ONE HUNDRED, TWENTY
Upon listening to a song by Colton Dixon, “Build a Boat. My mind went to the memory of Noah and the building of the Ark.
Many people differ about how long it took Noah to build that ark, however, that part is not as important as the one hundred and twenty years the Lord mentions:
Genesis, Chapter 6, verse 3 and verse 13:
“And the Lord said, My spirit will not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh, yet his days shall be a hundred and twenty years.’
“And God said unto Noah, the end of all flesh has come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.”
Now think of this: Despite when Noah built the boat, God gave mankind during that time 120 years to repent ONE HUNDRED,TWENTY YEARS!!
When Noah started his work on the ark, they laughed and mocked him. Still, I am sure Noah would warn them about what God told him in verse 3. How it must have grieved Noah, that the people would not believe him and did not repent.
So after all the work was done on the ark and the animals and Noah’s family entered the ark, the rain began to fall and God himself closed the door to the ark so no one had a way to open it from the outside.
We hear the story, but no one notices that God gave them 120 years notice to repent..God is merciful, patient and long suffering.
Let's look at Lot and His family.
God tells Abraham what He is going to do to Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis, Chapters 18 and 19,
Chapter 18:20-21
“And the Lord said, Because the cry of Sodom and Gomorrah is great, and because their sin is very grievous; I will go down now, and see whether they have done altogether according to the cry of it, which is come unto me; and if not I will know.”
Here we see God’s willingness to check out the situation more closely. Abraham begs the Lord for the lives of the people. If there are fifty righteous, will you spare the cities? The Lord agrees and Abraham continues all the way down to ten righteous people.
The sad truth was, that when the angels entered the city, there weren't even ten innocent people. Just Lot and his family, or, as it seemed, because Lot’s wife turned around to see what was happening or perhaps longing to go back. She turned when the angel that led them out told them not to look back. She immediately turned into a pillar of salt.
As a testimony to us today she can still be seen there at the dead sea today as a reminder to us not to long to go back to the evil God delivered us from.
My heart hurts for all that is going on in this world and our nation today. We must not be like those people during the days of Noah and not heed God’s warnings. God gave them 120 years to repent. How many years has it been since Jesus gave us these words of warning?In the Gospel of Matthew, Chapter 24, when Jesus speaks of the last days to come, he mentions the days of Noah in 24:37-39:
Verse 37; “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.”
Read Genesis 6:13 again and then look at us today
His Disciples went out to preach the words of Jesus in the land then and they wrote them and speak to us today. Jesus told them:
Matthew 10:14-15
14 ““And whoever will not receive you nor hear your words, when you depart from that house or city,)shake off the dust from your feet. 15 Assuredly, I say to you, it will be more tolerable for the land of Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of judgment than for that city!
2 Peter 2:4-9
4 For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5 and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly; 6 and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, making them an example to those who afterward would live ungodly; 7 and delivered righteous Lot, who was oppressed by the filthy conduct of the wicked 8 (for that righteous man, dwelling among them, tormented his righteous soul from day to day by seeing and hearing their lawless deeds)— 9 the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
We all have the freedom to choose. What is your choice?
