The blog this week continues with the story of Noah. What were the people like at the time of Noah? Mankind was so wicked in the time of Noah that the Bible states that “every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time.” That is a degree of wickedness that is hard to imagine, even in our day. There was nothing good left in people; they had completely given themselves over to evil.
Because God could not allow the evil of people to continue to corrupt his creation, he resolved to wipe them from the face of the earth. Only Noah found favor in God’s eyes. Noah was righteous; he feared God and lived according to God’s ways.
Living in a wicked age, people probably mocked and ridiculed Noah because he wouldn’t engage in the evil that everyone else was doing. Noah was probably without many friends. His wife and sons and their wives were the ones he had as companions. He had to look to God to sustain him in a difficult time.
The Bible says, “Noah walked with God,” which means that Noah had a relationship with God and talked with him. He heard from and listened to God. He had understanding of God’s mind and wanted to obey him.
This blog covers the account of Noah when God spoke to him and told him to build an ark. Genesis 6:9-7:10 says:
9This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
11Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. 14So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark–you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. 19You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20Two 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. 21You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
22Noah did everything just as God commanded him.71The LORD then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. 2Take with you seven of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and two of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, 3and also seven of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. 4Seven 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.”
5And Noah did all that the LORD commanded him.
6Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. 7And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. 8Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, 9male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. 10And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.
Everything God Commanded
The Bible says that Noah did everything that God commanded. Noah was only able to do what God commanded because he walked with God. No one likes being isolated or different from other people. Pleasing God was of greater value to Noah than pleasing or being like by other people. Because Noah was devoted to God and wanted to do God’s will, he was able to obey him.
God enabled Noah to do what he was commanded to do. Noah couldn’t have collected all the animals. God had to bring them to him as Noah obeyed what he could do, which was to build the ark.
Faith is believing in something or someone that can’t be seen but is still known. Noah believed God because he knew God and his character. He had a relationship with God and experienced the benefits of that relationship. He knew God was real.
Because of Noah’s faith, his family was rescued from destruction. Also, all the types of animals were kept alive and the seeds from which food plants grow. Everything that was needed to restore and repopulate the earth was kept alive on the ark.
Being right with God is dependent upon having faith in God. Noah believed God and God was pleased by his faith. If Noah didn’t have faith, all of mankind would have been wiped out. Even our existence on the earth today is a result of Noah’s faith.
Hebrews 11:6 says, And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
We can’t please God unless we believe him. If we truly believe him, love him and fill our mind with him and his truth then we will trust and obey him.
Faith is the evidence that we truly believe and trust God. If we don’t believe and trust God, we will never please him because we won’t love and follow him.
When we believe God exists and seek after him we gain God’s favor. We come to know him and enter into a life-giving relationship with him. We gain both eternal life in heaven and abundant life on earth.
Faith is a response to God’s revelation of himself. God has shown himself to us through his creation, history, the Bible and Jesus. His Holy Spirit speaks to people. God’s word has been tested and proven itself. A person with faith believes that what God has revealed to us is true and trustworthy.
LESSON WRAP-UP
- Overview Questions: What did God command Noah to do? (14, 18-21) How did Noah respond to God’s commands? (22, 5)
- Thought Questions: What was different about Noah from most other people of any time period? What does it take for a person to have faith like Noah? Can you think of examples of other people in the Bible with that kind of faith? What do people of real faith understand about God?
- Prayer: Thank God for Noah and the faith he had. Pray that you would learn to completely love and obey God regardless of what people around you are doing. Pray that you would keep your eyes on what is eternal, trust in the character of God and experience fully the reality of a personal relationship with him.
- Memory Verse: Hebrews 11:6 A person must have faith to please God.
And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek him.
Question: Why does a person have to have faith to please God?