When You Would Swear It’s Over

When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah…  Genesis 5:28-29  ESV

At four different points in my life, I’ve deeply despaired.  It appeared at each juncture that life was never going to change.  There was too much wrong.  There was too much evidence that a resurrection of any kind was impossible. 

It is an awful thing to witness the degeneration of anything.  A marriage, a child’s future, someone’s health, a business.  All self-efforts to save can matter little.  The end seems inevitable.  And if one witnesses this slow degeneration over a long period of time, God can appear powerless as evidence of His presence is absent.  This reinforces the lie that He’s not going to do anything to rescue.

God is never out of options.  Never.  God is never stewing, wondering how He will pull off a resurrection.  Never.  God never withholds to be cruel.  Never.  God is never scrambling at the last minute, throwing something together in haste.  Never.

The birth of Noah is proof of God’s faithfulness.  When the world was sinking into evil and lawlessness, how would God’s promise to Adam and Eve ever be fulfilled?  How would a Savior arise out of a world that God was going to destroy?  Certainly, it appeared that God was nullifying what He had guaranteed.  If we had lived in the days of Noah, watching evil reign on the earth, we would have doubted the ancient whispers of a God who spoke to our forefathers.

In some cave or primitive dwelling place, a baby was born.  His name was Noah.  The meaning of his name was “comfort.”  God brought a baby to the scene, not some spectacular Red Sea deliverance.  He brought a nine-pound bundle of joy instead of a spirit of repentance to the whole of society.  God’s plan of redemption was ushered in without fanfare and the power of this tiny life would not be seen for hundreds of years.  Yet, God’s saving plan was in place.  

God is always active.  Always.  God is working on my behalf.  Always.  When I can’t conceive of a salvation to all that is wrong, He’s already put one in motion in the eternal realm.  When I’m looking for an earthquake to prove His power, He often brings the answer in the sound of a baby’s cry.

In every place someone is fainting today, let them declare that You are the God of beginnings.  In Jesus’ name, In Jesus’ name, Amen