Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.” Today's episode talks about how God asked Noah to do something that made no earthy sense and yet he did it anyway. What might God be asking you to do that makes not sense? Will you say yes? Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Things Not Yet Seen
Hebrews 11:7 “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”
My friend Louise was leading prayer group on Thursday and she did a teaching on Hebrews 11. As she was talking I felt like the Holy Spirit was showing me several different things in this chapter. I felt like this would be a good chapter to spend some time in as it shows several different examples of faith in several different circumstances. Each day this week I will take a different verse from this chapter and we will look at the circumstances the people find themselves in and how their faith grows because of these circumstances.
In today’s verse we have Noah. In case you are listening to this and you don’t know the story of Noah, let me take a minute to explain. The people who lived when Noah lived were not a God fearing people. They worshipped other gods, they participated in child sacrifice and were a perverse nation. God wanted to destroy the earth and start over again. However, there was one righteous family. Noah & his wife and they had a few sons. God asked Noah to build an arc that would keep his family safe from the flood that he intended to send. He gave his very specific directions and dimensions for this arc. He wanted Noah to build an arc that would not only keep his family safe, but he wanted him to also bring on board at least one female and one male of every land animal on earth.
At the time that God told Noah this, the place where Noah lived had not gotten rain in a very long time. There was no earthly reason why Noah would need to build an arc. It definitely didn’t make sense to him or to his family. However, Noah built the arc and saved his family and all the animals. The verse above says, “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family.” That first part is the first kind of example I want to talk to you about this week. It says, “By faith, when warned about things not yet seen.” When have you been asked to have this type of faith? When has God warned you about something that was coming but you didn’t see it yet? When has he asked you to do something and yet you really don’t understand why? Has this happened to you before? Have you felt like God wanted you to do something and yet it didn’t seem to make any sense to you?
This can happen to us in big ways and small ways. You might feel like God is asking you to call someone or pray for someone and yet you don’t understand why. You might be asked to give someone money, or loan them your car and yet they didn’t even ask you for it. You might feel God is asking you to quit your job and move back home, and yet it doesn’t make sense to you. You don’t understand it because this request came out of left field. In all of these circumstances you feel God is asking you to do something before you see the need for it. It would be easier to understand if you saw the need. It would be easier to understand if you saw the why first. If you had someone come and ask you for money then it would be easier for you to understand why God was asking you to give them money. If you saw that someone was without a car then you could understand why you felt led to let them borrow your car. And yet, that isn’t how God works sometimes.
What just occurred to me, thank you Holy Spirit, is that sometimes God does it this way because then the Glory is His. If we walk up to someone and ask them if they need a car, when they do, but we had no way of knowing that, then it points them to God. When someone needs $50 for gas and someone else gives the exactly $50 without them even asking, it points them to God. If they asked if we had money and we gave them money, that would be nice of us and it would be a good thing, and yet it wouldn’t necessarily point them to God. Even with them getting exactly what they needed without asking, sometimes it doesn’t point them to God. Sometimes they chalk it up to a coincidence. However, if they get enough coincidences, they will start to look for something bigger behind it all and they will find God.
Back to Noah, he can be a great example of how to live out this kind of faith. He didn’t understand, it didn’t make any sense from an earthly view and yet he did it anyway. The verse says he built the arc out of a holy fear. This doesn’t mean that he was so scared of God that he built this arc because he didn’t feel like he had any other choice. It doesn’t mean that he built he arc out of fear of consequences from God for him or his family. Holy fear is a fear that comes from love. It is less of a fear and more of an awe or reverence toward God. Noah was in awe of God and I am sure he was grateful that God was willing to spare him and his family. That is a pretty big honor, especially since they were the only family saved.
I know it can seem like God is asking more from you than you are capable of doing. I know that you feel like God maybe has a little too much faith in you at times. They say God will never give us more than we can handle and we wonder if God over estimates us at times. I heard someone say that quote a bit differently. They said, “God never gives us more than He can handle.” That feels a bit more accurate at times because there is nothing God can’t handle. When you feel overwhelmed, when you feel like God has asked you to do more than you can handle, take a moment to think of all that God asked Noah to do.
God asked Noah, when he was 500 years old to build and arc and it took over 100 years to build this arc. I have trouble finding the energy to wash my dishes some days and Noah was over 450 years older than I am. After building this arc, he needed to fill it with at least one female and one male animal of each kind. I cannot imagine it was easy to get all those animals on the arc with out them eating each other. Imagine taking care of all those animals for 150 days while the earth was flooded. I mean, how do you clean out the stalls of lions?
God asked a lot of Noah when he asked him to build this arc. He asked a lot of Noah and his whole family when he gave them the task of repopulating the entire world. God asked a lot from them and yet he didn’t leave them alone. He gave them the strength they needed to accomplish all he set before them and He will do the same for you. All God needed from Noah was his “yes” and God can do the rest. All God needs from you is your “yes” too! He is asking for your yes, even when you don’t understand. He is asking for your yes, even when it doesn’t make sense. He is asking for your yes even when others might say you are crazy. He is asking for your yes even when you feel it is too much. All He needs is your yes and he will give you all you need to accomplish all He has asked you to do. Will you say yes?
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, please help us to say yes even when we don’t understand why. Help us to act even when you are asking us to prepare for things not yet seen. Help us to have faith in you Lord. Help us to trust that if you are asking there is a good reason. Give us the strength and the grace to say yes even if we don’t feel we are good enough. Help us to say yes even when we feel we can’t do it. Lord, we love you and we thank you for trusting us even though we don’t deserve it. Thank you for using us in your plan even though we aren’t worthy! We are so grateful and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen!
Thank you for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I. Have a blessed day!