Cataclysm

 Some words inspire dread. It’s just the way it is. You can’t doll them up or throw a wig on them to make them seem like they’re something different. There’s no good light, no silver lining, no glass half full. It’s like when your doctor says you may want to sit down for this, or I have some bad news. You know that what follows will not fill your heart with merriment and glee. You won’t be skipping through the rose petals once you leave his office, and you won’t be making any long-term plans either.

Cataclysm is one of those words. Whenever the word cataclysm is found in a sentence or a paragraph, it is never associated with something good, light, or fun. Cataclysmic events are rare, but whenever one occurs, it is remembered for generations upon generations.

If I were to ask you what the greatest cataclysm of all time was, your mind would likely gravitate toward the flood. I don’t like calling it Noah’s flood because the only thing the man did was build an ark, so it’s not as though he caused it or even desired it, for that matter. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generation, and when God decided he would rid the world of flesh, for the earth was filled with violence, God instructed Noah on what he needed to do to be spared.

It was not a small project; it was not something that could be done in one weekend, even with help. It was labor intensive, exhaustive, and on the cautious side, took roughly the lifespan of a human nowadays, if the human were to live around seventy-five years, give or take.

Take into account that there was a Mrs. Noah who likely wasn’t very helpful or supportive. I’m sure the conversation came up more than once where she rolled her eyes and saying, you can spend all day building that contraption, but I ask you to take out the trash one time, and it’s still sitting there five days later.

Then there were the neighbors, acquaintances, friends, and the odd passerby. I’m sure he got questions like, is that a gazebo when he first started, then as the project grew, are you building a second home, maybe even an amusement park?

I know it wasn’t easy for the man, and he had many hurdles to overcome. Personally, I believe God gave Noah four sons just to keep Mrs. Noah busy and out of his hair. Otherwise, the project would have taken much longer. It’s so basic. Why can’t we make it nicer? Maybe some crown molding or accent scones? And what about this hideous pitch? Can we paint over it, perhaps something fun like lavender or peach?

Granted, Noah had his first son when he was 500 years old, so lifespans were a tad on the longer side than they are today, but building the ark was not a summer project.

For someone who had never seen rain before, Noah believed God and didn’t dawdle or delay. He got to building the ark out of the material God instructed, to the specifications that were laid out for him. He didn’t offer input, complaint, ask for help, or ask God why He couldn’t just speak it into being.

Noah was a man who walked with God yet didn’t have the temerity to try and make the task easier for himself by leveraging that relationship. There’s a lot of stuff we can unpack as to how Noah reacted to the news of the destruction of every living thing on earth, but that’s not what this morning’s thoughts are about.

Matthew 24:29, “Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens will be shaken.”

By any measure, this verse in Matthew describes something cataclysmic. There’s no way around it, no means of obfuscating it or lessening its magnitude. How this will come about is a mystery, an unknown, whether man-caused or naturally occurring, I cannot say.

As far as how this will occur, we are just as in the dark as Noah was when God said He would bring about floodwaters which would destroy from under heaven all flesh. It’s been said before, but Noah had never seen rain. The dew of the morning is what provided the necessary water, yet God was telling him that by some heretofore unseen mechanism, floodwaters would cover the earth.

God spoke, and Noah believed. God gave instructions, and Noah obeyed. Noah finished what he started, and he and his family were saved as a direct result.

Compared to Noah’s instructions, our instructions are the epitome of simplicity. We were not told to build arks of gopherwood and cover them with pitch, gather food, or corral animals. We were told to take heed that we are not deceived and endure to the end.

Compared to what Noah had to do in order to ensure his safety, our list of tasks seems like a walk in the park, but even so, there is a chorus of believers screaming that it’s just too much, Lord, it’s just too much.

They even try to entreat God in the King James vernacular, hoping to get his attention. Why does thouest burdeneth us so? Don’t get duped, and endure to the end. That’s it. That’s all you have to do!

Everything else will be happening around you, but as far as what you must do in order to be saved, it’s just those two things.

If given the choice between being Noah and having to do all that was required of him in the environment he had to do it in, and living in the present day, having the Word as a guide and the past as a testament to the faithfulness of God, I know which one I’d pick to live through.

With love in Christ,

Michael Boldea, Jr.