Genesis 7:23b And Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark
I just returned from meeting with all the staff here on the Bill Rice Ranch and I told them, “I do not want to be here.” Why did I say that? It is because it is a dark, dreary, rainy, fall day in Middle Tennessee. I like rain sometimes, but oftentimes when it is raining like this, I don’t want to leave my house, let alone meet with everyone else at 7:20 in the morning. I’d like to sit by the fire place I do not have and enjoy the day that I don’t have free. It is just a rainy day.
Imagine instead of one long, rainy, dreary day that you have forty of them in a row. Imagine the water was coming from the sky and the subterranean water under your feet coming to the surface and inundating you with water for forty days. That is exactly what the Bible presents when it talks about a universal flood in Genesis 7. It says that “the waters prevailed,” that everything under the whole heaven was covered, and that “all flesh died.” But Genesis 7:23 says, “And Noah only remained alive.” Was Noah the lone survivor? It goes on to say, “And they that were with him in the ark.” Noah’s wife, his three sons, and their wives were with him. Altogether there were eight.
If at that time I were to ask, “Was Noah a success?” I doubt anyone would have called him a success. He was going upstream against the entire world he knew, which was all of humanity. II Peter 2:5 says Noah was “a preacher of righteousness.” He would have preached long and hard, and no one turned to God except his family. So, he was not a success as a preacher.
I don’t know that survival itself is exactly a grand success. He lived and his family lived, but are you successful just because you are still alive? Back in 1940s Britain was at the dark point of World War II and they were being pushed to the ocean by the Nazis. Famously there was a courageous and nearly miraculous rescue of thousands of British troops from the shores of Dunkirk. Boats of all kinds from England crossed the channel and rescued those soldiers. Churchill was careful to say that evacuation was not victory. They had achieved something truly amazing, but that in itself was not victory. So, Noah’s family was saved, but that in itself was not success. But, then again, there you are and here I am. The only reason we are here is because of Noah and his wife.
All the people of the world can be traced back to Shem, Ham, and Japheth, Noah’s three sons, but they trace their lineage to their dad, Noah. We are here today because Noah obeyed and took with him only his family. He is the progenitor of everyone that is living today. You see, success begins here and now. You can’t take back yesterday; you don’t know tomorrow; but you can do what is right, right now. Steward the day and what God has given you.
Second Peter 2:5 talks about false prophets as opposed to Noah the preacher of righteousness. The Bible says the judgment of God will not slumber forever. II Peter 2:4-5 says, “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell… and spared not the old world, but saved Noah.” God knows how to judge and to spare, how to reserve people to judgment and preserve them from judgment.
Verse 6 goes on, “And turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorra into ashes…making them an ensample.” Verses 7-8 say, “And delivered just Lot…that righteous man.” Now, you know that Lot was just, but no one in his family did. Lot was spared because of what God saw. His family perished because of what they saw. Lot was righteous before God, but corrupt in his actions before his family. If God knew how to spare this man and Noah, the “Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust… to be punished.”
Here are Noah and Lot. Did either of them win their world? Did Lot win Sodom? Did Noah win his city or the world? No. Did Lot win his family? No, he didn’t. Abraham had prayed before Sodom’s destruction, “God, if You find ten righteous in the city, will you spare it?” Lot should have had about ten with just his own family, but Lot could not even find ten in his own family. Noah found only eight, but they were in his family. If God knew how to reserve and preserve them, He knows how to do that today.
John Maxwell quoted someone as saying something like, “Success is when those who know me the best love me and respect me the most.” That scares the living daylights out of me, but I think there is some truth to that. Friend, start where you are. If you want to win the world, start by being right in your own heart and life and winning the people in your world. If you are raising children, are a grandparent, or have influence in other’s lives, nothing small is small. None of us are wise enough to know what is actually small and what is not. All it takes for a flood is rain and time. All an ark that preserves people in a flood takes is obedience and time. So, judge your success by your obedience to God.
Genesis 7:1 says, “And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.” You only have the generation you live in and what God has put in your hands. Steward the day, time, space, gifts, problems, and resources you have right here, right now. Judge your success by your obedience to God, not by what people see or think and not by the moment. Anybody can be thought great or small if they leave this life at the right moment. All that matters is what God knows, the long haul, eternity.
Start where you are and don’t be discouraged. Maybe you are doing the right thing, helping those around you, winning your own friends and family, living in obedience to God. Maybe you are building something like an ark using a lot of effort and you feel it is not saving anyone but those in your family. We should do all we can to win the generation in which we find ourselves, but the best way for that to begin is to win the people in our house and those close at hand. Success is not judged by how great people think I am, but how obedient God knows me to be.
Lot lost the world, but more importantly he lost his family. Noah may have not saved the world, but he saved his own family and because of that there is a world that exists today. I may not be able to change the world I give my kids, but I want to change the kids I give my world. In changing those kids I may indeed change the world given time because success begins right here and right now.