Noah
Genesis 6:1-9
Ross Cochran tells the story of attending Hillsong Church's Vision Night for leaders with his daughter and son-in-law. Hillsong is a mega church in Melbourne, Australia. They were seated in the third row and the music was awesome as they were led into singing about God’s beautiful and passionate expressions of heart together with 1000’s of people. The pastor spoke of an incredible vision he had for Hillsong Church stirring everyone to greater things. “Then he writes, “All of a sudden I felt so small, even insignificant. Oh yes, I was still very much a part of God's Church, but diminutive, just a face in the crowd. It was a strange feeling. Excitement for what God is doing but a sense of the insignificance of my part in it all.” And that’s the way we can often feel when we begin talking about the heroes of the faith. How could we ever measure up and what could we have to contribute? But the fact is, every hero was a small, insignificant, ordinary person before God placed a call upon their lives. It’s not the person which makes them a hero but their response to God’s call. Thus far, we’ve looked at a small act of a young boy giving over his lunch to Jesus and ending up feeding 15-20,000. Then last week, we looked at a barren woman named Sarah, who long after child-bearing years were over, gave birth to a child which was the beginning of a nation that would become God’s chosen people.
Today, we look at another insignificant person who was living in the middle of the desert and living an ordinary life until God called. His name was Noah and he is one of the best-known heroes of all time. Every child learns the story of Noah but it is a story with adult lessons of life and faith. So let’s set the scene of the beginning of the story. Leading up to Noah’s story, God’s children were in chaos. Cain had killed his brother Abel over jealousy that Abel’s gift to God was better than his own. Jacob deceived his blind father into giving him his brother’s rightful blessing and inheritance. Esau then tries to hunt him down and kill him. Finally, there is Lamech, a cruel and angry man, who kills just for the fun of it.
Sin is everywhere and has affected almost everyone. The message is clear: the perfect world God has created has been destroyed by the sinful acts of humanity and descended to the level of the beasts in the wild. And finally God says, “Enough!” His heart is stricken with grief and disappointment. And so God makes the painful decision to start over and Scripture says, “his heart was deeply troubled.” Walter Brueggemann writes, “God is not angered but grieved. He is not enraged but saddened.” The depth of God’s pain is revealed in the use of the Hebrew word “’asav” which is the same word used to describe the pain of childbirth. This is the depth and magnitude of God’s pain over what he sees and the decision he has to make.
But amidst all of this, we see a glimmer of hope: “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.” (Verse 8) So what do we learn from Noah about life and faith? First, heroes walk with God. Genesis 6:9 says, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” Why did Noah find favor with God? Three things. First, he was righteous. One of the things the editors of Genesis want us to see is the contrast between the sinful world in which Noah lives and Noah himself. The Hebrew word for righteous is “saddiq” which means to do justice or right within a relationship. In other words, Noah believed in God, trusted in God and lived as God intended, despite all that was happening around him. The second thing we learn about Noah is that he was “blameless” which in Hebrew is “tanim.” It doesn't mean perfect but rather one who lives out the commands of the faith and is pleasing to God.
And then finally, Noah is described as one “who walked with God.” That’s a powerful image but what does that mean? The first image this evokes is of Adam and Eve walking with God each afternoon in the Garden of Eden. It speaks of physical, emotional and spiritual closeness to God. Who doesn’t hunger for that? This figure of speech means having fellowship with God, talking with God (praying), living by God’s will and dedicating every moment to living for God. Paul puts it this way, “Therefore I, the prisoner of the Lord, implore you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling with which you have been called.” Eph. 4:1 (NAS) The description of Noah is all encompassing, touching every aspect of his being and his life. This coincides with the ancient Jewish understanding of worship which wasn’t limited to the Sabbath. Instead, all of life was an opportunity to worship God through our words and actions. So every moment, every decision and every circumstance is an opportunity to intentionally do the will of God. And that isn’t by chance. It is an intentional effort of being connected to God and led by Him and His Word. It’s not having God a part of your life. It’s God being your whole life where God’s continued guidance and presence becomes so much a part of you that it touches every fiber of your being and is the foundation upon which you stand.
Keith Daniel tells the story of Pastor Andrew Murray who had just locked up the church and was heading home, walking down the streets in Cape Town. He was the type of person whom everybody on the street noticed because he was held with great respect. All of a sudden, out of nowhere, he fell down on the ground. Those who were watching were shocked and ran over to the other side of the street toward him. A policeman got there before all of the others and helped Andrew Murray up onto his feet. Andrew Murray was embarrassed and flustered. He said, “Mr. Murray, what is wrong?” And he responded, “Oh, it’s nothing.” “No, Mr. Murray, what is wrong? You must tell me. I’m not going to let you go.” He was afraid that maybe he had had a heart attack or something. Andrew Murray hung his head with this crowd of people gathering around him, and said with tears running down his face, “For a moment, there, I lost the consciousness of the presence of God. It so shocked me that I lost my balance and fell down. Please forgive me everyone.” Heroes are righteous, blameless and walk faithfully with God who guides their every step. God is present with them and they are present with God.
Second, heroes are obedient to God’s will. That word obedient is a difficult one for us. We hear it and immediately feel a little hemmed in and claustrophobic in our lives. But make no mistake about it: every great hero in the Scriptures makes themselves obedient to the will of God. We see this in the explicit instructions and blueprints Noah is given by God to build the ship. God told Noah to build a boat the size of a cruise ship, as a desert inhabitant, this was something he had never seen before. And still Noah said yes and built the boat. In fact, two times in the story of Noah we hear, he “did everything just as God commanded him.” Verse 22
Third, heroes have life interrupted. You remember the movie title from 1999 “Girl Interrupted” starring Winona Ryder? Well, this hero story is “Noah Interrupted.” Noah must have been pretty comfortable in his life and settled in his way. Who wouldn't be after 500 years, right? And this wasn’t just something to do after work. The task was so monumental that he had to drop everything and commit to it full time, concentrating only on building a boat. His life was totally disrupted. Heroes allow their lives to be interrupted by the call of God and obedient to the opportunities presented them. So how is God calling you to be obedient in your life? Where is God trying to break into your life to step out in faith and take a great risk in God’s plan of salvation? God calls and Noah says yes, maybe sometimes kicking and screaming, but yes nonetheless. And his comfortable life and existence is turned upside down. Change. It’s a four letter word for many of us. So often we fear change and resist it any way we can. It shouldn’t be feared. Instead, it should be embraced! The trouble is most of us don’t like change. We’re creatures of habit. We tend to seek routine and control. We have our own ways of thinking and doing, and we like them just fine.
Tony Morgan writes, “I like comfortable. I like life the way I like life. What’s crazy is that God doesn’t want me to be comfortable. Ecclesiastes 7:10 (NLT) says, “Don’t long for ‘the good old days.’ This is not wise.” When it comes down to it, none of us really like change. Our natural tendency is to drift to that which is comfortable. That’s why we tend to get bent out of shape when someone challenges our current thinking. Our personal preferences are sacred. I like certain songs sung at a certain volume with a certain amount of lighting. I like certain ministries with certain activities that meet on a certain day of the week. I like certain teachings around certain passages that address the sins of certain people…that aren’t me. New things make me uncomfortable. New things require me to give up control. New things make me change. New things force me to become a new person in a new way. And then he writes, “I want to have new influence without giving up my old ways. I want to reach new people without giving up my old methods. I want to become a new person without giving up my old life. It feels more sacred and more holy to hold onto the way things were. Is it sacred, or is it familiar? Is it holy, or is it comfortable? Sometimes, I have to embrace change because God wants to change me.”
The story of Noah teaches us that the apparent ending of something we know and love is really just the beginning of something brand new. As the song by Semisonic puts it, “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end.” What if we could learn to see life interrupted and change as an opportunity rather than a threat? Heroes embrace the call of God which is often to change and to evoke change.
Fourth, heroes are in it for the long haul. Now the Scriptures say that Noah was 600 years old when the floodwaters came. Scholars believe it took him 100 years to build the boat which means he started at age 500. We don’t remember Noah’s story not because of what he believed or what he wanted to see happen. We remember it because of what he did: he stepped out in faith, got to work and saw it to completion. And that for many may be the most difficult thing a hero does! Galatians 6:9 says, “Let us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” As long at it took Noah to build the ark, every day he got up and went to continue building the ark. Imagine the number of times he wanted to give up or to sleep in and take it easy? Do you think midway he ever wanted to say, “I’ve done my time, let somebody else step up and take over?” The task must have seemed daunting at times. Yet, despite all of this, Noah was committed to the long haul. Essentially, he was an ordinary guy saving the world one nail and one board at a time.
Fred Craddock, who taught at Candler School of Theology, writes: “To give my life for Christ appears glorious. To pour myself out for others ... to pay the ultimate price of martyrdom — I’ll do it. I’m ready, Lord, to go out in a blaze of glory. We think giving our all to the Lord is like taking a $1,000 bill and laying it on the table — ‘Here’s my life, Lord. I’m giving it all.’ But the reality for most of us is that he sends us to the bank and has us cash in the $1,000 for quarters. We go through life putting out 25 cents here and 50 cents there. Listen to the neighbor kid’s troubles instead of saying, ‘Get lost.’ Go to a committee meeting. Give a cup of water to a shaky old man in a nursing home. Usually giving our life to Christ isn’t glorious. It’s done in all those little acts of love, 25 cents at a time. It would be easy to go out in a flash of glory; it’s harder to live the Christian life little by little over the long haul.” But that’s what makes a person a hero. Amen.
