A month ago, the Hebrew calendar clicked over from 5768 to the year 5769. Numbers in Hebrew carry meaning.The number 8 is always linked with a “new beginning,” where 9’s communicate a “bringing to birth what has been conceived.”
This is a birthing season & here downunder we are right now in Spring… that exciting time of birth in nature.
On Friday I had a meeting in a cafe. I had walked to the cafe as it was just over the hill from home & on the way pondered over what God is doing in world systems at this time, with the Stock market shaking in a way it never has, rumors of a world recession, a US election just days away, always impending war in the middle east & the current world leader, the USA, tilting in a way it hasnt since the great depression. As I walked in the door of a bustling, noisy, overcrowded cafe where drink & food lay abundant on tables, the words “As in the days of Noah” whistled through my spirit. I found a seat, knowing that I was 10 min early for my appointment & begun reading Matt 24 from where these words had come.
“What will be the sign of your coming & the end of the age?” asked Jesus disciples. Jesus reply is stunning. “Watch… As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating & drinking, marrying & giving in marriage,buying & selling, up to the day Noah entered the ark; & they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came & took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man….All these things are the beginning of birth pangs.” (24:4,8,37-39)
Again I looked around me. Surrounding me were newspapers broadcasting “World on the brink”, tinkering teaspoons in cups & a seemingly ‘oblivous to reality’ chatter of people. “As in the days of Noah”… “All of these are the beginning of birth pangs”…
This is not a time of doom according to the words of Jesus. It is a time of birth & that’s a completely different thing! Expectancy, anticpated joy, watchingfulness & preparation. These are the actions in a birthing period.
What is being birthed? Alot of things. But most importantly the coming of the Son of Man! Noah built & invested all he was & had into the very thing that God asked of him & he was asked to do so by faith. Again, the question is being posed.. what are we building & investing into in these days of Noah? If this is a time of birth upon the face of the earth, then what are we birthing? Is the Son of Man coming up in your thoughts, discussions, preparations & decision making?
The Spirit & the bride say “Come Lord Jesus. Come!”