Noah’s Carpenters
Here is a scary thought to ponder, what ever happened to ‘Noah’s Carpenters?’ They were all on his ‘Pay Roll,’ some for about 120 years, daily building the massive Ark of Safety, then there were the lumber jacks who felled the giant trees, the loggers who dragged them from the forests, the saw mill that made logs into lumber of the various sizes that Noah ordered, then delivery teams that hauled the milled planks out to the building site, those that made the steam boxes to steam the massive hull planks soft and pliable so that they could be easily bent around the frames, to be fixed in place, next plank and next plank and on they worked as the years passed by until the hull, decks, roof and all was planked and the exterior was tar coated within and without and all water tight and at ‘Lock up Stage.’ Inner fixtures and fittings, bedrooms, toilets, kitchen, dining, so much work to do in such a short space of time, just so many industries supplying Noah with lumber, pitch, nails, giant door hinges and door locks to hold it shut, giant water tanks for drinking water for man, beast and bird, great storage bays full of hay to feed everybody, cages, stalls and pens for bird, beast, animal, supplies of potato’s, vegetables, grain and legume bins, cook stoves for cooking, bread ovens, grain mills to turn grain into flour, pitch to fuel the fire, pots, pans, basons, so many supplies, crops harvested and delivered, then safely stored away, and then their names and their families names are all somehow missing, obviously omitted from the schedule of passengers on the passenger list, animal, birds, insects, creeping and crawling things, they are all there recorded, but only eight persons are recorded as being on board. 1 Peter 3:20 “Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water.” How come all the builders, carpenters, suppliers, merchants, freighters, and all the others, let alone the travelers, neighbour’s and others, they all unanimously failed to come aboard, but why? 2 Peter 2:4 “For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast [them] down to hell, and delivered [them] into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment; and spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth [person], a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;” 1 Corinthians 9:27 “But I keep under my body, and bring [it] into subjection: lest that by any means, when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.”
Luke 17:26-30 “And as it was in the days of Noah, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man. They did eat, they drank, they married wives, they were given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and the flood came, and destroyed them all. Likewise also as it was in the days of Lot; they did eat, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they builded; but the same day that Lot went out of Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven, and destroyed [them] all. Even thus shall it be in the day when the Son of man is revealed.” Jesus is calling out to us, for we live in the very days that he spoke about, those very last few days of this earths history, and reminds us all, asks us to turn our minds back, pleads with us to contemplate a time long long ago, when Noah preached, many listened, they happily took his money for goods and services, many were even on his “Pay Roll,” but were never on the “Passenger List,” but why, they had all the evidences of the construction, even made the very vessel of Salvation, were often deeply involved, but unchanged, faithless. 2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.”
We can each one fall into the complacency, procrastinate, put off for another day, not yet, I really need to attend to this and that, university, marry, career, children, but then the door of probation and opportunity clangs shut and whatever side of the door you are on, that is fixed and unchangeable. Matthew 24:37-39 “But as the days of Noe [were], so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.” The people were not observant as to the days and times that they lived in, they heard the preacher of righteousness, but that was all, no action, no repentance, no change in life, and then definitely no response to get their names inscribed on the ‘Passenger List.’
Could we even be active in building churches, mission stations, purchasing mission boats, airplanes, hospitals, clinics, but never get around to placing our names on the ‘Passenger List’ to repent and to wash our robes and to make them white? 2 Timothy 3:5 “Having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.” Revelation 18:4 ERV “Then I heard another voice from heaven say, “Come out of that city, my people, so that you will not share in her sins. Then you will not suffer any of the terrible punishment she will get.” Same message as Noah.
Revelation 19:7-8 ERV “Let us rejoice and be happy and give God glory! Give God glory, because the wedding of the Lamb has come. And the Lamb’s bride has made herself ready. Fine linen was given to the bride for her to wear. The linen was bright and clean.” (The fine linen means the good things that God’s holy people did.) Is your ‘Fine Linen’ of good deeds so sheer and thin, it is more a negligée, never covering the shame of your nakedness, or a robust and covering robe, completely covering the shame of your nakedness? Revelation 3:18 “I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be clothed, and [that] the shame of thy nakedness do not appear; and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see.”
As in Noah’s day, he preached about an impending doom, the current old and existing things are about to pass away by a flood of fire this time, 2 Corinthians 5:17 “Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” Come into the Ark of safety, and float above the destruction to a bright new world, Matthew 3:1 “In those days came John the Baptist, preaching in the wilderness of Judaea, and saying, Repent ye: for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Noah preached it, John the Baptist preached it, the last message to this world as that it is also about to be consumed, 2 Peter 3:12 “Looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God, wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat?” Could you and I be one of ‘Noah’s Carpenters,’ very active in the work of the Gospel, but so tied to this ole world, that the Ark of safety floats away from us and we are left behind to perish, let us be wide awake and watching, robes pure and washed white, and names written on the ‘Passenger List,’ and eager to “step Aboard,” cause soon the cry will ring out, “Last Call, All Aboard,” or are you one of ‘Noah’s Carpenters?’ Luke 17:26a “And as it was in the days of Noe, so shall it be also in the days of the Son of man.” Now only EIGHT people were saved from what experts on population growth show to be a population of some 7 to 8 Billion People. Guess what, that is about exactly the same number that is on earth today as was probably about in Noah’s day. Now this is getting a bit close and personal, if this is dead right, then expect only EIGHT people to be concerned enough, to trust God enough, to actually really believe him enough, and to then prepare and to inscribe their names on the ‘Passenger List.’ Are you or I, one of “Noah’s Carpenters?”
