Noah’s Faith to Build the Ark
Noah’s Ark is a story about faithful obedience to God in a world that was far from surrender. Small steps to build the ark meant small steps of faith to be where God needed Noah to be.
Beginning Steps
One of the first memories I recall of wanting others to like me was in Kindergarten. I mostly kept to myself and had more sass to give than conversation. I was a shy redhead who didn’t look like the other kids, and I didn’t have a lot of words to say. Being accepted when you’re sassy and quiet is hard.
Then my mom became the homeroom mom, coming into the classroom every week to help the teacher. Keeping to myself at recess, my mom learned all the handshakes the other kids were doing. She would take me home from school, eat dinner, get showers, and then we would sit and learn how to do the handshakes together. This way, I could show up ready the next day to play with the other kids.
My desire to be accepted at a young age still fits pieces of me now. From the minute we enter the world, we have a desire for acceptance. Our innate instincts develop to form a personality that bonds closely with behaviors we learn from our environment. As we grow older, following the influence of someone to learn how to survive turns into following the influence of someone so that we are accepted, which results in the claw clips in our hair and the high-waisted jeans we wear.
Desiring Faithful Obedience
We desire to find our place in the world like the fit of a perfect puzzle piece someone spent hours searching to find. In a world of billions, we desire to be the one who belongs to a group of people who accept us. We crave to be known – our interests, our picky eating habits, the amount of cream we pour in our coffee, and the size of the shoes on our feet.
When the slow fade of rejection comes from a world waiting to tell you your values and beliefs are crazy, what direction will you step? A step in one direction is isolating, leaving us to feel alone in our oppression, but it is promised to end in victory. A step in the other direction is comforting, leading to popularity and acceptance, but it will end in decay.
Will you take an uncomfortable step of faith, or will you bow to your comfort of being accepted?
Our choice at the end of the day determines which path we travel in obedience to God. I long for people to like me, want me, and love me. Deep down, I crave acceptance from others and look for ways to find it. But deep down I know that building my empire on my feelings will not lead to a relationship of faithfulness. It leads to a crumbling empire when the group who “accepts you” rejects you.
Noah’s Life Reflecting His Faith
God’s Favor
It is often said that Christ-followers can overcome darkness with light. But sometimes life is not as simple, and darkness seems to overtake the light. The days Noah lived, every man was so evil that the Lord grieved His creation.
As a result, “So, the Lord said, ‘I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals, and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them,’” (vs 7). The earth was so tragically lost, God decided to wipe it from being.
There were many people making decisions outside of God’s design. “But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord,” (vs 8). When others were exploring the rocky boundaries of truth, Noah firmly stood to follow God when the world was not.
Noah’s decades of walking with the Lord were known by others because “Noah walked with God.” I imagine a man known for walking with God stood out among the others comfortably conforming – either knowing him as a man worthy of respect or a man diluted with values that are “outdated” or not being “with the times.”
Walking with God becomes a little more lonely when you are the only one walking.
The Command to Build Noah’s Ark
“Make yourself an ark of gopher wood. Make rooms in the ark and cover it inside and out with pitch. This is how you are to make it…” (Genesis 6:14-15). Culture didn’t look different in Noah’s time than it does today. As Noah started building the ark God commanded him to, what do you think others thought? The man who was already out of place is building a boat for a flood in the middle of a desert. Noah’s command from God meant doing what no one had done before, and he was most likely looked at as unreasonable.
What does it look like to go against what others are doing and follow where God is leading?
“God is gracious to Noah in that He gives him a chance to be saved from the flood. However, God didn’t just miraculously protect Noah. He gave him a command to obey: ‘Build a big boat.'” (Noah’s Ark Is Not A Children’s Story)
The Blueprints of Faith
Faith is more than merely trusting, it is acting in vulnerable surrender. We see many times throughout Noah’s story where Scripture says, “And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him,” (6:22, 7:5, 7:16, 8:18). Noah had an innate desire to follow, but it wasn’t to follow others, it was to follow God despite acceptance from others. Read “How to Thrive in Your Waiting” to know more about growing your faith in the impossible seasons.
Noah did as he was commanded to not because he was called to make sense to others but because he was called to be obedient to God.
I long for a faith like Noah who lived a life fully devoted to his Father, following what God said even when it didn’t make sense.
Big faith doesn’t always lead to building something as big as an ark. Big faith means building a relationship with God and following His command no matter how big or small.
Small Faith Leads to New LIFE
Noah followed in his small acts of obedience even when he did not fully know God’s instruction.
Our small steps of faith lead to giant strides in our relationship with God. I think we often imagine the pictures we saw in Sunday school classes with the boat in calm waters, animals surrounding the decks of the boat, and a beautiful rainbow in the sky. However, the intended purpose of the flood wasn’t to make everything perfect – it was to wipe everything out until the land was barren.
When Noah stepped off the boat, it took time for those seeds to multiply and for the grass to become green again.
What small step of faith do you need to take in obedience to God today?
Our small steps of faith teach us that there is purpose in our creation. Our value is not in the people who accept us or reject us, but rather the Creator who takes barren things and gives them new LIFE.
