Date of message: 20 July 2003
Issue
103
Subject: Be Prepared
Shalom, Boker-tov (good morning),
One day, while Jesus was sitting on the Mont of Olives teaching, someone
asked Him about the end times, when it will come and what would be the
signs of the times and Jesus replied them in Matthew 24: 37- 39: -
37. But as the days of Noah were, so also will the
coming of the Son of Man be.
38. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking,
marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39. And did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also
will the coming of the Son of Man be.
What were these "days of Noah" that Jesus was referring to?
Those days must have been very significant otherwise Jesus would not have
made such references to them.
In Genesis 6: 1-5, the Holy Spirit tells that the sons of God saw that
the daughters of men were beautiful and they came and had sexual intercourse
with them and the result was giants were born from the union and these
were evil people and God was very grieved in His heart. God wanted to
rid the whole earth of these giants and save those who were not contaminated
by these half-breeds but He could only find a family of eight persons
- Noah, his wife, his three sons and their wives. And Noah found grace
in the eyes of the LORD (Gen 6: 8).
And so one day God called Noah and told him of His plan to destroy all
the inhabitants of the earth. To save him and his family, Noah was to
build an ark big enough to hold a pair of every living creature on earth
plus his family members and whoever was interested to join them in the
ark. It was so large that it took Noah at least 120 years to complete
and it must have been a sight to behold. Imagine a big ship 140m length
by 24m width by 14m height sitting on the wooden frame while Noah and
his sons were working hard trying to complete it with basic tools. And
to top it all, the construction site was far from any water or sea; it
was sited on dry land.
What was also queer to the people was this strange message that Noah was
proclaiming while busy with the construction - that God was going to send
rain and flood the earth. What is rain to people who had never seen rain
before? The earth was enveloped in a dense moist atmosphere and there
was no need for rain and the ground had always been fertile. And so Noah
and his family were constantly mocked at and none believed his report.
Now what was this message that Noah was preaching that even Jesus made
reference to it? I have always been puzzled with Genesis chapter 5 which
records for us all the genealogies of Adam and his sons. I could not understand
the meaning of all those "begats" until recently when Pastor
Joseph Prince of New Creation Church preached on these names and their
significance from the original Hebrew. There seems to be a hidden message.
The Messianic Prophecy
Hebrew Name English Meaning Age at Death
Adam Man 930
Seth Appointed 912
Enosh Mortal 905
Kenan Sorrow 910
Mahalalel The Blessed God 895
Jared Shall Come Down 962
Enoch Teaching 365 *
Methuselah His Death Shall Bring 969
Lamech The Despairing 777
Noah Rest 950
Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the Blessed
God shall come down teaching that His death shall bring the despairing
rest.
Enoch, the sixth generation descendent of Adam, was given a sign when
his son, Methuselah was born. He was instructed to name the boy, "His
Death shall bring" because God would execute His judgment over the
inhabitants of the earth the day Methuselah would die and Enoch believed
God and as a result of his faith, Enoch went on and lived three hundred
more years and was taken up to heaven directly without having to go through
death.
Everyone must have been very anxious during Methuselah's childhood. Each
time he fell sick, everybody would panic and they would try to get him
well less he should die and quicken the judgment. Each year when Methuselah
celebrated his birthday, everyone would heave a sigh of relief and he
went on to live till he was 969 years old and he passed on. Immediately
the rains came for forty days and forty nights and the flood waters covered
the whole earth for more than 180 days and then they started to recede.
Methuselah was the oldest man who ever lived on earth simply because God
was merciful to everybody and wanted to give them a chance to repent and
join Noah and his family in the ark.
Unfortunately none repented even though God's mercy prevailed for such
a long time. He would have extended Methuselah's life except that He had
also proclaimed in Genesis 2: 17 that man would die on the day that he
ate of the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. And in the
eyes of God, one day is as a thousand years and so Methuselah could not
live past one thousand years.
The message that God wanted the people to hear was that He had appointed
His Son would come and teach us that when He died, we would receive His
rest; rest from judgment because the Son of Man had been judged and therefore
we are no longer subject to condemnation.
When the flood waters subsided, the ark rested on Mount Ararat in modern
day Turkey on the seventeenth day of the seventh month (Genesis 8:4).
This is significant because according to the Hebrew calendar, this date
coincided with the Feast of First Fruits and from previous weeks, we have
seen that this date also happened to be the day Jesus Christ rose from
the dead. It is also interesting that the Aramaic word 'Ararat' means
'the curse has been reversed'. How appropriate that the curse of the Law
was reversed when Jesus died on the cross for us and He rose from the
dead to seal that New Covenant with the Father.
Finally, when Noah and his family emerged from the ark and touched dry
land, he built an altar and sacrificed a burnt offering to the LORD and
the LORD responded by cutting a covenant with Noah, sealing the covenant
with the sign of the rainbow. God has promised that He will never again
flood the earth and destroy it and He had given His guarantee in the rainbow.
Now we all know that during and after a downpour, when the rays of the
sun hit the water vapor, the result would be a beautiful rainbow and God
never fails us. The rainbow is always there after a rain shower whether
we manage to see one or not.
As sure as the sign of the rainbow is after a downpour, so is the sign
of the cross on the hands of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It has
been said, and is worth repeating, that Jesus will bear the marks of His
death on His body for eternity and that is how we will recognize Him when
we see Him in heaven. Just as each time God looks at the rainbow, the
LORD is reminded of His covenant with man that He will not judge the inhabitants
ever again with a flood; even so the Father is reminded of the work of
His Beloved Son Jesus on the cross and then we will be able to approach
Him as His children.
Have you received Jesus into your heart? Your choice will affect your
destiny for eternity. Rejection of what Jesus had done for us on the cross
signifies the rejection of God's Gift of salvation and if one rejects
the Gift, there is therefore no more hope.
Choose Life and put your faith in our Lord and Savior, Christ Jesus. Received
Him into your life and He will come into your heart and give you eternal
life. By believing in Jesus and receiving His Holy Spirit into our lives,
God confers on us the position of sons and daughters in His Family, special
positions reserved only for those whom He loves dearly (John 1:12).
The Lord cannot lie. For Him, whatever He speaks come to pass and He had
promised us in the Bible that those who have put their trust in Him will
not be condemned but have passed from death into life (Romans 8:1).
Pray this simple prayer and invite Him into your heart and immediately
you will experience the peace of Jesus coming your way.
Our heavenly Father, Daddy God, thank you that You love us right from
the very beginning even before we were born and it is because of this
great love for us that You sent Your Son, Your Only Son, the Son that
You love so dearly to come and to die for all our sins so that we can
enjoy all Your blessings.
Lord Jesus, thank you that You loved us so much that You became that Sacrificial
Lamb for us and because of Your death, the judicial righteousness of the
Father had been satisfied. And now, because You rose from the dead, we
who believe in You as our Lord and Savior will no longer have to die but
we receive Your eternal life. Thank you for coming into my heart and making
my heart Your home.
Thank you that I am now a child of God the Father and as His child, I
am now eternally forgiven, greatly blessed, highly favored, deeply loved
and completely protected in the Lord and in the most precious name of
Jesus Christ, Yeshua Ha' Mashiah, I pray.
Amen.
If you have prayed this prayer for the first time, welcome to the Family
of the Father (and it is a very large universal family). It is important
that you are not alone facing your personal trials but that you can obtain
good help wherever you are. Why not take the time to find your own local
Christian family (local church) and worship the Father together? You will
be greatly encouraged when you meet together to worship the Father, for
fellowship and for the study of the Word of Christ.
Start receiving the blessings of the Father as you walk with Him in faith.
It is your inheritance in Christ and He wants you to start enjoying these
blessings right now and there is more from where they come from.
The Lord blesses you and keeps you,
The Lord makes His face shine upon you and be gracious to you and all
your loved ones,
The Lord lifts up His countenance upon you and gives you His shalom peace.
Numbers 6: 24 -26
Have a blessed week ahead, Shavrou-tov
Shalom,
Andrew L W Lee
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