Because we named our son Noah AND I was not in the meeting when the speakers for a series of church activities was discussed, I was assigned to speak about the life of… Noah (from the bible). Sharing with you here some of my notes.
We named our son Noah because the bible says Noah (the one who built the ark) was a righteous man, blameless in his generation and that he walked in close fellowship with God (Genesis 6:9). Who wouldn’t want that for their child? Basically, we 1) want our Noah to have a personal relationship with God and walk in close fellowship with Him, 2) declare that Noah will do great things for God, even things that seem impossible, through God’s direction, favor, provision, and grace, and 3) that Noah’s faith and obedience to God will flow from his heart to his life. That’s basically the legacy of the life of Noah (from the bible). You can read more about our dear Chadric Noah here.
The text assigned to me was:
By faith Noah,
being warned by God
concerning events as yet unseen,
in reverent fear constructed an ark
for the saving of his household.
By this he condemned the world
and became an heir of the righteousness
that comes by faith.
Hebrews 11:7
It’s one verse, but knowing the story of Noah from Genesis, there’s so much Hebrews 11:7 tells us, just by going line by line.
By faith Noah…
Why did God choose Noah? God saw that humans were so wicked—every intention and thought of their hearts were only evil, continually, so much so that He regretted He made mankind and He grieved in His heart (Genesis 6:5-6 ESV). Another translation (NLT) tells us that God was sorry He made man and it broke His heart.
But then there was Noah, who was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God (Genesis 6:9). After describing Noah, the bible tells us that God commanded Noah to build an ark. First, Noah had a relationship with God. Then, he received the instruction and he knew it was God.
Do we want instruction from God? Do we want to know if it’s God telling us to do something or not? First, we have to be in genuine, close fellowship with Him. Fellowship means spending time with someone. Are we spending time with God?
Genuine faith means having a genuine relationship with God.
…being warned by God…
God gives us confirmations, warnings, direction. Are we listening?
You know when someone is cooking and you can smell it from afar? You don’t know what it is but you know it’s good! You have to be at a certain proximity to smell it. A lot of times, it’s like that with God. Are we close enough to hear Him whisper?
…concerning events as yet unseen…
A genuine relationship with God means living a life of obedience.
It doesn’t matter if things don’t look like they make the perfect sense. If God tells us to do something, we do it. Did you notice that in Genesis there is no record of Noah talking the whole time since God told Noah to build an ark through the time they settled on dry land? Only God was doing the talking. Noah simply obeyed. Maybe he said something or he conversed with God throughout, but whatever Noah spoke of, it was not recorded in Scripture. To me, this speaks multitudes that what’s important is obedience.
God speaks. We obey. Not the other way around.
…in reverent fear…
Noah was close friends with God, but there was also a line of authority. He had reverent fear of God and he knew, even when in the natural there seemed to be no trace of flooding, because God said so (and he knew it was indeed God because He had a relationship with Him), Noah had no problem believing and heeding the warning.
Some of us want to build right away but did we hear from the Lord? Noah built an ark because God told him to. Peter walked on water because Jesus called him out. Let’s be careful about jumping out of the boat just because we don’t like the people there, or it’s getting too tight, or the winds are too strong. We need to hear from the Lord and we can only know it’s Him if we have a genuine relationship with Him.
Read the continuation of this post here.
