By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith. Hebrews 11:7
Have you ever wondered what it was like for Noah, to get a command from Almighty God at the age of 500 to build a boat? Not just any boat, but a huge boat, roughly 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, by 51 feet high. Also at this point in his life, he did not have children! According to Genesis 5:32, he was 500 years old when they begin to have children!
This happened less than 2000 years after creation. Scientist estimate there were 10.9 million people on the earth at that time. Yet, only 8 survived! The setting was the extreme wickedness of Humanity.
Genesis 6:5 “Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”
God had reached his limit and judgment was pronounced. A worldwide flood would destroy all who would not repent and believe. He would give them roughly 120 years to respond while the Ark was being constructed. Noah preached righteousness and salvation but just like today, few listened. Genesis 6:8-9 the bible tells us “but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.”
Many times, in scripture we find God instructing his servants to do things that seem absurd. Think about Joshua instructing the Israelites to walk around the Walls of Jericho for seven days and the walls fell. Think about the Israelites walking across the Red Sea on dry ground, and then God swallowing up Pharaoh’s army in that same spot when they followed. I could go on, but you get the picture. God asks many times for us to do things that seem absurd or impossible, but if he asks, you can rest assured he has a plan, and when followed it works perfectly.
Noah had to hire help to move those large timbers and construct the Ark. Remember his sons were not born when he received his instructions to build the Ark. Can’t you imagine the jeers and remarks from those around him? Those he employed must have truly been cold-hearted men. They worked for a man who was preaching righteousness, they took his money but did not respond to his warnings. I wonder how many wanted to believe but allowed peer pressure to persuade them not to follow. One thing is for sure he and his wife must have been good godly parents. In a wicked world, they trained their children to obey and it saved their lives.
God gave Noah very specific instructions on how to build the Ark. Nothing was left to guesswork. He also gives us specific instructions on how to live our lives to please him, and be saved. So many times, I hear Christians say, “the Bible says nothing about ….” but they are wrong. God gives us direct commands, such as thou shalt not or thou shalt, and then he gives biblical principles for the rest of our questions.
A biblical principle is a broad command that can cover many areas of our life. Such as, in I Corinthians 6:19 God instructs us that our body is the temple of the Holy Ghost, therefore, we are not to do anything to our bodies that would harm it. In this principle, you cover drugs, smoking, overeating, (covered elsewhere too) drinking alcohol etc.
Noah’s obedience was probably the greatest example of persistent faith in all of the Bible. Noah stayed with the task for 120 years. It would have been easy to say, “we have no friends, surely God understands we need friends,” “our boys need to be involved with other kids, they’re living such a sheltered life,” or “we’ll just put a hold on this project, no one is listening anyway.” If Noah would have followed any of our excuses for slacking off on his work, or mixing with the world his situation may have been much like Lot’s. Lot and two of his daughters were spared from Sodom and Gomorrah, but because of the way he compromised his walk with God, he lost the rest of his family. He didn’t even have a good friend that he had influenced enough to believe him. According to Ezekiel 33:6, Lot will have the blood of many on his hands when he stands before God. Noah, on the other hand, lived an obedient godly life and warned the people. He will not have the blood of those that perished in the flood on his hands.
A few years ago we visited a replica of the Ark in Kentucky. The magnitude of this boat was overwhelming, no one could have missed what was happening with Noah and his family. They will have no excuse for their “missing the boat.”
Will those around you be influenced for the cause of Christ because of you? Are you peculiar, distinctly different, because of your walk with God? In I Peter 2:9, Titus 2:14, and Deuteronomy 14:2 God gives us the title of being His peculiar people, set apart for Him. If you are following the commands of God in your daily living you will be very different as time goes on. We are to stand firm, just as Noah did. But, the world is not standing still. It is changing for the worst every day. It leans more and more toward its god, the prince of the air, Satan.
We must never forget that we are here today because one man and his family chose to be different for righteousness sake.
