As Crazy As Building A Ship In The Desert
So there was Noah, living in the middle of the desert. He had never, ever seen rain before, at any time in his 500 long years of life.
And there was God, telling Noah that He was going to destroy all the world and its people, because of their corruption and violence. He was going to do it with a worldwide flood. Only Noah and his family would be saved, but Noah needed to get going on the construction of an ark and the rounding up of all the animals, before the floodgates of heaven were opened.
Remember this: Noah lived in the middle of the desert. He had never, ever seen rain in his entire life. He probably had to wait about 100 years from the time he began to build the ark until the moment that it began to rain. And for those 100 or so years, he most certainly had to put up with an endless parade of mocking neighbors, relatives, and former friends. They must have jeered Noah, laughed at him, called him every name in the book, and seriously questioned his sanity. For 100 years or so this probably went on.
But Genesis 7:5 tells us, quite simply and artfully, that "Noah did all that the Lord commanded him."
No questions, no doubt, no wondering if God was pulling a fast one on him. Noah simply did what God told him to do. No questions asked, even as he heard the catcalls and jeers from the crowd below as he slowly and arduously worked on his ark in the middle of the hot, dry, rainless desert.
Hebrews 11:7 says, "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family." Noah obeyed, and his family was saved.
There will come times in our lives, if we are followers of Christ, when God will ask us to do things that may seem absolutely crazy to us at the moment. We may not understand why God wants us to do a certain thing, or go to a certain place, or take a certain step out in faith, but if God is telling you to do something, or to go somewhere, then you need to do it, confident that God knows how and where the journey will end, and that He is looking to see if you will trust Him enough to take the first few steps out in faith. Do you trust Him or not? Will you trust Him or not?
We must have faith in God even when it doesn't make any sense to us.
And there was God, telling Noah that He was going to destroy all the world and its people, because of their corruption and violence. He was going to do it with a worldwide flood. Only Noah and his family would be saved, but Noah needed to get going on the construction of an ark and the rounding up of all the animals, before the floodgates of heaven were opened.
Remember this: Noah lived in the middle of the desert. He had never, ever seen rain in his entire life. He probably had to wait about 100 years from the time he began to build the ark until the moment that it began to rain. And for those 100 or so years, he most certainly had to put up with an endless parade of mocking neighbors, relatives, and former friends. They must have jeered Noah, laughed at him, called him every name in the book, and seriously questioned his sanity. For 100 years or so this probably went on.
But Genesis 7:5 tells us, quite simply and artfully, that "Noah did all that the Lord commanded him."
No questions, no doubt, no wondering if God was pulling a fast one on him. Noah simply did what God told him to do. No questions asked, even as he heard the catcalls and jeers from the crowd below as he slowly and arduously worked on his ark in the middle of the hot, dry, rainless desert.
Hebrews 11:7 says, "By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family." Noah obeyed, and his family was saved.
There will come times in our lives, if we are followers of Christ, when God will ask us to do things that may seem absolutely crazy to us at the moment. We may not understand why God wants us to do a certain thing, or go to a certain place, or take a certain step out in faith, but if God is telling you to do something, or to go somewhere, then you need to do it, confident that God knows how and where the journey will end, and that He is looking to see if you will trust Him enough to take the first few steps out in faith. Do you trust Him or not? Will you trust Him or not?
We must have faith in God even when it doesn't make any sense to us.
posted by Stephen Guschov at 5:42 PM
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