November 13, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth. His heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah….“

(Genesis 6.6-8a)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

There is something unique in the story of Noah that perhaps gets overlooked. I would describe it with the same word that I offered in my reflections on Jeremiah, chapters 29 and 30. The word is “singularity.” We see it clearly in the story of Noah because he is called out of all the people who lived on earth to survive the flood. Yes, I know that his wife, their three sons and the wives of those sons survived, too. But if it were not for Noah’s singular focus on following God, they would have perished. It reminds me of the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis 18. We read a dialogue between Abraham and God concerning the fate of Sodom (where his brother Lot lived with his wife and two daughters). Fearing for his brother’s life and knowing the plan of God to destroy both Sodom and Gomorrah for its perverse wickedness, Abraham bargained with God for the life of the city asking “If there were fifty righteous men would you spare it.” God said He would. Abraham, knowing that no such possibility existed, continued to lower the number from fifty to ten. With each decrease, God confirmed that He would spare Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham knows that even that small number was an impossibility out of the entire population of both cities. His only hope was to convince Lot to leave Sodom and get as far away as possible. Notice that Abraham did not ask God, “If there was one righteous man in Sodom would it be spared.” Abraham’s concern was for his brother, Lot, and Lot’s family. We are shown the very character of Lot who was willing to sacrifice his virgin daughters to the perverted and lustful men of Sodom instead of acquiescing to their request to hand over “the strangers” in his house. Those “strangers” were none other than messengers sent from God to save Lot and his family. God did this because He loved and favored Abraham who loved and favored Him. It did not mean that Lot was truly a righteous man in the terms of spiritual perfection. But he did honor God and revered “the strangers.” However, to me, to sacrifice his own daughters to show such reverence demeans the value of the girls. He should have barred the door against them and pray to God. Regardless, “the strangers” intervened and struck the intruders with blindness allowing Lot and his family to escape. (Genesis 19)

We hear a similar dialogue between Jeremiah and God in the fifth chapter of Jeremiah. God commands Jeremiah to find even one faithful and righteous man in Jerusalem. If such a man could be found, then God promised to spare the city from destruction at the hand of the approaching enemy (including the enemy within.) Jeremiah knows that no such person exists. What a sad commentary this was for the city which God had chosen to be the greatest among all others. It was there that even Melchizedek had worshipped “God” before Abraham drew near to the city. It was called “Salem” at that time. Salem means peace. Its spelling would have been more like salaam or shalom. It remains a special greeting to this day. When Abraham established his residence in the area, the name of the city became Ur-salem or Jerusalem. “Ur” is best translated as “light.” Of course, not just any light. Rather it was a light signifying wisdom and knowledge uncommon to mortal man. Thus, Jerusalem, was a city of peace and light or a city of wisdom and peace. It was far from that in the days of Jeremiah. And strangely, in the midst of God’s challenge, Jeremiah was excluded. What would have happened if Jeremiah has said to God, expressing his own singularity, as Isaiah did in the revelation of God in the Temple (Isaiah 6) “Here I AM am I“? Would God have spared Jerusalem upon that declaration? We will never know. It is safe to say that he was excluded from the search as the deterrent of God’s wrath. He was called to be the voice of God to the people of exile, foreign and domestic, just as Isaiah was to be the voice of “one who had an unclean tongue among the rest for whom there was no unclean tongues.”

We can find other such examples of this singularity in the story of Moses, Joseph, David, Solomon, John the Baptizer and most clearly in Jesus of Nazareth. Each are pivotal to bringing “their people” to safety from God’s wrath. Of course, as we know from Noah, no man was perfect enough to stave off the inevitable display of God’s justice upon the righteous and the unrighteous. His justice is a matter and an expression of love, both merciful and mighty as well as fearful and exacting. From this we learn the greatest singularity of all which is God’s will. It remains unchanged throughout the course of history. Jesus prays and reminds the disciples to pray as well, “Abba, Your Kingdom come, Your Will be done on earth as it is in Heaven.” In the Garden of Gethsemane, Jesus yields to God’s will for His life in order to bring the personalization of God’s promise (I will be Your God and you will be My people.) Jesus was the only “one” who was both God and human being. He is the only “way, truth and life” by which any of us can escape the eternal consequence of the reality of “sin-fection.” Jesus is the true singularity needed for our lives so that we might be ONE with GOD, with HIM, with Others of faith in THEM, with Others who have been saved by THEM but do not yet know the blessed gift of eternal life they have to offer and with Ourselves. As was the word written to the faith in Christ fellowship of Ephesus, “One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism, One God and Father of us all.” (Ephesians 4.5)

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.