ARE WE REPEATING THE PAST?

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In Christ, Mark

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The scriptures. May God bless the reading of His holy word.

The Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them."

But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 

Genesis 6:5-8

This ends this reading from God's holy word. Thanks be to God.

From Adam to Noah, ten generations of mankind had walked God’s created earth and sin had continued to manifest and grow itself within the hearts of men and women.

How bad did things get?

Our scripture today shares that "the Lord saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time." This happening upset God to the point that He "grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain."

Can you imagine things getting to that point, to the point where God regretted even creating human beings?

I can because as I consider this and think about the world we live in today, I can’t help but be concerned that we’re repeating the past.

Great wickedness on the earth?

Check.

Men and women consumed with evil thoughts?

Check.

God’s heart filled with pain because of all this?

Check.

If this doesn’t bring us a sense of conviction and concern, then maybe we’ve become too numb to sin in the world and its destructive nature. Unfortunately, I believe this is more of a reality than we want to admit.

So where does the issue sit? Why have we gotten to this place?

Well, the answer is pretty easy.

You see, in the time of Noah, godlessness reigned supreme and godlessness will always breed wickedness. Then and now, people were not concerned with the things of God. They weren’t centered on Him and therefore gave no attention to His will and the way He expected them to live.

Today, we’re seeing the same thing. Nations like the United States that were founded on a foundation of God and living for Him have now turned from Him, doing as they desire after abandoning His. This disrespectful attitude toward the sovereign Maker and Master of all created things will not go unpunished. Humanity living in the time of Noah learned this the hard way.

For as we go back to our passage for today, we find that God wasn’t about to allow rampant wickedness and sinfulness to consume His creation. He proclaims the following judgment:

"I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them."

Here God decides that things have gotten so bad that He needed to hit the reset button on humanity, opting to "wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air."

We can see where things weren’t looking good for mankind at that point.

This brings me to a question we should ponder:

Is it possible that God could decide to hit the reset button again as He did back in Genesis?

As we read the Bible, we know that it will indeed happen. For in the Book of Revelation, a book we studied extensively right before embarking on this Genesis journey, we know that Jesus is going to return to judge the earth. He could come at anytime and when He does, it will be the best day ever for anyone who believed in Him and the worst day ever for everyone else. This will culminate in Heaven and earth passing away as we know it and a new creation taking its place, the New Jerusalem where every Christian will abide with the Father and His Son forever.

Back to our scriptures for today where we know that bad things were ahead for all created things. For God was about to rain on their sinful parade in a big way, figuratively and literally, but not totally wipe out everything. For His mercy would shine on a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, a man named Noah, who had "found favor in the eyes of the Lord."We will see that He, his wife, and his three sons and their wives would be the only survivors of the great flood.

Through this account of mankind’s downfall, we will see God exercise His full divine authority and power out of His heartfelt pain and grief. Today, we should pay attention to this and not forget the mistakes of the biblical past or else we could see a repeat of that wickedness and God’s response of judgment today.

Amen.

In Christ,

Mark

PS: Feel free to leave a comment and please share this with anyone you feel might be blessed by it. Send any prayer requests to TheChristianWalkPrayers@gmail.com.