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Noah: A Life of Faith
December 24, 2011
Noah moved with fear to build the ark when warned by God of impending doom. This is shared in the faith chapter in the Bible.
Hebrews
11:7
By
faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with
fear,
prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned
the
world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Imagine
what it must have been like to receive advance notice from God of
impending doom and be given a directive to build an ark. And
imagine what it may have been like given the few details we have
regarding the account of Noah's life. We don't know if boat
building was common to Noah's locale because we don't know if he lived
near a body of water or not. Imagine how strange building a
boat
would seem if Noah lived in the middle of a desert far removed from
water. To many, the building of a boat probably didn't make
any
sense, let alone a boat the size of the Ark. Add on top of
that
the directive to gather animals for the ark, and all of a sudden, one
could understand how Noah could have been considered the religious nut
job of his age. Yet in faith, this religious nut job obeyed
God,
built an ark, saved his family, and condemned the world.
Genesis
6:1- Genesis 8:22
And
it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,
and
daughters were born unto them, That the sons of God saw the daughters
of men
that they were fair; and
they took them wives of all which they chose. 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. There were
giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the sons
of God
came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them,
the
same became mighty
men which were of old,
men of renown. And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was
great in the earth, and that every
imagination of the thoughts of his
heart was only evil
continually. And
it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved
him at
his heart. And the LORD said, I will
destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man,
and
beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it
repenteth me
that I have made them. But Noah found
grace in the eyes of the LORD. These are
the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man perfect
in his
generations, Noah
walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and
Japheth. The earth also was corrupt
before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God
looked upon the earth, and, behold, it
was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the
earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh
is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them;
and,
behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make thee an ark
of gopher wood; rooms shalt
thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.
And this is the
fashion which
thou
shalt make it of:
The length of
the ark shall be three
hundred cubits, the breadth of it fifty cubits,
and the height of it thirty cubits. A
window shalt thou make to the ark, and in a cubit shalt thou finish it
above;
and the door of the ark shalt thou set in the side thereof; with lower,
second, and third stories shalt
thou make it. And, behold, I, even I, do bring a flood of
waters upon the earth, to destroy all flesh, wherein is the
breath of
life, from under heaven; every
thing that is in the
earth
shall die. But with thee will I establish
my covenant; and thou shalt come into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and
thy
wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And
of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shalt
thou bring
into the ark, to keep them alive
with thee; they shall be male and
female. Of fowls after their kind, and
of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after
his
kind, two of every sort shall
come unto thee, to keep them alive.
And take thou unto thee of all food that
is eaten, and thou shalt gather it to thee;
and it shall be for food for
thee, and for them. Thus did Noah;
according to all that God commanded him, so did he. And the
LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and
all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in
this
generation. Of every clean beast thou
shalt take to thee by sevens, the male and his female: and of beasts
that are
not clean by two, the male and his female. Of fowls also of
the air by sevens, the male
and the female; to keep seed alive upon the face of all the earth.
For yet seven days, and I will cause it to
rain upon the earth forty days and forty nights; and every living
substance
that I have made will I destroy from off the face of the
earth. And Noah did according unto all that the LORD
commanded him. And Noah was six
hundred years old when the flood of waters was upon the earth.
And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife,
and his sons' wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of
the flood.
Of clean beasts, and of beasts that are
not clean, and of fowls, and of every thing that creepeth upon the
earth, There
went in two and two unto Noah into the ark, the male and the female, as
God had
commanded Noah. And it came to pass
after seven days, that the waters of the flood were upon the
earth. In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in
the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were
all the
fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were
opened. And the rain was upon the earth forty days and
forty nights. In the selfsame day
entered Noah, and Shem, and Ham, and Japheth, the sons of Noah, and
Noah's
wife, and the three wives of his sons with them, into the ark; They,
and every
beast after his kind, and all the cattle after their kind, and every
creeping
thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind, and every fowl after
his
kind, every bird of every sort. And they
went in unto Noah into the ark, two and two of all flesh, wherein is the
breath of life. And they that went in,
went in male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him: and the
LORD
shut him in. And the flood was forty
days upon the earth; and the waters increased, and bare up the ark, and
it was
lift up above the earth. And the waters
prevailed, and were increased greatly upon the earth; and the ark went
upon the
face of the waters. And the waters
prevailed exceedingly upon the earth; and all the high hills, that were
under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen
cubits upward did the waters prevail; and the mountains were
covered. And all flesh died that moved upon the earth,
both of fowl, and of cattle, and of beast, and of every creeping thing
that
creepeth upon the earth, and every man: All in whose nostrils was the
breath of life, of all that was in the
dry land, died.
And every living substance was destroyed which
was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping
things,
and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and
Noah
only remained alive, and they
that were with him
in the ark. And
the waters prevailed upon the earth an hundred and fifty
days. And God remembered Noah, and every living
thing, and all the cattle that was with him
in the ark: and God made a
wind to pass over the earth, and the waters asswaged; The fountains
also of the
deep and the windows of heaven were stopped, and the rain from heaven
was
restrained; And the waters returned from off the earth continually: and
after
the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters were abated.
And the ark rested in the seventh month, on
the seventeenth day of the month, upon the mountains of Ararat.
And the waters decreased continually until the
tenth month: in the tenth month, on the
first day of the
month,
were the tops of the mountains seen. And
it came to pass at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window
of the
ark which he had made: And he sent forth a raven, which went forth to
and fro,
until the waters were dried up from off the earth. Also he
sent forth a dove from him, to see if
the waters were abated from off the face of the ground; But the dove
found no
rest for the sole of her foot, and she returned unto him into the ark,
for the
waters were on the
face of the whole earth: then he put forth his hand,
and took her, and pulled her in unto him into the ark. And he stayed
yet other
seven days; and again he sent forth the dove out of the ark; And the
dove came
in to him in the evening; and, lo, in her mouth was an olive
leaf pluckt
off: so Noah knew that the waters were abated from off the earth.
And he stayed yet other seven days; and sent
forth the dove; which returned not again unto him anymore.
And it came to pass in the six hundredth and
first year, in the first month, the
first day of the
month, the
waters were dried up from off the earth: and Noah removed the covering
of the
ark, and looked, and, behold, the face of the ground was dry.
And in the second month, on the seven and
twentieth day of the month, was the earth dried. And God
spake unto Noah, saying, Go forth of
the ark, thou, and thy wife, and thy sons, and thy sons' wives with
thee. Bring forth with thee every living thing that is
with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl,
and of cattle, and of every
creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed
abundantly in
the earth, and be fruitful, and multiply upon the earth. And
Noah went forth, and his sons, and his
wife, and his sons' wives with him: Every beast, every creeping thing,
and
every fowl,
whatsoever creepeth upon the earth, after their kinds,
went forth out of the ark. And Noah
builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every clean beast, and of
every
clean fowl, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And the LORD
smelled a
sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse
the ground
any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart is evil from
his youth; neither will I again smite any more everything living, as I
have
done. While the earth remaineth,
seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day
and
night shall not cease.
The story of Noah seems extreme and almost apocolyptic. Some
try to explain away this event as a local flood that over years became
exaggerated. There is a warning given to us by Jesus about
Noah that is something we can take to heart. And if we
carefully consider what we are told, we can even apply this warning
through the eyes of faith.
Matthew
24:37-39
But as the
days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of
the Son of man be. For
as in the days
that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and
giving
in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark, And knew not
until
the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the
Son of
man be.
So we know that Noah was named a
person of faith, that his obedience saved him, and we know his story
with the details that are given to us in the Bible and can only guess
the hardship Noah experienced. Then we are told that the days
before the return of Jesus will be much like the days immediately
before the flood. Life will seem normal to many so for many
there may be no sense of urgency to obey and we must remember that Noah
obeyed and his obedience saved his life and the life of all in his
family.
All verses are from the King James Version.
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provided by Tom Laign. To all who may believe differently, I also extend peace and love.
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