NOAH- THE MAN BEHIND THE ARK

As incredible as Noah’s ark was, more incredible was the man behind it. The story of Noah is traced in Genesis 6;

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. —— Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. So 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. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood—— Everything on earth will perish. But 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. (v. 10-18)

At a time when the whole earth was devoted to sin and selfishness, with no regard for God, Noah chose to carve out a unique path– one of walking faithfully with God. Man’s inherent inclination is to reject God and follow a sinful trajectory. This becomes all the more true when the world around him has rejected God. It has been no different in the world thereafter as well, where the majority rejects God. To be non-conformed to the world, cling on to God and separate oneself from the wickedness around is the call for every Christian.

Noah lived by faith.It is one thing to believe in God, but another to bet everything on him. Noah did the latter. How odd the command would have appeared to Noah and to the men around him! He would certainly have been the object of many jokes when the ark was being built. What if the flood never came? What if he could invest his time and effort to something other than building an ark and become richer and more valued in the world of his time? But Noah had rejected the value systems of this world and was looking forward to his reward in the life to come. He also knew he had to be faithful in carrying out all that was asked of him during his time here on earth and he did so with passion and integrity.

Peter calls Noah a ‘preacher of righteousness’(2 Peter 2:5). Not only was he a disciple of the living God, clinging on to righteousness, he actively preached his faith. The ark was built in the plain sight of one and all and he unabashedly declared his faith and in doing so, at least managed to save his sons and their wives along with his wife from the flood that left nothing behind.

Noah was not only protected from the calamity that struck the earth, he was subsequently blessed to prosper in the earth that re-emerged from the flood. For one who clings to God, God’s protection and prosperity clings to him.

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