Recently I have been giving some thought to one of our most famous Old Testament examples, Noah. I do that when I am studying for a class or just reading the scriptures. I look at the lives of the men and women in the Bible, and I wonder what it would have been like to be presented with the opportunities or situations with which they were presented.

Noah’s life raises a lot of questions; but I truly believe we can answer most of them and gain some real insight into what our own behavior ought to be.

Noah’s father, Lamech, lived to be 777. “Noah was five hundred years old: and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (Genesis 5:32 KJV). Can you imagine having children at that age?

The conditions in the earth at that time were quite interesting. Men began to multiply, and their daughters were fair. There were also giants in the earth and men of renown. The earth was filled with violence.

This situation would have presented some problems, and verse 5 of Genesis 6 tells us that God saw how wicked man was, and everything he thought about was evil. This situation doesn’t sound much different than the situation in our world today, with maybe the exception of giants.

So with the world in such a terrible state, God determined to destroy man and every living thing. But as He looked at the earth, “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8).

Noah is described as a just man and perfect in his generation, and a man that walked with God. Here in this corrupt world, God found a man that treated people fairly and did those things that pleased Him.

So, God offered Noah a way of escape from the sinfulness of the world. He gave him the task of building a large boat. It had to be made by certain measurements and standards. It had one window and one door, and it even had to be made out of a specific kind of wood. Any variance to these instructions would have brought about a very different outcome for Noah and his family.

Noah built the boat, probably amid ridicule. Noah gathered the animals exactly as God required. During all this preparation, Noah probably did a little preaching. You know people asked him questions about his building project! But no one listened. No one repented. How sad!

If you believe the scripture, you have no problem believing that this story is true and that God saved Noah and his family just as the story relates. So, this becomes our first question, why do we have a problem with God’s commands today? Why do we want to shortcut God’s commandments and do more or less than He asks of us?

Jesus said in John 15:5, 10, “I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing.” In verse 10 He said, “If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in His love.”

We cannot decide on our own what we want to believe and what we want to reject from the teachings we find in the New Testament. Noah followed God’s instructions specifically. He did not vary even the slightest in building the boat, putting in the animals, or meeting the timetables God set forth.

What about us? Our second question is, how are we doing with meeting the specific commands of becoming a Christian and living a Christian life? Are we willing to accept what the Father has said and do it without questioning His authority?

I have never understood why people have such a problem with this. When the scripture sets out the instructions so completely, why do people not want to follow those instructions? I suspect it is just as it was in the day of Noah. The people did what they wanted and not what God wanted. People today do the same.

Sin is a transgression of God’s law according to I John 3:4. We transgress God’s law by either failing to do what God’s law requires or by doing what God’s law forbids. We do this in three ways: in thought, I John 3:15; word, Matthew 5:22; and deed, Romans 1:32.

I think that the writer of Hebrews sums this up for us. He said, “For if we sin willfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins” (Hebrews 10:25). It is all about our willful self, doing what is right in our own eyes and not what is right in the sight of God.

Sandra Oliver