The truth about tribulation is that it just happens to be one of the ways that God deals with the Nation of Israel. The fact is that there are only two kinds of people on the face of this earth. You are either a Jew or a Gentile. With that being said, the fact is that you are on the face of this earth.

I’ve made this statement before, the only reason any person will be on the face of this earth during the seven years that is called tribulation is because that individual made a conscious choice to be here and face the wrath of God on this earth.

In the first segment I tried to show you a distinct beginning and end of the two periods of time we’ve already looked into. Like any period of time, we can argue when it actually begins but, in my understanding, we can clearly see the end. For instance, as we look at Noah’s Ark did conscience end when God shut the door and, it began to rain or, when the Ark settled back to dry land. We can even say that Innocence ended at the very point that the fruit was bitten.

The fact is, something did change, just as we will see here in this segment. Here is something that the Spirit of God just keeps bringing to my mind as I write this. I feel that it’s important that I make this point continually. We often are led to believe that only eight people took part in the building of the Ark. However, as we read the chapters preceding the flood in Genesis, we can see that there were many people that believed and trusted God during that period of time.

It’s actually about the same way we see things in the day in which we live. As time moves forward, we see less and less people that truly trust and walk with God. One of the things that truly burden my heart is that fact of deception. Today, just as in those days we see a false representation of the true and living God. We might hear about him, even hear his name mentioned but the things that are being taught do not line up with who he truly is.

At the first of this segment, I’ll be using just one verse of scripture to show you where human government started. However, I feel that at this period of time in the timeline there is something we must truly see as it relates to even our walk with Jesus Christ today.

GENESIS 9:8

AND GOD SPAKE TO NOAH, AND HIS SONS WITH HIM, SAYING I

I’ll simply use this verse as a starting point. We see here in chapter nine where God is speaking once again. In the verse we read and see where God is speaking to the whole family, but within this chapter we see that he also speaks to Noah alone. It appears that in (verse 17) he is once again speaking only to Noah. Actually, it doesn’t matter, the fact is that we see God speaking to man here.

So, let’s compare two aspects of how God deals with man here. We see here that God is speaking to all people. It’s a brand-new earth, old things are past, and mankind now has a chance to allow God to lead him in all he does. That same aspect of how God deals with man is in the time to which we live, God place his own spirit within every person the very moment they become (born again) born of his spirit.

When God speaks to Noah alone, he reveals that the covenant he has make with them is also to all flesh. That means that he has given Noah the responsibility to reveal this to all flesh as the world now moves forward. I stated to you that this is where human government begun to work in this world along with the faith that a believer places in God. In the sense of preaching, Noah is God’s spokesman now to assure his sons, their families that they will never have to worry about the world being destroyed by water again. Each time it storms and rains and, they see a rainbow, that becomes assurance, by faith in God’s word as revealed by man, the man Noah.

Here we see that when it came to God’s law, every person heard God and knew exactly what God expected from them. If you go back and read verses (4-6) you will notice two things. Man is not supposed to drink blood and, if he sheds the blood of man, his blood shall also be shed. We see before that they can eat the flesh of any animal, but they cannot kill people.

As we move on in (chapter 9) we see something, and event that occurs. Noah plants a vineyard and gets drunk from the wine he makes. While he is asleep drunk, his son Ham enters his tent, and the Bible says he sees his nakedness. After that, he went outside and told his brethren. His brethren then covered themselves, went into the tent backwards and covered their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his sleep, and knew what had happened, he, himself made some laws. We’ll get to that in a second but, what’s the problem here? Noah, being drunk on wine or Ham seeing his nakedness, neither is drinking blood nor is it shedding blood. So, there is no sin as far as God is concerned is it.?

Here we see for the first time that man makes law (human government). As we looked at this, we see this, the law is made in the form of a curse. Let’s look at these verses and see what Noah, the head of the family at that time, said.

Genesis 9:25-27

AND HE SAID, CURSED BE CANAAN; A SERVANT OF SERVANTS SHALL HE BE OF HIS BRETHREN. (26) AND HE SAID, BLESSED BE THE LORD GOD OF SHEM; AND CANAAN SHALL BE HIS SERVANT. (27) GOD SHALL ENLARGE JAPHETH, AND HE SHALL DWELL IN THE TENTS OF SHEM; AND CANAAN SHALL BE HIS SERVANT.

Did you notice here that there’s no reference to Noah being drunk in his tent nor what Ham did unto him as far as the curse is concerned? So, what is the curse? The fact is that the curse can have nothing to do with the act of Ham because it cannot be seen as sin. That doesn’t mean that what he did was led by God’s spirit either does it? do you remember the earlier conversation about (conscience)? We now see that playing out. What one person, being led by their conscience deems to be alright can be very sinful toward God to another.

Noan being the spiritual head of his family is watching his children as they move forward from the Ark. He sees the actions of Ham, the actions of Japheth and, also of Shem. In his heart the things they are doing, being led as much as possible by his (God Consciousness) would not be pleasing to God the father but, he has no authority or law to stand on. I would say that it’s very possible that he has instructed them in his spiritual capacity, but they are not taking heed to what he says.

If we notice the curse, we see that (Shem) is not mentioned in the curse, only the two other brothers. Noah says: Blessed be the Lord God of Shem. This implies that Shem is living a life that he considers pleasing to God already. The curse was to the two younger brothers just as the curse is to each of us today. That curse involves our flesh and the fact that we are so willing to allow that flesh to direct our conscience over the will of the Lord God.

If I were to make an argument here. I’d say that Noah has been seeking to get his sons to allow God’s will to govern their lives, to live lives that reflect all that he has always stood for. Remember, (God found grace in the eyes of Noah). We often forget that at this period of time there was no written word from God. Moses wrote the first five books in the Bible and it’s a possibility that the Book of Job was written before that. I can’t say for certain however, it was left up to men such as Noah to share the love of God and each person had to make a choice whether they would submit to that authority or not.

It appears that the only son of Noah that submitted to the leadership of God was Shem. As we continue to move forward in the chapters, we see that the other two sons went their own way not taking heed to the voice of their father and becoming servants of (the Lord God of Shem.

Let us not forget we are looking into tribulation and the reason why. We are moving through time and watching as man slowly walks away from God the Father. At this time, I’d like to take these three men and form an analogy about what we see as denominations or religions today. We must at least assume that Noah had shared with his sons his faith in God. He told all three boys the very same thing. Whether we blame the misdirection on interpretation or the power of Satan to deceive; it doesn’t matter because it had the very same outcome.

Don’t we also see this in denominations? Noah was simply one man speaking. One man sharing truth. How does that one truth become so different in every person that hears it? Just as Noah was just one man speaking, can we agree that there can only be one truth as far as the truth of God’s word? Let me share a personal story with you to make my point.

I’ve shared this story in my writings many times. So, you might have read it before. I say this with all due respect to any person that considers themselves to be a member of any specific denomination. I was born again in an independent Baptist Church however, today I do not consider myself to be any specific denomination but rather simply a born-again believer. I search the scriptures to find truth far beyond that of any teaching of any denomination. I simply make that statement to point out that it’s God’s Spirit that has to be the teacher and all truth cannot be found in any one man. We must be willing to allow God’s Spirit to teach us. I believe that was the problem with the sons of Noah; they were like most people, head strong and determined to be right not willing to allow any other person to teach them, even if what that person said was truth from God’s Spirit.

I’m an electrician by trade. The company I worked for was contracted to wire an edition to a local Methodist Church in the area that I’m from. One day as we were finishing up the job; my helper went back to the shop to get some light bulbs. I was standing at the door waiting for his return when this elderly gentleman walks in the door. He came over to me and we shook hands. He asked me if I went to Church anywhere. I replied, yes, I go to an independent Baptist Church. He said, it doesn’t matter, it’s not any difference in them. To that statement I replied, I believe it is. What’s the difference he asked. I replied, well, I know I’m going to heaven when I die, do you? His come back was, no I don’t, and you don’t either.

I looked at him and said, sir how can you tell me what I know? The Bible says you can know it. I asked him to come with me. We walked back toward a classroom to find a Bible. I found a Bible, turned to:

1 John 5:13

THESE THINGS HAVE I WRITTEN UNTO YOU THAT BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD; THAT YE MAY KNOW THAT YE HAVE ETERNAL LIFE, AND THAT YE MAY BELIEVE ON THE NAME OF THE SON OF GOD.

When I found this verse of scripture, I asked this elderly gentleman to read it out loud and he did. Once he had done so he stood there staring at it and all of a sudden looked up at me and said, I don’t care I still don’t believe it.

Many people place their faith in what some denomination or man says to them and that above what God’s word teaches. I believe it’s very possible that the two sons of Noah that went their own way done exactly what we are speaking of. Let’s make one other point here. When we speak of the three sons of Noah; didn’t all three of them get on the Ark by faith? Weren’t they all three saved from destruction? Therefore, we are not talking about salvation here are we? However, making that statement can be very hurtful to every person that chooses to follow anything that is not seen as truth.

I’d like for you to notice something here. As we go through this, marching toward a period of time we call tribulation period, let’s simply go back to the last segment. Do you remember that Adam and Eve also had three sons that we see mentioned in scripture? We see the same picture there. One of them, (Seth) carried the same truth forward, the other (Cain) did not. When we move toward the Ark, we see only eight people that truly believed in what Noah preached.

Every segment of time goes through the same (falling away) whether it’s because of false teaching or man just simply walking away from God. We also can say that as time moves forward God reveals himself to man more and more. For instance: since we are now finished with the flood, we see that God’s desire is for man not to kill one another and also not to drink the blood to any degree. We didn’t have that knowledge when Adam and Eve left the Garden of Eden.

In this period of time, we’re calling (Human Government) we see where God is speaking one other time but, this time when he speaks, he’s speaking to the members of the Godhead. God the Father is speaking to God the Son and God the Spirit.

Genesis 11:7

GO TO, LET US GO DOWN, AND THERE CONFOUND THEIR LANGUAGE; AND THIS THAT THEY MAY NOT UNDERSTAND ONE ANOTHER’S SPEECH.

Here, God is not speaking to man, but he is speaking to himself or the other two members of the Godhead.

We see here that once again man has gone his own way, not considering what God’s will is for the direction of mankind. If I were to give you my personal thoughts here, I’d say that it’s not only the children or descendants of Ham and Japeth but also some of the people of Shem that have strayed as well. Although I believe we can give credit to a man named Nimrod for the building of the tower to heaven that caused God to come down and confound the language. I also understand that in the simple course of a Godly man’s life some of his people will stray away from God’s will as well.

However, as we move forward, we do see thar a man named Abram in (Genesis 11) is in the bloodline of Shem. As we move forward considering the time of tribulation the man named Abram will bring in a family to which God will call his people. We see the start of that as God, once again speaks to the man Abram in (Genesis 12). We see him first mentioned in the last part of (Genesis 11). In this chapter we see where God changed the languages and also the line of people from Shem that led up to Abram.

Before we move on from here and get into the time when God gave to law to his chosen people, I feel impressed to point out some spiritual things here that come to mind. To me it’s pretty simple if you look at it from the aspect of God’s point of view starting all the way back to Adam and Eve. Let’s look at this verse of scripture:

Matthew 19:5

AND HE SAID, FOR THIS CAUSE SHALL A MAN LEAVE HIS FATHER AND MOTHER, AND SHALL CLEAVE TO HIS WIFE: AND THEY TWAIN SHALL BE ONE FLESH?

As we seek to build this complete timeline up until the time, we call the Tribulation period and maybe beyond, it’s a point I feel God’s Spirit would like all of us to understand. In the verse we look in we see where the Bible says that (a man) shall leave his father and mother and he is to cleave to his wife. No where in scripture do, we ever see where the Bible tells woman to do the same thing. Therefore, what is the picture God is painting for mankind here?

If we look at Adam and the fact that he is the husband of Eve, to whom should Adam’s first obedience be to, God the father or, his wife Eve? When we consider the word(cleave) I believe we often misunderstand the use of that word. Now, we know from simply studying scripture., even up until this point that the woman is the weaker vessel. Therefore, why would man (cleave) to a weaker vessel?

Let’s be honest. It wasn’t necessarily Eve that failed in the Garden of Eden but rather mankind. (The husband), just because he (cleaves) to his wife is never to change his stand or walk with God the Father. Personally, I believe we can see in scripture where both Adam and Eve learned this spiritual lesson. They also sought to teach this very same lesson to their children.

Look at this verse concerning Eve.

Genesis 4:25

AND ADAM KNEW HIS WIFE AGAIN; AND SHE BARE A SON, AND CALLED HIS NAME SETH: FOR GOD, SHE SAID, HATH APPOINTED ME ANOTHER SEED INSTEAD OF ABEL, WHOM CAIN SLEW.

We see in this verse that Eve is very concerned about the spiritual wellbeing to her family moving forward. She sees that Cain is a man that is more concerned about the flesh, and he has destroyed to son of hers who was seeking to allow God to be seen in his life. Now, Seth is a son that she can groom to become the man God would have him be.

We know that all of this is part of God’s plan and that he’s seeking to teach us things in scripture as we move forward, even in our spiritual lives today. Far too often in our lives men never take on the spiritual roles that God intended for them to. Like Cain and the two younger sons of Noah they simply seek the things of this world leaving God the father on the sideline. The women they choose to be their wives can’t even depend on them for any spiritual leadership and, in that sense the man becomes seen by God as the weaker vessel, yielding to the will of the woman.

I’m going to step out on a limb here a say something. Let’s just assume that Adam and Eve, once they had been redeemed by God the Father and, Noah and his wife all sought to teach their children to live a righteous life. However, the majority of their children, like most children didn’t take heed to their righteous instruction. At least, if I’m correct, their children will have to confess that they were brought up in a Godly home.

Now, fathers, what can your children say about you? How about your wife? You see, a man marries his wife understanding completely that she is the weaker vessel. When we read scripture there has to be an assumption made. That assumption is that every man is going to be the spiritual leader he is supposed to be and that ever woman, while she is the weaker vessel will be willing to submit, at some point to the leadership of her spiritual husband. I say that because of the point I made about Adam and Eve and Noah and his wide but, we know that most of the children they taught went the way of Satan, not following God’s will.

As I say these things, a man can never force his wife in any way to submit to his leadership. In the spiritual sense he is to lead in that direction and allow God’s Spirit in time to transform his wife into what she is supposed to be in his sight. As we go through the teaching process of each stage of how God works with mankind, can you see how important the husband-and-wife relationship becomes? The very same picture will be seen in the development of the nation of Israel and also the Church age in which we now live. It all relates to how mankind submits his will to the will of God the father.

As we leave human government and watch God build a nation using the child of promise (Isaac), I ask you to also notice that this family is far from perfect, but they are willing to seek the will of God in their lives to bring about God’s will. If you will notice as we leave (chapter 12) we see a genealogy. That line of people comes from the one son of Noah that made the choice to follow the will of God. It doesn’t come from either one of the other sons.

Now, out of this genealogy comes the nation of Israel, the people to whom God gave the law. I’d like to go on record here in proclaiming that I am a product of one of the other sons of Noah. There are not but two kinds of people, Gentiles and Jews. If you are not a descendant of Isaac, the promised son of Abraham and Sarah then you are a descendant of one of the wayward sons of Noah or possibly a descendant of the son (Ishmael), the son Abraham had by Sarah’s handmaiden (Hagar).

As we get into (Genesis chapter 12) we’ll be leaving behind both of the wayward sons of Noah and only focusing on the man called Abram. His bloodline is Godly and God’s desire is to build a nation, a world filled with people that only desire to do his will. We have now learned that both innocence and conscience cannot be depended on to instruct or expect people to live a Godly life.

I might ask the question here, what can be depended on? What will it take to create a desire for men to live as righteous as possible? We’re, through the process of time seeing what will not work. We also now, as we get into this need to understand that Abram, that will become Abraham also lives in the time of conscience. The lived at least 430 years before the law was even given.

In the next few chapters of Genesis, we will be able to detect many sinful things that Abraham and his family did as they build what we now know as the nation of Israel. We can say or call those things sin because of our knowledge of what sin is however, not one of these people possesses that knowledge.

I’ll make this statement before we move to the fourth segment which we will call law. As you study through (Genesis 12) you will see that God promised Abraham that he would be the father of a great nation. In the rest of the chapters in (Genesis) we will see the growing of the nation that God created through Abraham.

I’d like to point out here that Jesus Christ lived in this segment of time. As a matter of fact, he was the end of this age. I’m going to say that this segment of time lasted somewhere around two thousand years. We be pointing out some of the aspects of this period of time and how it differs from the three others we have mentioned and even the period of time we live in.

Like I stated, we’ll call this segment of time (LAW)!

Marshall Clayton

2 Timothy 1:7