“And the LORD said, My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years.“  (Genesis 6:3)

We know well the context in which the Lord made this strong affirmation: the men in that time of Noah  were wicked, God saw their heart and He repented to having created them.

But reading, for hundred  time, this famous verse of the Scripture, I have perhaps made notice of a particular verse that I have never noticed  before: God, referring to the man said "he is not but flesh".

Flesh, that is dust, pure and simple organic matter. It was truly only this, the man for God?  To judge from what He has said when He created him,

“.. Let us make man in our image, after our likeness “ (Genesis 1:26).

Much more simple than flesh!  Did He not say that with the animals; in fact to the man only He breathed of His  breath of life (2:7), that is He  gave him an eternal spirit.

Here is what makes us resemble God and it distinguishes us from the animals.

Man is an eternal spirit who lives in a body of flesh.  It is not the flesh...

It is the human spirit who will continue to exist when we leave this mortal body, just as Paul describes the body.

 God formed man from the dust of the earth, but did not say "let us make  man from dust", because for the Lord what He has put within us is more important than the covering for the flesh.   And God saw in Adam only the light, that divine light, that divine excellence that the Lord wanted  to share with us.

God saw Adam with the eyes of love... that typical love that a father  recognizes in the face of a son his own character features.

But something has changed six chapters later. God did not recognize any more the man like a creature made into His image and likeness.

You will say to me: "But certainly that something was changed, the man had sinned and had been chased away from the presence of God, he had become a mortal being." No, I say:  when Adam and Eva were chased from the Garden of Eden, they became mortal only in their physical body; a body that could age, could get ill and held the human spirit prisoner, keeping it from having communion with God.

The sin had separated the man from God, but it had not destroyed that part of him that  lives in eternal.

In fact, still today, those who in this life do not receive Jesus as personal Savior, after death will live  eternity separated from God... but however they will live!

 Even if they could at that point  stop to exist!  But the flames of hell are unfortunately eternal, just like Heaven is eternal.

All have an eternal spirit, not only those who are re- born.  Is an eternal spirit,  also the people who lived in the time of Noah... but God did not see him any more.  So much that in verse 7 of Genesis 6 added to say: "I will exterminate the man from the face of the earth, with the cattle, reptiles and the birds of the air".

The man numbered between the animals!

To him who had given the name to every living creature, now was considered like one of them.  Why?

Because "every flesh on the earth had corrupted its conduct" (v. 11).  Never as in that time was the wickedness of man so great.  A wickedness that had induced the man to only satisfy his flesh  with his 5 physical senses:  "In the days that preceded the flood, the people ate, drank, and got married until when Noah entered the arch; and they did not notice anything, until  the flood  came and  carried them all away "(Matthew 24:38-39).

They were drinking, they were eating, they were gathering together between themselves... in truth it was the man who behaved himself like an animal!

The men did not have any desire of God, while the Lord never stopped yearning for them, although the sin of Adam, a communion with  man. God continued to speak to man, seeking someone that wished to listen to His voice;  and this at times happened, like with Seth, Enoch, and finally Noah.

But all the others, the Scriptures tell us that they did not notice of nothing, that  many of them were distracted, and occupied to satisfy the flesh with its cravings (Roman 13:14).

And to the eyes of God they appeared like many beings of flesh only, because the flesh effectively guided them, she was their landlady and therefore it dictated the law.

Here is the great deceit: when we sin and decide to only follow the desires of the flesh, we become declasses!  The sin devaluates you and it humiliates you. Sin obscures,  hides that divine light that makes you resemble God. It declasses you to a simple "piece of flesh that has its own requirements"!

And you are there, day after day, to satisfy the needs of the flesh and do not know the great treasures you are missing.

Oh, what great deceit! It is the devil this he  knows it and, in continuation, he suggests to you to follow your 5 physical senses, that is not to go beyond that of what you see, you feel, you eat, etc... ,

 Yes, because He knows that in this way you will be like that generation of Noah.

You will be distracted, attempt to follow all that is natural, all of that, that will never bring you to God!

What was the great error of that generation? They were sinners? For certain: from Adam on no one ever was perfect to the eyes of God;  Noah himself was a man who  made errors, but the Scriptures tells us  that he walked with God (Genesis 6:9), that is he decided to walk with God and his 5 senses could not stop him from  listening  to His voice.

 What was the great error of that generation? Perhaps something more terrible than the simple sin:  It was the lack of desire for the things of God!  They did not have any desire of God, and therefore were well that way.

This is worse, because if it is true that the sin throws you down and it brings you far from God, It is also true that it will not be able to however prevent you to return to Him to ask  for forgiveness, if you only want to do it (1^ Giovanni 1:9).

But a hardened conscience, a heart that does not desire God, it is very different.

A heart that does not desire God is distracted and does not know what he is missing.

 This society is dreadful and dangerous, because the Scriptures tells us that "in the last days they will be like those in the times of Noah (Matthew 24:39) and it is absolutely true.  We live in times in which, not only the people outside, but also the Christians are distracted from the world, desiring the things of the world, and they will be pleased to go to Sunday service only, thinking that the Christianity is all there.

We are living in times in which our young people will marry people who do not know God;  times in which the same Christians are happy in having simply a good life and a little money for being able to go on a vacation in  the summer.

These are dangerous times, because the world around us influences and suggests to us to lead a normal life, like all the others.

And we are deceived, believing that in this way we will have a tranquil  life.

But we do not understand  that we are still more exposed to the attacks of the devil.

Because he will not be pleased, and from our normality he will still throw  us more deeply.

But you spend your life in futile things, you do not desire other and you don’t remember any more those great treasures from His riches in Glory they had been prepared for you (Ephesians 1:3).  If only you had decided to truly interest yourself to God,  to His Word, To His will for you, these treasures would have been yours and they would have been manifested in your life.

 Only those who will decide to walk according to the spirit and not to fulfill the desires of the flesh, that is not to walk like those of the world, they will have a life in which God will guide and speak to them, just as He has spoken to Noah, a solid life of blessings and of goals to reach  for God.  A life in which the Lord will protect them while they are doing His will.

 If you know that in your heart there is no desire for the Lord, ask God to help you and to meet you.  Bend  your knees in front of Him  and ask Him for forgiveness for having lived like as if He never had existed.  For having lived a normal life.

Convince yourself of the fact that the devil is tricking you, rendering you satisfied of what you have. And, still worse, making you believe  that there is nothing to change in your life, simply because all around  you live the same way as you.

 If this is your case, understand that you are losing your life. The only chance that you will have to serve God on this earth.

"They did not notice of anything until the flood came and it carried them all away."

 If this is your condition, when Jesus will return and take His Church, you will discover that you were very distracted to notice that the time of His return were mature. And then you will repent that you have not been found between those servants whom the Lord has found doing His will (Matthew 24:46).

Then you will want to return back, but you will acknowledge that you also you have been deceived like those to the time of Noah.

Then you will understand to have lived like it was nothing other than flesh...