I’ve been in the story of Noah this week. Just reading back through and really letting the story sink into my spirit. Since as far back as I can remember, we have been taught this fairytale story of Noah putting his animals in a big boat…we have even colored pictures with our children of two giraffes with their head sticking out the top of the ark with that single dove and an olive branch in its mouth hovering nearby. It’s just such a cute little story, huh?
Wrong.
It’s not cute. The world was absolutely disgusting.
Selfishness.
Unruly.
No compassion.
Unloving.
Abominable.
There was absolutely nothing about it that was good.
Nothing.
So much that God who created everything looked around and said, “It is good.”, was now regretting that He had created mankind. Scripture says that the sons of God and the daughters of mankind came together and produced offspring. The Bible doesn’t say specifically, but in studying it seems that these were demonic beings that mated with humans in an attempt to pollute the human race so that the Messiah could not come. God was so grieved by this that He had to destroy mankind, land creatures and the birds of the air. Even the animals were corrupted with evil.
Now if that ain’t evil y’all, I don’t know what is!
When the very One that created mankind wants to destroy it, it must be pretty bad. On the outside looking in, it would be easy to say that God isn’t loving or it was a reckless decision to do such a thing…but scripture tells us that God is love and He is far from careless in anything that He does. All things that He does is for a purpose and for the preservation of His people. He even tells the people, “Their days will be 120 years.” As I studied and allowed the Holy Spirit to help me understand, I feel as though this was almost a warning of sorts to the people at that time. Basically saying, “You got 120 years to get your junk together and change your ways or you are going to be destroyed.” Some have thought it was God reducing the lifespan of people for their wickedness.
Either way, it was an opportunity for preservation.
Preservation.
By definition preservation is: the activity or process of keeping something valued alive, intact, or free from damage or decay.
Only with God is there is preservation within destruction.
I am not going to unpack everything in this post, but know that even when you feel like pieces of your life are being destroyed or areas of your life are dying…you are being preserved for a greater purpose. There is a bigger picture in Genesis that will play out through the course of scripture. That same God is the same God of today. The story of your life is far from cute…probably messy at times, but it has purpose and meaning.
Be not mistaken, God wants you free from damage or decay. He has a purpose for your life and the enemy wants to pollute your mind in an attempt to destroy what you know to be true about God. If He can pollute your mind, you will eventually destroy your body. His attempt is to keep YOU from the Messiah.
The enemy wants to destroy you.
God wants to preserve you…
…and He will preserve you in the midst of your destruction if you trust in Him.
