By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. Hebrews 11:7

 

A warning can spare you a lot of grief. A few years ago I ignored the warning light on my car’s dashboard and ran out of petrol 2 km from home. It’s not that I thought the warning was a lie, but I thought I’d probably just make it and save myself having to stop. Had I trusted the warning and not my own guestimation of how far I could go on my reserve tank I would have saved myself a lot more time (plus the expense and embarrassment of calling for help)!

 

Noah got a warning about a coming flood. God saw that human wickedness had become so great that all that people did was evil. The flood would take the world back to a time of beginning. Sin had undone God’s good creation (Genesis 1:31). Unless some way of escape was provided, death by drowning would be the inevitable result. “Build an ark,” said God.

 

At nearly 600 years old, Noah was certainly an unlikely man for the job. But he had walked faithfully with God for all those years, and he wasn’t about to stop. What a strange demand from God! The ark would be massive. The task was huge. But Noah obeyed God and got to work.

 

Was Noah perfect? Hardly. Noah stumbled later in his walk when he became drunk and subjected himself to ridicule (Genesis 9:20-23). Like our other unlikely heroes, his name still appears in Hebrews 11.

 

We don’t need to be perfect to be used by God in remarkable ways. God used Noah to make a new start with the human race. What will he do with you?

 

Prayer: Father, thank you for your warning. Thank you for the ark. May people everywhere heed your warning and, with us, believe in Jesus and be saved. In his name, Amen.