November 16, 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 a sense of “baptism” in the story of Noah that we dare not miss. The world of Noah became immersed in the exacting judgment of God against the sin in the world, the sin of the world and the world of sin. God is very clear that He hates sin because it brings confusion and dissension between God and humanity and between humans themselves against one another. God does not hate the sinner. Yet God cannot tolerate the reality that people will deny their own spiritual nature born out of the love of God for His creation. It is an anathema to God as it amounts to a sense of a reality where “God hates God.” How can that be true? Jesus said in Mark 3.25, “A house divided against itself can never stand.” He said this in the context of an accusation that He was the son of the Devil. Where did that accusation come from? It was leveled against Him by the spiritual leaders of Israel who could not understand how Jesus of Nazareth could heal people of their diseases. It really wasn’t even that simple an argument. You see, they could not deny that Jesus had cast out demons who had brought great affliction upon people. They could not deny that He had performed miracles of healing of physical infirmities and mental ailments. They could not resolve their own conflict that these things happened by a person who was not one of them, one of their rank and file. They had to imagine that Jesus Himself was possessed of the Enemy of God. They had to convince themselves that in His own delusional effort to destroy their very place as “leaders of Israel” that He would perform miracles such as they witnessed which only could happen by God’s authority. They were in conflict with Jesus because He could not be of God and it boiled down to He could not be of God because He was not a Scribe, Pharisee, Sadducee or an elder of Israel. Jesus presented to them the aforementioned truth, “What purpose does it serve for Satan to cast out demons loyal to Him? In so doing, Satan defeats his own efforts to bring down God by creating dissension in his own rank and file. Why would Satan turn against Satan? It makes no more sense than saying God would act against God by willing the death of anyone. God’s nature is love. God’s love is the only thing that can overcome evil and the ravages of sin. Where sin’s sole/soul purpose is to steal, kill and destroy, God’s sole/soul purpose is to seek, heal, and ‘restore, renew, reconcile, redeem and revive.‘”

Yet, God renders the end of life for many in a judgment against sin. Because He hates sin, His justice moves against those who have committed themselves to deny Him and become the very thing He hates. Those who have made that choice become the incarnation of sin moving sin from a concept to an intentional reality. They are no longer people capable of being saved, repenting of their sin and committing themselves to follow after the only “way, truth and life” which leads to authentic spiritual freedom. Such freedom would then be manifested in a physical reality of truth in its purest form: the righteousness of God. They surrendered their authentic personhood for something that is unholy, unrighteous and unredeemable. They forfeited their soul and disavowed the only hope of the true freedom they sought and seek. In this way, the “flood in the days of Noah” was a call to baptism. It is the outward sign of an inward choice to be transformed by the only thing that can do it: God. It is not about perfection and being worthy of dwelling with God forever through the things which a person is or does. It is especially not by that he or she does “save” that he or she does confess, repent and become baptized. Imagine the angst which must have existed in those days of Noah (actually years and years) as he obeyed God and chose to do what he was called to do. The ark itself was a call to repent and turn against sin in the world and seek the righteousness of God. The ark was the evidence of God’s desire to redeem, reconcile and restore the people of the world back into the Kingdom of God on earth. Its very presence in the world was a challenge to the conventional wisdom of sin as a “good” choice for living in this world. Sin cannot and never will serve the “good” of God which is for all people! By the very reality of the flood, the earth was saved from the world and the “sin-festation” which turned others against God was put on notice. Baptism “by water” gives the person and people who want to live and be free to become what God had purposed for them from before the beginning a chance to do so. It happens every time a person is baptized to become immersed not only in “the way, the truth and the life” but also in “faith, hope and love.” All of that cannot happen by the “saving works” of Satan. They can only come by the “saving grace of God” made known in the person of Jesus the Christ. He Himself was flooded over by the sins of the world as He took on all sin. In doing that He took on the full fury of God’s judgment upon “the world” so that those who would believe in Him, Jesus Christ, would not perish but have everlasting life.

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.