DId God Really Say…

January 6, 2024

Read Genesis 6, Psalm 6, John 6

I’m not sure if you have been on a cruise before or not but if you have not, they have a mandatory muster drill that everyone must take part in. A muster drill is a mandatory safety exercise with the objective to familiarize all guests and crew with the location (muster station) where they are to assemble in the unlikely event of an emergency, as well as additional safety information. You usually assemble at your assigned lifeboat where if need be, you can safely board and leave your cruise ship. In Genesis 6 we see a different type of lifeboat that God has created for Noah and his family. The Bible says Noah was “a righteous man” and had “found favor with God.” The rest of the earth, had become wicked and corrupted in the ways. The chief verse that gives us a hint at how bad it got says, “every inclination of the thoughts was only evil all the time” v.  5 What percent of thoughts in our culture would we guess is focused on evil? With the exception of Noah, it appears to be close to 100 percent in the days of Noah. How important it is to guard our thoughts? Out of our thoughts come our beliefs, our words, and our actions.

God gives Noah the plans to build an ark. This rather large boat took years to build and tells him that he will establish “my covenant with you” v. 18. A covenant was a promise and agreement made between two parties (Gen. 9: 8-11). This was the first time this word is used in the Bible. This past summer my wife and I made it up to Williamstown, Kentucky to see the life-size ark that was built by Ken Hamm and the Answers in Genesis organization. I highly recommend a visit. The people are amazing friendly and the information you will gain will no doubt help you as you think about all the how’s that came with the Ark.

Psalm 6 is a psalm of David. He is crying out to God for deliverance. David questions, “How long, O Lord, how long?” v. 3. David speaks of a flood, a different type of one, “all night long O flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears” v. 6. The circumstances that David is going through have brought him to a place where he felt like God had abandoned him or forgotten him. I know we all have times like that when it comes to God moving and acting in our lives and situations. Like the flood in Genesis 6 we do not know when God may choose to act in our lives as well. We do not know what He is doing in preparation for us in the background. The last few verses of Psalm 6 we see the resolution, apparently God has moved, acted, and delivered David. He writes, “the Lord has heard my cry for mercy; the Lord accepts my prayer” v.9. While we are in difficult circumstances it is harder to keep our faith and trust in the Lord. It is always easier to see when we look back and see the complete picture.

In John 6 we read about one of the larger miracles that Jesus did by feeding 5,000 plus people a meal from five loaves of bread and two fish. What faith Peter had to suggest this could be used by Jesus. Author and apologist, Lee Strobel points out about faith in his book The Case for Faith;

“You can have very little faith in thick ice and it will hold you up just fine; you can have enormous faith in thin ice and you can drown. It’s not the amount of faith you can muster that matters up front. It may be tiny, like a mustard seed. But your faith must be invested in something solid.”

Equally great, Jesus next step is to walk on the water to the boat in which the disciples are miles away from shore. Not much is made of the disciples and their reaction to this, but rather the Gospel of John intentionally focuses on the crowd that is following Jesus. Aware of their motives, Jesus calls them out, “I tell you the truth, you are looking for me, not because you saw miraculous signs but because you ate the loaves and had your fill” v. 26. The crowds were following Jesus for their own personal benefit and not for who He was as Messiah and God in the flesh. This leads Jesus to teach on what really matters, having eternal life and finding life in Him.  At the end of John 6 Jesus tells his listeners that he is the bread of life, there is a comparison with the bread (Mana) that the Israelites ate in the wilderness in Exodus, but Jesus teaches a “hard teaching” v. 60 that many of his followers could not grasp, in response they turn away and leave him. What was this hard teaching, “I tell you the truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you” v. 53. Of course, Jesus was not talking about some cannibalistic ritual, but rather speaking metaphorically about his future journey to the cross. Jesus explained this more at the last supper with his disciples the week that he would go to the cross. Why do you seek the Lord? Is it for some benefit that he gives you? He feeds your stomach, and you are satisfied. I’m afraid there is a movement by many contemporary Christians today to claim a part of Christianity, but really for selfish reasons. It has been given the name “Therapeutic Moralistic Deism.” There is no real interest in seeking the God of the Scriptures, rather people try to take on Christian morals for their own personal benefit. They want the happy marriage, the best-behaved kids, to live at peace with people, or to live out the American dream in their lives. Following Christ is hard, it will not win you friends with the world, but it will win you eternal life and favor with the God of creation. I hope you will trust in the lifeboat that is Jesus Christ. He is the thick ice that we can place our weak faith in.

What else do you see in these three chapters? What words or phrases or themes stick out to you? There is so much to pull from these passages. Share you thoughts below.