Lessons From Noah

Now all these things happened unto them for examples... – 1Co 10:11

Theologically speaking, Noah is a rich figure in terms of Old Testament typology. Like Rahab the Harlot, he is a picture of both the Saviour and the saved sinner, of Christ and the Christian.

CHRISTIAN

Noah is the first person in the Bible to be called “righteous”. Gen 6:9 declares him as tamiym; which is Hebrew for “without blemish, complete, perfect, without spot, undefiled, upright, whole!”

WOW! Are we talking about Jesus or Noah? We know he was a “preacher of righteousness”, but to say he was “perfect” seems to be stretching it, no? However, just as his great-grandfather, Enoch, Noah discovered the path to righteous blamelessness that many in the Church are still grappling with today: righteousness by faith.

We always talk of “Abraham the Father of Faith”; because he believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. But centuries before Abram, Noah was declared to be an heir of the righteousness which is by faith (Heb 11:7).

Hab 2:4 says, “the just shall live by his faith.” This was how our Old Testament fathers obtained blamelessness before God. They may not have had a full picture of the mechanism, but like Job, they were confident that their Redeemer lives (Job 19.25).

CHRIST

Noah is also a picture of Christ. Gen 7:1 (CEV) says, “The LORD told Noah: Take your whole family with you into the boat, because You Are The Only One on this earth who pleases me.”

Get it? Only one man pleased God, yet 8 souls went into the Ark! This is the picture of salvation. The Father declares of Jesus, “This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Mt 3:17). Whosoever  receives Jesus is thus “accepted in the Beloved”. Being now justified by His blood, they are saved from wrath through Him (Eph 1:6; Rom 5:9). HALLELUJAH!

May these token lessons from our four forefathers be a blessing to you and yours in Jesus' name

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

About That Good-For-Nothing Father of Ours

So Methuselah’s life lasted 969 years; then he died. – Gen 5:27. (HCSB-r)

The Bible says we should “honour the face of the old man” and warns against people who are “not afraid to speak evil of dignities” (Lev 19:32; 2Pe 2:10); yet we tend to throw those directives away when it comes to the Oldest Man ever – a man who also turns out to be our common father!

The age of Methuselah has been the object of much derision, specifically with respect to the issue of Legacy. How many times have you heard some preacher or motivational speaker rant, “Look at Methuselah, he lived for 969 years, and what has he to show for it? Nothing!” And from there they would go on to lambaste him in the hope of inspiring young people to desire to not just live long, but leave long lines in the sands of time.

I’ve always had an issue with this perennial attack on Methuselah. He seems to have committed a crime for living longer than everyone else. For starters, As a Patriarch, he’s a key link in the chain that brought not just us, but Christ as well; and that’s enough to earn him some sort of deference.

Also, the attack on him is based on a warped definition of “Success” or “achievement”. He may not have 5,000 souls for Christ, or raised the dead, or built the Stonehenge (as far as we know J), but a look at the decadent and corrupt giant-infested world that he lived in shows he deserves a nod for holding up. His dad was Enoch and his grandson was Noah; this line of persons kept themselves while all around them went to the dogs.

And lastly, when you come to think of it, who says Methuselah never left a legacy? If he didn’t, we wouldn’t be talking about him today, would we? Methuselah was a STAYER; even in the days when people lived for centuries, he outlived them all! That means even by their incredible standards, Methuselah was still OLD.

His modern-day detractors would say that his entire 969 years was summed up in just 4 verses of scripture (as though their own super-rich, impactful life has gotten them even a verse); but those 4 verses speak volumes. They tell of living godly in a universally ungodly world, of being a dependable link in fulfilling God’s agenda on Earth, and of being a super-achiever even in a family line of super-achievers. These are vital things we should ponder upon.

SELAH! (methuSELAH?)

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Enoch: The Man Who Was Not

By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; – Heb 11:5

Many are not aware that there’re two ENOCHs in Genesis. The first is the son of Cain, (yes, the Cain that murderer Abel). For some reason, his father wanted his name to endure far beyond him and so named a city after him – the City of “Enoch”.  Apparently, that didn’t work out; a second Enoch came along and lived a life so remarkable, that it obliterated whatever memory anyone could have had of the first Enoch.

Enoch (son of Jared, not of Cain) is one of only two persons in scripture that never tasted death. The Bible says “One day Enoch was walking with God, and he disappeared. God took him” (Gen 5:24 ERV).

Now, that’s awesome! But why did God take Him?

Contrary to our children Sunday School teachings, it wasn’t because he was so sinless that God had to take him out before he got corrupted by the rest of humanity. Enoch was not ­sinless, the Bible says “ALL – including Enoch – have sinned” (Rom 3:23). There’s a difference between moral uprightness and sinlessness. The former will not take you to Heaven, let alone make you skip death in the process. Yet the Bible says Enoch was translated because he “pleased God”.

What did he do to please God? Hb 11:5 tells us the answer. “BECAUSE OF FAITH Enoch was caught up and transferred to heaven” (AMP).

The ERV renders the whole story in simple English:

Enoch was carried away from this earth, so he never died. The Scriptures tell us that before he was carried off, he was a man who pleased God. Later, no one knew where he was, because God had taken Enoch to be with him. This all happened because he had faith.

That was the key. In a world characterized by sinful faithlessness, Enoch stood out due to his faith.

Beloved, faith is premium with God. Do you have faith? Don’t belittle it, it’s precious, and has great recompense of reward. (Hb 10:35; 11:6; 1Pt 1:7). There’s no limit to what God can do for you when you live in faith. As with Enoch, He’ll even break protocol for you to show the world just how pleased He is, because of your faith.

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

The Devolution of Adam

In the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die. – Gen 2:17

The Bible teaches the truth of Evolution – negative evolution that is. Contrary to what our biology textbooks tout as irrefutable “fact”, Man and chimpanzees do NOT have a common ancestor. In Genesis 1, when God was creating the animals, He spoke to the waters to bring up the fish and the birds (1:20); He spoke to the ground to bring up all kinds of land animals and creatures (1:24); but when He wanted to create Man, He spoke to HIMSELF! (1:26).

Evolution tells us that we were once oafish cave men who are only now getting better. The Bible teaches that we were made in God’s image and are getting worse!

Even after the Fall, Man was still so intellectually advanced that he excelled in math, science and art. The Egyptian pyramids were composed of enormous 20-tonne limestone blocks that were cut to an incredible precision of plus or minus 1/16^th of an inch!

Ancient languages were much more complicated than modern ones! Any person today who can fluently read Sanskrit (the language of ancient India) would be considered a genius; yet that was their normal language. Some ancient languages would alternately write backward and forward: one line from left to right, and the next line from right to left, all the while using no paragraphs, and not even spaces between word and sentences! Try asking a schoolboy to write and read like that today.

Even our bodies are degenerating. A birthday of 200 years today will set a world record, yet Adam lived up to 930 and was alive to see the great-grandson of his great-grandson (Enoch)!

From the moment Adam sinned, our spirits became dead, our mental faculties began spiralling downwards and our bodies began to deteriorate. That’s why we need the Last Adam, Jesus. In Christ our spirits are recreated, are minds are renewed and at His return, we’ll inherit new bodies that will live forever.

For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. (1Co 15:22) Halleluyah!

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN

Lessons From Our Four-Fathers

Render therefore to all their dues: tribute to whom tribute is due...honour to whom honour. – Rom 13:7

The Bible places great emphasis on respect to the elderly. Other than the charge to honour all men (1Pet 2:17; Rom 13:7), it enjoins us to “rise up before the grey headed, and honour the face of the old man” (Lev 19:32). The fifth of the Ten Commandments, (which Paul points out is the first of them with a promise attached), says you should “Honour your father and your mother,” (Dt 5:16, Eph 6:2). Even our respective cultures show great reverence to the “ancestors” and “forefathers”.

With increasing modernisation seems to come an increasing disregard for the aged. Yet without them, there would be no us – both literally and philosophically. Our current successes and achievements are based on their previous works – research, discoveries, blunders, errors. Even the “failures” among them have lessons to teach us; for their failures show us what not to do.

This is especially true of the Bible Patriarchs. “Patriarch” not in the Jewish usage of the word (Abraham, Isaac, etc.) but in the literal, direct sense. Because we sometimes forget that it isn’t only Adam that is our common father. From Seth down to Noah, humanity has TEN different men that we are all descendent from!

These are the real, ancient forefathers that make our cultural “ancestors” look modern in comparison. Their average age then was an incredible 857.5 years! How much could you learn from an 857-year-old man? A lot. That is why this week we’ll be learning and paying homage to the forefathers; or in this case, just FOUR Fathers: Adam, Enoch Methuselah and Noah.

For whatever things were written before were written For Our Learning, that we through patience and comfort of the scriptures might have hope. – Rom 15:4

AMEN.

More Blessings await you today; you’ll not miss them in Jesus’ Name.

GREG ELKAN