He That Hath Understanding, Let Him Calculate the Number of the Beast (continued)
Now we know that Cain, who offered God the works of his natural man, and his descendants were the ground needed by satan to produce these giants of iniquity in Genesis six: - the works of the natural man gives satan the ground he needs to produce these giants. Also, the Holy Spirit purposefully lists Cain's descendants unto the sixth generation in order to emphasize that they were antichrist in spirit; 1 John 3:12 tells us that they are of that "wicked one." - Not by natural birth, but because of their natural man. However, Cain's descendants, and these giants, and all the people in Noah's day, except for Noah and his family, were destroyed by the flood. So again we ask, where did Nimrod get his strength; in other words, where did satan get the ground he needed to begin his religious kingdom?
Let us remember that Nimrod is a descendant of Ham who was one of Noah's three sons. We all know that Noah is a man of faith, "By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith" (Hebrews 11:7). The Bible also says, "And Noah walked with God." Noah walked in harmony, in agreement, and in sympathy with God, for Amos 3:3 declares: "Can two walk together, except they be agreed?" Noah had a splendid walk before God, but Noah was also a human being, he was a man "subject to like passions as we are," and God is faithful to record this in His Word so that we may learn that we must subject our "natural man" to the work of the Cross.
Consequently, after the flood, after God made His everlasting covenant with Noah that He would not destroy the earth again with water, after this Noah sinned, he let the desire of his natural man cause him to sin, to miss the mark. We can understand Cain's natural man for he was of that wicked one. But Noah? - How could this man of faith give satan the ground needed to bring forth a Nimrod?
Well, beloved, here is a grave warning to us. Noah had stood his ground throughout one of the greatest conflicts of the ages, he had not given the enemy a particle of ground, he lived by faith in all that God Was, and Is, and Ever-Shall-Be. And through faith, he saved his household from judgment and he preserved a people who would be the vessels that carried the "SEED", Which is Christ. But after the battle was over, after things began to be just an every day type of living, Noah set about his daily task to make a living s a husbandman, a tiller of the vine; and as he did Noah began to let down his guard. He was not alert and watchful for the next move of the enemy. And satan, who knows the weaknesses of our natural man, provided that which would satisfy Noah's carnal man. Noah partook of the works of his own hands, "And he drank of the wine, and was drunken." Genesis 9:24 tells us that it was "his wine." Now most of us blame Noah's son Ham for what followed, but Ham would have never seen the nakedness of his father, if his father had not first sinned.
~T. Austin-Sparks~
(continued with # 38)
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