New Web Address

To continue to follow me go to awakemin.org

Awakemin.org is the home page for Awake Fellowship Church (which we are establishing in Concord, NC).  It also has my updated contact information.  So if you have questions or comments about this blog or my book (Foundations for the Battlefield), you can reach me there.

I would like to get back to posting directly to this blog again, but right now I have enough on my plate.

Blessings,
David Falls

More Noah

It took Noah 120 years to build and prepare the ark.  We know that he preached to a rebellious generation during this time (2 Peter 2:5).  He could have given up at any time and said, “Lord this is just too hard.”  Or he could have lost faith in the Lord who put him up to such a ridiculous task.  Noah could have quit, which would have been the easy thing to do.    Thankfully he didn’t. 

Had others in Noah’s day repented and turned to the Lord.  They would have had to prepare some kind of boat as well to be saved from the coming storm.  If the price of simple repentance wasn’t too high the inconvenience of having to copy Noah’s ark building idea certainly was.  Obeying the Lord in those days would have been a very public thing.  I am willing to bet that many didn’t join Noah because of the ridicule that they would have had to endure. . . . 

Obedience to the Lord is important.  It can often be life saving, but it isn’t always easy.  Some things never change.

Gen 6:5-8 Mankind in trouble

“The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on earth had become, and that ever inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.  The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.  So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth -- men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air -- for I am grieved that I have made them.’  But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”

At that moment in time the Lord was actually about to wash His hands free of mankind and move on to something else.  That He was going to take out everything else (the birds and animals too) was an indicator of how serious God was.  I can see the Lord looking at the rest of (birds and animals and such) and saying that without man to tend them and be blessed by them, what’s the point of having them?  In all  human history this was probably one of if not the most risky season for the human race. 

When the creator God decides to do something, who is going to stand in His way.  Ever wonder what would have happened if Noah hadn’t found favor in the Lord’s eyes?  Thankfully the Lord gave Noah fair warning as to what he was going to do, and He gave Noah detailed instructions as to what to do about it.  Verse 22 “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”  Because he obeyed, Noah, his family, and every species of animal were saved from the coming judgement.  Ever wonder what would have happened if Noah hadn’t obeyed?  Two events had to coincide for humanity to be spared:  God granted Noah favor and Noah obeyed God.  If either of them had been lacking. . . .

Fun with Genealogies (no this isn't a joke)

Traditionally the genealogies are considered the most boring part of the whole Bible, but to the observant or just the morbidly curious with nothing better to do they can yield all kinds of cool little treasures.  What follows is one of my curious explorations of the first genealogy in the scriptures.

In Genesis 5:21 we have Enoch one of the descendants of Seth (Able’s replacement).  Enoch has the distinction of being the first person after the Garden who the Bible actually says walked with God.  He is also the first person in scripture who got a fabulous Elijah like disappearance.  Verse 24 reads, “Enoch walked with God; then he was no more, because God took him away.”  When Enoch was 65 he had a child whom he named Methuselah.  Enoch’s name means ‘dedicate,’ and he was definitely dedicated to the Lord.

Methuselah means to the end of the spear or to the full extent of the branch or as far as the dart flies.  His name is a combination of two words that have multiple applications.  The idea seems to be that Enoch was saying that Methuselah is one who would live up till the end of something.  The question is what is he living to the end of?  Answer: the world as they knew it.  From Genesis 5:25 - 31; 7:11 we learn the following information.

Methuselah lived a total of 969 years.  At the age of 187 he had a son named Lamech (not the easily offended Lamech that was a descendant of Cain).
Lamech lived for 777 years in all.  Lamech had a son named Noah (this is the Noah who built the ark).  Lamech lived 595 after Noah was born.  Noah was 600 years old at the time of the flood.  Doing a little bit of math we figure out that Lamech died 5 years before the flood.  Methuselah lived another 782 years after his son Lamech was born which means that he yet another 5 years after Lamech died.  Methuselah lived right up until the year of the flood.  He lived right up until the end of the age he was living in, just like Enoch said he would when he named him.  How’s that for a cool prophetic word?

Gen 4:19 Lamech (Cain's legacy)

Here is an interesting little note on one of Cain’s direct descendants.

Gen 4:19  “Lamech married two women, one named Adah and the other Zillah.

This makes Lamech the first polygamist in the scriptures.  Adah’s name means ornament (maybe she was a trophy wife) and Zillah’s name means shadow (based on her name I wouldn’t be surprised if she was intended to be very subservient).  Unlike other forms of sexual deviation (adultery, fornication, . . .) polygamy is never strictly called a sin or strictly condemned, but given its introduction it doesn’t come off as a virtue either.  It appears to be one of those things that God is willing to tolerate as a less than ideal move, but never really endorse.

Verses 23-24  “Lamech said to his wives, ‘Adah and Zillah, listen to me; wives of Lamech, hear my words.  I have killed a man for wounding me, a young man for injuring me.  If Cain is avenged seven times, then Lamech seventy-seven times.’”

Lamech is a true son of Cain; like Cain he kills another out of offense.  Typical of an offended soul he blames the other person for his actions and emotions.  Then he judges his actions as almost righteous (at least more righteous than his ancestor Cain's); if Cain was sort of justified (after all he got to live with the Lord’s protection) then Lamech must be really justified (therefore deserving of even more protection).  See how warped the mind of an offended soul can be?  It’s sad how common offense is.

Genesis 4:3-5a and Mark 14

Gen 4:3-5a  “In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the Lord.  But Abel brought fat portions of the firstborn of his flock.  The Lord looked with favor on Abel and his offering.  But on Cain and he offering he did not look with favor.”

In Cain’s case he brought just your average ho-hum offering.  Abel brought the best of the first that he had.  Not surprisingly God preferred Abel’s offering.  The question becomes what does this action say about each person’s heart.  Abel was one who wanted to worship the Lord, while Cain took his relationship with the Lord casually.  As we know from the previous post Cain got offended when his casual approach didn’t pay off.  Then things got uglier from there.

Here is another similar story.  One person giving an offering to the Lord and someone else with different priorities getting offended and committing murder (or at least assisting one).

Mark 14:3  While he [Jesus] was in Bethany, reclining at the table in the home of a man known as Simon the Leper, a woman came with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume made of pure nard.  She broke the jar and poured the perfume on his head.  Some of those present were saying indignantly to one another, ‘Why this waste of perfume?  It could have been sold for more than a year’s wages and the money given to the poor.’  And they rebuked her harshly.  ‘Leave her alone’ said Jesus.  ‘Why are you bothering her?  She has done a beautiful thing to me. . . .  . . .Then Judas Iscariot, one of the twelve, went to the chief priests to betray Jesus to them.’”

People with right priorities toward the Lord, inevitably offend those with less than ideal priorities. Offense in us is a sign that our priorities are off somehow.  Offense at us is a sign that we just might be doing the right thing; of course there are plenty of bad ways to offend people too.  If we are following the Lord as we should, be assured that not everyone will like us.

Genesis 4 -- Cain, Abel, and offense

The story goes like this.  Cain and Able each brought an offering to the Lord.  Cain brought a bunch of random vegetables from his fields and Able brought the very best of what he had among his flock.  God “looked with favor on Abel and his offering,” but not so much with Cain.

So Cain gets offended.  Initially it was probably with God that he had the offense.  After all it was God that he was expecting to get something from.  He must have realized that God had done nothing wrong.  They did have a talk about it, but Cain never dealt with the underlying anger and offense.  He simply transferred it to the next closest target, his brother Abel, who had done absolutely nothing wrong.

Offense is when we get angry about a situation and we blame someone else for the thing we don’t like.  In essence we judge them as being responsible for our anger.

I don’t believe that it is possible to walk with God and walk in offense at the same time.

To be offended means we have become angry and sinned by not taking responsibility for our anger.  Furthermore we have begun to judge others out of our anger, not by looking at fruit.  That sort of judging means that we are usually guilty of the very thing we are blaming on others (Matthew 7:1-2; Luke 6:32; James 4:11).  So we can include hypocrisy in the mix.  The offense itself actually becomes a barrier to prevent us from even dealing with the real issue.  Because offended people feel justified they also often feel free to act on their offense even if those acts are obviously sinful.  In our story, Cain killed Abel.

An offended person can’t be reasoned with until they are willing to see past their offense.  When God confronted Cain, He did so with a question.  “Where is your brother?”  When God asks a question it is never because He is looking for information.  Typically it is so that we can look at ourselves and learn about our true condition.  Adam and Eve responded by evading God’s questions because they were afraid and ashamed, but once God made it clear that He already knew what had happened we find that they can be reasoned with.  In subsequent chapters we find them still in relationship with the Lord (see Seth’s name Genesis 4:25).  God asked David a question (about Bathsheba) through Nathan the prophet and again we find someone who when confronted with his sin was able to be reasoned with.  Cain on the other hand responded to God’s question with more offense and a direct lie ( “I don’t know where he is.”).

Once God finally calls Cain on the carpet and begins to mention consequences, Cain responds with whining. “God, you’re being too hard on me.” (author’s paraphrase).  In a sense he is almost saying, “my sin isn’t as bad as you make it out to be, so cut me some slack.”  He never admits wrong doing or apologizes.  And so a story that began badly, ends even worse.  “So Cain went out from the Lord’s presence. . .” vs 16.



As followers of Jesus, we will be given many opportunities to take offense at others.  We must jealously guard are hearts from this particular poison.