Genesis 8 and Romans 5:3,4,5: Hope and the Receding Flood Waters

Presented to The Salvation Army Alberni Valley Ministries by Captain Michael Ramsay, 30 May 2021

 

Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” We have been suffering through the pandemic for quite a while now; but today is a sign of hope.[i]

 

We are meeting inside again for a church service. Praise the Lord. It seems a little strange. It has been a little while. It reminds me of the story of Noah and the flood a little bit.[ii] It reminds me of Genesis Chapter 8 – especially the part where Noah and his family send out the birds.

 

Noah and his family had been in their social bubble, secluded from others for a long time. The earth was covered by a flood. To me this is reminiscent of the many people who have been secluded from others in many ways and some more than others – some completely or almost completely – as the whole earth has been flooded with this pandemic.

 

Genesis Chapter 8 especially resonated with me this week in the context of church services, as we are now allowed to have them again; dedicated religious services - like so much else in our society - have been cut off by the flood waters of covid-19. Many of us have been very careful to follow all the rules as we suffer through this pandemic looking forward to the promise, the hope that one day the flood waters of covid-19 will recede.

 

When it looked like the floodwaters that were covering the earth might be dissipating, Noah sent out the birds. He sent out a raven and a dove to see if everything was okay, to see if he and his family could return to a ‘new normal’.

 

In BC here we have sent out metaphorical birds like Noah’s raven and dove to test our floodwaters, to see if the flood of coronavirus has abated. In the context of church gatherings, the first time the dove was sent out could have been when we here sent out newsletters intermittently, and when we and many other congregations posted services and/or our words of encouragement on-line. This was one dove we sent flying above the pandemic-flooded world to see if it would find a place to land. Like churches all over North America, however, we found out there was no firm ground to land upon there. The churches sent out the dove of on-line services with a lot of hope but -by and large, according to the stats, in most cases- it came back with diminishing returns; this was not the ‘new normal’ – but it was a dove that was sent out searching for hope and a place to land. It was a symbol of our hope.

 

Another time that the dove went out over the flood waters of covid-19 was when we were allowed to gather as a church, meeting for the first time – last fall. These church services were another dove sent out over the waters. And a faithful group of us gathered, hoping that maybe this dove would find a place to land and remain and flourish. For a number of weeks we tested the waters in this way (and society tested it in other ways as well – such as open restaurants which they experimented with even longer than open church buildings) but the dove of both the open restaurants and the church services was pulled back into the Ark of Isolation - the dove left the air of the church services to settle on the Ark of Isolation just before Christmas of 2020.

 

And then there was the raven in Genesis 8. The raven I think is like our service to the community. The Bible is very clear that we have to look after one another. The Bible is very clear that we are not to exclude others from the opportunities to serve God and others. We ae to include others, rather than objectify them; We are to be selfless and not selfish. Our faithfulness in doing this; our faithfulness in serving others – I think – is akin to the raven who was sent out and continued to be out there flying back and forth even as the floodwaters continued to cover the earth. The raven stayed safely apart from the floodwaters but was out there all the same. I think the raven is the hampers that we delivered straight to people’s homes; I think the raven is those who packed and sorted and delivered these hampers; I think the raven is the meals that we have served on the truck; I think the raven is those who cooked them, dished them out and served them; I think the raven is the number of people who have made sandwiches and other meals and assembled them and continue to make them to bring to those in need. I think our continued service is the raven flying back and forth above the waters of the pandemic – and we will remain flying back and forth above the waters serving and offering hope to those suffering from the pandemic as long as the pandemic remains.

 

But now we are sending out the dove again. Today we are sending out the dove of safe, sanitized, socially distanced church services, again. Today we are here testing the waters. I don’t know whether the dove with come back with an olive branch this time or not. I don’t know whether this is the beginning of the end of the pandemic today or not. I don’t even know whether we will be able to meet inside to worship our Lord and Saviour next week or not but I do know that today we – along with the rest of the Universal Church in British Columbia – are sending out that dove in the hopes that all the suffering and trials of the pandemic are soon to be over.

 

Today I want to leave us with this verse from Romans that has a very special meaning to me because an angel shared it with me before my family and I were about to go through some very difficult times and hopefully it will have a very special meaning for us all now as hopefully we are beginning to come out the other end of some significant suffering in our world.

 

The angel told me, from Romans 5:3,4 “...but let us also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” And Verse 5, “And hope does not disappoint, because God’s love has been poured out into our hearts through the Holy Spirit, who has been given to us.”

 

As we conclude are worship time today let us do so in renewed character, strength and hope that indeed our Lord with see us through this storm. He will. 

 

Let us pray

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[i] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay "Romans 5:3,4: Hope and an Angel on the Downtown Eastside". Presented to Nipawin and Tisdale Corps on April 20, 2008; Swift Current Corps on August 09, 2009; Corps 614 Regent Park on May 15, 2016. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2008/04/romans-534-hope-and-angel-on-downtown.html

[ii] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, "Genesis 9:8-17: Salvation (Matthew 24:37-38. Luke 17:26-27, Hebrews 11:7, 1 Peter 3:20-22)". Presented to Swift Current community at Lenten Lunch Service, 26 February 2015; the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 01 March 2015; and Corps 614 Regent Park, 28 June 2015. Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.com/2015/02/genesis-98-17-salvation-matthew-2437-38.html

Genesis 9:8-17: Salvation Rainbow (Matthew 24:37-38. Luke 17:26-27, Hebrews 11:7, 1 Peter 3:20-22)

Presented to Swift Current community at Lenten Lunch service, 26 February 2015; the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 01 March 2015; and Corps 614 Regent Park, 28 June 2015 by Captain Michael Ramsay

Comment: "What a supportive city! Someone must have known that I was preaching on Noah today- all the streets from the quarters to the corps were lined with rainbow flags and I think they are even having a parade..."

Click here to read the homily: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2015/02/genesis-98-17-salvation-matthew-2437-38.html

Genesis 9:8-17: Salvation (Matthew 24:37-38. Luke 17:26-27, Hebrews 11:7, 1 Peter 3:20-22)

Presented to Swift Current community at Lenten Lunch service, 26 February 2015; the Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army 01 March 2015; and Corps 614 Regent Park, 28 June 2015 by Captain Michael Ramsay

   

Noah and his family survived that terrible flood. Our passage today takes place after the waters have subsided. But now everything is different. They have survived but nothing has returned to normal and nothing will ever return to whatever normal was before the flood – and that was some of the point of the flood – their life has been turned upside down but their life still goes on. They did not die with their neighbours, their friends, and other extended family but everyone else they knew did. They were saved and life goes on after the flood.

This can be very traumatic. In The Salvation Army we have a lot of experience with floods and recovery from floods: floods these days seeming to be an annual event. We have sent teams from Swift Current to help out during and after floods in Maple Creek, Weyburn, Melville, and other places across the province. We have sent teams from Swift Current to help out in High River and other places across the country.  Our Salvation Army has even provided disaster relief across the continent and around the world. I am one of the national trainers actually for Emergency Disaster training and we will be training and certifying people this weekend in Maple Creek so that they can help out in a disaster such as a flood.

There are many things to consider when helping out after a flood. When God was assisting Noah and his family, we remember that even after their boat had landed they didn’t get out until the waters had subsided enough for animals to graze and for food to grow. Remember a bird first bringing back the branch and then a bird not returning. Food: This is no small provision.

I remember when Hurricane Ike struck Galveston TX, September 2008: more than 1 million people were evacuated from Texas and probably more than 100 people were found dead as a result of the Hurricane and flood. I was on the first deployment with the relief team and bodies were still being found when I left.

Food and water: this was a big part of The Salvation Army mission. We had 30 food trucks from which we served around 75 000 hot meals every day, and gave people water and ice. Ice was very important. It was around 90 F. And the food: many people told me that without The Salvation Army they wouldn’t have eaten at all. Even though they lived through the flood, they wouldn’t have continued to survive.

When we were serving down there, I heard more than one account of a contemporary miracle paralleling that of the fish and the loaves. Our food trucks were instructed to make sure that they gave away all of the food before they came in for the night. They did not want food returned when people were going without. It was getting late and one truck was seeking someone to give its last container of food to. They prayed. One person then saw a line of about 12-18 tired and hungry looking construction workers so they headed over to offer them their food. They were really appreciative.

As they were feeding these men, a number of school busses filled with people pulled up. It is my understanding that they served over 800 meals at that location – no one went away hungry. Feeling blessed by what the Lord had done they started to clean up. (Now there was a non-believer, a Red Cross worker on their canteen with them that day). Someone picked up the container from which they fed the 800 meals and read from the side of it, ‘serves 90 meals’. The Lord fed more than eight times that number and no one went hungry. The Red Cross worker who was helping them on the truck that day began to cry. He said that he had never believed in God – until now.

God provided for the salvation of not only those He spared from the flood but God also provided for the Salvation of those left behind without food or anyway of making food and God also penultimately provided for the salvation of the Red Cross worker in the same way God provided for the Salvation of Noah and his family not only through the flood but also in His provisions during and after the flood.

Now we must remember as well that this was quite a traumatic event. Friends and probably extended family of Noah and his wife and children died. And the country to which they returned after the flood was nothing like the country they left. I imagine that some of them were asking themselves why their friends perished when God sent the warnings and the ark so that none need to perish.

From our time in Texas, there was a story of one 19 or 20 year-old who stood on the waterfront, intentionally defying the storm. He was swept away to his death. I met a man who lost his home and his business and praised the Lord for his insurance but this same man wondered and asked me why his brother chose to stay behind and die. How does he deal with the fact that his brother rejected the provided salvation?

This is really the same for us today here. We have the opportunity to thank God for His salvation and we can remember it every time we cast our eyes up to the heavens and see the rainbow, the symbol of God’s salvific covenant! We praise Him today also that the early warning not only for Noah and his family but also for us as it relates to the metaphorical eschatological hurricane. This warning was sounded 2 millennia ago – through the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We praise the Lord, that he gave his life so that everyone can be saved.

Jesus died on the cross and rose again so that no one needs to perish in that metaphorical eschatological hurricane. The sad thing is that some refuse to call on the name of the Lord. Some ignore the early warning system. Some defy God. Some refuse to be saved. Some friends and family are like that man’s brother. Some friends and family are like that 19 or 20 year old – defying God and awaiting death this time by fire or even sooner by other means. It is sad. It is tragic.

I want to share some good news though: the story of Scott and the story of Paul. Scott was a food truck worker who had accepted the Lord not too long before coming to Galveston to help out with the flood relief and Paul was a 12 year-old boy.

Scott was working on of one of our food trucks. Paul lives in a small apartment with 10 other people and is familiar with the neighbourhood activities of gangs and drugs. This boy saw our canteen near his home and wanted to help. He approached Scott and volunteered to help. Scott welcomed him with open arms and very quickly made an impression on Paul - he kept coming back. Scott even gave him T-shirt and hat. The look on Paul’s face was worth a million dollars or more.

The evening before Scott was to return home from his deployment, I had the opportunity to give him his debriefing. During this exit interview we began speaking about Paul. Scott told me that he had prayed with Paul on a number of occasions and that Paul was asking about Jesus. I asked if Paul had asked the Lord into his heart. Scott said ‘not yet’ and asked me to help him do that.

The next day, Sunday, Scott, Paul, and a number of other volunteers working on the canteen eagerly awaited our arrival – Paul was ready to ask the Lord into his heart. We arrived and I encouraged Scott to lead Paul in the ‘sinners’ prayer’. After a simple confession of sin and profession of faith, Paul was welcomed into the family of God. We then sang a verse of Amazing Grace and Scott presented Paul with a Bible.

While we were celebrating Paul’s proclamation of salvation, two apparent ‘good-ole boys’ rolled up in a pick-up truck with their radio blaring Hank William’s “I Saw the Light.” They were angels. They were messengers of God who had come to celebrate with us, then they were gone.

In the midst of all the turmoil and all the suffering God was there just like in the midst of all Noah’s turmoil and suffering, God was there. And just like in the midst of all our troubles and all our sufferings, God is here. He offers this very same salvation to us that he offered to Galveston, Texas in 2008 and to Noah in Genesis 9-16.

Today we have the same choice as the people of Noah’s day and people of Galveston Island. We can either defy the eschatological hurricane and perish like the nineteen year-old boy or we can heed the warning; we can see the light, accept salvation, turn our eyes upon Jesus and celebrate with the Angles sent from God in Heaven. I know that I will never be able to hear Hank William’s, ‘I Saw the Light’ again without being reminded of God’s glorious Salvation through that flood. And I am sure that whatever else happened in Noah’s life that he could not ever see a rainbow again and not remember that glorious salvation the God provided for his family through the flood. And it is my hope today that if we haven’t boarded the Ark of eternal salvation yet that we do so today.

For those of us that have already experienced the salvation that Noah, that Scott, that Paul, and that so many others have experienced, it is my hope that every time we see a rainbow or even hear the song ‘I Saw the Light’, that indeed we might turn to Lord thank the Him again for His glorious Salvation.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com 

Week 19: Genesis 9:24: Complacency

A devotional thought presented originally to Swift Current Men’s Prayer Breakfast, Thursday 05 February 2015

Read Genesis 9:24-29

A short history of humanity from Adam to Noah:

Ø      God makes mankind (Adam and Eve) and He loves us

Ø      We sin horribly and suffer the consequences

Ø      God still loves us and makes provisions for our safety

Ø      Man (Cane) sins horribly by killing his own brother and suffers the consequences

Ø      God still loves us and makes provisions for our safety

Ø    Mankind sins horribly – ‘doing only evil all the time’ – and suffers the consequences of the flood

Ø      God still loves us and makes provisions for our safety

Ø    Mankind sins horribly with this incident involving Ham and Noah, and humanity (Canaan) suffers the consequences

And around and around we go…

What about today? Are we any better? How many times do our lives get so overwhelming that we cry out to the Lord, we see how miraculously God delivers us from our problems; and then over time we drift further and further away from the Lord, drifting closer and closer to sin and death in the process? How many people have said at some point, “God if you do such and such for me, I will do such and such in my life” only to have God help you and then you forget –maybe not right away but over time you don’t uphold your part of the bargain? Or how about those of us who have known God for a long time? There was a time when we realized that we sinned and fell short of the Glory of God.

There was a time when we came to realize we couldn’t make it without God. There was a time when we realized that we needed to board the Ark of Eternal Salvation. There was a time when we asked Jesus to come into our hearts and there was a time when we turned our lives totally over to God. Then for many of us, as time goes on, there is the temptation to either doubt or forget all that God has done for us; for many of us then, as time goes on, there is the temptation to either doubt or forget exactly how important it is what God has done for us; and then, some of us, as time goes on, are we ever tempted to do whatever is our equivalent of the sins of Genesis 9?

Today, if there are any of us who haven’t boarded the Salvation Ark, I would invite us to do so before we are engulfed in the eternal flood. And for those of us already on board the boat, I encourage us to please keep strong. Let us remember how God saves us and let us turn not on our Father who is in Heaven but rather let us turn to our Father who saves us (cf. TSA doc 9).

A question for those of us those of us who boarded the Ark of Salvation even many years ago: have we now –like mankind to Noah’s time - been caught in that seemingly endless cycle of sin, consequence and deliverance? Have we since fallen into the waters of the sin of complacency?

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[1] Based on the sermon by Captain Michael Ramsay, Genesis 9:18-29: Idiomatic Noah. Presented to Swift Current Salvation Army, 29 Sept 2013. On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2013/09/genesis-918-29-idiomatic-noah.html

Genesis 9:18-29: Idiomatic Noah

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 29 Sept 2013
By Captain Michael Ramsay

Today we are speaking about Noah so I found a few riddles about that to share here[1]:

1. What did Noah say as he was loading the Ark?

Ø      "Now I herd everything."

2. Why did the people on the ark think the horses were pessimistic?

Ø      They kept saying neigh.

3. What animal could Noah not trust?

Ø      The cheetah.

4. Why couldn't they play cards on the ark?

Ø      Noah was sitting on the deck.

5. Who was the first canning factory run by?

Ø      Noah, he had a boat full of preserved pairs.

6. Was Noah the first one out of the Ark?

Ø      No, he came fourth out of the ark.

Before we chat a little bit about Noah we should probably have a little bit of context. Noah is one story among many in the book of Genesis, so let’s recap what those of us who have been reading Genesis have read in the chapters leading up to the Noah episode.[2]

Remember in the beginning of Genesis? Remember the creation story?[3] By the third day God had finished making the earth and the sky and the sea and by the sixth day He had completed and rested from making birds and animals and people to live in their environments. God makes this beautiful world that He loves and it is good and He creates good people  –Adam and Eve, whom we spoke about last week - to look after it, but sin creeps in and this breaks God’s heart; so He needs to remove people from the land He put us in. [4]

Not long after this time Cain, Adam and Eve’s firstborn son, also falls prey to sin, killing his brother and becoming further removed from the Lord and the land he is working (Genesis 4). God loves us so much that He even warns Cain before Cain succumbs to sin. He tells him, Genesis 4:7b, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.”[5] Humanity nonetheless defies God and falls prey to sin; so again humanity needs to be removed from the land that was entrusted to us. God still loves His creation. He gave us, His children, this responsibility to look after His creation for Him and twice now, with Adam and Eve and with Cain, He has had to give us a time-out and twice now He has felt the need to remove us from the very land that He had asked us to look after on His behalf. This makes God sad.[6]

Now, it is only a few chapters further along in the story. The years have gone on and God has many more children whom He loves and they are still being disobedient, even with the examples of those before them.[7] As a matter of fact, they are worse than ever. Genesis 6:5-6: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.” Again God seems to be left with little choice but to remove us from the land for which we are responsible. This time actually instead of taking us away from the land, He takes the land away from us drowning the world in His sorrows, and leaving his chosen property managers – Noah and Sons - floating until the property is ready for them.

Noah, of course, is in the direct lineage of Jesus Christ who is the Saviour of the whole world. On the family tree (or family vine, as the case may be) that we are reproducing of our Lord, Noah -generations before Christ- is the one God chooses as a vehicle to save us here as God re-creates the whole world. It is after God’s salvation of humanity via Noah and it is after God’s promise of further mercy for His creation; it is after God lovingly makes the rainbow to symbolize His promise to never destroy the earth by floodwaters again; it is after the people –Noah’s family – leave the boat, the Ark; it is at this point after we have had so much relief following a disaster of such magnitude that we experience a very strange part of Scripture.

God says, Genesis 9:15-29:

I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life.  Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”

So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”

The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the whole earth.

Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.  Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside.  But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.

When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son [Ham] had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan!  The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers.” He also said, “Praise be to the Lord, the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem. May God extend Japheth’s territory; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be the slave of Japheth.”

After the flood Noah lived 350 years. Noah lived a total of 950 years, and then he died.

This is the conclusion of the Noah story. The Noah story doesn’t end with rainbows and bunny rabbits.[8] The Noah story doesn’t end with a happy celebration after the flood. The Noah story doesn’t end in hugs and kisses and choirs of angels. The Noah story ends with Noah getting drunk and his youngest son doing something –we don’t really know what he does – his youngest son does something which results in Noah cursing, not the offender but the offender’s child who is Noah’s own grandson. Noah calls out a curse on Canaan, his own grandson; his descendants will be slaves of his uncle’s descendants. Have you ever wondered why God and the Bible conclude the Noah story this way? Does it strike anyone else as strange? And what did Ham do that causes Noah (Ham’s dad) to curse Canaan (Ham’s son)? What exactly was it that Ham did to provoke Noah into cursing Canaan, who is Noah’s own grandson?

Verses 21-23, again reads: “When he [Noah] drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father naked and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s naked body. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father naked.” Then Noah wakes up and curses his grandson, the son of his son who, Verse 22, “saw his father naked and told his two brothers”. What was so wrong with this?

First in understanding what is so wrong with this we need to understand a certain idiomatic euphemism; can anyone tell me what is an euphemism or an idiom? An euphemism is a vague or a gentler way to say something and an idiom is a phrase that we all know what it means but it means something other than what it literally says. It is an expression for something. I have some idiomatic euphemisms. Let’s see who can tell me what they mean?

1. Turn a blind eye to something
2. Caught red-handed
3. He blew his fuse
4. The apple doesn’t fall to far from the tree
5. Dog’s breakfast

I used to be involved in the administration of international colleges. You can imagine how confusing idioms like this would be for our students who didn’t speak English as a first language. What would they think if they heard the following: “He had always turned a blind eye to it but today he really blew his fuse because the whole place was a dog’s breakfast.” If English isn’t your first language you’re not really going to know what is going on.

Today we have before us in our text, one of those idiomatic euphemisms from ancient Hebrew: “seeing his father’s nakedness”. This phrase – in the Bible, in the Old Testament, in the Pentateuch – has often been used as an expression for sexual activity.[9] For one example – and there are many examples - Leviticus records that you should not have sexual relations with – literally, ‘you should not uncover the nakedness’ of a close relative (Leviticus 18:16). Ezekiel sometimes also uses this idiomatic euphemism to refer specifically to violent or other illicit sexual encounters (Ezekiel 16:36-37; 22:10; 23:10, 18,29).

This has caused scholars to interpret Ham’s sin in various ways.

A few people simply see Ham’s sin here as literally looking at his naked father but that argument doesn’t seem to really – if you will excuse the idiomatic euphemism, that argument doesn’t seem to ‘hold any water.’ Some Jewish scholars see Ham’s sin as castrating his father in order to usurp his authority. I can’t find any Biblical support for that.[10]

Many scholars these days recognize that since the phrase, ‘uncover his father’s nakedness’ usually refers to sexual activity that there is some sort of sexual encounter here. Quite popular, these days, is the opinion that Ham lay with his drunken or passed out father. The problem with that theory is that it doesn’t explain why Noah cursed Ham’s son rather than Ham himself.

As a result of this and readings of other texts, scholars acknowledge that the phrase, ‘uncover his father’s nakedness’, can also refer to acting like Oedipus and having relations with his own mother. The phrase is used this way in Leviticus 18:7-8 as well (cf. Leviticus 18:14-16; 20:11, cf. also Deuteronomy 23:1, 27:20).[11] If that is true, that would certainly better explain why his child is cursed rather than just Ham himself, especially if his child is the product of this illicit relationship.

But none of this is 100% agreed upon. What is agreed upon is this: whatever it is that Ham did, it is serious. Whatever it is that Ham did, it caused his own son to be cursed. Whatever it is that Ham did, it caused Noah to curse his own grandchild. Whatever it is that Ham did, it caused his family to be cursed after they were already saved from the flood. Whatever this heinous sin here is, that Ham did, it is the note upon which the whole Noah story ends. The short version of the flood story in the context of Genesis is then as follows:

Ø      God makes mankind (Adam and Eve) and He loves them

Ø      They sin horribly in the garden and suffer the consequences

Ø      God still loves them and makes provisions for their safety

Ø      Man (Cane) sins horribly by killing his own brother and suffers the consequences

Ø      God still loves him and makes provisions for his safety

Ø      Mankind sins horribly – ‘doing only evil all the time’ – and suffers the consequences of the flood

Ø      God still loves them and makes provisions for their safety

Ø      Mankind then sins horribly with this story of Ham and Noah and suffers the consequences

And around and around we go…

Well, how about our own lives? Are we any better? How many times do our lives get so overwhelming that we cry out to the Lord, we see how miraculously God delivers us from our problems and then over time we drift further and further away from the Lord and holiness and instead we drift closer and closer to sin and death? How many people have said at some point, “God if you do such and such for me, I will do such and such in my life” only to have God help you and then you forget –maybe not right away but - over time you don’t uphold your part of the bargain? Or how about those of us who have known God for a long time? There was a time when we realized that we have sinned and fallen short of the Glory of God. There was a time when we realized that we can’t make it without God. There was a time when we realized that we needed to board the Ark of eternal Salvation. There was a time when we asked Jesus to come into our hearts and there was a time when we turned our lives totally over to God. For many of us then, as time goes on, there is the temptation to either doubt or forget all that God has done for us; for many of us then, as time goes on, there is the temptation to either doubt or forget how important it is what God did for us; and then, some of us, as time goes on, are we tempted to proceed to do whatever is the equivalent in our life is of ‘uncovering our father’s nakedness’?

Today, many of us are just like Noah’s family. Today, many of us have experienced (and are experiencing) the Salvation that was provided by the ‘Jesus Ark’ so many years ago. Today, many years after landing safely on the dry ground of our relationship with our Lord, the devil can tempt any of us, to forget what the Lord has done for us and commit whatever the equivalent in our life is of ‘uncovering our father’s nakedness’.

God loved Noah and Noah’s family. God saved Ham (and by extension Canaan) from the flood in which so many people perished. Yet Ham committed some heinous act that caused him to turn the blessing of salvation he received from the flood into a curse for generations to come. God saved Ham. Ham turned on God and his father and Ham and his family missed out on the full blessing of the salvation that his brothers and their families experienced.

Today, if there are any of us here who haven’t boarded the Salvation Ark, I would invite us to do so before we are engulfed in the eternal flood. To those of us who have indeed boarded the Ark of Salvation and have landed on dry land maybe many years ago, I encourage us to please keep strong. Let us remember how God saves us and let us turn not on our Father but instead let us turn to our Father (cf. TSA doc 9). For when we love God and when we love our neighbour in this way, all curses will be ultimately be erased and we will live out our Salvation for now and evermore with our Lord and Saviour.

Let us pray.

www.sheepspeak.com

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[1] ‘The Riddles are from Noah’s Ark Riddles’ on The English Humour Wikki http://mirth.wikia.com/wiki/Noah's_Ark_RiddlesGod loves us.

[2] Cf Captain Michael Ramsay, 'Genesis 6:5-7: This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.' Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current:10 June 2012). On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/06/genesis-65-7-this-is-going-to-hurt-me.html

[3] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay, Room for Creation (Sheepspeak: Swift Current: 2012) and Captain Michael Ramsay,The Appeal of Creation: Genesis 1, Romans 1. Presented to the Nipawin Corps, (Sheepspeak.com: Nipawin SK: 07 June 2009),On-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2009/06/appeal-of-creation-genesis-1-romans-1.html

[4] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay,Genesis 1-4: God: Creator, Governor, and Preserver of All Things. Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current: 26 Feb 2012). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/02/genesis-1-4-god-creator-governor-and.html

[5] Cf. Captain Michael Ramsay,'Genesis 4:7b: Sin is Crouching at Your Door'. Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, (Sheepspeak.com: Swift Current, SK: 03 June 2012). Available on-line: http://sheepspeaks.blogspot.ca/2012/05/genesis-47b-sin-is-crouching-at-your.html

[6] Cf. Derek Kidner: Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 91

[7] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Suffering of God, (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984),112.

[8] But cf. W. Sibley Towner,  “Genesis 9:8-17.” Interpretation 63, no. 2 (April 1, 2009): 168-171.

[9] Scott Sietze Bergsma and Scott Walker Hahn,  “Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:20-27).” Journal of Biblical Literature 124, no. 1 (2005): 25-40.

[10] But cf. Graves and Patai, Hebrew Myths, 122 for non-Biblical examples. Cited from Scott Sietze Bergsma and Scott Walker Hahn,  “Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:20-27).” Journal of Biblical Literature 124, no. 1 (2005): 29.

[11] Scott Sietze Bergsma and Scott Walker Hahn,  “Noah’s Nakedness and the Curse on Canaan (Genesis 9:20-27).” Journal of Biblical Literature 124, no. 1 (2005): 25-40.

Genesis 6:5-7: This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.

Presented to Swift Current Corps of The Salvation Army, 10 June 2012

By Captain Michael Ramsay

 

In the old days, spanking used to be a common way of disciplining – not so much any more. Though it was banned in BC public schools before I ever earned the right to receive a backside blessing, I remember friends of mine who attended other places recalling their displeasure at the strap. In that regard it was a real blessing growing up when I did that I lived in British Columbia: did you know that BC was the first province to ban corporal punishment; they did so in the early 1970s, 16 years before the next province or territory. It was the only place in Canada where I could possibly grow up where I was guaranteed not to get the strap. Saskatchewan here only banned corporal punishment in 2005.

Leaving the schools aside as well as what discipline I may or may not have deserved in elementary grades especially. I have a question for you pertaining to parents and spanking their children: Now I am not going to ask how many of us here have ever earned a backside blessing from Mom or Dad but there is the classic phrase that a parent would stereotypically utter before striking her child; does anyone recall what that might be? …”This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” Has anyone uttered or heard this before? I saw one comic along those lines that I thought was particularly amusing; here it is:

In preparation for today’s talk, I was listening to one speaker recount an episode from her own childhood where her mother was about to strike her and was uttering just those words, “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” To which the girl responded, either in fact or fantasy, “No, I’m pretty sure it’s going to hurt me more… but, if you disagree, I think have a solution that would help us both…”

Now, of course, there is some truth to the saying: “This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you” as far as parental discipline is concerned. I can remember in my own experience as a parent around discipline, not spanking in this case, but discipline nonetheless. There was a sporting event - a Broncos game - that I was really looking forward to going to with one of my daughters. She had already received a warning about a particular behaviour earlier in the evening and that should she repeat that behaviour, missing this event would be the consequence; she then immediately acted out again and she missed the hockey game. That was a consequence of her actions; she missed the game but – as the truth is known – I doubt that she even remembers that now. I do. I was really looking forward to spending some special daddy-daughter time with her but because of her actions and her blatant defiance, that just couldn’t happen and the consequence -I can tell you- hurt me a lot more than it did her. I still remember it.

“This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” That, I believe, sums up God’s sentiment behind the whole flood narrative in the scriptures.[1] Genesis 6:5-7:

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

The Lord is grieved, it says.[2] The Lord is pained, it says. The Lord created the earth and everything in it and it was good (Genesis 1:1-2:3). Now His creation’s heart is ‘only evil all the time’ (Genesis 6:5). God is not going to withhold his children’s well-earned consequence but in delivering it, He might just be saying, “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it hurts you.”

God loves us. We remember the creation story, right? On the first day, God the Father makes day and night and then on the fourth day He lovingly places the sun, moon and stars and in the day and the night that He created. Then on the second day He makes the sky and the sea and on the fifth day He places sea creatures, every bird, and winged creature in this environment that He has lovingly prepared for them. On the third day He creates the ground. Then on the sixth day He creates every animal that walks upon the ground. And our Heavenly Father creates humankind in His own image and He places us in the world that He has lovingly prepared for us. God loves His creation. He loves us. Creation is then finished and it is good. [3] God blesses this day, making it holy and then He rests (cf. also Psalm 33:6, Psalm 93; Isaiah 45:12; John 1:1-3; Colossians 1:15-17; Hebrews 11:3). God makes this beautiful world, that He loves and it is good and He creates good people –Adam and Eve- to look after it, but sin creeps in and breaks God’s heart; so He needs to remove people from the land He put us in.[4] In giving us this time-out, the saddened Father might here say, “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it is going to hurt you,” for even as He is disciplining humankind, He gives Adam and Eve new clothes and a new start. But again, humankind hurts her Heavenly Father.

This time Cain falls prey to sin, killing his brother and becoming further removed from the Lord and the land he is working (Genesis 4). God loves us so much that He even warns Cain before Cain succumbs to sin. He tells him, Genesis 4:7b, “But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it.” Humanity nonetheless defies God and falls prey to sin again and so God might very well say, “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it is going to hurt you,” as again humanity needs to be removed from the land that was entrusted to us. God still loves His creation. He gave us, His children, this responsibility to look after His creation for Him and twice now, with Adam and Eve and with Cain, He has had to give us a time-out and twice now He has removed us from the land that He had asked us to look after on His behalf.

Now, it is only a few chapters further along in the story, the years have gone on and God has many more children whom He loves and they are still being disobedient, even with the examples of those before them. As a matter of fact, they are worse than ever. They need a time-out or they need a spanking (depending on your societal and/or generational reference point). Genesis 6:5-6: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.” This makes our loving God very sad.[5] A parent hopes that at some point His children will learn their lesson but alas that time has not yet arrived for the Lord’s children and God the Father in essence must be saying to the children and all His creation that was good and that He still loves as He is about to send the flood, “This is going to hurt me a lot more than it is going to hurt you.”

What about us? This side of the cross… what about us? In this country… what about us? Generations and generations later… what about us? Are we any better? In Canada here, God loves us, like He loves people in the world at the time of Noah. God loves us.

Our forefathers when they were founding our nation decided to take a stand in for God, for King, and for country. So, instead of focusing on individualistic liberties and the selfish pursuits of personal happiness at the expense of others, the Canadian Fathers of Confederation focused on peace (Jesus is the Prince of Peace), order (God is a God of order not disorder), and good government (cf. Isaiah 9:5-7, Psalm 72).

Canada’s motto, “A Mari usque ad Mare” is Latin for “from sea to sea.” It comes from Psalm 72, in the Bible. Where, in verse 8, it declares, “He shall have dominion also from sea to sea.” That is a key underpinning of our society and of our founding identity, the idea that God himself, shall have dominion from sea to sea. It is not some accident or coincident. It is intentional. Our country was intentionally founded on the Word of God. God loves us. We loved God.

And even as recently as the 20^th Century, the Christian Reverends JS Woodsworth (of Manitoba) and Tommy Douglas (Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944-61) and many others intentionally sought to bring about peace and justice through distributing the Lord’s provision to the poor and the needy.[6] We loved God. God loves us.

God saw what He created in Genesis 1-2 and said that His creation was good. God loves this world and God loves this country. God has used this country of Canada to do so much good in the world. But we seem to be changing now; I fear that for us not unlike Genesis 6:5-6: “The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that He had made man on the earth, and His heart was filled with pain.”

In Canada today, because He loves us, I imagine the Lord is grieved, that His heart is filled with pain; the crime rate now is higher than it ever used to be as we do unto our neighbour what we would never ever want done to ourselves (Matthew 19:19, 22:39, Mark 12:31-33, Luke 10:27, Romans 13:9-10, 15:2, Galatians 15:14, Ephesians 4:25, James 2:8, cf. also Exodus 22, Leviticus 19, Deuteronomy 5, 19-17, Proverbs). According to the CCVF, crime is so bad right now that many people are losing faith in the authorities abilities to stop it that -in many cases- charges aren’t even being filed anymore.[7] Even economic crime is on the rise in Canada with Reuters reporting that 56 percent of companies surveyed recently (more than half of them) reported falling prey to white-collar crime.[8] And – of course – there is pornography, which horribly is North America’s most lucrative pastime. In the United States, pornography revenue is more than all money made from professional football, baseball and basketball combined. The money made by US pornography exceeds the combined revenues of all their major TV networks (6.2 billion) Child pornography alone generates $3 billion annually.[9]

“This is going to hurt me more than it hurts you.” That, I believe, sums up God’s sentiment and it may be what the Lord is telling us here today as we prepare to meet our much-deserved discipline preceding the echaton. Genesis 6:5-7:

The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them.”

We can just picture the tears running down the Lord’s face: “This is going to hurt me more than it does you.” We are God’s loved creation. There are consequences for our sins. In Genesis 3, we see that the ground is cursed and Adam and Eve are removed from the garden for their sin. In Genesis Chapter 4, we see that the land is cursed for Cain and he becomes a wanderer. In Genesis Chapters 6-9, we see that the ground is cursed with a flood to cleanse the world of our sin.

In Canada today and probably the rest of the so-called Western World, the so-called First World, too, it seems that every inclination of the thoughts of our hearts is drifting towards that same evil that we have been reading about in Genesis – and we should know better. Our culture looks like it is standing before the Lord, He with paddle in hand or -if you prefer- a time-out chair in the corner saying, “This is going to hurt me more than it does you.” And He is right.

Again I think of my daughter and how much I really wanted to spend some quality time with her at the hockey game. I was longing for that. I was looking forward to that. I really wanted to spend quality time strengthening our relationship and getting to know her better. I love my daughter and I was looking forward to spending that time enjoying her company, but she acted out in a way (even when she was warned not to) that resulted in her losing the privilege – and I lost the privilege. I am not sure if she even remembers the incident but it grieves my heart to this day. “This is going to hurt me more than it does you.”

It is the same with us in this world today and it is sad but there is good news. After the flood, God makes a covenant with Noah. God blesses Noah and his sons, saying to them, Genesis 9:1, like He told Adam and Eve in the garden in the beginning “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth” (see Genesis 1:28) and Genesis 9:7, “...be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it” (see Genesis 1:28).[10] And Genesis 9:8-10:

Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth.

And we know what the sign of that covenant is, right? The rainbow. And God too makes a covenant with us through the later sending of His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, that whosoever of us believes in Him shall not perish in the eternal floodwaters but shall have everlasting life. Friends, make no mistake: God loves us and the eschaton is coming. The end is near. It is coming soon and Matthew tells us about the end time, that it will be, Matthew 24:37-39 (see Luke 16:26-27):

As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

We cannot forget though that God’s story of the flood actually speaks to correction for the purpose of salvation rather than to mere judgment[11] and 2 Peter 2:5,9: “if [God] did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; ... if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment” (cf. TSA doc. 11). And this applies to us today. God loves us and has provided for our salvation from the impending crisis.

So today, the end is near; the eschatological flood is coming and if you have not yet boarded that ark of eternal salvation, if you have not yet picked up your ticket for that eternal cruise, if you have not yet walked up that gang plank, look around you: the metaphorical animals are already marching up two by two to eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. As this is the case, let us all now hop aboard that ark of eternal salvation. It is easy to do. If you haven’t made that reservation yet, please speak to the Lord and if you would like help booking your spot let me know, we can help; and once you have secured your seat, come tell me and everyone else here so that we can welcome you aboard. And for those of us here who have already made this commitment, for those of us here who already reserved our seats, even if it was a long time ago, please let us invite everyone else we know to come and join us aboard as well. This cruise of eternal salvation is real and I guarantee you it will be the ride of your life.

Let us pray.

http://www.sheepspeak.com/

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[1] Cf. Terence E. Fretheim, The Suffering of God, (Philadelphia: Fortress, 1984),112.

[2] Cf. T. Desmond Alexander, “Genesis 6:6-7” in The ESV Study Bible, ed. Lane T. Dennis (Wheaton, Illinois: Crossway Bibles, 2008), Available on-line: http://esvstudybible.org/

[3] Cf. Walter Brueggemann, Interpretation: Genesis, (John Knox Press: Atlanta, Georgia, 1982), 74

[4] Cf. John H. Sailhamer, The Expositor's Bible Commentary, Pradis CD-ROM:Genesis/Exposition of Genesis/I. Introduction to the Patriarchs and the Sinai Covenant (1:1-11:26)/D. The Story of Noah (5:1-10:32)/4. The Flood (6:5-9:17)/a. The decree (6:5-12), Book Version: 4.0.2 for a good discussion of the influence of the eating of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil on this story.

[5] Cf. Derek Kidner: Genesis: An Introduction and Commentary. Downers Grove, IL : InterVarsity Press, 1967 (Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries 1), S. 91

[6] Cf. Bill Blaikie, The Blaikie Report: An Insider's Look At Faith And Politics (Winnipeg, MB: United Church Publishing House, 2012)

[7] Lorrie Goldstein, Canadian Crime Victim Foundation (Toronto: Oct 25, 2009), cited November 22, 2009. Available on-line:http://www.ccvf.net/articles.cfm?pageID=articles&subpageID=news&viewID=75 : Every five years, Statistics Canada conducts the General Social Survey. It asks a representative sample of Canadians, among other things, whether they have been crime victims. From the last survey in 2004 (the next one is being conducted now, with the findings to be released next year) Statistics Canada reached the following conclusions. First, progressively fewer Canadians who are crime victims are reporting the crime to police -- only 34% in 2004, compared to 37% in 1999. Second, based on the GSS, an estimated 92% of sexual assaults were never reported to police, 46% of break-ins, 51% of motor vehicle/parts thefts, 61% of physical assaults and 54% of robberies.

[8] Economic crime rate rises in Canada, report says (Thu Nov 19, 2009 3:14pm EST) cited November 21, 2009. Available on-line: http://ca.reuters.com/article/businessNews/idCATRE5AI52E20091119 : "Some 56 percent of companies surveyed reported falling prey to white-collar crime during the period, the 2009 PricewaterhouseCoopers' Economic Crime Survey showed. That's a 10 percentage point increase over 2003 and a 4 point increase from two years ago."

[9] Christian Technology Solutions, Pornography Industry Statistics. Cited 21 November, 2009. Available on line: http://christiantechnologysolutions.com/content/view/18/24/

[10] Cf. W. Sibley Towner,  “Genesis 9:8-17.” Interpretation 63, no. 2 (April 1, 2009): 168-171. ATLASerials, Religion Collection, EBSCOhost (accessed June 4, 2012).

[11] Terence E. Fretheim, The Book of Genesis, (NIB I: Abingdon Press: Nashville, 1994),389.