Living by Faith: The Faith of Noah

In Hebrews 11:7, the author writes, “By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” God prophesied to Noah about things of which he had never heard, and what is more, things of which no one in existence had ever heard. God told Noah that a great judgment was to come upon the earth and that he should prepare an ark and get his family into that ark so that they might be saved from a great and mighty flood. Though everyone no doubt thought he was crazy, Noah most certainly was not crazy when he trusted God and did exactly what God instructed him to do. He was not crazy when he built that ark over so many years and prepared his family and warned the world of the judgment to come, even when they would not listen to his severe but loving prophecies. 

When the day came to board the ark, some of Noah’s family followed him while the world mocked him and eventually paid a great price for doing so. But as for Noah, he became an heir of that righteousness that comes, not by works, but by trusting in the will, words, and ways of God. Noah and his family were saved by faith because they believed that God was faithful and would bring about all he had prophesied and promised. And though they had to suffer for clinging to God by faith, it was worth it because every one of God’s words did indeed prove true. 

Therefore, Noah’s faith is not about Noah, it’s about God. He trusted in the faithfulness of God and found God to be faithful and now his life cries out to ours and says, “I bid you to trust in God as well, for he who promised is faithful. God is the hero of my life: trust in him, hope in him, cling to him.” This is the testimony of Noah to us today, and I pray that we’ll have ears to hear. I pray that we’ll believe in and live by the Word of God even when the world thinks our way of life is nonsense, even when the world shames us for believing, even when the world strikes out against us. In times like these, let us remember Noah and cling to our God and Father by believing in and living by his words!