The Holy Spirit had me in the story of Noah recently. It’s easy with these uber common bible stories to skim read, auto-connect dots, and not really dig in. I was battling not just the familiarity, but for many of us, this story was first imparted to us as children. So, it has that softened context draped over it. You know, visuals of happy pairs of animals parading in lock step toward the Ark while a smiling, burly Noah swings the hammer underneath a big yellow sun and crisp blue sky. All is well in those pictures we colored as young souls in church.
That, however, was not the reality. Not even close. This was one of the most harrowing periods in humanities’ brief existence. Noah was hammering in the shadow of God’s utterance “I wished I’d never created them.”
Genesis 6:6-7 “And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
We’re only 3 or 4 pages into the bible and God is so disenchanted with the selfish lot that is humanity that annihilation is the only cure. God was done with us. That grieves my heart to think we’re so intensely inconsiderate, but that was the situation. God was determined to blot us out… and would have except for the life of one man.
"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
Jesus speaks of the “narrow way” in Matthew 7: 13-14.
“For the gate is wide and the way is easy that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many. For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few.”
At this moment in time, humanities perpetuation is tightrope walking the narrowest of paths. Our survival is linked to only one righteous man, the heartbeat of Noah. In other words, you and I would have never been except for this man.
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.”
As a man, Noah gets my attention. He’s more than a shipbuilder, he’s a favored son of God. What were the attributes of this righteous man that could be incorporated into our lives? How did he respond to God and His commands?
Here are the nuggets I came away with:
Noah walked with God.
He obeyed God, immediately.
He was not swayed by the opinions of others.
He worked to build the kingdom’s capacity, not personal wealth.
He worked with diligence until the job was finished.
He finished on time.
He worked tirelessly for others.
Noah wasn’t perfect. He bent some nails, split gopher boards, covered himself in pitch but he maintained the focus of toil for 125 years to finish God’s blueprint for a uniquely massive vessel (an Ark) for an event that had never occurred (rain, floods) for the sake of saving others (humanity).
While the rest of the world pursued their own desires, Noah listened to and obeyed God. He went to work for our sake. Noah didn’t quit.