God's Glory Church

“By faith Noah, having been warned of what was not yet to be seen, fearfully built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes through faith.” (Heb. 11:7 NT Modern translation.)

Fear makes a man a hero or a coward: fear of a man makes him a coward; the fear of God is a hero. Fear of doing well makes a coward; fear of doing evil – hero. “By faith Noah… feared God…” Fear of God or reverence is the fear of God based on faith.

“By faith Noah, having received a revelation of things not yet seen…” He believed what he could not comprehend, what exceeded his personal experience, went beyond everything known in the world. And Noah believed it precisely because God told him so.

There has never been a flood on earth; none of the people had even the slightest idea about this disaster, and yet Noah believed that it would happen. If God tells us something that exceeds our personal experience, then we are happy if we believe it. If He tells us that sin is dragging us into a terrible abyss, and we have not experienced this, we are obliged to believe it. The promises of God deserve our faith.

Noah’s faith turned out to be heroic in that herevered God and built the ark. The fear of God forced him to act. Everything that does not force us to act in one way or another should be considered useless; and faith that does not motivate us to act does not come from God. Fear that does not compel us to action is not strong enough. Noah, “reverently, prepared the ark.” The power of faith and fear of God led him to devote his time, his abilities, his strength and his money to building the ark for 120 years.

What you invest yourself in shows what you really believe in.

His faith and fear of God were contrary to public opinion. An elderly man built an ark to escape a flood that had never happened before – this fact turned into a legend, into a song with which mothers lulled their children to sleep. Passing by the ark under construction and seeing how its parts were made, the imaginary sages smiled mockingly and shook their heads; these wise men made fun of Noah and his useless occupation. They said to each other: “How can we explain that this famous and rich man devotes all his time to building this mass in the insane assumption that a flood will come and that the mountains will be covered with the force and height of the waves?” All the surrounding residents ridiculed Noah’s madness. Despite this, Noah “prepared the ark.”

You can imagine the difficult questions those around him asked Noah. One asked him: “Where, Noah, will all the water flow from? There is exactly as much water on earth as can fit into the ocean!… You say that it will flood the hills and mountains. How can this happen?”: According to scientific data, this is an impossible thing. Where will so much water come from? And I hear Noah’s answer: “He who created the water of the clouds and the sea knows where it will flow from. I have received a revelation from Him, and He will send water from His springs in His time.” And someone, passing by, said: “Noah, how will you take all the animals with you into the ark? You will have to search all the hills and jungles to catch all the animals and birds in the ark.” Noah replies: “Really, I don’t know that. If it were up to me, I could not catch even a tenth of them. But God, who created the animals, commanded me to build an ark, and it depends on Him how to gather them into it. My job is to build the ark and fulfill what God commanded me; I entrust the rest into His hands.”

Another man says to Noah, “Noah, you are not a sailor; you didn’t study shipbuilding. When you launch this mass into the water, who will lead it, who will guide it? Who will give you a guarantee that the ship will not capsize and sink?” Noah says: “I do not know how to build ships or sail them, but the Builder of the whole universe has given me all His instructions.” And so Noah built his ark as big as the huge ships of our time. And he did this without being either a shipbuilder or a sailor. He received all orders directly from God.

The Ark was built by an amateur, professionals built the Titanic.

To all the questions from those around him, Noah answered: “God said it and it’s true. God commanded me and I will do it. God has commanded and I will obey. I will give up my wealth, my time and my life, doing what the world thinks is crazy, just because the Lord commanded me to do it.”

What destroyed the world served to save Noah. The world perished from the flood of waters, but these same waters raised the ark; he sailed on them and saved Noah and his family from death. Noah’s ark was saved by something that could have destroyed it. Noah might have thought, “Why not build towers higher than the mountains? Why not tell me to build a dam or dig a cave in the ground? You can, Lord, keep me alive in a tower or in a cave.” But Noah did not prescribe anything to God. He did exactly what Jehovah commanded, and by using what had destroyed others, he and his family escaped death.