Gen. 9:28-29
Here, we see Noah described just like those in Genesis 4
and 5, just living and dying like all flesh. God judged the world, yet
the sinful ways of man kept going, for death passed unto all men, for
that all have sinned. Romans 5:12
This leads to another important point concerning the fact he lived so long after the Flood.
He and his sons and their wives were the last connection to
the pre-flood world. They could easily speak to what things were like,
and how bad things had gotten because of the sin of the world. However,
nobody listened to them.
Some have asked, if Noah and the others were around, why
didn't people listen? The response is simple. There are people who do
not listen to those with experience today, even after they see the exact
result of which the experienced person speaks. A person will say, for
instance, don't try to ride your skateboard on that hill, it's
impossible. And, even if the person saying it has a broken arm from that
very hill, there are people who will try to ride it anyway because they
don't want to believe what the other person says. Indeed, they may try
even if they saw the accident with their own eyes.
And, here, there was a very different world from the one before the Flood.
This brings to mind the fact that those of us who have
trusted Jesus Christ to forgive us and called on him to save us will
rule and reign with Jesus in the Millennial Kingdom. Once one trusts
Jesus Christ as Savior, He comes into their life and makes them new
inside, and He can guide them. Without Jesus, we can't get to His
perfect Heaven.
Even with Him, we must constantly be on our toes to be
controlled by the Holy Spirit so we are not drawn away by the
temptations of the flesh. After all, Moses' brother Aaron was drawn away
to make that golden calf for the people of Israel while Moses was up on
the mountain.
The point is that we will rule and reign with Christ in our
resurrection bodies, so we won't be able to sin. It will be impossible.
And, since the devil will be bound, he won't even be tempting those who
are born and live in Jesus' kingdom.
However, they will still have their fleshly nature and need
to trust Christ as Saviour to be made new inside. And, we will be able
to share with them just what it was like in the really rough times when
the devil was on the earth to throw so many obstacles into our paths. It
might be just as hard for them to believe us.
We'll have
advantages we don't have now, though.
Now, we find it
hard to stay focused on God and follow his lead when witnessing. However, we
will have resurrection bodies in the Millennial Kingdom. This means that we
will be perfectly connected to what the Lord wants us to say. We will know how
to reach each person individually. So, we will not struggle with what to say or
how to say it.
There also will
be rapid consequences to sim. People will not get off scot-free without
punishment for wrongdoing. So, there will not be the people to ask why bad
things happen to good people. Righteousness will reign. We will simply have a
new set of problems, such as people who might not want to be nice. People's
emotions will still get the best of them because they are human. And, as hard
as we try, we know from revelation 20 that there will be people who rebelled
against God's perfect justice at the end of the Millennium. One final time,
just as has happened throughout history, mankind will try to be as God. And, people
will fail, because only God is perfect love, goodness, mercy, justice,
holiness, and so on.
Such an attempt
to become equal to God happened soon after the Flood as well, as we shall see,
an attempt which God quickly stopped.
