One of the first stories we read in the Bible in the Book of Genesis is the story about Noah and the ark.
We read in Genesis chapter 6 that God was sick of the wickedness in the world, and He was going to destroy all living flesh. Yet, there was ONE person who obeyed Him and did what was right and that was Noah. That alone tells us something about Noah – the fact that he was the ONLY person who gave God the complete obedience He deserved. Now, the Bible doesn’t tell us how many people were on the face of the earth at that time, but there were approx 1600 years between the time when God created the earth and when He sent the flood, so there were possibly many thousands of people, and yet the Bible tells us, “Then 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.” (Genesis 6:5) So, since Noah was the only one out of thousands of people who pleased God, it shouldn’t come as a real surprise to us that he obeyed God when God told him to build an ark.
But, let’s just think about this for a second. Here man has been on the earth for 1600 years, and suddenly God comes to Noah and says, “Build this HUGE boat and get 2 of every animal and food on it. I’m going to destroy the earth!” Well, that’s certainly not an every day occurrence. The Bible doesn’t say that Noah questioned God. The Bible tells us in Genesis 6:22, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God had commanded him, so he did.” God told him to build an ark – so he built an ark! I’m sure it took quite a long time for Noah and his sons to build this huge vessel, and probably news spread that this crazy guy was building a HUGE boat out in the middle of nowhere. People probably laughed at him, mocked him, and other things. Yet, he just did what God told him to do! And his obedience saved his life and the lives of his family.
That’s the kind of obedience we ALL SHOULD have toward God. When we read God’s Word and God speaks to our hearts – we need to DO what He says! By unquestioned obedience to Almighty God, we show our true Faith in Him and our trust that He knows what He is doing. Instead, we often find ourselves debating or coming up with reasons why we don’t have to do what the Bible says or what God tells us.
We read in Hebrews 11:7, “By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” There had never been a flood on the earth before this time. And Noah and his sons had to completely stop their life and spend all of their time and effort building this ark, something that NO ONE had EVER done before! Yet, Noah COMPLETELY trusted God and obeyed Him.
What amazing things we would see in our lives and in our relationship with God if we would put into action that same type of unquestioned obedience!!
Absolute obedience is a sign that we TRULY TRUST God, and that we TRULY LOVE Him. Jesus put it quite plainly in John 14:15, “If you love Me, you WILL keep My commandments.”
Do You Love HIM?