Noah the Faithful

Intro

In the previous passage, judgement has been rendered: humanity’s heart is evil. Luckily, however, God has found one among the humans whose heart is not evil like the rest of humanity. Noah has found favor in God’s eyes, he is a righteous man who will walk with the LORD. This theme of Noah’s righteousness continues throughout the narrative of the flood story. When God speaks, Noah obeys. He is faithful in keeping God’s commandments.

Building the Ark

God as portrayed in Genesis is not a static, stoney, God who is unaffected by his creation. No, this God is deeply involved in the goings on of his world. When his creation rebels, his heart is grieved, and he responds with judgement. When his creation is in right relationship with him, however, our God also responds! Noah displays his faithfulness to God, and God responds by providing a pathway to life for Noah. To carry him through the storm, God tells Noah to build an ark.

The instructions for this ark a rather mysterious. Firstly, because we don’t really know what materials the Hebrew tells us God tells Noah to use. We have no idea what “gopher wood” is, and the Hebrew word sometimes translated as “pitch” is also not very well understood. Secondly this ark is massive for its time. The ark Noah builds is 450 ft. long, 75ft wide, and 45ft. tall. To put this in perspective, the ark was about 1.5 football fields long, half as wide as a football field, and as tall as a three story building. And, somehow, God expects Noah to build this gigantic ship all on his own, with maybe his three sons to help him.

This is a monumental task! Nevertheless, the ark may not have been quite big enough. As big as it is, the ark still doesn’t seem quite big enough to fit two of every animal on the earth (or seven pairs of the clean animals!), including Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives, plus food and supplies to survive on for both his family *and* the animals. While 450 feet long may sound like a lot, a small cruise ship these days is about 850 feet long, and only has room, on average, to carry 2,000 passengers.

And here’s the craziest part of the whole deal: God does not include any instructions on how Noah is supposed to operate this ship. There aren’t enough people to row the ship, and there’s no rudder mechanism or sails mentioned. This is a giant wooden box that Noah is supposed to ride out in the largest storm in the history of the world with no way to control it!

And yet, “Noah did this, he did all that God commanded him.” As crazy as God’s plan sounds, Noah had faith. “Noah, build a giant wooden box, and I’m going to put you in it while a storm destroys the world” And Noah responds “You got it!”.

Boarding the Ark

And so Noah and his family board this ark with all of the animals, which must have been very cramped, and “the LORD shut him in.” The flood comes, and God “blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human eings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, adn those that were with him in the ark.” Do you see what’s happening here? In the beginning, God created the heavens in the earth. His Spirit hovered over the face of the waters, and when he spoke, the waters below were divided from the waters above. Order was brought to the chaos, and life brought forth from the midst of barrenness. Now, the created order has been shattered. The chaotic waters close back in over God’s creation. The world becomes a barren oceanic desert once more! And, in the order they were created, teh birds and the livestock and even the humans return to nothingness. The world has been uncreated.

Yet, even in the midst of this terrible darkness, God has begun to make things new again. He spoke, and through Noah’s obedience, it was so! With the help of Noah the faithful, God has planted a seed for new creation. This hope of new creation comes through the obedience of Noah, but also soley by the power and will of God. It was God who made the plan for Noah’s salvation, and God’s mighty hand was the only one that could “shut him in” to the ark. It was not Noah who steered the ark during the raging storm, but the hand of God. God took the wheel. Who knew Carrie Underwood was a theologian?

Nevertheless, this was certainly a time of great fear and anxiety of Noah. It is significant that the flood story shifts perspective once the rains come. We no longer get to see God’s view of things. Instead, God dissappears from the scene, and only the chaotic, destructive flood water is seen. I think the author is inviting us to see through Noah’s eyes. Imagine with me for a moment that you were in that ark. There is no means of steering, there are wild animals crying out in terror as the waves crash against the ship. Perhaps there was a window where we could look out and see the destruction of the whole world around hiusm. Maybe there is no such window, and we can only guess what is becoming of the world outside our cramped wooden box. We can feel the waves tossing the ark about, we can hear the thunder crack and the wind howl, and we do not know what has become of the world beyond the walls of the ark. This would certainly have tested Noah’s faith. Does God remember me? Has he forgotten about me, here in this wooden boat, being tossed about by the waters of the flood? Maybe Noah shared in the lament of the Psalmist, “Why, O LORD, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble? God has forgotten, he has hidden his face! How long O LORD? Will you forget me forever? “ Maybe he joined the cry of Jeremiah, who writes in the book of Lamentations, “Why have you forgotten us completely? Why have you forsaken us these many days? Restore us to yourself, that we may be restored; renew our days as of old— unless you have utterly rejected us, and are angry with us beyond measure.”

For 40 days and 40 nights, the storm raged on. And for 150 days, almost half a year, Noah sat in his boat, wondering where God had gone. Has he forgotten? Has he turned his face away? Does God still see us down here?

I think many times in life, we may feel that we’ve boarded the ark with Noah. We’ve been a faithful servant. We’ve built the ark Just as God said, and he shut us up inside, promising that he would bring us through the storm. Yet here we sit, tossed about on the chaotic waters of life.

There was a time in my life where I could very much relate to Noah sitting in his ark. When I was in middle school, I lived in the heart of the Bible belt: rural Mississippi. I had always said my prayers before meals and even before I went to bed. I was probably the only one in my family that actually read the Bible. I picked this habit up from my grandmother. Every time we’d visit her, she would read the Bible with my sister and I, and she’d say prayers with us before we went to bed. I was very young, just barely a teenager, and definitely not a saint, but I did try my best to follow God. And then, in the span of just a few months, a storm hit. We moved from Kosciusko, MS to Brookhaven, MS for my Dad’s new job. I left all of my friends behind as we moved three and half hours away. Then, just as we arrived there, My grandmother, who had taught me the little bit I knew about God, took her own life. In the following weeks after that, my dog died. And, as if that weren’t enough, my parents split up too. I was left in an unfamiliar place, with no friends, and an utterly broken family. I felt all alone. I became terribly depressed, and even suicidal at times during middle school and high school. And I asked God, “Where were you? Do you still see me?” But every time I’d ask, another wave would crash against the ship. And I totally lost my faith. I remained an athiest from 6th grade until my sophomore year of high school. And yet, even in the midst of that storm, I can look back now, and I know that God had not forgotten. He was there, guiding the ship, even when I couldn’t see him.

Please don’t misunderstand me: I’m not suggesting that God brought all of that suffering on me. I don’t think God causes us pain, and it is not his will that we face such suffering in life. But, nevertheless, God is at work in the midst of evil and suffering, working to bring good out of the midst of evil, and to turn darkness to light, to bring about redemption.

The Gospel of Noah

That is the gospel of God, found in the story of Noah: God remembers.

This is the gospel of God, revealed in the story of Noah: God remembers. The floods destroyed all of the earth, until only Noah was left. “But God remembered Noah.” And when God remembers, promises are kept, salvation is delivered, and old covenants are renewed. Just as Noah, there are moments in life where we must face the storm. To walk with God is not to be protected from the storm, but to be protected through it. The world is ful of evil, even still, and we are not exempt from the chaos and judgement brought about by sin. Judgement will come, suffering will come, evil will come, chaos will come, but God provides a path to salvation for all those who believe.

In the midst of the chaos of life, cling to that hope. Because God has not forgotten. The waters will recede, dry land will appear once more, and the world will be made new.