“Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord GOD. Ezekiel 14: 13-15
Noah is on a very short list of righteous men that God says could save themselves through righteousness. These three men are the best Biblical examples of men walking out their redemptive gifts and their generation. Noah and Job both were limited to the subjective voice of God, the voice of nature, and their on consciences. Daniel maintained a righteous life in a kingdom that was the antithesis of a righteous kingdom. He prospered and grew in the grace and the knowledge of the Lord. He had a sense of the supernatural and interpreted dreams; dreams given by God to an unbelieving King that prophesied the future history of mankind.
In other words, Nebuchadnezzar, dream was redemptive. It was a message from God to a man and to a people that did not know him. That same God placed Daniel in Nebuchadnezzar’s kingdom so he and his people would know the true God. The redemptive gift of the dream and the dream interpretation both were being used by God to draw two kingdoms to him-self. This same truth is reflected in the life of Joseph. Joseph was placed in Egypt because God wanted to demonstrate his kindness to the Egyptians.
I want to demonstrate through these blogs that that patterns we see with Nebuchadnezzar and Pharaoh are normative and not exceptions. I will try to demonstrate that God has given men dreams, and visions of missionaries coming in many parts to the Earth. Additionally many of the philosophies and religious thinkers in various parts of the world have also provided means to dialog about the nature of God and His redemptive purpose for man. Paul’s quoting of Greek philosophers in Acts 17 is an obvious example of this pattern. “As some of your own poets have said, 'We are his offspring’.” Acts 17:28 God never is arbitrary or unjust when he brings judgment on individuals or people groups. He always provides ample opportunity for repentance. This was certainly true of Noah’s generation.
“No shrub of the field had yet appeared on the Earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the Earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground.” Genesis 2: 5-6
Many believe that it had never rained prior to the flood. If this is true then building and Arc for a coming flood is truly a task requiring faith. It was redemptive in its nature. It communicated for more than a century “repent” “change your mind” change the way you are doing things and follow God.” “But they would not” Matthew 23:37 If more people mean more ideas then certainly more years should have meant more wisdom but the pre flood generation never found their redemptive purpose and were destroyed for their lack of knowledge. Noah had the solution to their problem. They refused to recognize the fact that they had a problem. Violent communities have difficulties breaking the patterns that are causing their destruction.
Contemporary Parallels to Violent Patterns Seen in the Days of Noah
Two studies from the US Department of Justice confirm that patterns of violence stem from the absence to two parent homes and peer groups that engage in violence.
“The authors conclude that racial disparities in violence are . . . largely social in nature and therefore amenable to change. They suggest that policies such as housing vouchers to help poor families move to more stable neighborhoods and other neighborhood improvements are perhaps the most effective options for reducing longstanding racial disparities in violence. The authors also emphasize that families matter, too, as evidenced by the lower risk for children living with married parents.”
“Perhaps the greatest challenge for intervention is to target youthful co-offenders in a way that reduces the likelihood that they will develop attitudes that promote crime. The study’s findings imply that lessons of violence are learned “on the street,” where knowledge is passed along through impromptu social contexts, including those in which offenders commit crimes together.”
As in the days of Noah does not simply have a context for normative behaviors as in marrying and giving in marriage it also has a negative one in which social constructs reinforce violence. This can lead to the judgment of God and eradication of generations of men, and the loss of their redemptive purpose in God’s plan on Earth. All this was avoidable if the men of that generation listened to the message of Noah. His message was the same as other prophets of the Old Testament and men and women of God today. “O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” Micah 6:8. As Noah had solutions for his generation there are redemptive solutions for the world today. God is always in the process of providing Noah’s to help each generation through their problems such as violent behavioral. The question is will we be concerned? Will we seek the justice and mercy our generation needs?
The World Wars and Prophetic Voices
To further illustrate this point consider of the warnings Winston Churchill made about Nazi Germany prior to the expansion of the Third Reich just prior to WWII. The following is taken from a 1934 speech.
“There is a nation which has abandoned all its liberties in order to augment its collective strength. There is a nation which, with all its strength and virtue, is in the grip of a group of ruthless men, preaching a gospel of intolerance and racial pride, unrestrained by law, by parliament, or by public opinion. In that country all pacifist speeches, all morbid war books are forbidden or suppressed, and their authors rigorously imprisoned. From their new table of commandments they have omitted "thou shall not kill."
It is but twenty years since these neighbors of ours fought almost the whole world, and almost defeated them. Now they are rearming with the utmost speed, and ready to their hands is the new lamentable weapon of the air, against which our navy is -no defense, and before which women and children, the weak and frail, the pacifist and the jingo, the warrior and the civilian, the front line trenches and the cottage home, all lie in equal and impartial peril.”
Winston Churchill was a Noah in his generation. A man who understood his redemptive gift, a man who knew he was in an indispensible place, at a time set by God. Therefore when he was called to speak, he spoke. His words were rejected as were Noah’s the consequences were that sixty million (60,000,000) souls lost their lives. The progeny of 60,000,000 million souls is nearly impossible to consider. The loss of that life might have been completely avoided if policies of justice, mercy, and forgiveness were extended to the persons of Germany after World War I. Policies similar to those instituted after World War II like the Marshall Plan.
George Marshall stated in a speech at Harvard University on June 5, 1947.
“It is logical that the United States should do whatever it is able to do to assist in the return of normal economic health in the world, without which there can be no political stability and no assured peace. Our policy is directed not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty, desperation, and chaos. Its purpose should be the revival of a working economy in the world so as to permit the emergence of political and social conditions in which free institutions can exist.”
What Marshall was recognizing was the value of each human being and their role in collective production or collective destruction. He recognized that desperate individuals who cannot exercise the redemptive task of work, or provide for their families, will create chaos and prevent the development of successful communities. Consider the sin of Sodom in this regard, documented in book of Ezekiel. “Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” Ezekiel 16:49. Hitler filled the vacuum of the German people’s need for work and food and purpose. It was a diabolical perversion of the redemptive gift of the people who gave the world Martin Luther, and hundreds of other contributors to the knowledge and art of the world.
Like Noah, Churchill, and Marshall we have a prophetic voice to a generation. We are called to speak the wisdom of God as we understand it, and as he reveals it in the scriptures and the small still voice that speaks to us in prayer. Will we speak to issues of urban decay, sexual immorality, and injustice as we recognize it? Ezekiel chapter 3: 18-20 tell us that God holds us accountable to warning those who have strayed from the truth or who are ignorant about the truth. “When I say to a wicked person, ‘You will surely die,’ and you do not warn them or speak out to dissuade them from their evil ways in order to save their life, that wicked person will die for their sin, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the wicked person and they do not turn from their wickedness or from their evil ways, they will die for their sin; but you will have saved yourself.
“Again, when a righteous person turns from their righteousness and does evil, and I put a stumbling block before them, they will die. Since you did not warn them, they will die for their sin. The righteous things that person did will not be remembered, and I will hold you accountable for their blood. But if you do warn the righteous person not to sin and they do not sin, they will surely live because they took warning, and you will have saved yourself.”
Wickedness can be collective as well as personal. Let us be voices of righteousness in our generation. Let us build arcs of safety with words of righteousness. If our generation perishes because of its wickedness may it not be because we were silent.
http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/FAQ218.html
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/topics/crime/gun-violence/youths-gangs-guns/why-carry.htm
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij/pubs-sum/210360.htm
http://www.rightwingnews.com/speeches/churchgermany.php
http://www.funtrivia.com/askft/Question57189.html
http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/USAmarshallP.htm
http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Europe/Germany-FAMOUS-GERMANS.html
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