Truth Via Noah

TUES., JULY 13, 1993, 12:15 PM
OFFICE, PULLIAM HALL

Your Bible-based discussion group should focus on the Noah myth tomorrow morning. You realize that it is easy for the discussion to go in other directions… other than sticking to the Scriptural passages… so I commission you to see that the discussion is relevant, as much as possible.

One basic truth from this story is that I can and do destroy as well as create. Biological processes, part of My Creation, have anabolism and catabolism as complementary rather than competing processes. There must be death in order for life to continue. I can cause lives to be destroyed. Another basic premise is that My fundamental nature is love, so it must follow that love can be manifested as destruction. Strange, but true.

The promise that came out of this catastrophe was that never again would I use water in this destructive way. This is not a promise that there will never again be flooding. People living close to the Mississippi and some of its feeders are experiencing some loss of life and much loss of property and capacities to produce as expected. This is not of My direct doing, but I certainly allowed it to happen. There have been some miracles, certainly, but more “non-miracles,” where harm has come despite faith and prayers. You read of this damage by water and, at the same time, watch your pasture become more brown because of lack of rain in your particular stetting. Drought and flooding can often occur surprisingly close together.

Another basic truth is that I do choose certain persons for certain “tasks.” The Scriptures say that Noah was a righteous man, dedicated to Me, even as there was no formal religion established. He just “knew Me” and I “knew him,” and he was My choice to repopulate the earth, at least in that area of the globe.

An important ancillary truth is that righteousness is not just a matter of behavior. Noah was a good man, and I blessed him, but he also got drunk, passed out, and then bestowed too harsh a judgment on son Ham. It is important that the two major stories about Noah are one of faithfulness and one of sinfulness. Was I responsible for his drunkenness, in some way, in order that this truth could be expressed through these actions? You suspect so.

Noah was given an impossible task, in earth terms, as you know them. The record says that he succeeded. The truth is that, with My help, you can accomplish what seems impossible. Details of the actual accomplishment are unimportant. It is completely irrelevant to question how all of the animals of the earth were brought together in one place and coexisted for nearly a year. He didn’t have to take them back to other environments. He was faithful… and left the details to Me. The details of the flood and its aftermath are of no consequence. They can challenge a faith, but all faiths need to be challenged in order that spirit may develop.

Your rational mind, that which formulates such questions, is a gift from Me, but is a mixed blessing. It challenges faith, and faith “fights back.” There is a struggle for dominance, and faith may lose out. Earl’s affirmation on Sunday evening seemed silly to you, but understand that it was the rational mind being more dominant than faith. Why do I allow this, if I really want folks like Earl to move on in spiritual growth? Well, it’s My premise that I’m unlikely to see real growth if there isn’t some chance to regress or fail. Your being in this culture, working in the intellectual portion, is your personal challenge to faith. You are doing rather well, and accelerating. Keep it up.