Noah: A Faith that Pleases God

When we get on a plane we trust a pilot that we don't know.  When we get on a bus we trust a driver that we don't know.  When we get on boat we trust a captain that we don't know.  Why is it that when we are called by God be, or do something, people don't have the trust, the faith, that it takes to follow through? Why is trusting God so hard?

This upcoming series looks at risk takers who took a risk and trusted God. We begin with a look at Noah in Genesis 6:5-9, and 17-22; then 8:20-22.  Genesis is a book of beginnings, such as the creation of the earth, animal and plant life, and the human beings in the image of the Creator God. We see the beginning of such institutions as marriage, family, community, and nations. But we also see the beginning of sin, crime, conflict, and death.  While the story of Noah reminds us how rampant sin is, how serious God takes sin, and of the Lord’s mercy and grace to people of faith. Noah models for us a faith that pleases God.

Noah highlights for us that living by faith begins with a righteous relationship with God.  The only one we can always trust, and trust unwaveringly, is God.  That trust is based on how God is, not upon who WE think God is or how WE want God to act.  We will dive a bit deeper into Noah in a moment, but have you ever stopped to realize that Noah is one of the national patriarchs of Israel?  We often think of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, but without the faith of Noah there would have been no Israel.  How about the fact that Noah is one of the spiritual patriarchs of all people of faith?  Without the lineage of Noah, faith in God would have been destroyed along with the rest of humanity.

Or how about this concept:  The Jewish leader Maimonides, between 1135 and 1204 wrote in the Jewish legal code that Gentiles (those who are not Jewish) must perform exclusively The Seven Laws of Noah, enumerated in the Babylonian Talmud as:

1. Do not worship idols.
2. Do not curse God.
3. Do not murder.
4. Do not commit adultery or sexual immorality.
5. Do not steal.
6. Do not eat flesh torn from a living animal.
7. DO establish courts of justice.   

The theological basis for these Seven Laws is said to be derived from commands addressed to Adam and to Noah and therefore regarded as universal moral laws.  So, more than just "a ship builder who built an ark and was saved by God" Noah has many other spiritual concepts to teach us.

Think of faith as an investment.  Almost everyone wants their investments to grow.  As with the parable of the talents, some take great risks for a return on their investment, some take small risks, and some take no risk with their investments, merely choosing to survive without growth.  With investments, some amount of risk is required or the investment does not grow.  

The same concept holds true with seeds.  Seeds held for safekeeping in a sack in the shed very seldom grow into strong and healthy plants.  But seeds planted and nurtured in the ground will often grow into strong healthy plants and return fruit that is many times greater than the original investment, i.e. "one seed" may yield "much fruit."  So risk taking is an inherent part of a dynamic faith that is growing and maturing.  

For a faith to grow, time and energy must be invested into the relationship. A relationship with God must be a ship you "sail" rather than a "life preserver" you beg for when you are drowning in trouble.  Noah demonstrates that through his faith in God he was "riding in the ark of God's salvation", until such time as God told him to literally build an ark for the salvation of himself and for humanity.  The rest of humanity in Noah's day were more concerned about self-preservation than they were in being just, upright, helpful, and in close relationship with the creator God.

Let's look at what today's study points out for us. 

Genesis 6:5-9

5 When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, 6 the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved. 7 Then the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them.” 8 Noah, however, found favor with the Lord. 9 These are the family records of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God. 

Humanity had come to a point that everyone chose to be harmful to everything or chose to ignore the provision of the God of Good and the God of Salvation. To state it overly simply: everyone looked ONLY to themselves and what they could GET, than to God and what God can provide.  

"The God who Saves" is a great descriptor of God.  The sentence for Adam and Eve’s choice was death, and yet God clothed them and let them remain in the world and have a family.  

Cain murdered his brother because of self-centered emotions yet God spared his life and allowed him to wander the Earth.  

The spiritual Abel was murdered but God allowed a third son to Adam and Eve and Seth was an ancestor of Noah.  

As we see today, God saves Noah and humanity continues from there.  God is a God who saves, yet humanity often shuns this savior in favor of self-centered emotions.

People in Noah's day were engaged in every kind of sinful behavior known to man.  Humanity, basically, were still animalistic and material in their natures rather than spiritual.  This desire to choose harm was not limited only to the actions they chose, their mind was corrupted.  The way that people think is impacted by sin.  It is not just that we accidentally do wrong things, or make mistakes, it is that we actively choose sin.  The human mind outside of a relationship with the God who Saves will both think AND act sinfully.  Abel tried to live in relationship with the God who saves, Noah lived in relationship with the God who saves, many others have, and Jesus certainly lived in relationship with the God who Saves.  

Humanity becomes so caught up in the materialistic/animalistic aspect of this world that they worship the creation rather than the creator.  It is the "beautiful mountain" that is worshiped, not the "creator who made it."  The effect of our sin natures that we inherited  is that we do not see the wisdom, power, and harmony of the God who Saves.  Humanity actively chooses NOT to be wise, actively chooses to fear, or ignore the power of the Creator, and chooses to live in disharmony rather than in harmony with the creator, the creation and with each other.  

Jesus, the son of the God who Saves, lived and brought the good news that was foretold by Jeremiah, "I will put my teaching within them and write it on their hearts."  Ezekiel prophesied that God would give his people hearts of flesh and would remove their hearts of stone.  Humanity enforces external forces to regulate morality.  The God who Saves uses internal realities written within the core of their being, within their heart.  Humanity needs to learn to listen to this heart (cor) message from God more frequently.  In Noah's day humanity did not.

Humans were so universally corrupt that God regretted having created them. This is not the same regret that we as humans experience.  God's emotional life is different from the emotions of humankind. God's regret is a deep grief over the sin of the apex of his creation – humanity.  The Bible speaks about God being Joyful over his creation – it was good, it was very good. We see here that God is grieved by our sin.  The second half of the verse confirms that God is deeply grieved.  God had DEEP sorrow over the choices that humanity was making.

So, there is God, and there is the "Son of God", who IS God; and there is the Holy Spirit, who IS God.  

There are created angels of various sorts who are messengers of God and whose focus is entirely upon God and the choices that God makes.  And a little below that is humankind, created "a little below the angels" the Bible tells us.  

Instead of being focused on their relationship with God and God's desires, as do the angels, humanity chose to look away from God and instead looked towards the creation and how to turn it to self-serving ends rather than Godly ends.  Humanity chooses to disengage its relationship with God.

But Noah found favor with the Lord, because Noah was doing his best to walk with God daily, God recognized his desires and made the determination that humanity, through Noah's lineage, would be saved. Noah’s relationship with God positioned him to play a key role in God’s plan for creation but it required a boatload of obedience [pun intended].  

God was so grieved that he determined to allow creation on the Earth to be wiped out so that he could start over.  God did this through the ULTIMATE climate change.  If you think global warming is bad, wait until you consider global flooding.

Genesis 6:17-22

17 “Understand that I am bringing a flood—floodwaters on the earth to destroy every creature under heaven with the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark with your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives. 19 You are also to bring into the ark two of all the living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of everything—from the birds according to their kinds, from the livestock according to their kinds, and from the animals that crawl on the ground according to their kinds—will come to you so that you can keep them alive. 21 Take with you every kind of food that is eaten; gather it as food for you and for them.” 22 And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.

God began to share with Noah the details of His plan to destroy His creation. God had made creation in seven days, but would use global flooding to destroy His creation in a matter of days and weeks.  Humanity’s “Global warming” destruction seems to be a matter of decades and centuries; if it is really destroying the environment at all. The God who Saves noticed that because Noah was heeding God’s guidance that God would not allow Noah and his lineage to to be destroyed along with the rest of the earth.  It wouldn’t be easy though.

Obedience to the God who Saves would demand that Noah step outside his comfort zone and accomplish two enormous projects: building the first ship, creating the first mobile zoo composed of a pair of each of the kinds of animals that God chose to preserve.  Noah faced a world-wide monumental cataclysmic event and yet obeyed God’s voice with energy and expectation. Having a living faith, Noah knew God would provide him with everything he needed for his obedience to bear fruit.

There are scriptural and scientific reasons to believe that the Genesis flood occurred globally.  Only a worldwide scale would have ensured all people and all animals would die. The observations of science demonstrate that rock layers from around the world point to the reality of a flood that stretched from North Africa and the Middle East to North America. 

Because of humanity's choice to look away from God and towards their own desires they invoked a penalty upon themselves – they get to live their choice and would perceive themselves to be separated from God. God declared that even the ground was cursed because of Adam and Eve’s sin. The rest of creation suffers because of the sinfulness of mankind. In Romans, Paul wrote that “the creation was subjected to futility . . . the whole creation has been groaning together”. The man and woman had been placed in the garden to serve as God’s vice regents, watching over and caring for the rest of creation. Their sin cascaded down into the rest of creation—even the animals and birds would die as a result of mankind’s choice to go it on their own.

There is no such thing as a worldwide, tranquil flood. Genesis tells us that All the fountains of the great deep broke up (implying massive earthquakes and splitting of Earth’s crust) Such crustal movements would produce enormous tsunamis in the rising seas, producing further devastation. So massive was the amount of water involved in the Flood that it eventually covered all the highest hills/mountains of that era.

Realistically, Such combined events would clearly produce major geologic and geographic changes. Massive devastation and erosion would occur: hundreds and even thousands of feet of sediment would be laid down during such a catastrophe (the biblical deluge lasted more than a year).

Massive destruction was clearly the point of God’s judgment: the destruction of all humans on the Earth (except those protected by the ark), the erasure of every trace of these extremely evil people and their civilization(s), starting over with the only remaining Godly family, and leaving Earth changed in ways that would make it more difficult for evil to rapidly spread and dominate the globe—as it had in the physically more paradise-like, pre-Flood world—which was much closer to the way God created it.

God covenants with Noah, a continuation of the covenant that God had made with Adam.  Noah is portrayed at Adam 2.0.  God even uses the covenantal language used in Genesis 9:1 when Noah and his sons were instructed to “be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.” The covenant God established with Noah was not limited to just Noah and his immediate family. Instead, as is the nature of biblical covenants, the covenant had ramifications for the rest of creation. The instructions for how to build the ark are given in verses 14-16. From a human perspective, Noah took an incredible risk by building an ark. Not only had the flood not begun, but some biblical scholars believe rain had never before fallen on the earth until that time. 

Hebrews reflected on the nature of Noah’s faith: “Now without faith it is impossible to please God . . . . By faith Noah, after he was warned about what was not yet seen and motivated by godly fear, built an ark to deliver his family. By faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith” (Heb. 11:6-7).

Noah was instructed to take two of every animal for repopulation of the earth after the flood waters receded. In the verses that follow, we also read that Noah was instructed to take seven pairs of all the animals that were considered ritually clean. There are a few observations that we should take from this instruction. First, God’s people had some idea of ritual cleanliness before it was revealed to them in the form of the Old Testament Law delivered to Moses at Sinai. Second, God cared for His people. He wanted them to have plenty of food to eat, and He provided for their bodies through the normal process of human consumption and digestion—even though He could have sustained their bodies supernaturally during their time on the ark. Third, the number seven is repeated three times in the first four verses of chapter 7, signaling to readers that God’s plan is perfect.

After all the excitement of the destruction and the flood; after the long period of just floating around on the ocean; after finally striking land again, Noah does something that he is NOT commanded to do....

Genesis 8:20-22

20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord. He took some of every kind of clean animal and every kind of clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. 21 When the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma, he said to himself, “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done. 22 As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, and day and night will not cease.”

Noah’s first act was to build an altar to the Lord. Noah was overwhelmed with gratitude for God’s provision and deliverance from the flood and destruction of the Earth.  Verse 21 says that “the Lord smelled the pleasing aroma.” God is wonderfully able to connect with His creation in powerfully descriptive ways. The aroma was the smell of the burnt offerings, but deeper than that, the Lord was pleased with what this sacrifice represented—Noah’s worship.

The Bible tells us that water burst forth from under the ocean floor. The rain pounded the earth for forty days and forty nights, and “the water surged on the earth 150 days” and then “God remembered Noah, as well as the wildlife and all the livestock that were with him in the ark.” God miraculously provided an end to the flood waters, and Noah and his family were able to safely exit the ark along with all of the animals that God had sent to Noah to care for while they were on the ark.  

Noah is the first person mentioned in the book of Genesis, and therefore in the entire Bible, said to have built an altar. He built an altar in order to make a sacrifice to God who had just demonstrated both unlimited power and loving compassion. The text does not record that God gave Noah any specific instruction to build an altar or offer any specified form of worship after he exited the ark with his family and the animals that God had preserved. However, Noah did just that. This spontaneous act of worship was pleasing to God and indicates that Noah truly understood that his life and the lives of his family and all the animals on the ark had been preserved by God’s loving kindness and compassion. Noah built an altar and offered a burnt sacrifice of some of the clean animals. 

Noah’s actions indicate a desire to be specifically and precisely obedient to what the Lord had revealed to him. While later events would demonstrate that Noah was not a perfect man and that he too was a sinner, the story of Noah teaches us that God desires for His creation to love, adore, and worship Him. In doing so, we fulfill our original purpose. As a result, God’s glory is put on display, and we walk in joy as opposed to the grief caused by our perceived separation from God.