Ten Minute Bible Talks Devotional Bible Study - The Responsibility God Gives You | Torah | Genesis 6

Episode Date: January 18, 2022

Don't forget to subscribe to the TMBT Newsletter here to grow in your faith this year. Are you ruled by the change that God has made in you? Does God's grace make you different from the rest of the world? In today's episode, Tanya discusses Noah's life in Genesis 6 to see what set him apart from everyone else. Like this content? Make sure to leave us a rating and share it with others, so others can find it too. Use #asktmbt to connect with us, ask questions, and suggest topics. We'd love to hear from you! To learn more, visit our website and follow us on Facebook, and Twitter @TenMinuteBibleTalks. Your support makes TMBT possible. Ten Minute Bible Talks is a crowd-funded project. Join the TMBTeam to reach more people with the Bible. Give now.

Welcome to 10-minute Bible Talks, where we connect the Bible to your life in the time it takes to get to work. I'm Tanya Wilmeth. I'm Keith Simon. I'm Jensen Holmigner. And I'm Patrick Miller. We're exploring stories from the first books of the Bible. Right now, we're in Genesis. Eric is listening to a book by Andrew Nogorski called 1941, the year Germany lost the war.

And I was in the car with him on the way home from dinner when I got caught up in one of the most sobering passages. What I heard in the car is just one part of the story, but Nagorski was describing four mobile German units, each composed of 500 men who averaged 1,350 murders per day of Jewish men, women, and children, for seven days a week, for 100 weeks. I'm going to leave it to you to do the mass, if you so desire. I know it's good and necessary to face the truth, but sometimes the truth is just incomprehensible. and facing the truth is something most of the people involved either directly or indirectly couldn't do. After the war, many of the people we would call sidelineers,

that is people who didn't actively participate but also didn't stop it, said they had no idea what was going on with their Jewish friends and neighbors. I think this leads us all to ask, where would I be? What would I have done? Noah was born into a world like this. Noah was born into a world where there was no goodness, no self-control, and no limit to evil. There are few biblical accounts where mankind was more violent and corrupt than in Genesis 6, just before the flood. Sexual depravity had gotten so far out of hand that self-control was synonymous, with foolishness. God shortened life from over 900 years to a little over 100.

The violent were recognized as heroes. This is a world where Noah was born. and the same nature he was born with. Just as the people around him were born sinners, so was Noah. His story would have been just like everyone else's if it wasn't for the intervention of God. God was not a passive observer to the wickedness of man. Genesis 6 relates,

The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, I will blot out man whom I have created. And verses eight and nine.

But Noah. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man. Blameless in his generation, Noah walked with God. How do you think Noah stood apart from his contemporaries? Do you think he practiced self-control,

not returning slander with slander, not using violence to be heard, not using force to lead, not assuming he was right, not mistreating others for his advantage, not assuming he was entitled to have things God didn't want him to have. Noah's life wasn't ruled by the sin of the culture or the sinful nature of his own heart. So how did that happen? Well, God met Noah with his lavish and extravagant grace. Noah didn't earn God's grace with his good behavior, but God's grace was lavished on Noah because of God's goodness. And this grace changed Noah and shaped his life, his identity, and his purpose.

Even though he was surrounded by corruption and wickedness, by God's grace, Noah was different. Instead of participating in the depravity and the violence, he was walking with God and building something different. God's grace at work in Noah's life gave him the desire to live, differently to interrupt the status quo. God's grace is always a gift and always undeserved. God's grace changes our narrative from slavery to sin to freedom to follow Christ.

And He gives you and me the ability to interrupt the cycle of sin and shine light in dark places. God has placed you with people and in situations where you have the opportunity to be an agent of His grace. God gave Noah plans for a boat to save his family. from a flood. What responsibility has he given you? Nicholas Winton, an English stockbroker, was on his way to meet his friend for a ski trip in Czechoslovakia when he received a message, don't bother to bring your skis. When he arrived, what he found was a country on the verge of occupation and war, and he found families desperate to save their children. There was already an effort

organized in England called the British Children's Movement that had saved. over 10,000 Jewish children through relocation before the war began, but there was no such movement in Czechoslovakia. Once Witten had the information, and once he saw those faces, he knew he had to be involved. He opened a storefront in Prague and registered over 900 children for transport, before moving to London to organize efforts in host homes and orphanages to receive the children. No one, including his wife, knew of his efforts publicly. It wasn't until, she uncovered his records and documents in the attic in 1988 that he was knighted and credited for saving the lives of 689 children. What he couldn't do for everyone, he did for those he could.

By grace, God gives his people vision and desire to interrupt a cycle of darkness and depravity. Let us ask him to let our desires and our actions be ruled by the change he's made in us, So we might be a light in our generation as one who walks in fellowship with God. Thanks for listening. If you've enjoyed this content, please subscribe and give us a rating. That helps others find this podcast more easily. Also ask yourself who you could share this podcast with. Texting an episode to a friend or family member is a great way to help them grow spiritually.

If you want to go deeper, check out our show notes for book recommendations.