Scripture Notes: Noah (Genesis 6)

Imagine Noah. He is living in the midst of a corrupt, wicked world, but he is still walking with God, still living in intimacy with Him, still following His will. Then one day God gives Noah a message: build an ark. Get ready. Many waters will descend upon the earth. Noah will take his family and a representative number of each animal onto the ark and shut the door. 

This must have seemed incredible to Noah, such a strange message. Is it real? Is there really going to be a flood? Will everyone except Noah and his family and those animals die? Could it be true? In spite of these inevitable questions, Noah gets right to work on the ark. His neighbors must think him insane. Building a huge boat? Gathering animals? Talking about a flood that will destroy everything? Old Noah has really gone around the bend this time.

The pressure must be immense as Noah works. Even his own family probably cannot completely grasp what he is doing and why. Yet they must help because this project requires more than one man to come to completion. So Noah endures…the laughter, the ridicule, the questions about his sanity, his own fears. He keeps going. He keeps building. He trusts God, not himself, not other people, God. 

We know what happens. Noah finishes the ark, gathers his family and the animals, and closes the door. The rain begins. The waters rise. But Noah is safe. Why? Because he believed God and trusted Him rather than giving in to the world.