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Sitting in the doctor’s office today I could not help but to
overhear the conversation between two other patients. One had mentioned how
much they loved Florida after moving from Pennsylvania, except she didn’t like
the heat and humidity, and she missed the seasons, too! How she wound up in Tennessee
she didn’t say, but she seemed to love it here more than living in Florida or Pennsylvania. The other
patient was a male and retired and was moving to Florida for the same reasons
she left! Since I grew up in south Florida I willfully interjected myself into
the conversation. I told her that I had often heard by the three-seasonal
snowbirds (those avoiding the Winter up North) that they loved Florida during
the winter months. And for those who had permanently migrated there, adjusted
to the weather and only complained that they missed “the seasons.”I agreed
that the weather seems to run together in the subtropical peninsula.
I got to thinking about the seasons as the two patients of different geographical persuasions left to go back to see the doctor. I, too, love the changing of the seasons, but it also reminds me of God’s covenant made to Himself ("said in His heart") in Gn 8:21, 22 and His sovereignty over His creation, His faithfulness and integrity to His own commitment. Let’s go back in time when the waters that engulfed the mountains were beginning to recede.
The fountains of the deep and the rain were finally being restrained as the wind blew across the face of the earth; the waters began to recede (cf. Gn 7:20). Finally, the 450 foot (Gn 6:15) barge-like structure physically rested upon the mountains of Ararat 150 days after the rains began (Gn 8:4). Once the earth was in a habitable condition, Noah, his family, and the animals disembarked from the ark after spending 377 days on it (cf. Gn 7:11; 8:13-14). It was the ark’s maiden and final voyage .
One can only imagine what it must have been like stepping out of the ark that day; the only sounds coming from outside the ark were the wind and the possible sound effects it produced upon the landscape. There was no pollution anywhere; the environment was pristine globally, untouched by the absence of human hands. No violence, no injustice manifesting itself anywhere, only peace and quiet.
It would be hard not to imagine that inside the ark was nothing less than a zoo with a symphony of creature noises reverberating in that humongous gopherwood box. The critters were probably more than ready to be set free from the ark, but just as they were brought into the ark, two by two, male and female (Gn 7:9), Noah released all the creatures large and small according to their families (Gn 8:19). There wasn’t any stampede; it was an orderly exit. It had to have been a God thing in the coming and going.
Noah and company were entering a new world with a second chance for a new beginning. The earth, though clean and undisturbed by the unrighteousness of man (contrast Gn 6:5, 11; 7:21), was being reunited with eight human beings, but something else survived as well; inside of each survivor was the tendency to sin against God (cf. Gen 9:20-21, 22) traced back to Adam. Whether you believe Adam was humanity’s representative or that we participated in Adam in disobeying God’s prohibition or some other metaphysical proposition, the Scriptures do link spiritual and physical death (separation) with Adam, significantly impacting all of us (Rom 5:12; 6:23). The coverings made for Adam and Eve (Gen 3:21) indicate they never experienced eternal death.
Since I mentioned eternal death, let me briefly cover death in Scripture. It never means annihilation or non-existence but separation; we don't die like an animal, and that's it. It is described in three distinct ways: spiritual death (temporal separation from God (Eph 2:1-2; Eph 4:18), physical death (separation of soul and spirit from the body, Heb 9:27), and eternal death (eternal separation from God in the lake of fire known as the second death, Rev 20:11-15). The latter is a result of being spiritually separated from God at physical death. What the eight will only share with those who were consumed by the raging waters was physical death (cf. Gen 5:1-32). Of the eight survivors, they all eventually died; only Noah’s physical demise is recorded (Gn 9:29).
Because the sons of Noah, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, are sinners (and we know this because they eventually died), humanity will inherit their fallenness and depravity during procreation (cf. Gn 9:7). When Adam sinned, all of mankind sinned with him (Rom 5:18; cf. Heb 7:7-10) and passed on his sinful nature (physical and spiritual death and depravity) to all of mankind at conception (Psa 51:5), even as we speak. We are sinners not because we sin, but sin because we are born sinners. Rather than being victims of sin; we are sin volunteers (Rom 5:12).
If Noah and family were sinners like all those who perished, why did they not perish along with the other sinners as well? In Noah we see the significant difference from all of those that perished in the flood: grace (Gn 6:8), faith (Heb 11:7), and godly living (2 Pet 2:5). All those that perished lived ungodly and "every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Gn 6:5). The civilization before the flood was described by Peter as "the world of the ungodly" (2 Pet 2:5). Everyone on earth died except for eight godly people (2 Pet 2:5). But for the grace of God go you and I in the way of the ungodly. Faith makes all the difference in the world (Eph 2:8-9). That's why Noah and his family did not perish with the ungodly, their faith in the LORD and that faith flourished (cf. Gn 6:22).
Anyway, Noah built an altar and made a precious burnt offering unto Yahweh after stepping once again onto terra firma. As the LORD smelled the aroma from the altar, He made a covenant with Himself to never “curse the ground because of man” (Gn 8:21, ESV) or “to destroy every living thing” (Gn 8:21). In addition He made an agreement to Himself,
“As long as the earth remains, there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night" (Gn 8:22, NLT).
Genesis 8:22 serves as a covenant sign like the rainbow (Gn 9:13). Because Moses wrote Genesis (cf. Lk 24:44) under inspiration (2 Tim 3:16), we are given the precious privilege to be privy to the thoughts of the LORD when he smelt the aroma from the offering ascending from the altar built by Noah because He revealed it unto Moses. Note the phrase, “As long as the earth remains.” This suggests that the post-diluvian earth, in which we occupy, has a shelf-life sometime in the future (Isa 65:17; 2 Pet 3:13; Rev 21:1).
Based upon these biblical references there will be a new earth one day of profound geological, climatological, and ecological differences from the old earth (Noah’s world and ours). But until then the constancy of the cycle of the seasons will continue; the truth of this has been self-evident since the time of Noah. How sure is this Self-covenant at the altar of Noah? Read the word of the LORD to Jeremiah after the lands of Benjamin and Judah were destroyed and desolated by the invasion of the Babylonians in 586 B.C.: (Jer 33:20, 21).
That covenant spoken of with the day and the night in Jeremiah refers back to the covenant God made to Himself in Gn 8:22; go figure. God spoke of the impossibility for that to be broken by any man. Sounds pretty solid coming from the LORD, doesn’t it! He continues, “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered, nor the sand of the sea measured, so will I multiply [emphasis mine] the descendants of David My servant and the Levites who minister to Me’” (Jer 33:22). The cycles of the seasons are for sure and so is the Davidic covenant or the covenant God made with David! So whenever we read a verse like, “Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mt 24:35, NIV), this is more than hyperbolic or figurative language for emphasis. According to God’s Word, we know that heaven and earth will literally pass away one day (Isa 65:17; 2 Pet 3:10; Rev 21:1), and God’s Word is literally eternal or forever! There are no ifs, ands, or buts about it; God’s Word will outlast the old heaven and earth; bank on it!
Just like the rainbow is a sign to the inhabitants of the earth that God will never bring a flood to destroy every living thing that breaths on dry land (Gn 9:11-17); Spring, Summer, Fall, and Winter are a sign to us as well that we will never have to experience what the antediluvian civilization did during the Genesis Flood. The continuity of the seasons is a sign of confidence in that covenant. God is as good as His Word.
You know; there just might just be some merit to the complaints by those snowbirds migrating to lower latitudes. Perhaps we tend to forget God’s blessings because in our mind we have migrated to lower latitudes of "uni-season" spiritually and forgotten that we serve a covenant-keeping God revealed not only by His Word but by being exposed and reminded of the various seasons. Don't get me wrong here! I'm not suggesting living in warmer climates is sinful. A lower latitude mentality can develop spiritually up here in God's country as well...! If we take in the whole text that covenant involves more than the four seasons.
Even those natural projections of the rainbows, planting and harvest times, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night all declare the consistency and contrasts of an amazing God who keeps covenant! This thing has been going on since that first sacrifice after the global flood. The LORD will never be in breach of a contract or promise made to us. He is and always will be duty bound to His Word to us and for us.
Living in lower latitudes, spiritually speaking, results when we don't live in a vertical orientation in the daily routines of life (Col 3:1). We tend to neglect or forget when we fail to comprehend and appreciate the outworking of His promises toward us according to His Word and the covenant signs. I chose to focus on the four seasons in part because we relate to that more than the others! Be honest, how many times have you appreciated the beauty and splendor of even a rainbow but never once gave thought to our covenant-keeping God as revealed by that sign in the sky? Day to night, night to day? Cold to hot, hot to cold? How about sunrise and sunset? We all love a beautiful sunrise or sunset but do they not both speak of God's faithfulness to keeping His Word, too? Do we contemplate just the beauty or both?
I’m been guilty in failing to appreciate God's faithfulness as revealed in the sowing and reaping times (grocery stores tend to keep us from thinking about that unless you are a farmer), cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night. I just don't think about their differences, and the roles they play, and the consistency of them in nature in the daily grind. The contrasts between them are like an alarm -- things are changing! God's keeping His Word to us! Well, maybe we are not as Word-conscious as we think we are. It's worth considering.
Here is the thing; if you decide to stay where you are or move in the future, don't fall into living in lower latitudes spiritually ("under the sun" living as Solomon would describe it); we really miss out on His greatness and the beauty and confidence of His promises when we do. Indeed, the Bible or God's special revelation is our authority in all matters of faith and practice; however, there is God's creation which we tend to overlook in the daily routines of living because we got our noses to the grindstone. We don't take the time to look at the world around us and above us; it's called general revelation. And it declares some pretty amazing things about our invisible God visually. David knew it well, "When I consider" (Psa 8:3). <><
