In the previous blog post, we talk about Abel and Enoch, their faith. and how they pleases God. The obedience and good conduct of Abel, and the belief of God’s judgement in Enoch. The author of Hebrews concluded Abel and Enoch with the following sentence “But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a reward those who diligently seek Him.” God has never turn away anyone who seeks him.

After that. he talks about Noah, The story of Noah is recorded in Gen 6-9. But our focus for this study will be  until Gen 8, covering the story of the flood.

The world at Noah’s time

As more and more humans populated the world. Sin and lawlessness starts to increase. Man started to turn more and more evil, and their thoughts are constantly tuned towards evil (Gen 6:5, 11).  Their sin and lawlessness reached a point that is unbearable, God therefore pronounced his judgement on the world at that time saying “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”

Noah’s behavior and Gods judgement

In the midst of all these lawlessness, Noah is identified as a just man who walked with God. His resolve to follow Gods law in the midst of such a generation, pleases God. His faith and trust in God saved him. As God appears to him, telling him of his impending judgement.  God wanted to save Noah, as he is a just man, and he wanted to preserve his creations and to allow life to continue after his judgement.

God’s instruction and Noah’s action

Gods instruction to Noah is to build a ark according to his dimension,keep 2  of every living animals and birds of the air (A male and a female),  his family and the animals will stay together in the ark.  He is to prepare food for all. Upon hearing Gods instruction, Noah perform all the work diligently.  As Noah is at work, he also preached to the world at that point. Such that Peter called Noah a “Preacher of Righteousness (2 Pet 2:5).

If we read closer into God’s instruction to Noah, you can see God and Noah working side by side,  God wanted Noah to build the ark (Gen 6:14-16) He wanted Noah to bring some of the animals in (Gen 6:19, Gen 7:1-3) into the ark, and some of the animals will automatically come to him (Gen 6:20, Gen 7:7-9) and he must prepare food enough for all the animals (Gen 6:21)
Finally the flood came and the flood waters filled the entire world (Gen 7-11-12).  God shut Noah and his family in personally. (Gen 7:16) All living things that breath all perished outside the ark (Gen 7:18-24). After raining for 40 days and night, God allowed the flood-waters to subside. When Noah entered the ark, he was 600 years  2 months and 1 7 days old (Gen 7:11),  when he left the ark, he was 601 years old 2 months 27 days old (Gen 8: 13-14). His stay in the ark is approximately 1 year 10 days.

After the flood. God made a covenant with Noah using the Rainbow as the sign, (Gen 8:20-22, Gen 9:8-17) God promised never to destroy the world with the flood anymore.

Noah’s faith

Noah began his life by walking with God and following Gods commandment, one can easily link the first part of his faith to that of Enoch’s. Noah went a step further, such that when God revealed his impending judgement and gave Noah instructions to follow, Noah showed his faith by faithfully following it. You can also see that as Noah manifested his faith by following Gods instruction,  God worked with him to accomplish his plan of saving his creation.

The story of Noah and how it applies to us in the mordern era.

The world of Noah is sinful, man are continously thinking of evil. Remeber that Lord Jesus once proclaimed that in the end of the world, the world will just be like the days of Noah, and Gods judgement came upon that generation at the most unexpected time.(Matt 24:37-39) Therefore as Christians, we should always be mindful that God will come and judge the world.

God has also entrusted to us how he intended to save us, just like how he communicated the dimension of the ark and how the ark should be build. If Noah did not follow what is instructed from God, it would be impossible for him and his family to be save.  In our time, Gods instruction for us to attain salvation is found in the bible, we shoud dilligently seek it and only through it we can be saved (2Tim 3:16-17)

With it i will conclude the study of Noah as a hero of faith.