Genesis 6:5-8 talks about this crazy guy called Noah. He is crazy for a few reasons but building a boat for the upcoming flood which is about to happen in the middle east is high on the list. Not only is he building a giant boat, but this giant boat will be the worlds first floating zoo. Why not add to this. He is building this floating zoo because the voices in his head have told him that he is better than everyone else on the earth and will need to get in the boat to save humanity. That should paint a clear enough picture of our hero de jour.
So why do the voices in his head say that he needs to build the boat? Well thats simple. Noah is listening to God speak to him. Sadly, not long after God created the earth there was cause to destroy it. The reason that God gets to the point of destruction often amazes me. In this situation we assume it is some sort of sexual issue (sons of God and daughters of man). If we were to play God and think of all the things that tick us off, we often reach for the cultural soap boxes that are easy to promote in our circles of influence. These shallow boxes are great because they make us look more holy by creating us and them scenarios with the “sinners”. Sexual preference, those pesky liberals, or even the blasted gateway pipeline and the harms to baby seals. That has to be the stuff that makes God mad at us! Jesus brought up each of those issues so many times… wait, having trouble with references. Ever think we sound like a broken record that society turned off a long time ago? I do. It’s a good way to get people to stop listening to Jesus.
But if you read the passage closer we learn that it is because the earth had become violent. (Genesis 6:13) Yup violent like a good old fashioned ufc fight in the streets. A society that honoured and valued violence… So God wants to wipe us out based on our anger towards each other that turned into violent behaviours.
Lets look further at crazy Noah. He is clearly not violent if God picked him out of everyone else. He was also Righteous (Gen 6:9) or a better translation of that word is lawful. Then the last big thing in his description is that he walked with God. So Noah was a pacifist, who followed the rules and walked with God. Sounds like a candidate for bullying if you ask me.
If you take that strong character mix and factor in his willingness to follow God to the point of being humiliated. Humiliated infront of everyone… literally the whole earth at that time. Tada you have Noah. But his good character would have been completely wasted if it wasn’t for his obedience. Noah was obedient when it didn’t make sense anymore. The greatest thing for us is that the sons of Noah and their families followed along on this journey. They were not listed as righteous but they followed anyways.
This image of Noah and his family is reflected into the New Testament when Jesus appears.
As adopted sons and daughters of Christ, today Christians tag along on a path of salvation and restoration. We are not righteous like Christ, we are not in the place that He is emotionally, spiritually etc. but we follow along and get into the boat called Following Jesus. We follow his leadership and his strong example of how to live and how to get closer to God for one reason. To restore.
And it becomes as simple as that, we get into the boat and see where the journey takes us. A journey based on restoring those in need of a saviour. So to wrap up, holiness is cool but it needs obedience to get on the boat.
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