Noah seeking God, created with Gemini.
I listened to Genesis 1-9 on the Bible app this morning. It was the NLT, New Living Translation. The narrator spoke more slowly. Listening this morning put me in awe again about how God operates, how He is so loving and also strong to discipline, but how he is also committed to the people that actually love Him. Enoch "walked" with God and after 365 years of this, the Lord "took' him. Thats so amazing. My guess is that the Lord just wanted Enoch with Him. Just so Enoch could be with Him and they could have great fellowship. Enoch later appear on what we usually call, the Mount of Transfiguration along with Elijah. Noah was described by God in the book of Moses as the only righteous person living at that time. It did not explicitly say his wife or his children or their wives were righteous. He connected with God and the rest of his family was spared. They received this blessing of not dying due to the flood because of how their father Noah lived before God. There is probably more that could be learned about this.
Here are some interesting verses that describe Noah and how he lived...
All from the NIV.
Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Genesis 6:22
"Noah did everything just as God commanded him."
Genesis 7:5
"And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him."
Genesis 7:9
"Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah."
Genesis 7:16
"The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God commanded him. Then the Lord shut him in."
Hebrews 11:7
"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith."
I want this simple life of obeying God in ways like Noah did and Enoch did. It is interesting that there is not much written about Enoch but what we were told about him was that he walked with God. I want to be that way.
It is greater to be close to God than be a self made "mystic".
Then He told me...
Your time with me is not an accident. It is your calling. You have decided to be with me and I have increased your closeness in our relationship. THIS IS THE SIMPLICITY THAT THE WORLD NEEDS.
Many fads will come and go. All kinds of cycles have and will exist in history. The marching orders of my Kingdom should never be exalted beyond simple FELLOWSHIP with Me. The people that are driven to do more than BE will be humbled. The goals need to have the proper order.
IS IT POSSIBLE TO GET TOO CLOSE TO ME. DOES YOUR "OBEDIENCE" GO BEYOND MY "WILL". MY DIRECTIVES ARE ALWAYS IN DIRECT PROPORTION TO ALSO MAINTAINING GREATER AND GREATER CLOSENESS WITH ME.
Disobedience is no different than trying to go ahead of me in the name of "obedient" actions. You cannot go "beyond" closeness. That is not possible.
YOU ARE NOT LEADING HUMANITY. YOU WILL NEVER LEAD ME. YOU WILL FOLLOW and it will create a wake behind you called obedience. The skier does not lead the boat. Let me lead you and forget about people's opinions. Do they matter more than my opinion?
THEY DO NOT.
THE HUMANITY THAT HAS NOT FOLLOWED HAS BEEN THE HUMANITY THAT HAS BEEN DECEIVED.
You cannot even leave the planet and stay alive. How much more should the God of the Universe be the One, leading you.
Do not stand as one that corrects all men.
You are still blind compared to my Vision and my Perspective.
You may believe you hold the keys of ultimate-insight, but they are like a grain of sand compared to my ULTIMATE-WISDOM.
Remain humble and like a tree and grow with Me.
Do not "fathom" the things I have not led you into.
Do not seek "deeper" wisdom than the wisdom I bring.
The earth likes to generate opportunties of wonder; but they are meant to point to me.
The answer for your life is not is the wisdom of men, no matter how wise they believe they are.
There is common knowledge and and a range of abilities that I have given man to learn and acquire knowledge. Man has not been given the ability to acquire all the knowledge it wants to have. It attempts to find answers for things it does not understand and then begins to believe things that are not true to satisfy their desire for an answer.
ANSWERS THAT COME FROM DESIRE - ARE NOT ALWAYS TRUE.
ANSWERS FOUND IN ME ARE NEVER FALSE.
THE PROUD DO NOT SEEK MY WISDOM AND THEN THEY BELIEVE THEY ARE WISE.
THE WISE PEOPLE ARE THOSE THAT SEEK ME AND DO NOT NEED TO LOOK WISE TO MEN.
They do not need man's affirmation.
WISDOM IS FOUND BY SEEKING THE ONE WHO IS ALL KNOWING.
I AM THAT WISE-ONE.
Amen and so be it.”
In Christ,
Nathan
(Please forgive any typos. I will correct them as I see them.)