God’s Faithfulness

Genesis 9:1-17
Richard Spencer | Sunday, February 06, 2022
Copyright © 2022, Richard Spencer

In our passage this morning we yet again see God’s incredible mercy shown to sinful man. God had originally created everything very good, but sin soon entered into the creation. God then showed both his faithfulness to keep his word and punish sin and his extreme mercy to sinful mankind by promising a Redeemer. He punished Adam’s disobedience in eating the forbidden fruit with death just as he had said, “when you eat of it you will surely die.” (Gen 2:17) And Adam and Eve did, in fact, immediately die spiritually and they immediately began to age and die physically as well. But in Genesis 3:15, the protoevangelium, we also saw that God promised to send a Redeemer, a descendent of the woman, who would crush Satan.

As the apostle Paul wrote to his young protégé Timothy in 2 Timothy 2:11-13, “Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with him,” – which is referring to Jesus Christ the Redeemer – “we will also live with him; if we endure, we will also reign with him. If we disown him, he will also disown us; if we are faithless, he will remain faithful, for he cannot disown himself.”

Let me tell you, God has not changed. He will be faithful to keep all of his threats as well as his promises. If we disown him, he will disown us. The modern church world likes to portray the God of the Old Testament as a God of wrath and judgment and then to imply, if not outright state, that God somehow changed and that the God of the New Testament is now nice and all love and will never send anyone to hell. But this is a monstrous lie straight from the mouth of Satan: “You will not surely die.”

The truth is that there is only one living and true God. He is the Creator, Sustainer and Judge of all things. He is love, that is true. In fact, “God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” (John 3:16) But he is also the just, all-knowing, all-powerful Judge whose holy nature will not allow him to let sin go unpunished. We are told in Proverbs 16:5 that “The LORD detests all the proud of heart. Be sure of this: They will not go unpunished.” And in Nahum 1:3 we read that “The LORD is slow to anger and great in power; the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished. His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet.” And we read in Exodus 34:6-7 that God declared to Moses on Mt. Sinai, “The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished; he punishes the children and their children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation.”

All through the Scriptures the truth is clearly proclaimed: God’s justice demands that sin be paid for. Therefore, forgiveness requires a sacrifice. Either we will go to hell for all eternity and never fully pay for our own sins, or we must fall at the foot of the cross, confess, repent and trust in the efficacious sacrifice of the eternal Son of God, Jesus Christ, to pay for our sins. And if we do that, we will then live in obedience to him as new creations as God has made abundantly clear in his Word. For example, in 2 Corinthians 5:17 we are told that “if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!” And in John 14:15 Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command.” In Hebrews 5:8-9 we read that “Although he was [] son,” – which refers to Jesus Christ the eternal Son of God – “he learned obedience from what he suffered and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him”. The fact that an obedient life – not a perfect life, but one characterized by true obedience – is the sine qua non of true Christianity, in other words, that true Christianity without obedience is impossible, is clearly and repeatedly taught throughout the New Testament.

Brothers and sisters, God is faithful. His promise of salvation is true and certain and his threat of eternal punishment is also true and certain. We must surrender fully to Christ and walk in faithful obedience to be saved. We read this morning in 1 Peter 1:2 that we were chosen for obedience to Jesus Christ.

But, returning to what we have seen so far in Genesis. After the fall, God cast Adam and Eve out of the Garden. We then saw the bitter fruit of sin manifesting itself and increasing until we are told in Genesis 6:5 that “The LORD saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” And so God destroyed all people and land animals by the flood, with the only exception being Noah, his family and the animals with him on the ark. It was a great and terrible demonstration by God of his faithfulness both to punish sin with unmitigated severity and also a wonderful demonstration of his grace in saving Noah, his family and representative animals.

And we saw that because he was a new creation, a man regenerated by God, Noah walked in obedience and patiently endured the long and difficult trial of the flood. And when it was finally over and God called him to come out of the ark, we read in Genesis 8:20 that “Noah built an altar to the LORD and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it.” Isn’t that amazing? You might have thought the first thing he would do would be to try and set up some kind of shelter for his family. But Noah was a faithful believer and he expressed his thankfulness to God and his submission to God by building an altar and offering a sacrifice.

And then, we read in the last two verses of Chapter Eight that “The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: ‘Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.’”

What a gracious response. Noah was still a sinner and so was everyone in his family, and so would every one of his natural descendants be. Notice that God said “even though every inclination of his heart is evil”. And yet, God promised to himself, and then to Noah, that “never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

This promise does not mean that God will never miraculously intervene in the affairs of this world, but it does mean that we can depend on God upholding the physical laws that govern creation. In Jeremiah 33:25-26 the prophet declared, “This is what the LORD says: ‘If I have not established my covenant with day and night and the fixed laws of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants of Jacob and David my servant and will not choose one of his sons to rule over the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.” God was using the “fixed laws of heaven and earth” as an example of something that is absolutely certain to make the point that he would indeed keep his promises to his chosen people. God’s promise to uphold the physical laws of our universe is the only valid basis for modern science.

But we must also note that God does not promise to never destroy the earth again. He said in his heart, “As long as the earth endures” he would maintain everything as it is. There is still a day of judgment coming. We are told in 2 Peter 3:10 that “the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything in it will be laid bare.” And the apostle Paul wrote in 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3, “Now, brothers, about times and dates we do not need to write to you, for you know very well that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, ‘Peace and safety,’ destruction will come on them suddenly, as labor pains on a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”

We must all pay very careful attention to this warning. Many people today will tell you that God is never going to judge this world. But the Day of Judgment is certain. It is a fixed day, known only to God. It could be today. It could be tomorrow. Or it could be a thousand years from now. But it is coming and we must be ready.

My title this morning is God’s Faithfulness and the passage we are going to consider is Genesis Chapter Nine, Verses One through Seventeen. I have four points to make from this passage. First, God blessed Noah. Second, God declared human life to be sacred. Third, God’s covenant with Noah. And fourth, the main application Christians should draw from this passage; which is to be faithful as our heavenly Father is faithful. So let’s begin by examining how God blessed Noah.

I.       God Blessed Noah

Our passage begins in Verse 1 by saying, “Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, ‘Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.’” When God speaks to us in love, rather than judgment, it is always a great blessing. And the command God gave to Noah is important, therefore God essentially repeats it in Verse 7 of our passage. And we must take note that this command God gave to Noah provided him with great cause for rejoicing.

We must take a moment to imagine ourselves in Noah’s place. He had been on the ark for one year and ten days. Shut in with all of these animals. It could not have been a pleasant experience. And all that while he had to be thinking about the fact that all people and land animals except for those with him on the ark perished. As Dr. Wassermann made clear in his sermon on the flood, this had to be a very traumatic experience. We can easily imagine that Noah would be extremely conscious of his own sinfulness and would be concerned about when God might next get angry and destroy men, including Noah and his family.

And so, in this state of fear, God comes to Noah and lets him know that his sacrifice has been accepted and he is blessed by God. And he then gives him a wonderfully gracious command. He says to “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.” Think about that. Implicit in that command is the fact that God does not intend to destroy Noah. God is reiterating the creation mandate from Genesis 1:28 where God had told Adam and Eve, “Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” God is, essentially, telling Noah that he is giving man a second chance.

And the reason I say this command is gracious is that it gives man a purpose. We are not cosmic accidents. We are God’s creation and we have a purpose. We are to rule this world in his stead and to bring him glory as we do that in obedience to his commands. Having work and a purpose is a great blessing. In 1 Corinthians 15:58 the apostle Paul wrote, “Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.”

That is a wonderful promise. Our labor in the Lord is never in vain. And yet, we know from Ecclesiastes that without God, life is “vanity of vanities; all is vanity.” (Eccl 1:2, KJV) And in Ecclesiastes 1:3 the teacher rhetorically asked, “What does man gain from all his labor at which he toils under the sun?” And, without God, the expected answer is, of course, that man gains nothing. Life is all vanity. It is all meaningless.

But the truth is that life isn’t all meaningless, because God does exist! It is the fool who says in his heart, “There is no God.” (Ps 14:1) God wants us to be fruitful and he has a wonderful plan for his people. We read in Jeremiah 29:11, “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”

And, as Christians, we are not just to be fruitful in the sense of having children and making wise use of the earth’s resources. We are also to be fruitful in leading others to Christ. In Matthew 28:18-20 Jesus gave us the great commission, saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”

This command is also a great blessing. We have what the world most needs. And we are given authority from Christ to proclaim this gospel. And even more, we are also given his promise that he will be with us as we do so. To be sure, Jesus also told us that we will be persecuted and hated, but what a glorious thing it is when our witness is used by God to lead someone to eternal life. There is nothing greater that we could ever possibly do for anyone.

And in order for our witness about Christ to be effective, we also need to be fruitful in another way. We need to bear fruit in the sense of personal holiness. If our lives are no different than the rest of the world, no one is going to pay attention to what we say about Christ. Therefore, we need to be sure that we are producing the fruit of the Spirit in our lives. We read in Galatians 5:22-23 that “the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” We must all ask ourselves, “Do these characteristics describe me?” And then we must all confess and repent the extent to which they do not describe us and we must strive, in the power of the Holy Spirit, to change.

And now returning to our passage in Genesis Chapter Nine, God told Noah, in Verse 2, that “The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands.” This is a very sad statement in one way. In the Garden, the animals were all subject to Adam and Eve, but there was no fear and dread. Now however, there is a fear and dread because of the effects of sin.

But this statement was also a great comfort to Noah. After all, there were only eight people at that time and they didn’t have any reasonable way of defending themselves from all of the animals. But God gave wild animals a natural fear of man to protect men. That doesn’t mean that no one is ever harmed by an animal of course, but it is a wonderful promise nonetheless, and it must have been especially comforting to Noah in his very vulnerable circumstances.

And not only are the physical creatures subject to man, but we have great encouragement given to us in the New Testament about the angelic host as well. Hebrews 1:14 says, “Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” And then, in James 4:7 we read, “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” So all angels, both the upright and the fallen, either serve us or will flee from us so long as we are walking in faithful obedience.

The final blessing we see God providing to Noah is in Verse 3 of our passage, where we read, “Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.” Most commentators have reasonably concluded from this verse, and the statement in Genesis 1:29 about God giving plants to man for food, that this was the first time man was given meat to eat. But that is not an absolutely necessary conclusion. It may be that at least some men had been eating meat already. Men were, after all, sacrificing animals in worship and to make clothing, so some people may have eaten meat before. But now God explicitly permits this practice, which extends man’s dominion of the creatures. But then God also provides an important limitation on man’s use of this new freedom. In Verse 4 we read that God said, “But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it.”

This prohibition established an important principle. Blood represents life. We are given the reason for this prohibition in Leviticus 17:11-12, where God had Moses tell the people that, “the life of a creature is in the blood, and I have given it to you to make atonement for yourselves on the altar; it is the blood that makes atonement for one’s life. Therefore I say to the Israelites, ‘None of you may eat blood, nor may an alien living among you eat blood.’” And this is a serious command. In Leviticus 7:27 we read that “If anyone eats blood, that person must be cut off from his people.”

And yet, we now know that the sacrificial system of the Old Testament was simply a type, a shadow pointing to the reality of the once-for-all efficacious sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the perfect Lamb of God. We read in Hebrews 10:3-4 that “those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins, because it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.” And then, a little later in that chapter, in Hebrews 10:9-10, we read that Jesus said, “‘Here I am, I have come to do your will.’ He sets aside the first to establish the second. And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” Hallelujah!

We must see that sin is terrible. It requires a blood sacrifice. And the only sacrifice with sufficient value to pay for all of our sins against the infinite God is the sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the unique God-man.

But now let’s move on in our passage. In Genesis 9:5-6, God tells Noah, “And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man. ‘Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.’” These verses again tell us something extremely important. They tell us about the sanctity of life, and that is my second point; God declared human life to be sacred.

II.      God Declared Human Life to be Sacred

The basic principle is very simple and is clearly stated in the verse. The life of every human being is sacred because all human beings are made in the image of God. The Lord God himself will require an accounting for the blood of every human being who has ever been killed. The fact that God will require an accounting even from animals, who are not morally responsible creatures, indicates how serious this command is.

When Cain slew Abel, God did not command Adam or anyone else to put Cain to death. In fact, God put a mark on him to make sure that no one would kill him. But now, God specifically commands that murder must be punished with death, and it is man’s responsibility to do this. This is the beginning of the state having the power of the sword. But that power must be used with tremendous care. There must be fear and trembling when the sword is used because, as this command tells us, God himself will require an accounting for the blood of all men and women.

And this command should be especially terrifying to our society, for we err in both directions. On the one hand, we refuse to properly implement the death penalty. With many people thinking, as our Governor has declared, that we don’t have the moral authority to put murderers to death, even though the reality is that God has commanded us to do so and we have no moral authority to refuse to do so. And on the other hand, and far worse, many of the exact same people think it is perfectly reasonable for a woman to choose to murder a baby in her womb.

This is a horrendous crime against God, for every single baby that is killed is a creature made in the image of God himself. And he will demand an accounting for their blood. And there is a lot of blood to be accounted for. According to the pro-abortion Guttmacher Institute, there were approximately 73 million abortions a year worldwide from 2015 to 2019. [1]

To put that in perspective, that is the equivalent of the entire population of the city of Davis, including the students on campus, being murdered twice a day. It is also more than all other causes of death combined according to statistics from the World Health Organization.[2] If you assume the number of abortions has been at least 50% of that estimate for the past 21 years, that would imply that over three-quarters of a billion babies have been aborted so far in this century alone, which is almost 10% of the current world population.[3] When you consider that the this has been going for much longer than just this century, and that my 50% number is almost certainly too low, this is truly shocking and means that our modern world has a great deal to answer for before God.

As Christians, we must work to prevent this wholesale slaughter from continuing. But doing so should never become the most important thing in our life because eternal salvation is infinitely more important. Therefore, preaching the gospel must always be our first and most important priority.

But let’s now move on to examine my third point; God’s covenant with Noah.

III.    God’s Covenant with Noah

In Verses 8-11 of our passage we read, “Then God said to Noah and to his sons with him: ‘I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you and with every living creature that was with you—the birds, the livestock and all the wild animals, all those that came out of the ark with you—every living creature on earth. I establish my covenant with you: Never again will all life be cut off by the waters of a flood; never again will there be a flood to destroy the earth.’”

I briefly spoke about the covenant in my sermon on Genesis 6:8-7:9 and I noted two important things about this covenant at that time: First, it is gracious. In fact, it can be considered a part of or an extension to the covenant of grace established by God with Adam and Eve after the fall. And, secondly, this covenant was established by God unilaterally. Adam didn’t get to negotiate terms with God, nor did Noah, nor can we.

But there is no reason why should want to negotiate terms. God has given us the most amazing terms possible. We are wretched sinners. Rebels against our Creator. We deserve eternal death. And God comes to us and offers us eternal life instead! And not only do we not have to earn this eternal life, it would be impossible for us to do so! It is only available as a free gift from God. But God does demand something from us in return. In fact, he demands everything. Jesus himself told us in Matthew 16:24-26, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul?”

When Jesus said that we must take up our cross, he was, of course, alluding to the fact that prisoners condemned to be crucified were usually required to carry their own cross to the place of crucifixion. In other words, he was saying that we must die to self. But Jesus then reasons with us. He says, “What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?” The obvious answer is that it will not be any good at all.

We cannot grasp eternity, so let me try and give us a more understandable picture to ponder. Suppose you could be president of the United States for one day. Or be the most famous athlete on earth for one day – you pick whoever your favorite athlete is. Or be your favorite actor for one day, again your pick. Or be the richest person in the world for one day. Or the greatest scientist, musician or whatever you like. That would be pretty amazing wouldn’t it? But what if each of those days cost you one year of torment? Would it still be worth it? I ask that because we can all imagine the difference between one fabulous day and one horrible year. But now extend that year forever. What if those days cost you an eternity of torment? And now you start to see Jesus’ point. Even if you were all of those things, all at the same time, for many years, it would not be anything at all in comparison with eternity in hell.

We must learn to have an eternal perspective on life. Even if we live to be a hundred years old, that is nothing in comparison with eternity. That is why Paul could write in 2 Corinthians 4:17 that “our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.” And you need to look at the incredibly difficult life Paul had in order to put his statement into perspective. Go home and read 2 Corinthians 11:23-29.

We must all admit that our troubles are truly light and momentary. Even if we suffer from some terrible disease or other earthly trial for many decades, our troubles are light and momentary in comparison with eternal bliss in heaven.

And also take note that this covenant was made with Noah personally. God said to Noah, “I now establish my covenant with you and with your descendants after you”. And we are all descendants of Noah, so God’s promise to never destroy all life again is given to us as well. But we must remember the caveat; there will still be a Day of Judgment. This is made clear in Genesis 8:22 where we are told about what God thought to himself. We read there that “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” But the earth will not always endure. God has set a day when he will bring about a final judgment, and we must all be prepared.

God also again emphasized man’s dominion over the animals by including them in this covenant as well. The animals are given to man for food, useful labor and even a certain type of fellowship. We are responsible for them and are to treat them well.

And, one last point about this covenant, in the closing verses of our passage God graciously provides Noah, and us as his descendants, a sign. God doesn’t need any help remembering his covenant promises, but we do. When we are told that God will see the rainbow and remember the everlasting covenant he has made, it is telling us that God is faithful. He will never forsake his people but will always do all that he has promised.

Rainbows are beautiful, but they come at times when the weather is stormy. And if you had experienced the flood Noah did, large storms would be a potentially very scary time. Even today, with all of our technology and ability to predict bad weather to provide warning, weather can still be a serious threat. For example, 457 people died from severe weather events in the United States in 2020.[4]

And so, rainbows should always remind us of God’s gracious promises to us and should drive us to seek him more earnestly. Matthew Henry comments on the symbolism involved in this sign. He wrote that “The rainbow is the reflection of the beams of the sun, which intimates that all the glory and significancy of the seals of the covenant are derived from Christ the Sun of righteousness, who is also described with a rainbow about his throne (Rev. 4:3), and a rainbow upon his head (Rev. 10:1)”.

And now, let me close by considering the main application of this passage for believers: we must be faithful as our Father in heaven is faithful.

IV.    Main Application for Christians: Be Faithful

We have considered several applications along the way this morning, the most important of which was that we all need to make our calling and election sure because God is faithful and will fulfill all of his threats as well as his glorious promise of salvation.

But if you have been born again, the most important application is that we must all remain faithful in every area of life. God is faithful, and we are to be conformed to the likeness of Christ we are told in Romans 8:29, so we should be faithful as well. We read in John 19:30 that Jesus declared from the cross, “It is finished.” And we must work hard to finish the work that God has given each one of us to do as well.

In Hebrews 3:5-6 we are told that “Moses was faithful as a servant in all God’s house, testifying to what would be said in the future. But Christ is faithful as a son over God’s house. And we are his house, if we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.” Notice the conditional clause; we are Christ’s house – meaning we are part of the true church, which is called the temple of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 6:19, if – and we could add, only if – “we hold on to our courage and the hope of which we boast.” In other words, only if we are faithful to the end.

The great promise of the Bible for God’s children is that we will be like God. John wrote in 1 John 3:2, “Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when he appears, we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is.” And God is faithful. That is why we must be as well. As Joshua told the Israelites in Joshua 23:14, “Now I am about to go the way of all the earth. You know with all your heart and soul that not one of all the good promises the Lord your God gave you has failed. Every promise has been fulfilled; not one has failed.”

We see God’s emphasis on being faithful in many different ways in the Bible. God hates divorce we are told in Malachi 2:16, therefore, we are to be faithful in marriage. And it isn’t just divorce that God hates, adultery is a terrible sin of unfaithfulness, which was punishable by death in the Old Testament (Lev 20:10). Also, in Psalm 15:4, one of the things we are told about the person who may ascend God’s holy hill is that he “keeps his oath even when it hurts”. We are to be faithful not only in marriage, but in all of our commitments.

Similarly, spiritual adultery, which is apostasy, is a terrible sin. In Hebrews 6:4-6 we are told that “It is impossible for those who have once been enlightened, who have tasted the heavenly gift, who have shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the coming age, if they fall away, to be brought back to repentance, because to their loss they are crucifying the Son of God all over again and subjecting him to public disgrace.”

We must be faithful in every way, just as God is faithful. In every one of the seven letters to the churches in Revelation 2 and 3, there is a promise given to him who overcomes. We must be faithful to overcome.

If you have seen your sin, repented of it and trusted in Jesus Christ, then you are a child of the covenant God established with Noah. God has promised to bless you. But you must be faithful and hold onto the promise. You must prove your repentance by your deeds as Paul said in Acts 26:20. But God is faithful, you can depend on him to keep all of his promises. He will never leave you nor forsake you. He will never allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. He will give you the strength and the courage necessary to stand in every trial he has ordained for you. So take heart! Do not be discouraged! Stand firm and let nothing move you. As the Lord’s brother wrote in James 5:8, “be patient and stand firm, because the Lord’s coming is near.” And we are told in Hebrews 10:23, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful.” And then, finally, in Hebrews 10:36 we are told that “You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised.” It is my hope and prayer that that will be true of everyone who hears my words.

[1] https://www.guttmacher.org/sites/default/files/factsheet/fb_iaw.pdf

[2] e.g., for 2019, WHO says there were 55.4 million deaths worldwide. (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/the-top-10-causes-of-death)

[3] Which is nearly 8 billion. https://www.worldometers.info/world-population/

[4] https://www.weather.gov/media/hazstat/sum20.pdf