"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" (Hebrews 11:7, ESV).
All people live by faith in something, and faith is only as good as the object it's placed in.
In Hebrews 11, we learn about men and women who placed their faith in the one and only true God. We read about how they demonstrated the kind of faith that honors God as He worked in their lives. The object of biblical faith is God, and the response of biblical faith is obedience to God and His Word.
Noah is a man who lived by this kind of faith. Because he feared and trusted the Lord, he listened to God's warnings about a flood to come in the future and built an ark to save his family, just as God commanded.
Obedience may not have necessarily been easy for Noah. It probably took him about 100 years to complete the ark. Considering the evil in the world around him, his neighbors probably mocked him as they ignored God's warnings through Noah (2 Peter 2:5). Noah may have never even seen rain before, and so the idea of a global flood may have been really hard for him to imagine! But Noah still remained faithful.
Biblical faith believes what God says is true and acts on it regardless of the circumstances or the consequences. Just like Noah, we can't always control our situation or the results, but we can choose to trust and obey God regardless of the outcome. He's given us promises and warnings about the future.
By obeying God, Noah's good behavior condemned the evil in the world around him. 1 Peter 3:16 says that we ought to live in obedience to Christ, "having a good conscience, so that, when you are slandered, those who revile your good behavior in Christ may be put to shame." In response to the evil of the world, we shouldn't try to escape the world. Rather, we're to be obedient to God where He has us in the midst of the darkness around us. When we live in obedience to Christ, we expose the evil of the world around us. And as our lives expose the evil around us, we should hope that people will come to repentance and faith in Christ. We need to live differently and preach the gospel so that those around us will know that through Jesus Christ and His sacrificial death and resurrection, they can find forgiveness, salvation, and new life in Him.
As we consider the life of Noah, here are a few questions that we can reflect on:
Do you fear the Lord? Does your fear of the Lord lead you to obedience?
Do you believe what God has told you about the future? Do you live with urgency in light of eternity, or are you living apathetically?
Does the way you live your life demonstrate your faith in God?
Are you living in contrast to the world? Do you pray that those around you will repent and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ?
Max Dalrymple
Student Ministries Director