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Monday, November 21, 2011

When Location Was Important



 

Concerning the deliverance of the patriarchs Noah and Lot, we read at 2 Peter 2:5-7: “[God] did not hold back from punishing an ancient world, but kept Noah, a preacher of righteousness, safe with seven others when he brought a deluge upon a world of ungodly people; and by reducing the cities Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes he condemned them, setting a pattern for ungodly persons of things to come; and he delivered righteous Lot, who was greatly distressed by the indulgence of the law-defying people in loose conduct.”
 

How did Noah survive the Flood? God told Noah: “The end of all flesh has come before me, because the earth is full of violence as a result of them; and here I am bringing them to ruin together with the earth. Make for yourself an ark out of wood of a resinous tree.” (Gen. 6:13, 14) 

Noah constructed the ark just as Jehovah had commanded him. Seven days before the floodwaters began to fall, Jehovah instructed him to gather the animals into the ark and go into it along with all his household. On the seventh day, the door was shut behind him, “and the downpour upon the earth went on for forty days and forty nights.” (Gen. 7:1-4, 11, 12, 16) Noah and his family “were carried safely through the water.” (1 Pet. 3:20) Their survival depended on their being inside the ark. No other place on earth could offer security.—Gen. 7:19, 20.
 

In the case of Lot, the instructions were somewhat different. Two angels informed him of where he was not to be. “All who are yours in the city [of Sodom],” the two angels told Lot, “bring out of the place! For we are bringing this place to ruin.” They were to “escape to the mountainous region.”—Gen. 19:12, 13, 17.
 

The experiences of Noah and Lot prove that “Jehovah knows how to deliver people of godly devotion out of trial, but to reserve unrighteous people for the day of judgment.” (2 Pet. 2:9) In both of these cases of deliverance, location was a decisive factor. Noah had to go into the ark; Lot had to get out of Sodom. But is this always the case? Can Jehovah save the righteous wherever they are, without their having to relocate?






Why not check the Scriptures here? 


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