16 January 2010
Psalm 20, 21; Gen. 6:9-22; Heb. 4:1-13; John 2:13-22

Noah is an extraordinary man. He is described as having found favor with the Lord, righteous and blameless. He is chosen from among all those on earth to repopulate the earth after God’s judgment is executed. God could have started all over again from scratch but in Noah there was hope for humanity. Amazingly, Noah “hears” all this and goes about the work of building an ark and gathering animals to fill it in obedience. “Reasonable” people rarely make good stories or disciples, people who have faith and act on that faith are the ones God is looking for.

Jesus uses a passage to justify His actions that speak of “zeal.” It was zeal that brought Him to earth. His love for us was so zealous He was willing to die in order to save us. We don’t like zeal very much, it makes us uncomfortable. Zeal refuses to accept the status quo, demands change and confronts authority. Zeal can be misplaced and surely God could have been upset about the Roman government and its oppression of conquered peoples, but Jesus’ zeal was for the house and the Name of God. Surely there were more awful things in the world than selling animals in the temple and exchanging money, but Jesus didn’t deal with those things, He came to the temple. We need people who are zealous for the household of God and the Name of God. We need to be those people whose primary concern is His honor and His glory. If we aren’t zealous there, we are misguided and our efforts elsewhere are meaningless.

Entering the rest of God comes with trusting God. Those in the wilderness failed to trust God and failed to enter His rest. Those who failed to believe in His Son fail to enter His rest because they are trusting in their work. That last verse again hearkens back to the garden, “before him no creature is hidden, but all are naked and laid bare to the eyes of the one to whom we must render an account.” Our account must be, I am a sinner but I believe that Jesus died on the cross for my sins and I believe He was perfectly righteous, without sin and therefore His sacrifice was acceptable to me and to You. We must know who we are and who He is in order to enter the rest that allows us to work with Him but not for our salvation but for the salvation of the world. Noah was able to save himself and his family, we proclaim Jesus as savior of all humankind.

Be exalted, O LORD, in your strength!
We will sing and praise your power.