8/10 When Hope Fades Away
/When Hope Fades Away
God sent a flood that wiped out everyone on Earth. Only Noah, his family, and the animals were safe inside the ark, floating on the waters. Genesis 7:24 says, "The waters flooded the earth for a hundred and fifty days."
The very next verse, Genesis 8:1, says, "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded." Noah had spent 120 years building the ark and waiting. Now, he had been floating aimlessly for 150 days (about five months) with no end in sight. He must have desperately wanted to get out and wondered if he would ever set foot on dry ground again.
The rain had stopped, but a great expanse of water still covered the earth. It was the perfect situation to lose all hope. These people had followed God's guidance, built the ark, and were saved, but now their hope of salvation was fading. We are all saved by God's grace, but as time passes, we might find ourselves in a similar situation, like Noah's family adrift, asking, "Where am I going? What am I doing? What is my life's purpose?"
So, what should we do when hope starts to fade?
1. Believe that God is making the waters recede, even if you can't see it.
Genesis 8:1 says, "But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded." The Hebrew word for "remembered" means "did not forget." Even when Noah and his family felt like they were drifting aimlessly, God was guiding them to their destination.
Noah and his family had no way of knowing if God was thinking of them or had forgotten them because He hadn't said a word. But God was working on their behalf, making a wind blow across the earth to make the water recede. The wind has the power to evaporate water in a short time. Let's look at verses 3 and 4: "The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down, and on the seventeenth day of the seventh month the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat."
The ark came to rest on the 17th day of the seventh month, which was 150 days after Noah entered the ark on the 17th day of the second month (Genesis 7:11-12). Look closely at verse 3 again: "The water receded steadily from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the water had gone down." This shows that the water had been consistently receding even before the 150th day.
While Noah's family wondered if they would ever touch dry land again, God was continuously making the waters recede. He was paving the way for them to exit the ark. What is the equivalent of "will I ever set foot on dry land again?" in your life? Do you believe that God is making the overwhelming waters in your life recede and preparing a way for you to do a good work that you hope for?
How can we believe that God is at work, even in a stifling, seemingly hopeless life?
Psalm 23 is a passage that resonates well with Mongolia. In the vast, barren wilderness, green grass appears in the summer, turning the entire area into a lush pasture. Verse 1 begins, "The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters." During the harsh winter, the sheep tried to eat whatever frozen grass they could find, often under life-threatening conditions. But as winter slowly gives way to summer, the wilderness is covered with green pastures. Shepherds lead their flocks to these green pastures when summer approaches.
Similarly, from late June to mid-August, many people in Mongolia take a one to two-month break and go to the countryside, like sheep in green pastures. All government offices and businesses shut down as people return to nature. Recently, a mission team from Nations Mission Church in Korea went to a poor village called Nalaikh, a 30-40 minute drive from Ulaanbaatar. They shared the gospel and love with children and families. The weather was like a scorching furnace because summer had arrived early.
We visited the homes of four elementary school boys who attended our Bible school daily. Their ger (traditional Mongolian tent) was so poor and unclean that it was difficult to sit down. A single father with a drinking problem lived there with eight children. Four of the children were not present, only the four who attended the Bible camp. A son from our team asked with wide eyes, "Pastor, do people really live here?" It seemed uninhabitable.
We sang, preached the gospel, and gave them gifts we had brought. The children living there were all beautiful with clear eyes. Their names were Munkhired (Eternal Future), Uul-ot (Mountain Star), and Ulaan Tsetseg (Red Flower). But their mother had left, and they lived with their alcoholic father. While singing the song "Jesus, Our King, Come to This Place," I had to stop several times because I was choked with emotion.
A Mongolian volunteer at our church cut one of the children's hair, and we were asked for clothes because his were so dirty. He had on the best clothes he had, but they hadn't been washed in a long time. When we dressed him in a new, white shirt given by our church members, he looked so handsome. At that moment, God gave me a thought: "Don't think, 'What does one week of love we give mean to these children?'" This love you give will become like green pastures for these lovely children, for these "Eternal Future" children, who are growing up without a mother in a ger that seems unfit for human life with a helpless, alcoholic father.
Psalm 23:5 says, "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows." The Hebrew verb for "prepare" is in the imperfect form, indicating an action that is currently happening or will happen in the future, and can also refer to a repeated action or a general statement. When we had our last quiet time together, this one verb struck me deeply. God is the one who gives peace in the midst of danger. God's work often seems precarious, like walking on a glass bridge.
Satan often interferes, and our sinful nature can make situations feel like a glass bridge. But when we are walking on that glass bridge while doing God's will, He works right there on that bridge. He performs amazing miracles. He doesn't provide a sturdy, perfectly prepared bridge; instead, He restores, strengthens, and makes new people and situations that seem fragile and ready to shatter or disappear. He transforms them into strong soldiers.
The Bible says He does all this "in the presence of our enemies." God keeps preparing a table for us even in dangerous situations, with Satan watching. We might feel it would be safer if He chased Satan away first, but He just sets the table. We often focus more on Satan, who is watching and looking for an opportunity, rather than on the Lord, who is preparing a table for us. We get caught up in the thought, "This is an imperfect situation, so this work will ultimately fail." But God wants us to look at His table, the one He is setting, and believe that He will accomplish His work and keep us safe, even in precarious situations. This preparation is not finished; it is ongoing. Meditate and reflect on how He continues to give us another table in our lives.
When you meditate and look at the Lord in this way, you will see the God who is making the water recede, even after 150 days of seeing nothing. You will not see the enemy on the hill but the hand of God who is setting the table and can turn everything into victory in an instant.
What are the characteristics of people who look at God's hand, which is preparing a table for them, instead of the enemy? The passage from Genesis 8 shows us four things.
First, they hold on to God's promises made in the light, even in dark situations. Noah clearly knew the water was receding when the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat (v. 4). Living in the ark for about a year and ten days would not have been easy. In such a situation, it can be hard to remember God's promises or to trust Him.
Nevertheless, about 264 days after the flood began, Noah opened a window and sent out a raven to check the water level. The raven kept flying back and forth between the ark and the sky, showing that the water hadn't dried up. He then sent out a dove seven days later, and another seven days after that. The first time, the dove returned with an olive leaf, and Noah knew the water had receded. The second time, the dove did not return, and he knew the ground was dry.
Second, they offer a separated seven-day worship in the darkness, just as they did in the light. Noah sent out the doves at seven-day intervals. This is recorded in verses 10 and 12: "He waited another seven days and again sent out the dove from the ark." (Genesis 8:10) "He waited another seven days and sent the dove out again, but this time it did not return to him." (Genesis 8:12) This passage shows us that a week was seven days in Noah's time.
At the beginning of creation, God rested on the seventh day. He didn't just rest; He also blessed and made the seventh day holy. "Then God blessed the seventh day and made it holy, because on it he rested from all the work of creating that he had done" (Genesis 2:3). Any relationship, whether with friends or family, deepens and grows in love and joy when we set aside a specific day or time to meet, fellowship, talk, and be together. We love and follow God every moment, but such a relationship must be founded on a special time and day set aside for Him. The fact that God spoke to Noah again seven days before He judged the world with the flood suggests that Noah had a regular, separated time with God.
When we enter the time God has set aside, we are soaked in the dew of God's blessings. Our contaminated thoughts, hearts, and bodies are cleansed and made holy again, and our souls become wise and lovely through the blessings of holiness. A few weeks before our summer mission trip, we were contacted by a sister who used to attend Nations Mission Church in Manhattan, New York. She is a businesswoman who lives in Korea but travels to the U.S. frequently. She had also been on a mission trip with us to South Dakota.
While visiting the U.S., she heard that we were pastoring in Seongsu-dong, so we arranged to meet when she returned to Korea. The next day, she attended our Sunday service. During my sermon, I shared how I first felt a strong desire for money when we were missionaries in Mongolia. I said that with money, we could have built a mission center and done various things for the youth in that land. After the service, the sister said that God had put it on her heart during the sermon to donate money to help build that building. A few weeks later, we were connected to a poor village called Nalaikh, 30-40 minutes from Ulaanbaatar. We already had a mission field we visited regularly twice a year, in the summer and winter, but this time the Lord led us to Nalaikh for the first time. We served there for two weeks.
The first week, a team of pastors and elderly members from my in-laws' church in Namyangju came and ministered to the children and visited homes. Although they were old and had physical difficulties, they cooked for the children and did an excellent job. One afternoon, after our children's Sunday school, the elders and a female pastor from that church wanted to sing in Mongolian. They stood in front and started. I was pushed to the front to play the guitar and sing with them in Mongolian, and they kept singing. Missionary Jang Jung-im, in the audience, also kept signaling for us to keep singing. I could feel how thirsty these elders were for worship. As we sang together, the Holy Spirit gave me the feeling that God was making worship happen in this land.
The following week, a team of about 10 people from Nations Mission Church in Korea and about 10 young people from our church plant, Mongolian Mission Church (MMC), came together. We returned to the same place in Nalaikh and ministered to the children and families. We took a short break during the mission to look at buildings for sale in Ulaanbaatar. When we returned to Korea, Missionary Jang Jung-im and I both shared that God had given us the heart to build a mission center not in Ulaanbaatar, but in Nalaikh, where we had just served. The idea was for a mission center where children could come to study, learn languages or musical instruments, and worship on Sundays—a place that would give them hope. Now, Badam, a local Mongolian, is looking for land. Next year, we will hopefully see a building go up and a place of dreams for these children. We don't create our own lives; instead, it is the time we spend in fellowship with God, listening to His voice, during the seventh day—the time God has prepared—that determines the course of our lives.
Third, they continued to listen for God's voice in the dark, just as they had in the light. Noah did not rush out of the ark just because the ground was dry. We can only imagine how excited and eager they must have been. However, they waited for God to speak to them, and only then did they come out.
"Then God said to Noah, 'Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring out every kind of living creature that is with you—the birds, the animals, and all the creatures that move along the ground—so they can multiply on the earth and be fruitful and increase in number on it.' So Noah came out, together with his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives." (Genesis 8:15-18) Every Christian wants to hear God's voice. We often find it difficult to hear God's voice when we are in a difficult situation or when we strongly desire something. Noah listened to God's voice and came out of the ark, even in that moment of excitement. There is incredible growth when we try to hear God's voice in any situation.
One day, we visited the home of a single mother in Nalaikh. It wasn't a ger, but the stairs going up to the house were charred black from a fire. A middle-aged woman named Khandar lived there with her daughter and young grandchild. She had liver cancer, so we shared the Word and prayed with her. As we were leaving, her young daughter, who looked like she was in elementary school, stood in the corner holding her baby and watching us. Her eyes were filled with gratitude and kindness, but also with fear and worry. As we prayed, the words "violence," "alcohol," and "fear" came to my mind in connection with the home, and we prayed against them. Even as we left, the child's eyes lingered in my mind. What was God trying to tell me through the look in her eyes?
Another day, the lay leader of that church invited us to his home. He had a house called a "Khasha Beshing" in his yard. It had electricity, but no running water or heating, much like a ger. He showed us a ger tent next to it, which he called the children's reading room. It was a dark, dim ger with unorganized books and various items piled up. Despite this, I could feel his desperate desire to create a space for the children of the village. We couldn't have foreseen that an unnamed church member from a Manhattan mission church would share the blessings God had given her to give hope and dreams to the poor of Mongolia, just as Noah could not see the water receding while floating on the sea.
In all the work we do for the Lord in this world, God's secrets and providence are hidden. We don't know when, how, or where the fruit will grow. Like the people who received the five and two talents, we must live every moment as if we are doing everything for the Lord.
Do you believe that when we listen to God's voice, a soul and body bound by darkness will enter the kingdom of heaven?
Fourth, God continues to love and forgive, even knowing we will sin again. The fourth thing we should pay attention to is what Noah did first when he came out of the ark. "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it." (Genesis 8:20) The land that awaited Noah was not a beautiful, breathtaking landscape. The flood and storms had left the land desolate, barren, and devastated. In this situation, Noah first built an altar and offered a blood sacrifice.
Noah knew about the blood sacrifice passed down from Adam and Abel. The offering Noah made on that devastated land was a burnt offering, sacrificed by fire, from all the clean animals and clean birds. "Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it." (Genesis 8:20) The smell of burning animals cannot be pleasant, but the Bible says God "smelled the pleasing aroma." (Genesis 8:21) And we must pay attention to what God said next in verse 21: "The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: 'Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.'"
The word "even though" in the original text is a powerful statement. God knew that people would continue to sin, yet He said He would not curse the earth with a flood again. This shows us God's compassionate heart, love, and forgiveness even in the midst of judgment. "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease." (Genesis 8:22) By saying, "As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest," God promised to give us the grace to be able to sow and reap. By promising to give us spring, summer, fall, and winter, He promised to give us a suitable and protected natural environment to live in.
When we love and forgive someone, the hardest thought is, "They will just do it again." This thought stops us from loving and forgiving. In these moments, we should meditate on God's heart. He doesn't love us because we are without sin or perfect; He knows that we are sinners and that our hearts and minds are evil, yet He continues to love and forgive. When we choose to do the same, our inner being matures into a firm and broad heart that is not easily shaken. This is the love of Jesus, who shed His blood on the cross—a love that forgave our sins in advance.
Application
Do you believe in a God who does not forget?
Do you believe that the water is receding?
What is the voice God is speaking to you?