Scripture Daily

Context No. 1587 of 4322 · Genesis

Context · Reflection

Genesis 7:1-5: in context

1The LORD said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. 2You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. 3Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. 4In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights. I will destroy every living thing that I have made from the surface of the ground.” 5Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him.

The flood is about to come, and God gives Noah his final instructions: come into the ark, you and your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation. Take the clean animals by sevens and the others by twos, and the birds, to keep their kinds alive. In seven days, God says, I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and blot out every living thing I have made. And the passage records, simply: Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him.

The line that sums up Noah is the last one: Noah did everything that the LORD commanded him. Consider what he was commanded to do. Build an enormous boat, far from any sea; gather pairs of every kind of animal; prepare for a flood that had never been seen, on the word of God alone, while the sky was presumably clear and the neighbors surely mocked. It was a strange, demanding, and, to all appearances, absurd command; and Noah did all of it, exactly as God said. His obedience was complete, prompt, and unquestioning, carried out on the strength of God's word before there was any visible sign that the flood would come. That is faith in action: obeying God fully, even when the command is hard to understand, even when the reason is not yet visible, even when everyone around thinks it foolish. Noah did not obey partway, or delay until the rain began, or wait for proof; he did everything God commanded, in advance, trusting the word he had been given. There is a searching example in that for our own obedience. We are prone to obey God partway, to delay until we understand the reason, to wait for some confirmation before we act, to hold back when the command is costly or strange or unpopular. Noah did all that God commanded, promptly and completely, on the strength of God's word alone. To obey God fully, before we can see the reason or the outcome, simply because he has said it, is the obedience of faith that Noah shows; and it was that obedience, acted on before the first drop fell, that carried him and his household through the flood.

Do I obey God fully and promptly on the strength of his word, even when the command is hard to understand, costly, or unpopular, or do I obey partway, delay until I understand the reason, or wait for proof before I act, when Noah did everything God commanded before the first drop of rain fell?

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