17 THE GREAT RESCUE F O O T ================================

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READING

17 THE GREAT RESCUE

PRAY Please help me understand important lessons in this chapter, heavenly Father. —————————————————————– READ Genesis 7:1-24. —————————————————————– 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. =========