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Oh No, Floods…

By April 4, 2014August 30th, 2022Lost in Translation

April showers bring May flowers, as the saying goes. But who would have thought that April would start out this way with so much rain and so many weather alerts for the past several days as well? On the way home from work this evening, some of the streets were actually cordoned off where the water level from the White River had already caused impassable roads in the area. The alerts also indicated that the water level would be rising for the next two days and we can expect additional closures until late Sunday evening.

Janet and I moved into our new home almost three months ago and now that the ice is gone, we are starting to learn the ropes about the lake behind our home and what to expect. This morning, in the middle of horrendous storms, the overflow drains from the river were open and the level of our lake rose at least a foot. I don’t know when I have seen water at that pace for so many hours for quite a long time.

The truth about water is that it can be scary. Almost every home that we have lived in has experienced flooding in the basement or water coming in through the roof. I remember that in one of our homes, we had more than 30,000 gallons of water in the basement, all the way up to the top stair to the first floor. Luckily, our brother-in-law checked out the house and found the problem right before we would have had severe damage throughout the main floor of the house. And then there were the times that sump pumps broke or sewers backed up and we ended up with damage in other homes that we owned. Several of our homes have also had damage from hail and other weather problems. So whether it comes from above or below, water can be damaging just as it can be life-giving.

The Bible is full of incidents involving water – most notably the great flood. As you undoubtedly know from your childhood Bible stories, Noah and his family were the only ones saved in the ark that Noah built. It rained for 40 days and 40 nights before the rain stopped and the water started to recede. After sending out several birds to test the safety of leaving the ark, Noah and his family built an alter to the Lord and made sacrifices in appreciation of their safe deliverance from the fury of the water.

Noah and his family were justifiably concerned that another flood could come and destroy everything that was left. But God, in His grace, entered into a covenant with Noah, not surprisingly called the Noahic Covenant, in which God promised that He would never destroy the earth again with water. The verse for this evening is the one that God gave us to ensure His promise. We are told, in Genesis 9:11, “I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.”

So no matter how bad it gets outside, or how long it rains, we have God’s assurance that a flood will not end life on earth. In fact, God also tells us that He has set His rainbow in the sky as a sign of the covenant between God and the inhabitants on the earth. Believe it or not there are only three references to rainbows in the entire Bible – one before a storm, one after a storm and one during a storm. So it makes sense that God would use a rainbow as a covenantal sign.

My encouragement this evening is that God cares for His people and has made many promises to us throughout the years. These promises appear in the Bible and you can count on God to deliver what He says. My prayer is that you will trust God’s promises and read the Bible to find out some of the things that He has promised to you and to me. It’s important that you know… In the meantime, have a great day in the Lord, grace and peace…

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