But all those people who stood there looking at the open door of the Ark had hardened their hearts after watching Noah build for 120 years. Wouldn't they have had some doubts after seeing it finished? And even seeing the animals march into the Ark, two-by-two, you would think they should realized something extraordinary was going on. But they ignored all the signs, and instead went on living their lives, eating and drinking and marrying.
Incredibly, even on the last day, they could have been saved. An open door; why didn’t they come? “And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man” (Luke 17:26). Jesus told His followers that there will be clearly identifiable conditions on the earth at the time of His coming, just like those in the days of Noah. Remember the people in Sodom and Gommorah? They too were too busy to pay attention: eating and drinking, buying and selling, planting and building. Sound familiar?
Good day Greg,
ReplyDeleteThe short answer to your question in the title, is that God loves us. The answer to the question that people will have at the judgment (just as God shut the door to the ark, so God will eventually shut off some people) as to why God shuts that door, is also, God loves. We who have so little understanding of the defiling nature of sin do not grasp what it is to be a sinner in the presence of an Holy God. It is my opinion that though God will judge those who do not believe, those unbelievers will finally grasp what it is to be a sinner in the presence of holiness and affirm God's judgment.
Here is the post that I could not do earlier:
Yes, it is a sign of the times. The question with regards to those signs, is "How long, Oh Lord?" When, I think of the ark and that God closed the door, for the pitch to be applied to the outside, God must have been the one to do it (just surmising on my part, from having a communion Sunday yesterday) in order to keep the door from leaking. If that is the case, it is much like the application of the blood before the Exodus. There is a marked before and after picture, as well as a clear understanding of those inside (the final blessing), and those outside (and cursed).
People want to believe in a sentimental form of love for God, because then His memory is not tied to an offset of judgment for sin. It is human to want to believe that a God of love would not condemn me (love wins), but this is not the love of the bible. This kind of sentimental love sacrifices all of the other attributes of God (power, knowledge, righteousness, holiness, glory) at the altar of my feelings and desires. The universe is about me (I am God), not about the real God (which is why God takes great effort to declare that there is One God and that He is holy).
To trust my feelings about God (and my desire to escape judgment) to save me is foolish because it declares that the God that is described in the bible is not the God I want (which is another way of saying, the fool has said there is no God, if the God that the fool wants is not the God of the bible). It is like believing that on the road ahead, though the sign says that the bridge is out (my beliefs are inadequate to carry me across the great divide, because the faith object = sentimental love by God in untrue), I nonetheless keep driving because I do not like the consequences to me of the truth that the bridge is really out.
Godspeed! -lq-