Lessons from Noah

Lessons from the story of Noah:
God has a plan for his children
He loves his children
He will not allow the wicked to prevail
He will save the righteous. 
He is serious about his children keeping the commandments. 

First, let's review the story of Noah because it is not universally known in an age of biblical ignorance.  Noah is a prophet of God and the son of a prophet. His job is to teach people God's word.  But not many are listening. The world is full of violence. Noah tries to get everyone to repent.  We don't know how many lives he changes but overall the project is a failure.  The time has come for serious action. God instructs Noah to build an ark because He is going to flood the earth. The ark is built, food and animals are gathered and the rain begins.  Apparently this is the first time it rains on the earth. And so it rains big.  40 days and nights nonstop. Every person and animal dies. Except for the eight people on the boat and the animals in there. It takes another 150 days for the water to subside. They stay on the ark a little longer and send out birds.  One time a dove returns with a leaf. Next flight it doesn't return and we can only guess it has found a better home than the ark. They stay on the arc for a while, I guess to let some of the mud dry out. Then they all disembark and repopulate the earth. God covenants with Noah never to destroy the earth by water again and leaves a rainbow in the clouds as a sign. Noah's sons continue down to Abraham. 

The flood is the first recorded destruction in the Scriptures but not the last. Another famous one is Sodom and Gomorrah.   In that episode Abraham argued that the city be spared on account of the righteous that dwelt there. Unfortunately, there were not many. Instead Lot and family were extracted and the cities were wiped out. 

Again we see that God will spare those that follow his instructions. (Just don't look back.)  And we can't fail to notice the seriousness of obedience to the commandments of God.  If you are evil then you risk heavenly destruction. 

But why and how does that prove God's love?  All evil is not destroyed by God, or else we wouldn't have such obvious problems with evil people.  Kim Jong Un should have met a meteor by now if instant punishment was the rule. 

There comes a time when a civilization is so bad that good people can't change it or get a fair chance at exercising free will because there is only evil before them continuously. When that happens it is the love of God for children that mandates a reset.