Noah what a man of faith!
Can you imagine being Noah and seeing that first rain drop? What do you think he felt? Relief? Surprise? Joy? Maybe a mix of all three.
Perhaps he felt great sorrow as well, as he realized that the people he so faithfully preached to, for around a hundred years, were about to be crushed by the wrath of God.
I think about Noah often. He was all alone. Just him, his wife and his three boys. He was the only man on earth who had a relationship with God. The whole world lived in utter rebellion against Him. (Gen. 6:11). They must have thought he was crazy.
He was building a huge boat, he was saying that rain would make the whole world flood, he was calling people to repentance. He was warning the world about the wrath of God. And yet no one listened. No one repented. Everyone mocked.
Yet Noah kept the faith. And the writer of Hebrews encourages his readers to have faith like Him.
He says,
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.
Noah had faith like few others have had.
He had never seen rain. the Bible tells us that it had never rained on earth (Gen. 2:5). And yet when God told him that he would make it rain he believed without seeing.
He spent a hundred years building a boat. He wasn’t a builder, he definitely wasn’t a sailor and yet he believed the Lord and did as He said. (Gen. 6:22)
Despite the fact that he had never built a boat, he had never seen rain, and the mocking and ridicule he certainly received from his neighbors, he kept the faith and trusted the Lord.
The apostle Peter calls him a herald of righteousness! (2 Pet. 2:25). Oh to have the faith of Noah!
We live in a day and age similar to the day of Noah. It is viewed as crazy to believe what we believe. To believe in only two genders is viewed as crazy. To believe in marriage as defined in the Bible is thought of as evil. To believe in hell and the fact that we deserve it is regarded as demented.
We need the faith of Noah to keep preaching to this hostile and needy world.
Noah was completely alone. He was the only one preaching. Everyone else hated God and were utterly depraved.
Maybe you feel alone. Maybe you’re the only believer in your family. Or the only believer at your job. Or perhaps the only believer at your school. Like Noah you must not give up. You must keep preaching righteousness.
As a missionary there are times I feel alone. My kids are the only Christians in their class at school. We are the only christians in our building and most likely in our whole neighborhood. Yet God has given us his spirit and has given us the gift of faith to continue to preach the truth even when we feel alone.
The fact of the matter is that unlike Noah we are not alone. There are many around the world who have faith in Christ. There have been millions who have come after Noah, who is now in Heaven, who were faithful heralds of the truth until their last breath on earth. We must follow their example and keep fighting the good fight.
The world seems like it is getting worse by the day. The culture is shifting. What we believe is becoming less tolerable by the day. We must stand our ground. We must “keep building the boat”. We must continue being heralds of the truth. Embrace the fact that you stick out and use that to your advantage. You might be mocked, you might be mistreated, but you will have plenty of opportunities to preach the truth to a world that so desperately needs it. And unlike the days of Noah when no-one repented and believed his message, today people are repenting and receiving the gift of faith.
I was reminded this morning in reading 1 Peter that it is such a joy to know Christ, and to know Him without having seen him. Noah had never seen rain and yet he believed and preached. We have never seen Christ and yet we believe in Him and preach. Peter says in 1 Peter 1:8,
Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy.
Jesus says to Thomas in the famous scene of unbelief, that blessed are those who don’t see and yet believe. (John 20:29) We are so blessed to believe without seeing and our reward in Heaven will be great.
And so let’s pray that like Noah, we will boldly and joyfully preach until the day that our faith becomes sight.
Author: Cripplegate