Imagine Being Noah

Imagine Being Noah
A Lighthearted, but Serious Message

Genesis chapter 6 and 7

Noah was selected by God to carry out a critical task. The gist of that task is captured in Genesis 7:23 …Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark.

How did it all start?
Noah was born the son of Lamech, who died just five years before the flood occurred. Noah’s grandfather Methuselah, it appears, died in the flood.

Noah was born into hard times and what seems to be a neighborhood gone bad. The church folk of the day began to seriously backslide (Gen. 6:2-8). They compromised their values. Those who were raised in the church began to date and hang out with those who didn’t believe. Eventually, because the men liked these good-looking women, they married them.   Thus the compromise is complete and the backsliding continues.

Now Noah was different. He walked with God and God found favor with him (Gen.6:8-9). This means he probably didn’t hang out with the rest of the gang very often. To the crowd that has every inclination of the thoughts of their heart being evil (Gen. 6:5), someone like Noah can be a real downer. Noah probably was not the most popular of guys growing up and it just got worse. He wouldn’t have made the football or basketball team. After all they had the Nephilim in the neighborhood in those days and those guys were men of renown (Gen 6:4). Nobody likes a blameless guy unless he can jump really high or throw a ball really far and even then some folks are still not going to like him. Just ask Tim Tebow.

Now this lack of popularity probably came in handy later in a few different ways. For one, since Noah wasn’t on the football or basketball team, and wasn’t necessarily real popular, he was probably a good student. Those math skills are about to become useful. Maybe too, he took woodworking and that’s going to be handy someday as well.

Somehow Noah found a girl that would marry him in spite of his unpopularity and they had three sons named Shem, Ham, and Japheth. This part works out real well for us since Shem is the father of the Jewish people (think Semites – just drop the h) and the Jewish people were the people from which Jesus came and that’s a good thing for us as we really need Jesus to keep us from having a fate even worse than the folks in the story of Noah.

Now God had become displeased with man and his rebellion and evil ways; so much so that His solution was to wipe mankind from the face of the earth. So God came to Noah with a task.

The conversation went something like this. “Noah”, says God. First of all, let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. Let’s not act all nonchalant and cool regarding the fact that God is talking to Noah. How often do you hear God calling your name? God says, “Noah, I am going to put an end to all people.” Noah thinks, “well that can’t be good since I’m a people.” God says, “I’m going to destroy both them and the earth. So build yourself an ark.” Noah says, “ok…what’s an ark?” “Noah, build it out of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. Make it 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.” “That’s a lot of wood, God. Where am I going to get all that wood and where am I going to build it? You know, my neighborhood organization has zoning laws and with all the ‘green’ stuff going on these days folks are not going to be too happy with me clearing out all those trees.”

God continues, “I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth and to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it.” Noah says, “alright, who is this really? Am I on Candid Camera?” God goes on to assure Noah that he and his family will be spared, which undoubtedly makes Noah a little bit relieved and glad.

So what kind of thoughts did Noah deal with in the upcoming days? “Man, God is really mad. I mean to destroy the entire world, wow.” “I must be pretty special for God to spare only me. Now who’s the one that’s too cool for school?” “Those guys that ignored me and picked on me in school are in for it now. Hey, they deserve it.” “Wow God, the whole world? Seriously? Doesn’t that seem a little harsh?”

You see, we always battle with thinking we know better than God. Sure, destroying the whole world seems harsh. It is harsh. But we do not know the hearts of men. We know the heart of an evil man who is not going to repent no better than we do the heart of a sinful man who will eventually repent and turn to God.

Some other things Noah probably dealt with – “God this is a lot of work for an old man. Can’t you help me out here? I mean I just get started this morning and my saw blade breaks. I’m just trying to do your work. You could have kept that blade from breaking.” “How am I supposed to get all those animals? And how do I know which one is male and female for all of them?” There’s no way this is going to work.” “How am I supposed to keep the lions from eating all the rabbits?” Don’t worry they’ll multiply.

Yet in spite of whatever doubts he had, “Noah did everything just as God commanded Him.” (Gen 6:22) The time came. The animals started to come. Imagine if one couple came and both were males. “Noah, I told you one of each, male and female;” “Why can’t you just change one of them God?” Actually, an interesting miracle that is sometimes overlooked is found in Genesis 7:8. It states that the animals came to Noah and entered the ark – God drew them.

What an incredible amount of faith was required for Noah to build that ark. He undertook a giant task with nothing more than what he thought God was saying to him. When God speaks to us how do we respond? We probably question whether it is really God speaking. Don’t you think Noah must have done the same? I’ve heard the question, “how do I know it is God speaking?”, so many times. How did Noah know? That would have been quite an investment for him to undertake without knowing it was God speaking. Perhaps we can find a clue in the verse that says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.” (Gen 6:9)

We might also question and debate with God regarding what He is saying. I don’t believe this is a bad thing to do. God is willing to work with us to get it to sink in. Noah may have very well done the same thing. Moses questioned God’s orders and things worked out well there. He didn’t see himself as the one to talk to Pharoah. It is hard for us in these vessels to comprehend and absorb what God has for us. The problem is not in the questioning but rather when the questioning becomes permanent or turns into rebellion. Quite often when God first speaks to us it doesn’t make sense, but He will patiently persevere and if we do as well it can become clear.

Notice in the story that Noah never questions why. I don’t mean why build the ark. The reason for that was that it was going to flood. I’m referring to the “why destroy the world?” Now we do not know for certainty that the question did not enter Noah’s mind, but it would certainly seem plausible that if he had asked God such a question it would have been included because of its significance. We don’t need to know the ‘why’ in order to obey. Our obedience is not conditional upon knowing the why. That implies that we are withholding our acceptance and obedience based on our opinion of the merits of God’s motives.

God found Noah trustworthy enough to give this enormous task to him. How trustworthy does God find you? What task can he give you?