Noah and Jesus.

In the Bible the most important figure is always God. God created the world, He created man, He created the Garden of Eden and He placed man in the garden. It was God who was hurt by the fall of Adam and Eve, and it was God who took the initiative to go and look for Adam and Eve after their sin. It was God who offered to die for the sinful pair, and it was God who came up with the sacrificial system to symbolize what He Himself would do for Adam and Eve, and all of their children.

God did all of these things for mankind. God is the active agent in all good things. God is also the active agent in all evil, in the sense that nothing can happen unless God allows it to happen. God has chosen to allow each and every one of His children to have freedom of choice and all of the blessings and curses of having that freedom to choose.

One of the tragic concepts that comes out of the God discussion is why did He allow something like the flood to occur. Was God cruel and heartless to allow all of those people to die? Was the God of the flood the same as the God of the New Testament, or was He just an Old Testament God who had it out for people?

The Bible claims that God does not change yesterday, today, or forever. Hebrews 13:8. The Bible claims that God is consistently loving, and yet can hold the line with people and even destroy people if necessary to preserve life. God does all things in harmony with His principles of love. Whatever God does, it is from love, for God is love. I John 4:8

With the above thoughts in mind lets us looks at the preparatory issues. God had concluded that He had to put an end to the people for their thoughts were evil continually. Because of this God set a probationary period to give people an opportunity to repent and change if they should so choose to do so. While this probationary period of 120 years was occurring God would give instructions to Noah as to how to build the ark and how to communicate these thoughts to the sinners of his time with great longsuffering. During this time all who chose to could get mercy and grace from God so that they could change. If they chose not to change then the flood would come and God would wash the world from sin and start again with the people who responded to the messages of God.

Many have thought that the God of Noah’s time was cruel and harsh in His handling of the sin problem. They have thought that the God of the New Testament – Jesus of Nazareth was kind, sympathetic, and full of mercy. Yet, as we know from Hebrews 13:8 God is the same, yesterday, today, and forever. That same Jesus, who we love and trust in the New Testament, is the same God we wonder about in the Old Testament.

We know that Jesus was the Creator of the Earth according to Colossians 1:12-19. We know that Jesus is our Mediator. Hebrews 7:25 We know that Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world according to Revelation 13:8. We know that Jesus promised to be the One who would die for our sins. Genesis 3:15. We know that Jesus is the Great Shepherd who would come to seek and save the lost sheep. John 10:1-19. We also know that Jesus is the I Am of Exodus 3:1-14; John 8:58. Jesus was the One who gave Israel food and drink in the wilderness. I Corinthians 10:1-4. Jesus was Jehovah, in His pre-incarnate form, all through the Old Testament. Jesus was the God, who changes not, who instructed Noah how to save any and all of humanity. It was Jesus who suffered the rejection of all of those many people in the time of Noah, who rejected Him, and rejected His prophet.

Yet, in spite of all that rejection Jesus still found a way to preserve humanity and to use this time of trial and suffering as a springboard to new life. The tragedy of the death of much of humanity, was the opportunity of new life in Christ Jesus after the flood. This same Jesus, who created humanity, stayed with fallen humanity throughout all of the crises of the history of mankind. He will never leave us nor forsake us. This is His promise to us from Eden to today. He will see us through and He will come and gather us into His kingdom. That God whom Noah trusted so implicitly is the God that we to can trust implicitly. He is our God and Savior – Jesus Christ of Nazareth.