Humble Love for Christ Alone

A Devotional Series from Genesis

Online Bible Audio/Readings Links (ESV)

6/16 Reading Portions: Deuteronomy 21; Psalms 108-109; Isaiah 48; Revelation 18

Genesis 7:5

And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him.

OBEDIENCE

We examined Noah’s obedience earlier in the Genesis Devotional Series, when Noah was commanded by YHVH God to begin building an ark:

Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. Genesis 6:22

We considered that Noah’s obedience sprung from faith, but it was bolstered in a loving and fearful response to God’s mercy, love, and grace (see devotional thought here). We’re told in Scripture that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, calling people to repent of evil while he built the ark God commanded him to build:

if He did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 2 Peter 2:5

After 120 years of serving YHVH God as he built the ark (Gen 6:3), Noah was humbled with even greater love for his Creator and Redeemer so that forsaking the world he knew and entering the ark was simply an act of humble, loving, joyful obedience. Living 600 years on the planet (Gen 7:6), the 120 years he walked with God was everything to him. His obedience foreshadowed true discipleship in Christ. Jesus preached in the Sermon on the Mount,

“Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” Matthew 6:19-21

Again, Jesus preached to the crowds accompanying Him,

“So therefore, any one of you who does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple.” Luke 14:33

Paul was humbled by God’s love in Christ. He confessed,

But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith— Philippians 3:7-9

John was also humbled by God’s love in Christ. He exhorts us in his first general epistle,

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. 1 John 2:15-17

Hallelujah! What a Savior!