Two familiar Bible stories today -- a brother's jealousy in Cain and Abel and Noah and the ark.
A couple of things stood out to me...
1. Cain had a choice. God knew he was angry and confronted him about it. He told him to do what was right and he would be accepted. He must be the master of sin. Yes, it's always knocking at the door. But we don't have to give in to it. Seems like that's true for me, too. Some days it's easy to give in. But then you have to face the consequences. Cain had to face the consequences of his sin, too. He would always be a restless wanderer. Yet God cared enough about him -- despite his sin -- to make sure people wouldn't kill him. God's mark was upon him. God's mark is on us, too. Can others see it?
2. Can you imagine 6 months in an ark with all those smelly animals? I can't go through the barn at the state fair without wrinkling my nose. Yet God tells us it rained for 40 days and nights. Then the ground was flooded for 150 days. Wonder where they scooped all that poop? I can't wait for Noah to tell me what life on that ark was really like.
3. I had always wondered how you'd collect all those animals. Gen. 7:9 says they came to Noah. Now I had always thought that God was big enough to get them there, and this tells us He was. Noah didn't have to work at wrangling all those beasts. Can you picture the lineup? The bears, the monkeys, the tigers, the fleas, the ants ... from big to little, God made sure all of His creation survived the flood.
4. The Bible says that God flooded the earth and started over because of man's violence -- that it grieved Him. Wonder how He feels today? Maybe it's because I'm in the news business and read all the stories, but it seems like we're living in such a violent age today. When I hear the stories about a child killing his fellow classmate or a husband shooting his wife, I just wonder how. How does life get so far out of whack? And how can we help make it better? God's promised no more floods that wipe out the earth. But I pray the violence gets less instead of more.
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Reading this I was wondering what did people think of Noah...I am sure they thought he was insane putting all of his time and energy into buidling an arch. Then when the rain came did they beg to let them in? Was it difficult for Noah to hear the people who knew they needed to get in the arch?
I also found it interesting that God said we would have a 120 year life. You rarely hear of people living that long now. But then people like Abram and Sari lived much longer than 120 years. I wonder when this started going into place?
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