3 Righteous Men

So today.
Looking at the 3 "righteous" guys of the Bible. Specifically the old testament, so Jesus does not count. I mean he counts, but not here. In the second half of Ezekiel 14, God is talking about judgement and how even the 3 righteous men could not save these people from judgement. These 3 people are Noah, Daniel, and Job. Footnotes mark that these 3 men were known for their relationship with God and their wisdom.

First up, Noah, (Gen. 6:6-9). It's kinda sad, no really sad what was going on at this time. It (being the Bible) says that God was "grieved" that he had made man. He had pain in his heart. Ouch. How much love did he have in there, yet he was grieved to have made the human kind. I kinda feel like we all sucked it up there and definitely dropped the ball. He knew that "every inclination of the thoughts" of men were evil. So here God is knowing that all of these evil thoughts and hearts were about and he was just ready to wipe them clean off the earth, humans and animals. BAM, but then there's Noah. "But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord." Woah! Noah was like the wax that touched the pot when it got dunked into the glaze. When everything around Him had just sucked up the world around them and clung to everything evil, Noah had some wax on him so that he repelled the world and stuck to the original. Hmm. Part of Noah's intro was that he was blameless among the people of his time, and he "walked with God." Dang, such an awesome thing. (SN: <-- Thats what you can say about me when I die. That I walked with God, only if it's true though. I want people to say that. Not that I was this or that, cause I'm nothing, but that I walked with God.) So we see that Noah walked with God and was "righteous," but then God told him his plans. What a man he had to be for God to go, "Ok, so ya'll have pretty much just blown it, now I'm going to destroy the earth." (So glad he didn't stop there) "So get your act together cause I want you to build a boat. Here's the specs." Haha. I just realized that God started telling him the plans for the ark and how to make it before he told him it was going to flood. I wonder what Noah's though process was to start, "Ok, he's going to destroy the earth. Crap. Oh, wait. . . build an ark? He's going to destroy the earth and he wants me to build an ark? Riiiight. Oh, because it's going to flood. Makes sense. Oh, oh and we're getting in the boat and he's going to keep us safe. Oh, whew. . ..and my family gets to come along. and. . . he's going to restore the covenant through me? Oh dang. Woah. I must have found favor with Him. Wow. And you want me to take every animal on this ark? Um...big boat. Wait, so God's destroying all the people, and all the earth, and all the animals except for what's in this boat, that I'm suppose to build. I had better get busy. oh. oh, um. lets go."

So it's kind of fun, (to me at-least), to make up voices and thought process for people or animals or inanimate objects, to try to see things from their point of view, but seriously there are good lessons in this story. The one that jumped out to me this time was that God started telling Noah what to do before he told Him why. In my little convo, Noah just listened and then go to work, he was a little confused at first, but I wonder if it was more of "Ok, Your destroying the earth, yeah, people suck. Ok build this ark. Gotcha. Go build the ark. Ok make it this way and this way, and oh, it's because your going to make it flood. Well that makes since. Oh and me and my family are going to be on there, Thank You. Thank you so much for that." I wonder/I think most of the time that we are probably more of the first ones. We listen, but then have trouble acting until we understand it all. I wonder, those who are really serving God, I mean these were the 3 guys God called Righteous, if they just set off to go do what God wanted before they fully understood. Needless to say they all had to have faith. No where in the previous 5 Chapters (this is chapter 6 of the Bible) did it ever mention rain, so to say God was going to bring a flood, was like . . . what?! What is that? Although he did listen well, he had good follow through too. Despite not having rain or alot of help, and being a couple of hundred years old, he followed through with what God said. Dude built a huge boat, in the middle of the desert. How crazy do you have to be for that? What if God asked us to do something crazy like that? Build a boat in the desert, and trust me. Woah. Just woah. Build a boat in the desert and trust me. That would be like, putting a clothing store in a nudist colony, or a book store in a place where no one could read. Putting time, and effort, and sweat and tears into something where it didn't belong. Not just didn't belong but was the exact opposite of it.

Also, Noah had some patience, and perserverence. His obedience was long term. He spent over 120 years on this project. It's easy for us to go yeah, but he lived 600 years. Wait 120 years. That's longer that anyone lives today. He spent on this boat. We've been working on Isaac's house for a little over a year and it's wearing on us. I haven't even been home as much as Mom and Dad and Isaac working on it. But they are worn out over a year. Imagine spending your whole life on this thing. This boat in the desert. We have trouble sticking to any project. Semester long projects wear me out. By the end of the school year I am ready for summer, well ready for something new. But 120 years. That would be like starting to build a boat in 1890 and finishing it next year. Yeah, do that math. Good news, only 1 year left. The closest thing we have to that is our lives. Spending you whole lives from the time you came out screaming, til the time they stick your body in a box, you spend being obedient to God. Blows my mind. I suck at it. I'm bad at sticking with something all the way through it, well I can do it, but I often get burnt out on it. I can't imagine 120 years.

I also see Noah's patience. So it rains for 40 days. (What we all know), but then the waters hang around for 150 more days. That's like 5 months. They floated around. They get in at the begging of February, and don't hit land until Mid-July. Then after the 150 days they land, well the boat hits ground. WAIT! that is far from the end. They hit land on July 17, but couldn't see the tops of the mountains till October 1st. Then he waits 40 more days, (Nov 9), and sends out a bird to check for land. No go. Then a week later he sends out the dove and it comes back with an olive branch. So he waits another week and the dove doesn't come back. Then, finally, The first day of the first month, January 1st, (I don't think they had June and July in their calendar, so it was only 10 months but I kept it in their earlier just for relativity.) he cracks open the door. What kind of patience is that? But then he waits til February 27th when God says come out of the ark. Dang. Seeing the fresh air but still waiting on God. I think of how many times we come through storms and are just ready to hurry them up and get them over with, yet he waits. Still waiting on God's timing to finish up things instead of just bustling through them. I think of how after a storm/trial/hard time, we just think whew we're threw lets get out of here before we get dragged back in and probably miss out on a few more of the lessons God has. Like what did they learn in that extra 2 months in the boat about each other, about God, about life? What lessons did they learn in general being in there? What was communication with God like inside the boat all of those days? That was a year and 2 months just inside the boat. 3 months once they had landed. What patience on God. What if we had that type of patience? dedication? follow through? obedience? faith? What could God do through us?


Next up to bat, Daniel (Daniel 2:47-48)

Finally, Job (Job 1:1)