Scripture Reading: Gen. 6:5-22; 7:13, 16; Heb. 11:7
I. Noah’s life was a life that changed the age—Phil. 1:19-21a;
II. Noah’s work was a work that changed the age—2 Cor. 6:1; Matt. 16:18;1 Cor. 3:12a;
Extract from Witness Lee (2013). The Holy Word for Morning Revival: Crystallization Study of Genesis, Volume two. Week eleven. Living Stream Ministry : Anaheim, USA.
According to Genesis chapter 6, Noah lived in a crooked and perverted generation. So Gen. 6:5 says, “And Jehovah saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Also, in verse 11 it says, “And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence.” These few verses show how the age of Noah was evil and corrupt before God. And it is not only Noah’s age was corrupt; actually, today’s generation is also corrupt and filled with evil and violence. Our Lord Jesus said in Matt. 24:37-38, “For just as the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as they were in those days before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day in which Noah entered into the ark.” As the Lord pointed out, the situation before His second coming will be the same as the days of Noah. And since this generation is indeed very close to Christ’s second coming, we may say that we are in the days of Noah; we are living in a crooked and perverted generation just as Noah.
But what shall we do? We don’t need to criticize or feel anxious about this situation; nor do we need to get involved in politics in order to change this situation. What we need to do is to find grace in the eyes of God. Gen.6:8 says, “But Noah found favor[grace] in the sight of Jehovah.” Noah was a person used by God to change the age, and one of his most important characteristics is that he found grace in the sight of God; he had a life of enjoying God as grace. There is a point in this week’s outline that gives us a wonderful definition of what grace means: “… grace is God Himself, the presence of God, enjoyed by us to be everything to us and to do everything in us, through us, and for us; grace is God coming to us to be our life supply, our strength, and our everything.”(Ⅰ. B.2) So if we are the ones that receive and enjoy grace from the Lord, that means we are the ones that fully rely on Him in every aspect of our life. We depend on Him to be everything to us and do everything in us, through us, and for us. Through our receiving grace day by day and even hour by hour, we live a life that can be used by the Lord to terminate this age and usher in the age of the millennium.
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With Noah, his living and his work were the same thing–building the ark to save his family from God’s judgment, to end the evil age, and to usher in a new age. Similarly, our living and work should be the same thing–building up Christ in our corporate experience to save ourselves from God’s judgment (not eternal judgment, but judgment for reward and discipline of believers), to end the present evil age, and to usher in the new age of the millennium.