I was reading Genesis today. As I was reading verses 6:19 & 20, (And of every living thing of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of the birds after their kind, and of the animals after their kind, of every creeping thing of the ground after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive.), it occurred to me...what if Noah would have stepped on Mr. & Mrs. Cockroach? YEAH!!! Nobody who's ever lived since Noah would have had to put up with those nasty varmints! I could say he'd have been a hero, but that's not true. We'd have never known to be thankful to him for this deed! I wonder if he was tempted...and not just with cockroaches. Maybe Noah had other 'living things' he particularly disliked, like spiders or snakes. Surely he must have been tempted!
Anyway, I thought that was an interesting contemplation. Life could have been very different for a lot of people if Noah had disobeyed God and taken things into his own hands (or feet). I mean, think of all those for whom cockroaches are a daily nuisance! Or those who live in areas where snakes are a menace...or alligators! aarrgh! How about rats? ugh!
But, verse 6:18 says that God told him He'd establish His covenant with him...before entering the ark. And, in verses 6:8&9, it's recorded that Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. It also says Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with God. Ah, well...so much for stepping on the cockroaches.
Of course, this causes me to wonder what I'd have done. I would consider it an act of love to mankind to step on Mr & Mrs Cockroach. But, obviously, God had SOME reason for sending them with all the others. (Yes, this was AFTER the curse...) Then I have to wonder, how different is this thinking than that of Abram and Sarai? They weren't necessarily thinking about all of mankind, although that may have entered in. After all, God had already told Abram he'd have 'descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered.' (Gen 13:16) So, they may have just been 'helping God out.' I mean, I'm sure they didn't want people to think God was a liar! But, I suspect the driving factor was their desire to have a child and, for Sarai, to have the reproach of barrenness removed. Look at the consequences we've lived with ever since because of the decision they made to 'help God out' instead of waiting on Him to do what He'd already told them He would do.
Hmmm...how often do we give in to this same kind of thinking? sigh...more often than we'd all probably like to admit. Especially here in the good old US of A, we are used to 'instant.' Instant cocoa, instant info when we press the enter key on our computer keyboard, instant money when we go to the ATM...and the list goes on. We aren't used to waiting and we put that same mentality on God. Then we make a decision and act on it because we decide God either didn't hear us or He forgot. (RIGHT!) Then, at some point, sooner or later, we realize we should have waited and have to live with the consequences of that decision. And that's often not fun, or even downright tragic. How many bad marriages are born from this kind of thinking? How many illegitimate babies are born...or aborted?
May we stop before we act and consider whether it's Him leading us or whether we're unwilling to wait on the One Who knows the outcome of our decision. May we all, in this new year of 2011, do this and be willing to assess our seemingly harmless decisions...first and foremost out of love and obedience to the One Who saved us, or just to be wise! In this case, self-protection would be a GOOD thing!
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