Lessons in the Ladder Days

Candace Long: I'm Candace Long with Lessons in the Latter Days, offering biblical commentary to make sense of the times that we're living in.

The reason this mini-series called the Days of Noah has been growing is that the deeper that I get into it, the more I understand why Jesus singled out this event to prepare us for the Day of the Lord. Now, let me make sure that you understand what I'm talking about. Let's talk terminology a minute.

The expression "Day of the Lord" is a 1,000-year event. It's referred to in scripture as a day, the seventh day, lasting 1,000 years. And that day belongs to the Lord. It is his day. The day that has been prophesied from the very beginning that signals that God's kingdom has now come to Earth.

The trigger that begins that day occurs with one huge event, a cataclysm. Now, Jesus tells us that the Day of the Lord is just like the days of Noah. So, I have been hard at work for months looking for the parallels and lessons to help us recognize where we are in the timeline and what the Lord may want to teach us.

The flood was a catastrophic event that involved everyone on the planet. Let's look at how it began, again looking for clues for the coming Day of the Lord. Genesis 7 tells us that the flood was triggered when all the foundations of the great deep burst forth and the windows of heaven were opened and rain fell upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights.

Now, this one verse tells us several things. First, God used a trigger from the natural realm, which is his creation, and once that trigger happened, there was no turning back. Life was never the same. The ancient Book of Jasher tells us the trigger was a great earthquake that threw everyone into terror. Now, in the Day of the Lord, we don't know what the trigger will actually be, but I believe it may also be a natural phenomenon like an earthquake to cause terror because the spirit of the fear of the Lord is desperately needed in our culture just as it was needed in Noah's day.

As to the duration or how long the cataclysm lasted, we're told the flood lasted for 40 days and 40 nights. But Genesis 8 says Noah and his family were in the ark for 150 days. Now, the rabbis tell us that 40 days and 40 nights is a common Hebrew expression which simply means that the event lasted a long time. Now, let's fast forward to the cataclysmic event that kicks off the Day of the Lord. That's what scripture refers to as the birth pangs, also called the tribulation, and it will last seven years.

In today's episode, I want to look at what Noah was going through before the earthquake, before the flood. Did something specific make Noah separate from the rest of the people? If so, was his separation subtle, or did it take place over time? Was there a triggering event that basically made Noah say, "I've had enough?" Today's topic is called when to separate from the culture.

The one biblical event that has great similarity to the days of Noah is what happened at Sodom and Gomorrah right before the angels came to remove Lot. Now, as you recall, these two cities were known for their wickedness, and God wiped them out. How much time did God give Lot to get out of Sodom?

In Genesis 19, we read that the angels who came to Sodom told Lot, "We are about to destroy this place because the outcry against its people has become great before the Lord, and the Lord has sent us to destroy it."

At daybreak, which was just a few hours away, the angels said it's time to go. But Lot lingered, so the angels seized him and brought him and his family outside the city and said, "Flee for your life." This was the warning: less than 24 hours, no time to pack. We read in 2 Peter 2 that the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trial and to keep the unrighteous under punishment until the day of judgment, and especially those who indulge in the lust of defiling passion and despise authority.

Let's look closer at the two sins that ignited such rage in the Almighty to bring about such judgment on those two cities. The first sin is described as the lust of defiling passion. This refers to sexual perversion. Now, the meaning of the word "lust" in Hebrew is a word that we don't use anymore: concupiscence. It means a longing for the forbidden. This is a longing, an obsession, a compulsion to experience sexual sins that are particularly abhorrent to the Lord. They include homosexuality, incest, pedophilia, and bestiality. The longing and obsession and eventual acceptance of these sins by the people was what characterized the days of Noah, the days of Lot, and today.

The second sin is hatred against divinely appointed authority. An explosive rage against anyone who dares to speak out against forbidden behavior. Now, if you don't know what I'm talking about, try attending a town hall meeting demanding the rights of transgenders in providing bathrooms according to their sexual preference. There's no mild debate or discussion here. On the one hand, you have parents of transgenders who are desperate to get people to accept their children and convince them this behavior is normal. On the other hand, there is hatred and often violence against anyone who tries to uphold God's standards. These conflicts happened in Noah's day. The more Noah preached repentance in setting forth God's views, the more he was ridiculed, scorned, and threatened. God's authority was rejected.

One resource I read said that the reason Noah pulled away from society was the atmosphere had become so violent that he was afraid the people would kill him and his family. So back to today's topic: when should we separate ourselves from a contentious culture, or should we? As we move toward the day of judgment, let me suggest several insights to consider.

Insight number one: the moral divide will deepen as we get closer to the Day of the Lord. Jesus said in John 9, "We must work the works of him who sent me while it is day; night comes when no one can work." Now, the admonition is for us to speak out whenever we can to uphold the ways of the Lord. If we get shut down, that's when we should question whether to relocate.

The Lord tells us in Luke 10, "Whenever you enter a town and they do not receive you, go into its streets and wipe the dust off your feet. The kingdom of God has come near that town and it will be more tolerable on that day for Sodom than for that town."

One of my spiritual daughters and her family became so concerned about living in a hostile spiritual atmosphere that they bought property in another state and are building a place of refuge to sustain themselves for the days ahead. She reported that as they drove across the state line, they could literally feel the positive shift in their spirit. Now, those who walk with the Lord are given what I call "body tells" that sense when the spiritual climate is good or bad. My late pastor was especially gifted in this area. I called her a spiritual weather vane. She could feel the presence of evil or righteousness when going from one county in our state to another.

Now, when God was leading me to relocate to the mountains, I took her with me to scout the land because there were three different counties that I was considering and we drove through all three, meeting with realtors and looking at the homes for sale. Now, getting out of the car at the last real estate office we were scheduled to visit, her feet touched the ground and she said, "I feel the presence of the Lord in this area." Now, God confirmed it to me later once we walked into the home that had just been listed. We both smiled and said, "This is it." The owner had been unable to sell this home for many years and it was as if the Lord kept it just for me.

Insight number two: keep your ears open to how the Lord may speak to you about separating. In the time of Lot and in the days of Noah, once the trigger event happened—the earthquake in Noah's day and the attempted rape of the angels in Lot's time—the catastrophe followed immediately. There was no time to prepare.

So the takeaway for me and what I encourage you to do is ask the Lord to prompt you if you need to relocate because once the triggers happen leading to the Day of the Lord, there will likely not be time to prepare for anything. You will not be able to hunker down some place safe while the darkest of days pass. So pay attention to your body tells, even if what I'm saying now makes you stop and ask, "Lord, have I missed warnings that you have been giving me?"

When I moved to the mountains, I didn't know a soul. As an introverted writer, I don't need people around to give me a sense of purpose. But I did discern the need to ask the Lord for the right friends to help me up here. And one day that prayer was answered when I happened upon a woman who lives on the total other side of the mountain from me, so we would not have normally met. But this day, she was out walking her dog near my home.

Now, as friends go, I'm drawn to people who are genuine. I don't particularly like posers and social gadabouts or gossips. And Janice is none of these things. She is as country as the day is long and proud of it. Her family comes from the Appalachian Mountains, which reminds me of my father's parents and grandparents who settled in Kentucky and survived the Great Depression. Janice is also part Native American with a deep love and respect for the land. She has become a key mentor for me as I learn the ways of living in a rural setting, and she teaches me how to survive and plan for the times to come.

One of her earliest memories, over 65 years ago, was when she was about five or six and visiting her grandfather, and she asked him to tell her a story. And here's what he said: "There's coming a time in your lifetime where the people who live in cities won't know how to make do. It will be a throwaway generation. They'll come swarming out of the cities and come up to where the people are who know how to farm and garden and make do with what they have. You'll have to put up food to survive and they will want to take what you've worked for. You can't help people like that. You have to be able to defend yourself." Now, God was speaking through this country farmer in a way that she never forgot. She heard the voice of God in her ancestral warning about what lies ahead and she became experienced in developing survival skills.

When I first moved into my home, the welcoming committee came by and showed me a brochure of all the things that I could get involved with in this little community. Now, I didn't resonate with one thing that she talked about, for I do not consider myself retired with nothing of significance to do. I had moved to this area because there was an airport just a few miles down the road where my plane was tied down. And I'll never forget this woman's expression when I got out the iPad and showed what I was interested in. I showed her the aviation map of our area and pointed to the Blue Ridge Mountain range where our little town is situated.

I told her the same thing Janice's grandfather told her: if a catastrophe hits the eastern part of the country, where are the people going to run to? The mountains. We are not prepared. Her eyes got real wide; I'm sure she was thinking to herself, "This woman is crazy as a loon." And I said what I would be interested in is talking with anyone about helping to prepare the area for a sudden onslaught of people who are fleeing the cities. Now, this was a year or so before I met Janice and long before COVID invaded our shores.

I'm telling you all this because the world is in denial, thinking life will get back to normal. Please pay attention to any signs where the Lord is leading you to relocate because once the catastrophe hits, there will not be time to get your act together.

The final insight, number three, concerns five things God said to Noah that gave him everything he needed to survive the flood. The first thing God said to Noah is found in Genesis 6. He said, "The end of all flesh is come before me." Something triggered God's determination to bring destruction to the earth. What was it? I consulted the early rabbinical commentators on Genesis for insight, and the consensus is that there is a level of perversion that once it is reached in a culture, it brings about destruction.

The second-century rabbi Yehuda Hanassi wrote that the generation of the flood was only wiped out once they wrote marriage contracts between humans and animals. Another rabbi wrote that any place in which sexual perversions are found, pestilence comes to the world, killing both good people and the bad. Rabbi Yehoshua bar Levi said all through the night Lot was asking forgiveness for the people of Sodom, and his entreaties or his prayers were received right up until the moment that they said, "Bring those men (who were angels) out so we can know them," which is an expression meaning to have sex with them. So from here onward, there was no one who could say anything in their defense. There came a time when God saw into the future when everything was destroyed. It flashed before him because the outcry of such filth on earth was so great it demanded judgment.

Number two, God said, "The earth is filled with violence through them." Now, the Hebrew word "filled" means to be accomplished totally, to be fully set and consecrated. You see, the earth has a limitation, an exact amount of how much iniquity it can contain. When Jesus confronted the scribes and Pharisees in Matthew 23, he said, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees! Fill up, then, the measure of your fathers." Now, what I have learned from our Jewish forefathers is that there is a measure or an exact amount that each family and each person has the opportunity to add to. We can either add to the measure of righteousness or the measure of wickedness. And when that measure of wickedness is pressed full to the brim, that's when God is propelled into action.

So what was the earth full of? The verse says violence. That word for violence is Hamas, just like the terrorist organization Hamas. It means unjust gain and cruelty. And the word "through," as in the earth is filled with violence through them, that word means the wickedness was done in plain sight before the face of God and open to view by all the people and no one was there to stop the evil.

The third thing God said was, "I will destroy them with the earth." This was an open admission that God made to Noah that he was about to annihilate both the people and the earth. You see, the things on the earth, such as rocks, record the memories and actions that take place on earth. Life was so corrupt that God had to destroy the earth along with the people so there would no longer be a memory of such wickedness. It was that depraved.

The fourth thing that God told Noah was, "Make an ark of gopher wood." Now, the application for this directive is that God got very specific with Noah by outlining in exact detail what he was to do to preserve himself and his family and the animals that God wanted Noah to save as well. Now, what I would ask you is this: are you hearing that God has had enough? That the earth is filled with such evil that destruction and judgment are just around the corner? Are you seeing dreams to that effect? If so, then God will outline for you what you must do to save your family. Jasher writes that this directive was so elaborate that Noah had to pull away from society in order to focus on the exact way of building the ark. God's instructions were detailed. I'm meeting with more and more people for whom God has given instructions as to what to do to preserve their families, their friends, their communities. This is what he did with the Levites, those who walked closest with God. He charged them with building areas of refuge. If there are close friends with whom you are aligned, perhaps God would have you make plans together to relocate to the same area and work side by side to build a place of refuge for your families.

Oh yes, it will require everything of you. That's why you need to know what has God been saying. He will not leave you without instruction, but you have to spend time with him and pull away to do that, away from media noise. He is your refuge and your strength.

The final thing the Lord told Noah was, "With you will I establish my covenant." There is nothing more secure and precious than to have a personal covenant of protection and promise by the Lord. It's like a memorandum of understanding. When you've heard from God, he will give you that assurance of personally shepherding you through every step.

So returning to our topic, let's review. Separating from the culture was not initiated by Noah having had enough. Rather, separation was the natural result once Noah heard that God had had enough. That's why it is critically important to grow in your understanding of what it means to walk with God. Noah heard God say, "I've had enough. I've seen enough. I have determined to destroy them and the earth. Here's what to be busy with for the next years to survive what's coming. And oh, by the way, I make a covenant with you that I'll always be with you."

You will know when to separate. Just keep your ears open.

Rashi, the great Jewish commentator, wrote that there are numerous ways God could have saved Noah. Why the burden of the ark? So that the people of the generation of the flood would see him employed on it all those years and ask, "Why do you need this?" And so he might answer, "The Holy One, blessed be He, is about to bring a flood upon the earth." Perhaps they might repent.

As always, you'll find this episode on my podcast page at candacelong.com. Always remember that in this evil day, the Lord is your keeper. He is the shade of your right hand and the portion in your cup on the day that you call. I want to thank you for listening. I hope you join me again next time for Lessons in the Latter Days. God bless.