Daily Word

By faith…work | Hebrews 11:7 (ESV)

7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.

Every Sunday school kid knows this story. Rather than focus on the flood, ark and the animals, we need to focus on the faith of Noah. Gen 6:5 tells us that in Noah’s time, “the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” God decided to wipe out all mankind and all living creatures on the earth “in which is the breath of life” with a deluge of water, a world-wide flood. Noah was different. God told Noah, “you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.” (Gen 7:1) Therefore, “Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord” (Gen 6:8).

Most Bible scholars believe that up to this time it had not rained on the earth, and there had certainly been no flooding like we see so often today. That makes his faith more astounding. Imagine, you are 600 years old (that alone is amazing), you’ve been living your life righteously among the rest of humanity that has rebelled against God. God appears to you with instructions to make a huge boat because there’s going to be a flood. “Say what?!” you might reply. 

But, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” (Gen 6:22) By faith, Noah obeyed and did the work that God gave him to do. We can guess that the people around him mocked him the whole time. His family stuck by him which was a real blessing. 

Because Noah is in this chapter of Hebrews, we have to believe that not only did he have faith in God about the flood, he understood that ALL mankind is evil (including himself) and that God would provide a way out for those who believe Him and trust Him. This elevated him into the “righteous by faith” rank with the likes of Abraham whom we mentioned previously.

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