As I was working today on lesson 5 – The Flood for the Old Testament Survey, I paid particular attention to the language that was used to describe the old world before the flood. It seems that God does not want us to know too many details.
Here is what we do know. We know that men lived to be over 900 years old. We know that there were cities built. We know that men played instruments, some lived as shepherds, and some worked in iron and brass. We know that people were getting married right up to the time of the flood. This seems to be what we could call good or even normal.
Here is what we know of the bad. All flesh was corrupted. Mankind had only evil intentions in their heart and violence filled the earth. The earth was so bad that God was sorry that he had even created man.
My point in mentioning the lack of detail in the Bible about the 1656 years on earth before the flood is I think this is a good pattern for how we should share our testimony.
Notice that God is very careful not to glorify the sin. With sin so great that God grieved that He had even made man, there are billions of details that could be described to give an in depth picture of actually how bad it was. Those details are not mentioned. In fact, it seems God wanted the memory of the wickedness to stay in the bottom of the deepest sea.
I would like to make a spiritual application for believers today. I think the account of the old world in the scriptures is a good model for how believers should give their testimony today. Let me give my own example and you will see what I mean.
Imagine me standing in front of your church giving my testimony. I would say using the flood model: I was an angry man, who used his flesh for wickedness and had evil thoughts continually in my heart. God would have been right to destroy me and may have even been sorry that He created me. But instead of giving me what I deserved, He washed my sins away in the blood of His precious Son, Jesus my Lord. He gave me new life and now my sins are buried in the deepest sea, as far away as the east is from the west, never to be remembered again. Now because of His wonderful, amazing grace, instead of sinning against Him, I can live to serve Him. Amen and Glory be to God.
Notice the testimony above gives no juicy details about sins of the past. It does not paint sin as trivial or fun and there is no glory in the sins of the past. Also, please notice I did not try to sell my new book detailing all the sins of my past for 23 chapters and then have one chapter which talks about God’s love. Instead, the short testimony above focuses on the mercy and grace of God. For future testimonies in the Church, I am putting forth the Flood Model.
As a side note, I don’t think I can stomach seeing one more book about the latest Christian leader to fall and then give all the details of the fall. I am for hearing one more time of the overcoming heroes of the past who were faithful to their Lord, and their wife throughout life and unto death. Amen! Amen! and Amen!!!