Following God not the World

Scripture Texts: Genesis 6; Genesis 7; Hebrews 11:7

The story of Noah is one of the most recognizable stories of the Scriptures. How can you miss a story about a guy who builds a boat, loads all the animals and survives a worldwide flood? As we read these passages some basic math revealed that there was not a lot of room for that many animals. Then it struck us, what if the story is not about the animals and the big boat.

Noah was asked to do something that was absurd at best. Living in the middle of a dry mountainous climate, he was asked to build a boat, and not just a little boat, one that was over 101,000 square feet. Why is it that God trusted Noah with such an outrageous task? Faith. Noah was the only person God could find that had enough faith to be trusted with such a big task.

Along the way I am sure Noah heard all the ridicule from those in his community. It is more than likely that Noah was the punchline on many of the jokes. Yet through it all Noah believed God and the plan of God more than the people around him. There may have been times when Noah believed God and God's plan more than he believed himself. Daily there was a struggle to remain faithful to what God was calling Noah to do. Remember a boat that size was not built in a day. It must have been attractive more than once to give up on the whole thing and live like the rest of the world. However that is not the course Noah chose. In the end creation was extended to the post flood world because of Noah's faith and willingness to follow.

The world around us today has some different ideas about relationships and marriage than we find in Scriptures. Looking around, it seems in some settings marriage is almost disposable. The values which drive a marriage are more about pop psychology or financial benefit more than faithfulness to the call of God. Choosing to live in a marriage that works to follow God's intention and call for marriage is not always an easy task. We are called to live in a different way than the other models of marriage we see around us. In our years together we have had times when people have questioned our marriage values. Some have called them old fashioned, while others have felt pity or shame because of the ways we choose to live into gender roles. We have never been tempted to abandon our values for marriage.

Like Noah, we are committed to living the call of God, even if culturally this does not sit well. God calls us to a marriage with Him at the center. Our focus and direction needs to always be focused on God more than anything else.