GENESIS 7:5: “And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him.”

OBSERVATION: How does my obedience compare to Noah’s? Think about what God had called him to do. It was not just building the ark, it was being willing to go against all current culture and conventional wisdom. Noah’s obedience isolated him and made him a target for ridicule and hatred.

It was not just Noah’s obedience but the obedience of his entire family. They were willing to obey God at the loss of everything they knew and possessed. They walked by faith regarding God’s claim that He would bring a flood upon the whole earth. How could this be possible? It did not make any sense to the rational mind. Yet, they trusted God’s Word and obeyed.

While I am not called to build an ark I am called to stand against the floods of sin and decay in my culture. I am called to trust God, His Word, and walk after His Spirit. I am called to do this regardless of the cost. This is what it means to take up my cross and follow Jesus.

This is not a call to show my repulsion for sinners for I too am a sinner saved by grace. It is a call to show my love for God and others by obeying God and upholding the truth of His Word. Jesus said that we are the light of the world. Our light must shine if others are to find their way out of this world’s darkness. Jesus warned us,

• “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness! “No one can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon.” (Mat 6:22-24 NKJV)

The true light of God is love, for God is love! Love is not the tolerance of sin. Love is the worship of God amid a world that has rejected Him. It is, like Noah, getting up each day and living in the light, showing the love of God, and being willing to give an answer for the truth to anyone who asks.

Jesus resisted all temptation. He never compromised the Word or His calling. Jesus changed every situation He entered by His love and by His light (truth). Jesus was crucified for the truth. He challenged the status quo and the hypocrisy of the day. He called men and women to repentance and faith. 

And, He calls me to do the same.

• “When He had called the people to Himself, with His disciples also, He said to them, “Whoever desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake and the gospel’s will save it. For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul? Or what will a man give in exchange for his soul? For whoever is ashamed of Me and My words in this adulterous and sinful generation, of him the Son of Man also will be ashamed when He comes in the glory of His Father with the holy angels.” (Mar 8:34-38 NKJV)

Lord, help me to be like Noah!

In Jesus’ Name!