Shalom!

 
We are happy to greet you this day from the Promised Land! We arrived last night and we were greeted by friends who took us "home" to our location on the Golan Heights. I LOVE being here and look forward to what our Heavenly Abba will teach us and show us over the next several weeks as we attempt to be a blessing to those who spend their lives serving and blessing the nation of Israel.
 
We very much enjoyed a few people we met on the planes. One was a lady who leads women's studies in a synagogue in Brooklyn. She had never heard of "people like us" and was so touched by what the Father is doing around the world bringing people together. She asked to stay in touch. Another man asked so many questions, often listening with tears in his eyes. He lives in Jerusalem and after our ten hour journey, he told me that he was a rabbi. He also hopes that we will visit him! We are so humbled by the people YHWH connects us with for His purposes.
 
What if these words were spoken to you?
 
Bereshith/Genesis 7:1 Then YHWH said to Noach, "Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. 2 "You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3 "also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4 "For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made."
 
In Noach's eyes, this is a disaster, a crushing catastrophe, yet we do not read of Noach asking any questions about "why" this must happen. Commentator William Bullock points out that "having walked with the Holy One all his life, Noach knew instinctively that what the Holy One planned to do with the earth and with mankind was not punitive in nature, but redemptive. He knew the Creator was not in the business of destroying, but of creating. He knew the Creator's plan was not to wreak havoc, but to give the world - and mankind - a sorely needed second chance....the Holy One is not a mass-murderer. The Holy One's desire was not to kill and destroy, but to purge."
 
What's very interesting is that over one hundred hears had passed since the last encounter with YHWH when Noach was given the instructions for building the ark. Those years must have been filled with sarcasm, ridicule, and criticism. I doubt that many of us could have withstood the constant badgering by the local population. Especially when there appears to be no daily encouragement from the Almighty that they were doing what He wanted. Yet Noach and his family persevered. He understood this was the Creator's plan for bringing salvation to the world. He understood that after judgment would come new life. He understood that there would be no harvest from the fields around him. That would come through future generations. And so for 120 years....
 
Bereshith/Genesis 7:5 And Noach did according to all that YHWH commanded him.
 

It is also interesting how the Creator brought the animals into the Ark. He could have just as easily repopulated the earth with all the animals simply by the breath of His mouth. Again, quoting from Mr. Bullock:

 
I have a news flash for you. Contrary to popular opinion, the Ark was not for the preservation of the animals. It was for Noach and his family. Man's purpose in Creation, after all was to "...take dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the eretz." The animals' presence on the ark was arranged by the Holy One so that, in the midst of the Flood, and the death and destruction which resulted therefrom, Noach and his family would be surrounded not by death, but by life, and by the capacity to produce life. Animals were provided on the journey so that, when they eventually disembarked friom the Ark, after the Flood, they would see the animals giving birth to their youmg, and focus on the Crweative wonders of the Holy One, and hope for the future, rather than remember the corruption and the death and destruction of the past. They were given the animals so that they would not despair. This was not, after all, to be the end - it was to be a bright new beginning!
 
And thus there was grace for Noach and his family who responded to the instructions and call of the Father. The rest of the world perished because of their own choices. There were many years of warning by Noach, yet it all seemed so far-fetched to them. Once the time had come, the door to the Ark of Salvation was sealed by the Almighty Himself.
 
Tomorrow we begin our olive harvest. It is so special to be a part of the harvest in this special Land.
 
Devarim/Deuteronomy 11:12 "a land for which YHWH your Elohim cares; the eyes of YHWH your Elohim are always on it, from the beginning of the year to the very end of the year.
 
Shabbat Shalom!

 

Ardelle