 Friday: A Habit of Decay
And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that
every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
Genesis 6:5
Every generation complains about the declining moral or ethical standards
of the next generation. Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit. They fell under
a curse of death, but they didn't hurt anyone else. It wasn't until Cain
that anyone committed murder, and that was much worse, right?
Even though Cain was cast out, God established rules to protect him, and
the Lord gave him a mark to keep others from harming him. Sadly, within a
few generations, Cain's descendant Lamech converted God's rules, which were
intended to prevent people from hurting Cain, into a threat of vengeance
against others, and Lamech multiplied the threat many times over. In
Lamech’s heart, God’s rule of mercy and protection had become a
tool of terror and destruction.
The deterioration continued generation by generation until the days of Noah.
By the time we reach chapter 6 of Genesis, the thoughts of men were only
evil all of the time. But there was Noah. He was righteous in God’s
eyes. God told Noah to build an ark so that he and his family would be saved.
Noah never questioned God’s instruction. He humbly listened, and he
humbly obeyed.
The scriptures describe the ark. It was a big undertaking. It probably took
many years to build. During that time, there is not even one report of a
person who was inspired to live a righteous life. The habits of violence
and evil had become pervasive. Only Noah and his family were spared from
the destruction of the great flood, and they survived only because they received
God’s mercy.
What habits do we have today? Do we have habits of righteousness or habits
of evil? On a pilgrimage to encounter God, no evil habits can be tolerated.
It does not matter that another generation has worse habits. It does not
matter that our sense of ethics is better than someone else's. The habit
of decay which has been a part of humanity since the beginning of the earth
has no place on this journey. Our goal and our destination is communion with
God. Only God’s standards apply. We must aspire to righteousness before
God, and we have to remember that this is achievable only through God’s
mercy and grace.
Holy God, I am not righteous. I am sinful. You are holy. You are pure.
Show mercy to me, Lord. Show me your way, and give me the humility to submit
to your will. Grant me your grace, that I may come to you and commune with
you. This is my heart’s greatest desire. Amen
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