What can we learn from the deliverance of Noah, Lot, the Israelites in Moses’ day, and Rahab? How do these accounts help us to determine where we should be when the end of the present wicked system of things comes?
True, Noah found salvation in the ark. But why was he there? Was it not because he exercised faith and was obedient? “Noah proceeded to do according to all that God had commanded him,” says the Bible. “He did just so.” (Gen. 6:22; Heb. 11:7) What about us? Are we doing all that God has commanded us? Noah was also “a preacher of righteousness.” (2 Pet. 2:5) Like him, are we zealous in the preaching work, even if our territory is unresponsive?
Lot escaped destruction by fleeing Sodom. He was spared because he was righteous in God’s eyes and was greatly distressed by the loose conduct of the law-defying people of Sodom and Gomorrah. Does the loose conduct so prevalent today really distress us? Or are we so desensitized that it does not bother us? Are we doing our utmost to be found “spotless and unblemished and in peace”?—2 Pet. 3:14.
For the Israelites in Egypt and for Rahab in Jericho, deliverance depended on remaining in their houses. This required faith and obedience. (Heb. 11:28, 30, 31) Imagine how each Israelite family must have fixed their eyes on their firstborn as “there began arising a great outcry” in one Egyptian household after another. (Ex. 12:30) Imagine how Rahab must have huddled together with her family as she felt the rumbling of Jericho’s collapsing walls coming closer and closer. It took real faith on her part to remain obedient and stay in that house.
Soon the end will come for Satan’s wicked world. How Jehovah will protect his people in the fear-inspiring ‘day of his anger,’ we do not yet know. (Zeph. 2:3) Regardless of where we are and what our situation is at that time, however, we can be sure that our survival will depend on our faith in Jehovah and our obedience to him. Meanwhile, we should cultivate a proper attitude toward what Isaiah’s prophecy refers to as our “interior rooms.”
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