Get Up, Get On With It and Move Forward

Genesis 5:29-30 KJV

And he called his name Noah, saying, This same shall comfort us concerning our work and toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD hath cursed.

And Lamech lived after he begat Noah five hundred ninety and five years, and begat sons and daughters:

The Bible says that Lamech lived 595 years after Noah was born.  If Noah was 500 years old when God called Him and the Flood occurred 120 years after that call, then Lamech had only been dead 25 years before the Flood. Lamech would have been aware of God's grace to Noah. He would have been aware of the ark Noah was building. He could have heard his son's righteous preaching.

Lamech viewed Noah as the hope for the future. But could he have possibly known what shape that hope would take?  The Bible says that he begat sons and daughters after the birth of Noah. Obviously Lamech's other children, Noah's own brothers and sisters, were among those who rejected his message and refused the salvation God provided and Noah preached.

How heartbroken must Lamech have been watching his children choose the world rather than the ark. How sobering and gut wrenching it must have been for Noah and his children when God shut the door of the ark and the Flood burst forth! These were not strangers and neighbors outside dying.

·       These were brothers and sisters and nieces and nephews.

·       These were aunts and uncles and cousins.

·       These were children his own had played with in days past. And they were dying.

They could have been saved. Noah wanted them to be saved. But they refused.

So what was Noah and his family to do?

·       Should they have stayed outside and died with them?

·       Should they have grown bitter against the Lord and turned against Him?

·       Should they have gotten depressed and just stopped caring anymore?

What they did was move forward in obedience to God. They were not perfect. They each possessed a sin nature and that nature became apparent in their children and children's children. But at this moment:

·       They got in the ark.

·       They waited until the Flood descended then

·       They got out of the ark, worshipped God, and began to build life again.

That's what we must do.