Are You a Hired Laborer?

 

Last updated 11/2/2007 12:43 PM

 

When God instructed Noah to build the ark, He not only gave Noah the blueprint but also He provided him with the resources (wisdom, finances, material, and labor). Surely, Noah did not build the ark all by himself, I am sure his three sons assisted too. The eldest son (Japheth) was born when Noah was 500 years old (Gen 5:32-“And Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”) in 5090 B.C. (See Biblical Calendar Page 10), and he was 100 years at the flood and Noah was 600 years old (Gen 7:6-“And Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.”) in 4990 B.C.  120 years before the flood (Noah being 480 years old) in 5110 B.C., God decided to destroy man from off the earth and every living creature (Gen 6:3-“And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.”). However, sometime thereafter (between the age of 481-499 years and before he had children), Noah found grace and God saved him (Gen 6:8-“And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7  And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 8  But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.”) and gave him the instructions to build the ark (Gen 6:13-16, quoted later). This ark was a huge boat (its length was over 1.5 times the length of a football field and over 1/4 of the length of a football field in width, and over 15 yards in height with three stories and rooms!). This was a mammoth undertaking and would have taken many man-hours of labor considering it was all a manual effort. When God told Noah to build the ark, Noah’s three sons were already grown and married:

 

Genesis 6: 13  And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14  Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch. 15  And this is the fashion which thou shalt make it of: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits, and the height of it thirty cubits. {1cubit = 0 .5 yards} 16  A window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it above; and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower, second, and third stories shalt thou make it. 17  And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the breath of life, from under heaven; and every thing that is in the earth shall die. 18  But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons’ wives with thee.

 

So, the instructions to build the ark could have come at the earliest when Noah was around 525-535 years old or later when his three sons would have been old enough to be married. That would leave only a maximum of 65-75 years or less to build this gigantic boat (since the flood came when Noah was 600 years old) and that was not a lot of time as there was no mechanization. The trees had to be cut down and cut to the proper sizes, etc-- a lot of human labor was involved and would have been hired by Noah. Now, these hired laborers helped to build the ark but they, themselves, would not go therein to be saved from the flood despite Christ’s preaching to them through Noah:

 

1Pet 3:18 For Christ also hath once suffered for sins, the just for the unjust, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened by the Spirit: 19  By which also he went and preached unto the spirits in prison; 20  Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.

 

2Pet 2:5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly.

 

Heb 11:7  By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.

 

The following was the lifestyle of these hired laborers:

 

Lu 17:27  They did eat, they drank (partying, alcoholism), they married wives (polygamy), they were given in marriage (loose engagements, shacking up), until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all.

 

Gen 6:2 .. the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives (spiritually mixed marriages-unequally yoked) of all which they chose.

 

Gen 6:5   And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts (sexual pervasions, murders, lasciviousness, etc.) of his heart was only evil continually.

 

Do you see any of these gross sins in our world today? What about the countless numbers of adulteress divorcees that have remarried while their former husband is still alive and who populate our churches today:

 

Rom 7: 2  For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband. 3  So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

 

God gave Noah the time of the flood exactly 7 days before it was to take place:

 

Gen 7:4  For yet seven days, and I will cause it to rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living substance that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the earth. {destroy: Heb. blot out} 5  And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him.

 

Now, Noah was a preacher of righteousness (see 2Pet 2:5 above) and he would have declared this to his generation but would they heed?

 

God openly links the flood of Noah days with the fiery judgment of our day and shows His commitment to effecting this fiery judgment with a stipulated time between both great judgments and this stipulated time is the “one thing” that the “elect beloveds” should know:

 

2Pet 3: 5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: 6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished: 7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men. 8  But, beloved, be not ignorant of this one thing, that one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. 9   The Lord is not slack concerning his promise…..

 

Now, why could God destroy all of mankind except for eight persons (Noah and his wife and his three sons and their wives)? It was because all the elects still to be born including Jesus Christ would come out of the loins of these eight individuals! The rest of mankind were all unsaved non-elects and would never produce elect offspring from their loins and so God seized upon His opportunity to put them out of their rebellion and to start over afresh. Scriptures supporting this conclusion include:

 

Heb 7:5  And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham:

 

Heb 9  And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. 10  For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

 

Acts 2:29  Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day. 30  Therefore being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him, that of the fruit of his loins, according to the flesh, he would raise up Christ to sit on his throne;

 

2Chr 6:7  Now it was in the heart of David my father to build an house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 8  But the LORD said to David my father, Forasmuch as it was in thine heart to build an house for my name, thou didst well in that it was in thine heart: 9  Notwithstanding thou shalt not build the house; but thy son which shall come forth out of thy loins, he shall build the house for my name. 10  The LORD therefore hath performed his word that he hath spoken: for I am risen up in the room of David my father, and am set on the throne of Israel, as the LORD promised, and have built the house for the name of the LORD God of Israel. 11  And in it have I put the ark, wherein is the covenant of the LORD, that he made with the children of Israel.

 

Ge 18:25  That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?

 

Job 8:20   Behold, God will not cast away a perfect man, neither will he help the evil doers:

 

Ec 8:12  Though a sinner do evil an hundred times, and his days be prolonged, yet surely I know that it shall be well with them that fear God, which fear before him: 13  But it shall not be well with the wicked, neither shall he prolong his days, which are as a shadow; because he feareth not before God.

 

The world today is just as corrupt as that of Noah. See what God had predicted for our times:

 

Rom 1: 21  Because that, when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, neither were thankful; but became vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened. 22  Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools, 23  And changed the glory of the uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24  Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves: 25  Who changed the truth of God into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. Amen. {more: or, rather} 26  For this cause God gave them up unto vile affections: for even their women (Lesbians) did change the natural use into that which is against nature: 27  And likewise also the men (Gays), leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another; men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that recompence of their error which was meet. 28  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; {to retain: or, to acknowledge} {a reprobate…: or, a mind void of judgment or, an unapproving mind} 29  Being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30  Backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31  Without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: {without natural…: or unsociable} 32  Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them. {have…: or, consent with}

 

Luke 17:26 And as it was in the days of Noe (Noah), so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.

 

 

What an indictment! How can our world escape judgment when it is every bit as evil as Noah’s or worse?

 

All the unsaved non-elects of the present world are hired laborers employed by God indirectly in building of the spiritual ark—the body of Christ, as they provide the ancillary services (Radio, Satellite, Internet, TV, etc.) and goods (Computers, Printing Press, etc.) that facilitate Christians to preach the gospel and so build the spiritual ark:

 

Eccl 2:26  For God giveth to a man (Christians) that is good in his sight wisdom, and knowledge, and joy: but to the sinner he giveth travail, to gather and to heap up, that he may give to him that is good before God.

 

Pr 13:22  A good man leaveth an inheritance to his children’s children: and the wealth of the sinner is laid up for the just.

 

As with the generation of Noah, when there were no more elects to be brought forth, God brought judgment and He will do so once more in our time (which is perilously close, Rom 13:11-12, 1Pet 4:7, Joel 1:15), when all the elects are saved (the spiritual Ark, the eternal body of Christ is completed) and then He will bring the world into eternal judgment (portrayed by the flood—Isa 28:2, 15-20) and the hired laborers (including those raised from the dead who had died throughout time) will be snared in it because they refused to go in to the Ark that they might be saved.

 

The hired laborer is as one that “… earneth wages to put it into a bag with holes.” (Hag 1:6). Are you a hired laborer being one of the unsaved sinners of this world? I plead with you to be like the publican before this short opportunity expires:

 

Luke 18: 13  And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. 14  I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other: for every one that exalteth himself shall be abased; and he that humbleth himself shall be exalted.

 

Or, be like the King and citizens of Nineveh at the preaching of Jonah:

 

Jon 3: 4  And Jonah began to enter into the city a day’s journey, and he cried, and said, Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. 5 So the people of Nineveh believed God, and proclaimed a fast, and put on sackcloth, from the greatest of them even to the least of them. 6  For word came unto the king of Nineveh, and he arose from his throne, and he laid his robe from him, and covered him with sackcloth, and sat in ashes. 7  And he caused it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh by the decree of the king and his nobles, saying, Let neither man nor beast, herd nor flock, taste any thing: let them not feed, nor drink water: 8  But let man and beast be covered with sackcloth, and cry mightily unto God: yea, let them turn every one from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands. 9  Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? 10  And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil, that he had said that he would do unto them; and he did it not.

 

 

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