Night 4 of Advent – The Promise of God

Night 4 – Tonight’s advent lesson picked up on a theme we introduced last night – man’s sin, the subsequent breaking of his relationship with God, and his desperate need for reconciliation. Reading various portions of Genesis 6-9, we remembered together the account of God flooding the world because of its continual practice of evil. We discussed the perpetual practice of sin that began in the garden and continued unbroken until Noah’s day. In Jackson’s words, “The whole earth was full of sin.” There was, however, one man whom God considered “a just man, perfect in his generations” (Gen 6:9). And because “Noah walked with God” (Gen 6:9), he was commissioned by God to build an ark which would serve as a refuge for Noah, his family, and representatives of all the animals on the earth.

And then, just as He had promised, we saw how God destroyed everything that remained on the earth. But Noah and all who found refuge with him in the ark were saved. Just as God had been faithful to His promise to destroy the earth because of its wickedness, so He was faithful to His promise to preserve Noah and his family and the animals. And as if He had not thus far proven Himself faithful, God placed within the sky a sign – a rainbow – as a symbol of His promise to Noah, and to all of us who’ve come after him, that He’ll never again flood the entire earth.

As we meditated tonight on God’s faithfulness to save those who took refuge in the ark, we were reminded of the temporary nature of the ark and the ongoing need for man to be reconciled to God. The safety of the ark’s walls provided preservation from God’s wrath poured out in the flood, but it could not – and did not – erase man’s ultimate need for forgiveness. And this, of course, points us again to God’s faithfulness – to His promise of a Savior, to His promise to provide a way to be reconciled to Him, to His promise of forgiveness. Because of our sin, we need forgiveness. But because God is faithful to His promises, He has provided a way.