Hebrews 11:7 NIV
[7] 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.
On 23rd April 2023, the UK government carried out a test of its mobile phone emergency alert system.
This was, of course, met with a wave of conspiratorial nonsense from Luddite theorists who put this attempt to keep the British public safe down to an attempt at government control.
What these people sadly missed is that many other countries had such alerts and that they had been used to save lives in times of national emergency.
What they also didn’t know is that a few months later, we would be in the Philippines when a storm struck the north of the country.
We received an alert. We were well out of the way of the storm, but it was heartening to see the alert go out, safe in the knowledge that lives would have been saved by it.
The story of Noah is very well known: people are evil; God proposes to save Noah and his family - Noah is alerted of the oncoming flood; Noah builds an ark; he and his family are saved.
Maybe you think I'll end my post there.
But the writer to the Hebrews included Noah in his Hall of Faith for a lot more than his skills at boat-building.
What Noah did is an act of faith – an example of faith in action.
But that doesn’t make him some kind of superhero.
The Bible is clear: faith without action is not faith at all.
James 2:14-20 NIV
[14] What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? [15] Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food. [16] If one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,” but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it? [17] In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. [18] But someone will say, “You have faith; I have deeds.” Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by my deeds. [19] You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder. [20] You foolish person, do you want evidence that faith without deeds is useless? https://bible.com/bible/111/jas.2.14-20.NIV
So although what we know about Noah is that he did something quite ‘out-there’ and unusual, the reality is that he was doing no more than exercising Biblical faith in his context.
And that makes this story much more than a nice tale for Sunday school children.
Let’s look firstly at the evidence – the basis for the faith this man exercised.
Now, here is where things get very interesting.
The Bible had this to say about the people of Noah’s age:
Genesis 6:5-6 NIV
[5] The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. [6] The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
But it says this about Noah:
Genesis 6:8-9 NIV
[8] But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. [9] This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
Now, there is another interesting, but later parallel in Genesis – Abraham's nephew Lot, about whom this is said:
2 Peter 2:4-9 NIV
[4] For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; [5] if he did not spare the ancient world when he brought the flood on its ungodly people, but protected Noah, a preacher of righteousness, and seven others; [6] if he condemned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah by burning them to ashes, and made them an example of what is going to happen to the ungodly; [7] and if he rescued Lot, a righteous man, who was distressed by the depraved conduct of the lawless [8] (for that righteous man, living among them day after day, was tormented in his righteous soul by the lawless deeds he saw and heard)— [9] if this is so, then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials and to hold the unrighteous for punishment on the day of judgment.
In other words, both Noah and Lot were upright men living among people who were downright evil.
They both had something else in common.
While Abraham tries to persuade God out of destroying Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 18:16-33), neither Noah nor Lot intercede on behalf of their contemporaries or ask God to save them.
They might sound quite surprising for two men with a reputation for being righteous and godly. However, you get the sense in which God’s verdict against the people of their time was considered by them as righteous, just, holy, fair.
It’s almost as if it’s expected.
What I’m saying is that Noah is reacting to two pieces of evidence when he builds the ark. Of course, one of these is God’s command (Genesis 6:11-22). But the other is the human context in which he lived – the unrelenting evil of those around him.
So we understand, then, why he did what he did. But let’s move along from the evidence Noah built his faith upon to the reaction it caused – that is, what did Noah do next.
Now, here we need to dispel a lot of the myth that has gathered around this glorious historical tale.
There is no evidence at all, for example, that Noah was a desert-dweller. In fact, the very reality that Noah was able to construct this boat from God’s scant directions tells us that Noah likely lived on or near the coast and had some idea about what he was doing.
The Bible also doesn’t tell us that he encountered opposition to what he was doing, although this seems very likely.
What it does say about Noah is that, while life carried on regardless for all the people around him, for him it was fundamentally different; for him, his focus was on surviving the coming punishment the people around him did not believe was coming:
Luke 17:26-27 NIV
[26] “Just as it was in the days of Noah, so also will it be in the days of the Son of Man. [27] People were eating, drinking, marrying and being given in marriage up to the day Noah entered the ark. Then the flood came and destroyed them all. https://bible.com/bible/111/luk.17.26-27.NIV
In other words, Noah’s faith was not, as some would have us believe, shown in his constructing of a boat in the desert, or his bearing with the teasing and disdain of his community, but in the calm and reasoned preparation for a disaster no-one around him believed was coming.
And, in a sense, we can understand why.
We saw the peculiarities in Enoch’s naming of his son Methuselah (which means ‘his death will send’). It isn’t hard to see this as a prophecy of the coming flood – especially as Enoch had history in this area.
But here’s the thing: Methuselah lived for nine hundred and sixty-nine years. He might have been born just three recorded generations before Noah, but in our modern era, that is the equivalent of around twenty generations.
To put it in context, that is the equivalent of someone prophesying of impending judgement against our nation in 1055, eleven years before William the Conqueror and the year after the great schism between the Eastern and Western Rite Catholic Churches began in the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Great Britain wasn’t even a United Kingdom.
America wasn't even close to existing in anything like its current form.
So you can see what likely happened to the people then – and I have to say this, as now.
They would have become incredibly complacent.
They would be unable to believe that God was about to punish their sin. They likely believed that either He didn’t exist, or didn’t mind, or was not able to do anything about it.
So in the middle of that, for someone like Noah to make any preparations at all to avoid a coming judgement would have been even more striking than a man building a boat in the desert.
And that is a reaction of faith: in the face of so much indifference and immorality, to live your life in the fear of a judgement that no-one believes will come because you believe that God is holy and righteous and will not tolerate sin forever. As Peter explained:
2 Peter 3:3-13 NIV
[3] Above all, you must understand that in the last days scoffers will come, scoffing and following their own evil desires. [4] They will say, “Where is this ‘coming’ he promised? Ever since our ancestors died, everything goes on as it has since the beginning of creation.” [5] But they deliberately forget that long ago by God’s word the heavens came into being and the earth was formed out of water and by water. [6] By these waters also the world of that time was deluged and destroyed. [7] By the same word the present heavens and earth are reserved for fire, being kept for the day of judgment and destruction of the ungodly. [8] But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day. [9] The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance. [10] But the day of the Lord will come like a thief. The heavens will disappear with a roar; the elements will be destroyed by fire, and the earth and everything done in it will be laid bare. [11] Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives [12] as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. [13] But in keeping with his promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, where righteousness dwells.
That is the reaction of someone who truly has faith in God.
But as well as Noah’s evidence and his reaction to that evidence, we also see his reward.
And, given the huge disaster that struck, this is a very substantial reward:
Hebrews 11:7 NIV
[7] 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 and his family were saved. They received salvation.
More than that, they also received a relationship with God – a covenant relationship where God made a promise never to flood the earth again:
Genesis 9:12-17 NIV
[12] And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: [13] I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. [14] Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, [15] I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. [16] Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.” [17] So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.” https://bible.com/bible/111/gen.9.12-17.NIV
So Noah received two elements of the life of every Christian: salvation from death and a relationship with God.
I qas a member of the Kids Talk team in our church. We delivered short, entertaining, five-minute homilies that are designed to help the kids feel part of our service and to support the teaching they wouldreceive in Sunday school.
Often the adults got as much out of it as the children – sometimes more.
Why?
Because the message was simplified, direct, entertaining, clear. Several criteria that sermons sometimes don’t meet.
We should never write the story of Noah off as bring just a children’s tale. There may be some debate over the whys and wherefores about this story. However, the fact that it occurs in a number of the cultures of the Near East tells us that there has to be something to it.
But the writer of the Hebrews takes an entirely different approach. He spends no time arguing for the veracity of this tale. He doesn’t need to – his audience are Jews. The story of Noah is part of their collective memory.
Instead, he shows Noah as a hero of faith who, against the background of ever-worsening sin and complacency in his contemporary culture, prepares to face a judgement many believe would not come, and is vindicated when his obedience of God leads to salvation.
This tale is not just for children. It has far too many parallels with contemporary Christian life.
The question is: are we listening?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, how long? How long before You punish the wicked? How long before You take people like me to be with You forever? Help me to remain faithful, like Noah, as I long for your salvation. Amen.
Questions
1. What evidence did Noah have for him to believe in God? What evidence do you have?
2. In what ways are the people of Noah’s day similar to the people of our day?
3. How can you remain faithful like Noah? What can you do?
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