea cannot be plainer. Psalm 91 promises protection to those who are dwelling in the "secret place of the Most High". That protection is in the midst of chaos and destruction here on the earth! And that secret place is complete rest and trust in the God and Savior that we have come to know through prayer and reliance on Him NOW.  How do we reach that secret place?

Isaiah 58: 13-14 speaks of the Sabbath. Now there is a lot of controversy among some Christians today about whether we should go to church on Saturday instead of Sunday, whether we should follow Old Covenant laws concerning the Sabbath, etc, blah, blah, blah. It makes my head ache actually. But here it explains what the Sabbath really means TO GOD: "If thou turn away thy foot from the sabbath, from doing thy pleasure on my holy day: and call the sabbath a delight, the holy of the LORD, honourable; and shalt honour him, not doing thine own ways, nor finding thine own pleasure, nor speaking thine own words: Then shalt thou delight thyself in the LORD; and I will cause thee to ride upon the high places of the earth, and feed thee with the heritage of Jacob thy father: for the mouth of the LORD hath spoken it." It's not the day of the week that's the issue, but the total giving of ourselves to the pleasure of God. Not going our way, but God's way. It's the "sabbath rest" spoken of so many times. And God said He would cause us to ride on the high places of the earth-above the storms and floods and catastrophes. If that means in an actual place of physical separation as mentioned in Rev. 12:6, or smack dab in the midst of nuclear disaster, God's promises are "YES" and "AMEN" if we have been dwelling in the secret place. Let us not be complacent, or so overwhelmed by all that we are seeing and hearing that we cover our heads and retreat into our own place of comfort-let us run with rejoicing the race that is set before us. God put us here NOW for a reason, and He didn't mean for us to proceed whimpering and quivering with fear. He meant for us to face the enemy and hard circumstances in the power of HIS might and with HIS armor. I want to be like the faithful saints of old who knew their God and did exploits. To be like the two witnesses in Revelation who meet every weapon formed against them with the miraculous power of God. Jesus promised that we can do greater works than even He did. That is almost too much to get our minds around, but when is something like that needed more than now? I pray there will be men of God raised up to proclaim a word like Noah and to warn of the wrath to come. To be holy men of boldness. And as women to be in the place of help that God wants for us and to be able to give of ourselves without reservation. Look UP! Our redemption draws near!!