Okay well that's the kids version I'm sure you've heard a time or two at least. The point is we all know who Noah is. As soon as someone mentions "Noah," people think "ark" and "flood." For those of us who grew up listening to this story we know, as we've always known, that Noah built an ark that saved his family and all those furry smiling animals from the flood that destroyed the rest of the world. But that's also a problem. We know the story well enough that the ending is just as certain as the beginning.
We've essentially skipped to the back of the book and read the last chapter already so when we read through the instructions God gives Noah (Genesis 6:14-21), we don't think much of it. Well, maybe some of us have given it a second glance (or listened to Bill Cosby's comedy skit) and recognize that Noah was essentially living in a desert and the thought of a flood, let alone rain, was just absurd so we know it wasn't rainbows and unicorns of joy for Noah to follow these instructions. However that's not the hardest obstacle.
Noah was given instructions by God. Simple, right? He even told Noah why he needed to follow the instructions. Motivation and reason, great! But despite this labor intensive process of following the instructions, God did not give him any sort of a time frame.
Sound familiar?
Okay well I can't speak for you but I can certainly attest, that Noah is not the only one that God has given a plan to without any sense of a time frame attached to it.
God essentially told Noah where he was headed eventually, and gave him a task to do in the mean time. It wasn't until AFTER (6:22 - 7:4) Noah had finished God's instructions that God came, gave him more instructions, and told him any sort of time frame. Not to mention the time frame finally given was such an immeasurably small amount compared to the century that Noah had to clock in before finding that out. A century, folks. That's longer than most of us will even be alive!
I often wonder how many times Noah asked God for a specific, or even a general, time frame. You know, ask God to throw him any kind of scrap of information to help fuel his motivation even just the tiniest bit. Now Noah was ultimately faithful, but I wonder how often he had moments of doubt or even complaint. If he was anything like me...he had quite a few of them.
I like to know the whole picture. I like to know how to get from point A to point B, how long it will take me to get there, and what it will look like when I do get there. But most times I'm not privy to all that information which makes it hard to act on what little information I am given. But then I guess that's the point now isn't it? Cause if I knew all that information, I wouldn't have to act on faith and I probably wouldn't be as focused on God while doing so either.
Our God loves us so very much that He is jealous for us. And you know what? He's allowed to be. He has every right to withhold just enough information from me to force me to act on faith cause, to be quite honest, otherwise my focus would be less on Him and much more on the goings on around me.
Acting on faith isn't easy. But I can tell you you're not alone. Hebrews 11 lists a number of people who had to act by faith. You're probably already well acquainted with their stories and know the ending just as well as you know the beginning, just like God knows the ending to your story just as well as He knows the beginning. But the individual never knows all that information cause it's all about acting on faith.
Hebrews 11:7
"By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household."
