THEY REALLY DID NOT KNOW?!

HEBREW HONEYCOMB

William Andrew Dillard
THEY REALLY DID NOT KNOW?!

“ For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24:38, 39.
The Divine description of life in the antediluvian world is one of basic, sinful, sensuality being the daily, driving force; of an epicurean society who did not eat to live, but lived to eat, drink, and gratify wanton lusts. The deciding clue comes from the rest of that description, “….And knew not until the flood came and took them all away…” 
It was not that they had not heard, but it was one of blatant disbelief that stole their hearing (comprehension and reception of reality) How they must have tired of the 120 year long preachments of Noah and his persistence through decades of ark-building. So, they had neither regard for God nor any sense of accountability to Him. Therein, life degenerates to the lowest level of “me only.” When that determination persists, God gives people over to a reprobate mind to do those things that are not convenient, but rotten, filthy, and without compassion. So, they continued on in a lifestyle of debauchery which they must have thought would never end. 
And the flood came and took them all away, except the righteous man Noah and his family. Jesus’ description of that time was given as a warning sign that the world would degenerate into that same condition as the time of His coming approached. Let the reader pause and read again the first chapter of the book of Romans. Certainly, this is a description of the dark side of civilization in Paul’s day. But that was nearly 2000 years ago. The kind of folks he described were the same kind of those before the flood. Moreover, this type of humanity has multiplied exponentially during the last two millenniums. On the American scene, at least, this has become considered normal and acceptable. It is not that warnings have escaped the scope of their knowledge; rather it is that they refuse to believe them and so discount them altogether. In the strictest sense, THEY KNEW, but tiring of the time, were shocked when the warning they were exposed to became a reality. It is to be repeated! What can be done? Keep sounding the alarm! This evil world system is going down, and all with it who love it. But there may be one here or there who will hear. Still, for the most part it shall be repeated, “And they knew not . . . “ So soon shall the Lord appear and the corrupters of men will cry for the rocks and mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Rev. 6:16

BAPTISM AND THE NOAHIC FLOOD

HEBREW HONEYCOMB

William Andrew Dillard
BAPTISM AND THE NOAHIC FLOOD

“For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water. The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ:” I Peter 3:18-21
From earliest Sunday School Days, most Christians are enthralled with the story of Noah and the Flood. But, its implications extend to the church age with underscored import to modern day saints. Some attempt to deny the denotations and connotations of the verses of scripture at hand; others do their best to explain them away as meaningless. Still others make them to mean much more than they are intended to mean. So what might one rightly infer from them? Noah was a righteous man. Accordingly, he and his family found grace in the eyes of the Lord. He was blessed to build the Ark., and he is listed as one of the heroes of faith in Hebrews 11. When the sloosh ways of heaven were opened, the fountains of the deep surfaced, and rains came for forty days and nights, water bore up the Ark to the saving of their lives. However, the same water that bore up the Ark to the saving of their lives also caused the death of all others who drew the breath of life.
Now consider the parallel. Let it be understood that there is only ONE THING in the entire universe that is purgatory of sin: the blood of the Son of God. Yet, many of the people who drown in the flood were spiritually saved, but disobedient people. So it is the obedience of life that is under consideration in the figure. It is through obedience that a good consciousness toward God is created. Baptism is the first step of obedience for every saved person. Additionally, it is in that good consciousness toward God that His will is advanced in and through men. The obedience in water baptism brings a good conscience toward God, but the same water refused leaves one devoid of that good conscience. The difference is symbolized as gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble at the fiery Judgment Seat of Christ as shown in I Corinthians 3:9-15. So, it may be spoken of as the saving of one’s life to the glory of God, and to one’s personal reward. Therein is the figure spoken of in the verses under consideration.
Remember this the next time you hear some immature Baptist say, “Baptism is not important.” It is important, so much so that it is likened unto the difference between those in the Ark and those outside it.

Want

 

chāsēr

David writes in Psa_23:1, “The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.” After using God’s covenant name LORD and then picturing such a personal relationship by likening Him to a Shepherd, the first blessing David mentions receiving from his Shepherd is that he does not want for anything.

The Hebrew chāsēr (H2637) means “to be lacking or needy or to decrease.” The first two of its some twenty occurrences reflect that latter idea when the waters of the Flood “were abated” and “decreased” (Gen_8:3; Gen_8:5). The idea of lacking is apparent in the third occurrence when Abraham found a “lack” of righteous people in Sodom (Gen_18:28).

Our text, however, says that David did not lack for anything, that he was not needy, that there was no decrease of any necessary thing in his life. The most frequent use of chāsēr, in fact, is to show that God’s provision is sufficient to meet the needs of His people. As one might expect, we find this very word in the account of God feeding His people in the wilderness. God’s provision of manna was so miraculous that “he that gathered much had nothing over, and he that gathered little had no lack; they gathered every man according to his eating” (Exo_16:18).

That is, indeed, the Shepherd’s promise. If we follow Him, we will want for nothing. As Spurgeon writes, “I shall not lack for temporal things. Does he not feed the ravens, and cause the lilies to grow? How, then, can he leave his children to starve? I shall not want for spirituals, I know that his grace will be sufficient for me. Resting in him he will say to me, ‘As thy day so shall thy strength be’ [Deu_33:25]. I may not possess all that I wish for, but ‘I shall not want.’”

Is there a prerequisite for such provision, or is it automatic no matter how one might live? As David makes clear elsewhere, “They that seek the LORD shall not want any good thing” (Psa_34:10; also Mat_6:25-34). In contrast, when God’s people turned to idol worship, “[They] wanted all things, and [were] consumed by the sword and by the famine” (Jer_44:18). While there are starving people in many places in the world, the problem is not a lack of resources, rather a wrong response to God, not a lack of food, rather a lack of faith.

Scriptures for Study: Read the following passages, noting the promise of God’s provision in each: Deu_8:3; Deu_8:9 (also Mat_4:4); Mat_6:25-34; Php_4:19. Is there ever a reason to doubt?

 

 

HEBREW HONEYCOMB

Author – W.A. Dillard

AND THEY KNEW NOT. . .
“ For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” Matt. 24:38, 39.
The Divine description of life in the antediluvian world may cause one to ask, “Just what is wrong with what they were doing? It is not still just fine to eat, and to drink, and to marry and give in marriage?” It depends on what is understood by the statement. If those things were done in moderation, and in accord with the will of the Heavenly Father, then there was indeed no wrong done by those deeds. On the other hand if these were the driving forces of life, they speak of a sensual, epicurean society that did not eat to live, but lived to eat, drink, and gratify wanton lusts. The deciding clue comes from the rest of that description, “….And knew not until the flood came and took them all away…” This underscores the driving force of life then as sensual continuously. They had neither regard for God nor any sense of accountability to Him. When people persist in debauchery, they exclude God from their thinking. Life then degenerates to the lowest level of “me only.” When that determination persists, God gives people over to a reprobate mind to do those things that and not convenient, but rotten, filthy, and without compassion. So, they continued on in a degenerate lifestyle which they must have thought would never end. And the flood came and took them all away, except the righteous man Noah and his family.
Jesus’ description of that time was given as a warning sign that the world would degenerate into that same condition as the time of His coming approached. Let the reader pause and read again the first chapter of the book of Romans. Certainly, this is a description of the dark side of civilization in Paul’s day. But that was nearly 2000 years ago. The kind of folks he described were the same kind as those before the flood. Moreover, this type of humanity has multiplied exponentially during the last two millenniums. On the American scene, at least, this has become considered normal and acceptable. It is not that warnings have escaped the scope of their knowledge; rather it is that they refuse to believe them and so discount them altogether. What can be done? Keep sounding the alarm! This evil world system is going down, and all with it who love it. But there may be one here or there who will hear. Still, for the most part it shall be repeated, “And they knew not . . . “ So soon shall the Lord appear and the corrupters of men will cry for the rocks and mountains to fall upon them to hide them from the face of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb.” Rev. 6:16

ANOTHER TRAGEDY

 

Certainly the deaths and those injured at the Boston Marathon is an horrific tragedy. Life is not precious to so many people today. There is a general coarsening of humanity and the inhumanity of man to man is rising to the forefront of our daily living.

 

 

We mourn and weep and pray for all those whose lives have been torn asunder. Our hearts are broken because tragedies seem to be increasing. We know that investigations are ongoing to find the perpetrators of these incidents.

 

 

What drives the heart of the man that would indiscriminately kill and maim young and old, male and female? Evil. God in Genesis 6:5 And 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. This evil heart of man brought on the flood. We find later that this evil heart brought about the destruction of Sodom and her sister city. Evil is not new.

 

 

What is pushing this evil heartedness. It happens when man turns away from God. Man removes the laws of God from society and then wonders why evil is bound up in the heart of man. It is fairly clear that the more we remove God from society, evil grows. The further away from God man gets the more coarse and evil man becomes.

 

 

Now those that believe in God, worship God and try to live by the teachings of Jesus are being accused of possibly being the ones behind the Boston Bombing.

 

 

How can this be? We practice love for our fellowman, charity and benevolence. We practice compassion for the unfortunate and assistance where help is need. What law is there against these practices. All others have the right to think, practice and believe as they want. We that believe in God are laughed at and ridiculed because we hold the beliefs that have been held according to God’s Word and have been honored for several thousands of years.

 

 

Now the media would like to label us as dangerous, radical terrorists that would bomb innocent people. Their notion and labeling is radical and speaks of devious and jealous heart.

 

 

There is the problem. A lack of God. “The fool hath said in his heart there is no God!