“The LORD then said to Noah, ‘Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.’ And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him” (Genesis 7:1-5, NIV).
God does not only give us life. Everything we need to live, He does not withhold from us. We could also have wealth, fame and power. We could also expect good health from Him. Or, a happy life, good friends, peaceful place to live in. Of course, He is Sovereign and He could grant us trials.
If even the unbelievers could experience the “good” life, how about those who received the new life from God -- the righteous? Should they expect different or even greater favors?
So, this time we’ll discuss the topic… EXPECT MORE FROM GOD, as we deal with our text (Genesis 7:1-5).
After we experience regeneration, granted the saving faith, being declared righteous, what could else could we expect from God in this life?
In chapter 4, we realized that God looked with favor on Abel and in Gen. 6:8 and the same was true with Noah. It was so not because of their own human performance, but if we consider the whole context of the Scripture, particularly Hebrews 11, we saw that Abel and Noah were declared righteous by God because of their faith – faith that was actually God given.
Now, as we deal with out text, as recipient of the saving faith from God, what else we could expect from Him?
I – GOD COULD GIVE US EXTRAORDINARY WORK (verses 2-3).
We read verses 2-3, “Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth.”
Did God command Noah in the passage to accomplish what is easy and ordinary? Of course, not. Even in Genesis 6:14-16, He directed Noah to build not just an ordinary boat. And it was not just a big boat. But it was similar to a modern battleship or an aircraft carrier!
After the extraordinary task of building the extraordinary boat, God also instructed Noah the extraordinary task of gathering his extraordinary “passengers” – not just his family – but, as we also read in Gen. 6:19-21, “You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
As God worked in an extraordinary way, as we read in Genesis 7:4, “Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made,” He also commanded Noah to accomplish an extraordinary work.
God’s people, today, should not expect that life will be easy. They should not entertain the idea that God will allow them to experience what is just comfortable and convenient.
They should not think that because God could give His grace freely – the saving faith comes from Him, not from our own human will or effort – that good health or material wealth would automatically fall on our laps.
What they should really expect from God who worked extraordinarily in their life – giving them a new and converted heart, giving them godly desires, saving them from God’s wraith – is also an extraordinary task. Paul expressed it this way in his letter to the Christians in Ephesus, which we are so familiar:
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith — and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God — not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do” (Eph. 2:8-10).
And those “good works” are not easy.
So, believers or lovers of Christ, do we realize this? Do we expect that God could direct us to do something what is impossible?
We need, then, to prepare ourselves not only to receive good things from God. Prepare also to receive good and extraordinary commands to be accomplished. Let us not expect easy and ordinary directives from God.
It is not easy to be holy, it is not convenient to read and study His study His word regularly – especially to memorize a great amount of it. It’s not easy to give 10 per cent or more of our income to His church. It is not easy to make disciples and proclaim Jesus and His Word to all the places we could reach.
In your case, what is the extraordinary work, that God is directing you to accomplish? What is the personal ark -- a huge work – He is telling you to build? Is there anything God wants you to take in e.g. patience, self-control, diligence in your life? Is there anyone He is directing you to bring into the fellowship of the church?
Do not be overwhelmed by the task.
Why? Because God who could give us the saving faith to be declared righteous in His sight and who could give us extraordinary work…
II – GOD COULD ENABLE US TO DO WHAT IS EXTRAORDINARY (verse 5).
We read verses 5, “And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.”
When God commanded Noah to bring the animals into the ark, Noah accomplished the extraordinary task he was commanded to do. Even in the building of the ark, we read in chapter 6:22, “Noah did everything just as God commanded him.”
Notice what Noah accomplished. He accomplished not just 50 or 90 percent of what God commanded him to do. He did all that God had commanded him.
It would appear that as if Noah did it by his own desire and effort. But as his righteousness was possible because of his faith, which was God given, it would follow then, that even the accomplishment of his mission was possible, because of his faith, which was also God given.
Actually, it was God who enabled Noah to accomplish what is the extraordinary.
Remember when God also commanded Abraham to do the extraordinary? God instructed him to offer his only son, Isaac, as a sacrifice. Why was Abraham willing and ready to do it? We read in Hebrews 11:17-19, “By faith Abraham, when God tested him, offered Isaac as a sacrifice. He who had embraced the promises was about to sacrifice his one and only son, even though God had said to him, ‘It is through Isaac that your offspring will be reckoned.’ Abraham reasoned that God could even raise the dead, and so in a manner of speaking he did receive Isaac back from death.”
It’s by faith. It’s not faith on his own ability. It’s faith on what the Sovereign God can do. It’s faith that God can fulfill what He promised. It’s faith that God’s instruction is not bad, but good. And it could be accomplished.
Ordinarily, human beings when instructed to do something would prefer to perform what is easy and convenient. It’s even okay for them just to accomplish 90 or 10 percent of the task.
But, he whom God looked with favor had received the genuine faith. He is not only declared righteous in His sight, but able to offer an excellent or better sacrifice like Abel, and like Noah. He is able also to do all God had commanded him. He is able to accomplish what is the extraordinary.
For God Himself could enable him to do it.
So, believers or lovers of Christ, who received impossible mission from God, are you willing and ready to do what is the extraordinary? Is the faith that you have would enable you to perform everything that had God commanded you?
We read the words of Christ in Matthew 28:19-20, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
For the moment, let us focus on this part, “…teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” Are we also willing to be taught and obey “everything” Christ had commanded us? And are we prepared to teach others to obey everything He commanded?
It is much easier to go and teach just what we want to teach than to teach every instruction of Jesus to others.
Noah could be motivated to obey everything he was commanded, because he acknowledged that God Himself was directing Him. Are we also motivated to obey what we read in the Bible, because we believe it’s God’s Word?
Noah could be motivated also to obey everything he was commanded, because he realized the great favor to receive salvation while the many will be destroyed. Are we motivated also to obey everything what the Bible says, because we believe that God has chosen us even before the foundation of the world to be holy and blameless before Him?
Do we love what God has done for us?
Let us also love to accomplish everything He commanded us to do. In the Contemporary English Version, we read Isaiah 40:4B-5, “…. Every morning He awakes me eager to learn His teaching. He made me willing to listen and not rebel or run away.”
Besides, we read in Philippians 2:13, “…for it is God who works in you to will and to act in order to fulfill his good purpose.”
God could enable us to perform what is extraordinary.
CONCLUSION:
We who are elected to have the righteousness of Christ could expect more from God today. We could expect extraordinary work. We could expect God to enable us to perform it. And during the next age, surely, we could expect more of His riches of wonderful and eternal grace!
