Noah's obedience

The power of words

¹⁴So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. ¹⁶Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. ¹⁷I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.” ²²Noah did everything just as God commanded him. (Genesis 6: 14-22)

God decided to make judgments by the Flood. I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.(verse 17). However, God had a plan to save Noah who was walking with God and his family .But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. (verse 18) . God promised Noah that if he built an ark and entered the ark, he would be able to survive the judgment of the Flood.

Noah was able to walk right in this bad time, but why? I think one of them is inheritance of faith. Noah’s grandfather is Methuselah. Methuselah’s father was Enoch, who walked with God. Methuselah was close to seeing his father walking with God. He should have been positively influenced by that. And I think he told his grandson about it and gave Noah a good inspiration.

Noah built the ark, doing everything God had commanded (verse 22). This is the response of faith. By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.(Hebrews 11: 7). Faith is to believe in things we haven’t seen yet. There were no signs of a deluge, but Noah believed in God’s Word and built an ark 137m long, 23m wide and 14m high, with the exact dimensions God commanded. It is said that a ship larger than this was built in 1884. Noah believed that judgment would come and built an ark to save himself and his family in order to escape judgment. Faith and obedience to God are essential to our religious life.

How ridiculous and ridiculed Noah was by people. Nevertheless, he continued to build the ark, warned people, and preached the word of God (II Peter 2: 5). Unfortunately no one believed Noah’s story except his family. However, the whole family was saved through the faith of Noah. If there is one Christian in the family, salvation is very likely to extend to the whole family. We have hope here. “Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved—you and your household.” (Acts 16:31)

We must remember that God is a dear God, but also a righteous God who does not overlook human sin. Jesus said in a sermon about the end. As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.(Matthew 24: 37-39) The Second Coming of Jesus will come suddenly. We must be vigilant and awake.

Noah is our example of living in the end times. Noah was a man who wasn’t swept away. Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. (Romans 12:2). Noah was a man who did not follow the flow of the world, but who obeyed the Word of God, and who believed in God, walked with God, and conveyed the word of God.