F O O T H O L D

READING

17 THE GREAT RESCUE

 

PRAY Please help me understand important lessons in this chapter,

heavenly Father.

 

READ Genesis 7:124.

 

THINK Does the flood story describe society at all? What does it tell us

about God's mercy?

 

FOCUS The early chapters of Genesis set the scene. The themes which

appear here are the themes we meet again and again in the Bible.

We have seen that the world is God's world, and that he loves and

cares for it; that man has rebelled against God and brought

judgement on himself; and that despite this God still longs to

have a relationship with men and women. In today's reading we

learn just how terrible the results of going against God can be.

The story of the flood doesn't make pleasant reading but we can't

avoid the truths it teaches. No one can reject God and get away

with it.

But there is another important truth: God does not want people to

suffer (see 2 Peter 3:9). The flood gives us a picture of what

salvation involves.

IT INVOLVES RESCUE  being taken out of danger by someone

stronger; God. It wasn't Noah who decided to build a boat; it was

God who started it off.

IT INVOLVES SAFETY. In the middle of all this upheaval God kept

Noah and his family safe (16). God has rescued us  from our sin

and its results  and he will keep us safe. But that doesn't

happen automatically.

SALVATION DEMANDS TRUST. Noah had to believe that God was able to

do what he had said. We must take God at his word.

SALVATION DEMANDS OBEDIENCE. It is not enough to believe. Noah had

to build  hard work, and probably opposition. But that was the

only way to be safe. We do not have to build a boat but we do have

to trust Jesus and that involves obeying his commands.

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Index - Foot Hold in the Bible

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