A Man in a Million

How foolish can one get? Some people never seem to learn the lessons of life, but rush through the years making and meeting trouble. There is the meddler in other people’s affairs, who pries around unwanted and causes endless unhappiness by his gossip and interference. There is the lazy good-for-nothing who has no intention of doing a hard day’s work, but becomes a burden to others and com­plains when things do not come his way. And you will have read about the drunk­ard, the housebreaker, and others like them who are constantly appearing in court and prison for their repeated of­fences Why are they like this? Why in­deed?

But let not any of us imagine that we belong to a different race of people The trouble with all the human race is that it will not or cannot learn the lessons which God is trying to teach it Think about it for a moment Adam s children would certainly learn from Adam and Eve how wonderful life had been in the Garden of Eden before they sinned and lost the pleasures of that paradise But that did not deter men from sinning and sinning and sinning again in the years that followed.

You would scarcely believe it possible, but within seventeen hundred years of the day of Adam there was only one righteous family among all the people who lived on earth Only one! Not that God had ceased trying to teach and purify men, He was working all the time He instructed the one righteous family, Noah s family what to do, and told Noah to preach repentance and righteousness to everybody he met Not only that, God gave Noah a message of warning—repent or be destroyed But Noah became a laughing stock Men and women and chil­dren ignored him, refused to believe God s word through him, scorned his righteousness and went their own way Not that it was a better way that they had invented, they did all the usual things such as marrying, having parties, building homes, and so on Not that there is any­thing wrong in that But they did it in an utterly godless way, they lived just as though God did not exist Living like that is atheism (without God) Make a note of that Atheism in the Bible is not simply saying, there is no God Not many people say that It is living as though there is no God, never thinking about Him, never asking what God wants us to do—that is atheism And there are a lot of people like that.

Now I want you to notice something very important, what is known as a prin­ciple When men live without God, some­thing happens to them in this life It happened in the days of Noah, too “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually (Genesis 6 5) And what was the result of that? The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence (verse 11) Make a very careful note of that Men became violent toward one another All their lusts were roused and there was strife Men killed one another or threat­ened to do so Men were terrorizing wo­men, young men were lawless and there was death in the streets at night That was four thousand five hundred years ago or thereabouts Are things very much different today? Perhaps they have not yet gone quite that far, but we can see all the signs of it Not merely among wild head hunters in Borneo where savages know nothing better—no, in our own cities where robberies with violence, at­tacks on women and cruel hooliganism among young men take place, and in the great wars which have taken place and the small ones which are smoldering or flaring up all over the world.

Man cannot have tranquility without God God puts it this way “There is no peace, saith my God, to the wicked” (Isaiah 57 21) You will find that true in your own life Peace, inner serenity, quietness and assurance come through believing and obeying God Strife, rest­lessness, anger and violence come through neglect and disobedience But to go back to Noah for a moment Noah was right, and God loved him God’s love is a practical thing, as well as a state of mind God told Noah that He was going to destroy all mankind because of its per­sistent and unrepenting wickedness And God did just that He opened the clouds of heaven and the great underground lakes and fountains For forty days the rains and released waters surged upon the land called Earth Noah and his little family and the gathered animals brought to him were secure from tempest and destruction in the ark which Noah had built at the command of God and to God s specifications “And all that was upon the dry land died” (Genesis 7 22) Thus God exterminated the violence and godlessness of man Godlessness leads to nothingness, like the candle flame snuffed out between the finger and thumb.

Noah and his family emerged from the ark into a new world. There was a new beginning. Do you think Noah’s children could ever forget the flood? They forgot it quickly. Like the drunkard and the housebreaker, like the smoker who knows that cigarettes can bring cancer, they turned their backs on the knowledge of the flood and went their own way. It would be unbelievable if we did not see the same thing happening before us every day in one form or another. In less than five hundred years the light of God in the world was beginning to go out once more. Darkness and ignorance were spreading over the face of the earth. Men were worshipping the sun, the moon and the stars. They became interested in their own ways once more: building, business, pleasure, and the countless other activities of man which turn to poison when man leaves God out of account.

What was God to do? How could He extend the lifeline down the ages when so many spurned His loving kindness and grace? He Chose A Man In A Mil­lion. A man in a million! A man who would listen and be obedient, who, al­though he was a sinner, believed in God. Make a note of his name—Abram (God made it a little longer and called him Abraham). God made him the treasure house of His knowledge. Although we know hardly another name from those distant years (2000 B.C.), Abraham’s name lives on. Why is this? What is there different about him? What did he do? Did he write a book? No. Did he build a city? No. Did he become a king? No. Was he a hero in great wars? No. What then?

He Believed God.

Make a note of that. It is the greatest honor a man can pay to God. It is known as having faith. Repeat it and let it stick to your mind. Paste it to the walls of your thinking and look at it: Abraham Believed God.

Let us look now at this man in a mil­lion and see what happened to him. He lived near the great river Euphrates in Mesopotamia. In a fine city where he lived (men have found it and dug it out of the desert sands in our own century), men worshipped the moon and had a cul­tured and pleasant existence (between the wars and troubles which came). Abra­ham lived there with his relatives. Then God spoke to him. Abraham had a vision by which he knew that God was speaking to him: “Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee” (Genesis 12:1).

What would you have done? What did the man in a million do? He knew that God had spoken to him and he did just what God told him to do. He left his city, Ur, took his relatives with him, and with Sarah, his wife, set out on the jour­ney. They traveled many hundreds of miles under God’s guiding hand until they came to Palestine. Is it not wonder­ful that the land in which Jesus was to be born was the land to which God brought Abraham? Abraham and Sarah and their nephew Lot stood together in the land of Palestine and let their sheep graze there. We look at him and wonder why God had brought him all this journey. Was there a reason? Of course there was. God does nothing without reason. By faith Abraham had been separated from the idols of his homeland and brought to a new land, trusting in God.

Pause for a moment. How are you going through life’s journey? Like the men of Noah’s day? Like the men of Abraham’s day? Just getting along with­out God? We are sure you are not. If you are following these articles you will be drawn nearer to God. You will hear Him say: “. . . He that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a re­warder of them that diligently seek him” (Hebrews 11:6).

Now read for yourself: Genesis, chapters 6, 8, and 12.