A few months ago, a movie came out
about the story of Noah. Now, I have not seen the movie. I
understand they took some liberties with the story, as Hollywood tends to do,
but I’m not qualified to say whether it’s a good movie or not.
It struck me, though, that the
actual story of Noah, as it’s presented in the Bible, is dramatic enough the
way it is. But the really interesting thing, to me, is to look at the
lessons we can learn from Noah’s story. After all, as we’ve said before,
the main reason these stories are in the Bible is not to teach us about history
or about geography or about science or about any of those things. The
main reason these stories are in the Bible is to teach us about God and about
our faith.
So today, we’re going to start a
sermon series called “The Story of Noah”. We’re going to look at the
story of Noah, as it’s presented in the Bible, and look at the lessons we can
learn from it.
We start with the beginning of the
story. God tells Noah that God’s going to destroy the earth because it’s
corrupt. So, Noah, you build an ark for yourself and your family and all
the animals. And then, we’re told, “Noah did everything just as God
commanded him.”
That’s all it says. It says
nothing about what Noah thought about all this. It says nothing about how
he felt. It’s like Noah’s thoughts and feelings about all this did not
matter.
In fact, in a way, it’s like Noah
himself did not matter. We’re told very little about him. We’re
told his age. We’re told that he had three kids, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
We’re told he had a wife, although we don’t know her name. We’re
told later on that Noah was “a man of the soil”, presumably meaning that he raised
crops. We’re told that after the flood was over he planted a vineyard.
And that’s about it. That’s
about all we know about Noah. But we know he was a human being, and as a
human being, if all this happened to you, you’d have to kind of wonder, right?
You’d have to have some questions
I mean, think about it. You’re
minding your own business one day, and all of a sudden you hear the voice of
God talking to you. And God tells you some pretty incredible stuff.
God tells you that God’s going to put an end to the huamn race. God
tells you to make an ark, gives you directions for how to make it, and tells
you to put your family in it. Then God tells you to put all the animals
and birds and every other creature that moves along the ground in the ark, too.
And you’re supposed to take enough food for everybody, too.
How would you react to that?
Some of you may be old enough to remember the old Bill Cosby routine
where God is talking to Noah and Noah hears all this and says stuff like, “Come
on, now. Who is this really? Am I on Candid Camera?” If
you’ve never heard the routine, go to YouTube or somewhere and find it, because
it’s great. The reason it’s so great is that it describes how you or I
would probably react if we were Noah.
I mean, if I was even convinced that
it was God at all, I’d have a lot of questions. Like, why did you pick
me? How am I supposed to build an ark? What exactly is an ark, anyway?
And where I am supposed to get all that wood? How am I
supposed to get all these animals on this ark? What am I supposed to do
with them after I have them? Where am I going to get enough food for all
these animals, let alone my family? Where am I going to keep it?
What if everybody thinks I’ve gone nuts? In fact, what if I have
gone nuts? What if I only think it’s God telling me all this stuff?
If Noah thought any of that, we’re
not told. I suspect he did not, though. And here’s why I suspect
that. There’s one more thing we’re told about Noah that I did not
mention. Maybe some of you caught it. We’re told that Noah was a
righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully
with God.
We don’t get details about that.
We don’t know what it was about Noah that made him a righteous man.
But we know some of the things it probably would’ve meant in Noah’s day.
Being a righteous man would’ve meant spending time in prayer. Being
a righteous man would’ve meant realizing that all the good things you had came
from God. Being a righteous man would’ve meant centering your life around
God. When it says Noah walked faithfully with God, that’s what it means:
that God was always a part of Noah’s life.
And that’s why Noah did not have all
those questions you or I might have. That’s why Noah was able to hear all
this incredible stuff from God and just take it in stride. That’s why,
when God told Noah to do all these things, Noah just went and did them, no
questions asked. Because Noah walked faithfully with God. God was
always a part of Noah’s life. Another way of saying that is that Noah had
a relationship with God. And because Noah had that relationship with God,
Noah knew he could trust God even when God was asking him to do stuff that, to
Noah, probably did not make a lot of sense.
Because that’s the only way trust really works. Trust grows
out of a relationship. Trust does not come from a position or a title.
Trust does not come from power or money. Trust comes from getting
to know someone really well. Trust comes from having someone be there for
us. Trust comes from someone helping us when we need help, listening when
we need someone to talk to, laughing with us, crying with us. Trust comes
from having someone walk with us at the important times of our lives.
Think about the people you trust the
most. I’ll bet they fit that description. It could be a spouse.
It could be parents or siblings or other relatives. It could be
friends. But whoever it is, they’re people you have a relationship with,
right? They’re people you know really well. They’re people who’ve
been there for you. They’re people you know will be there for you again,
if and when you need them. They’re the people you know you could call at
any time, day or night, and if you told them you needed them they’d be there as
fast as they could.
Noah walked faithfully with God.
Noah had a relationship with God. Noah knew God well, and God knew
Noah well. Because of that relationship, Noah knew he could trust God.
He trusted God so much that even when God told him to do something that did
not make sense, and even when Noah did not know how in the world he was ever
going to be able to do it, he went and did it anyway. He trusted God
enough to know that if God wanted him to do it, then it must be the right thing
to do. And he trusted God enough to know that if God wanted him to do it,
God would provide him with a way to do it.
So that’s the first lesson from the
real story of Noah. Trust. Walk faithfully with God. Get to
know God well. Have a relationship with God that’s strong enough to make
us trust God. Trust God enough that even if God tells us to do something
that does not make sense to us, and even if we don’t know how in the world
we’ll ever be able to do it, we’ll go and do it anyway.
Do you have that kind of
relationship with God? Do I? If not, we need to do something about
that. And if so, we still need to work at it, because relationships are
always something we need to work at. Any time we take a relationship for
granted, we run the risk of losing that relationship.
So, to get a relationship with God, or to keep a relationship with
God, we need to work at it. We need to get to know God well. We
need to spend more time in prayer. We need to do more to recognize that
all the good things we have come from God. And we need to do more to center
our lives around God.
Get to know God. Because God will always be there for us.
God has been there for us in the past, God is there for us now, and God
will be there for us in the future. God will help us when we need help,
listen when we need someone to talk to, laugh with us and cry with us.
God will walk with us through all the important times in our lives.
And God will walk with us through all the other times, too.
Noah trusted God. You and I can trust God, too. If we
spend time with God and have a relationship with God, if we get to know God
well, you and I will be able to trust God, just like Noah did.
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