“Rest”

By Odon Bulamba (17th July 2011)


Noah means rest. Noah gives us a sign of the times. If you observe how God was working with Noah, then you will see how God works also in your life. If you want rest in the Lord then you need to read the scripture and compare with what people are telling you because many people are mislead by false prophecies. What is rejected by God, we try to make fashion today and accept among us.


Luke 17:26-30

“And just as it happened in the days of Noah, so it will be also in the days of the Son of Man: they were eating, they were drinking, they were marrying, they were being given in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, and the flood came and destroyed them all. It was the same as happened in the days of Lot: they were eating, they were drinking, they were buying, they were selling, they were planting, they were building; but on the day that Lot went out from Sodom it rained fire and brimstone from heaven and destroyed them all. It will be just the same on the day that the Son of Man is revealed.”

 People will eating and drinking which means there will be partying and celebrations. At the time of Noah, people could organise a party almost every day, it was a time of relaxing, a time of rest. When people are partying, they get tired and waste time and their capabilities without realising it. Every party you go to starts out perfectly with the food and decorations in the right place but at the end of the party is a big mess and you will need help to clean it up, it’s a very big job to clean up someone else’s mess and it’s always hard.


Whatever you see in Noah’s time will be a sign of Jesus Christ coming back. This can be read in Genesis 6-9. In Genesis 6, the angels came down because they were attracted to the beauty of women. All of us want to be attractive, we want to rest in beauty, we want to go through operations to remove the fat or make our cheeks bigger or to get larger lips. When I was a child, someone with big lips was mocked but today it is fashion. Today the ladies dress immodestly and want to be seen, they are resting in the wrong things.


In Noah’s time, they were resting in the wrong things and so God went to Noah and He was angry with human beings and He regretted created them. He tells Noah to build an ark in the shape of a cube (not a boat) and God gave him the right measurements; three levels (the temple also has three parts) and it was 15m long (the temple is also 15m long). Noah was told to do the work and then God turned His back and left. Noah worked for 100 years, collecting all the materials and building. There was no river or sea in the area and it never rained where Noah was and the people mocked him, “are you crazy?” Today we sometimes wonder why we trust in Jesus Christ, it’s sometimes hard to believe.


Once Noah completed the work God came back because the ark belonged to God. Everything you have belongs to God. God told Noah, “come in” and you also, can work hard and once you have accomplished your work, God will say, “come in and rest” but if you haven’t prepared your house properly, if you haven’t prepared the bedding or the power or the heating, how will you survive?


God gives you everything you need to be equipped and once you are equipped, it’s time to go to Jesus Christ and rest. Do you want to rest? Jesus gave you life, you belong to Him now, you know the gospel, you know something is coming, you know there is eternal fire, you see the signs, you’ve seen the parties, you’ve seen the beauty, you’ve seen the homosexuals…all the signs are there. It’s time now to move into the ark. You’ve completed everything, you know what love is, you know what patience is, you know the Bible very well, it’s time to come in and rest but don’t go alone, take someone with you. Noah had the chance to take seven people, so you also should find 7 members of your family to enter the ark, to join the big party that is coming but this party is special because there will be no mess to clean up at the end.


Isaiah 55:1-3

“Ho! Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters;

And you who have no money come, buy and eat.

Come, buy wine and milk

Wihout money and without cost.

“Why do you spend money for what is not bread,

And your wages for what does not satisfy?

Listen carefully to Me, and eat what is good,

And delight yourself in abundance.

“Incline your ear and come to Me.

Listen, that you may live;

And I will make an everlasting covenant with you,

According to the faithful mercies shown to David”.


How many people have you invited to this big ark? If you go alone and you are in heaven and then you see your mum or your brother or your husband or others that you really love in hell, how will you rest? How will you handle it, seeing the person in hell while you are in heaven? For example Lazarus could see the rich man but he couldn’t do anything to intervene. The rich man asked for his help, but there was nothing Lazarus could do. How will you feel when your family members cry out to you for help but you can’t do anything.


There is no hope or rest in our bodies, only in Jesus Christ. Put your rest in the Lord. Our family members have been sick and are suffering and it’s up to us to give them rest, to give them the remedy. You see them in sin, you see how they will die but you don’t intervene. Sometimes we force people to take medicine when they are physically sick but we don’t want to help them spiritually. God is asking you today to prepare your family members.


In every sentence, I can use God’s glory in it, if I want. We can ask those around us if we can pray for the food. It’s easy to joke with our colleagues but it’s difficult to talk about the Word of God, we don’t want to share the coming time, we don’t warn others that for their sins, judgement is coming. We want impress others but we don’t impress God.


There is only one rest. Even when you sleep, your mind is working and sometimes you wake up in the morning and you are tired, you stretch and your body appears to be working all the night. So even sleep isn’t a true rest.


Noah told his family to come in and God shut the door. The door was opened for 100 years but now the door is shut. Remember one day God will also shut the door to grace. Grace is not eternal, it’s only for a short time, the grace to talk to your family members is for a short time only and there will be a time when it will be too late and your family will say, “no, thank you”. Then God will shut the door and then you will hear your family knocking on the door but you can’t open the door once God shuts it.


Naaman (II Kings 5:8) the general of the army of Syria became sick with leprosy, he had money, nice clothes and good friends but he was being destroyed by sickness. One little slave girl told the lady of the house about a prophet who could heal Naaman so that lady told her master (the wife of Naaman; the wife of a general of an army). Imagine a simple slave talking to the wife of the general of an army. Naaman was known and was really famous. Naaman took the advice seriously and sometimes we can come with our small ideas and these small ideas can change the lives of our family members.


Naaman told the king of Syria who sent a letter to the king of Israel asking him to send his servant to heal Naaman. Imagine if you were that king. You will believe the king of Syria just wants to find a way to fight. How can heal leprosy? Elisha (the prophet) was informed and he sent for Naaman who came to his house but instead of seeing Naaman, Elisha stayed inside the house and told him to go to the river Jordan and wash seven times. The Jordan river was soooo dirty but after being encouraged by his servants, he accepted to wash 7x and he was healed.


God has chosen you in the same way He has chosen Elisha. You have everything you need and now it’s your turn to recommend others to the Jordan to clean their lives, to clean their hearts and if they don’t, beg them, force them, push them (like Naaman’s servants). We have the pressure of eternal fire where God is telling us that our family members will be consumed in fire if we don’t act. This is not a time to rest but a time to work, to invite your friends.