1.4.10 "How Many Days to the Rainbow?"

"How Many Days to the Rainbow?"

Genesis 8:1-10:32
Matthew 4:12-25
Psalm 4:1-8
Proverbs 1:20-23

Noah was a pleasure to the Lord (Gen 6:8). He did everything he could to try to conduct his affairs according to God's will. We know his story. We decorate Sunday School rooms with it. I love the pictures of the cute little animals and everything.

When it comes right down to it, the story isn't as romantic as we may picture it. "Noah, I'm going to destroy the earth. I want you to build an ark." I don't know if you've ever heard Bill Cosby's telling of the story, but here's his rendition of Noah's response: "Right... What's an ark?"

I was struck by the "numbers" this morning. My math isn't totally accurate, but based on some of the numbers in the Living Bible, look at this:

It could have taken 100-120 years to build the ark (36,500-43,800 days) (Gen.5:32;6:3;7:10)
7 days on the ark before it rains
40 days of rain
110 days of floating
40 days on Mount Ararat before sending out the dove
7 days before sending it out the second time
7 days before the third time when it doesn't come back
29 days before Noah looks again & sees it's dried up.
56 days before God says, "You may all go out." (I got humor out of Gen. 8:18 "So the boat was soon empty." Ya think?)

Would you like Noah's job? Would you like to go through what he had to? Would you have liked 296 days on a boat w/ animals? It wasn't pretty.

Noah did not know what was to come. He only knew what God had told him to do. His righteousness saved his family. (It doesn't say whether or not his righteousness kept them from complaining to him.)

What's the point?

So many time we sense the call of God. He gives us direction. We move in obedience, but when the results aren't there the way we expected, or it takes longer, or it's been 200 days in a stinky boat, we begin to think "Wait a minute! I'm here because I'm in obedience! This should be easy!"

One of the most amazing numbers in all of this is the 56 days between Noah seeing the land has dried up and God saying "you may all go out". I picture Noah's family lined up at the door looking at him wondering why we're not leaving. "It smells in here!"

Noah was intimately tied to the will of God. He knew his voice. He didn't move until he heard it.

Genesis 8:1 says, "God didn't forget about Noah and all the animals in the boat!" in verse 20-21, Noah sacrifices to the Lord, "And Jehovah was pleased with the sacrifice and said to himself, 'I will never do it again..'" in 9:13 he says, "I have placed my rainbow in the clouds as a sign of my promise until the end of time, to you and to all the earth."

So many times, we want the rainbow. We want to get to the goal. While the Lord has placed in our nature the desire to acheive, we must be sure to remember the point is not in getting to the goal, the point is in being faithful throughout the process. It may take what seems like forever. It may smell. But, we must know the voice of the one who has called us, and we must remain faithful.

As smelly as our boat may be, in light of eternity, it's but a moment. When we are "Driven by Eternity" we know that the rainbow we seek is not necessarily the rainbow the world can see. Our success is on a different scale. Our pursuit must be obedience.


Through the Power of the Spirit,
Live the DREAM!

P Greg


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