Have you ever remodeled your home? Our family has lived in several houses and each one needed to be remodeled as we moved in. What is the first step in any remodeling project? First, one must tear out the old before building the new. The project always looks worse before it can look better. What happens when God remodels?
God Remodels Noah’s World
In the days of Noah, the entire world needed to be remodeled because the people were so sinful. If they would have been a house, the roof was already beginning to collapse. The only way to fix it was to tear it down and begin again.
L. Daniel Hawk puts it like this:
“We are left with the sense that God is not so much sending the flood to punish the world as facilitating, through the flood, the inevitable descent into chaos caused by human destructiveness and violence. God ruins an already ruined creation, and in so doing creates the conditions for a reordering and a renewal to take place.”[1]
I was taught that the flood was sent by an angry God for judgment on the world. But God is sorry, not angry, according to the Noah story in Genesis 6-9. He doesn’t want to destroy His creation, but sinful man has almost destroyed it. God simply acts to save what He can and rebuild the world.
What if God had not sent the flood? The sinfulness of humankind would have ruined God’s creation and His plan for you.
God still Remodels
The Lord is in the business of restoration. The Lord can take people that are heading in the complete opposite direction in every part of life and transform them into a new creation. The Apostle Paul himself was a rescue and remodel project by God and gives us insight into his personal experience. 1 Cor. 5:17 This means that anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person. The old life is gone; a new life has begun! [2]
When God remodels us, He helps us get rid of things. Like a house remodel, deconstruction comes first. I have had to let go of greed, pride, anger, impatience, and lust. These had to go so God could rebuild my life.
You may think you’ve gone beyond God’s ability to restore your life, but that is not true. It is our enemy, satan, who continually tells us we are not worthy. He tries to convince us to give up. God wants to remodel and rebuild you. He wants to bring value back to your life and to make you useful for His purposes. If He can restore my life, He can restore yours.
1 Peter 5: 10 In his kindness God called you to share in his eternal glory by means of Christ Jesus. So after you have suffered a little while, he will restore, support, and strengthen you, and he will place you on a firm foundation.[3]
To hear how God remodeled the world with the flood, listen here: https://podpoint.com/light-of-christ-church-podcast/faith-makes-a-difference-noah
[1] L. Daniel Hawk, The Violence of the Biblical God, William B Eerdmans Publishing Company (Grand Rapids, MI: 2019) 33.
[2-3] Tyndale House Publishers. (2015). Holy Bible: New Living Translation . Carol Stream, IL: Tyndale House Publishers