Heroes Aren't Hard To Find: Part IV

Hebrews 11: 7 --
7 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 comes by faith.

In Heroes Aren't Hard to Find: Part I, I expressed why I feel the way I do about the state of the church as an institution; how it has bruised me and many others, but how I still strive for its health.

In Part II, I established what I understand Faith to be, explored dogma, and talked about how the "Heroes of the Faith" (specifically Abel) are no different than we. We went crashing through the myth that they somehow had superheroic powers and began to examine them as real people, instead of fables impossible to live up to.

In Part III, we looked at what Love is, what our basic job is as believers, and possibly how Enoch fulfilled those requirements.

Now we turn our attention to Noah.

Noah was the great grandson of Enoch. His name means "comfort" in Hebrew. His father, Lamech, named him that because, "He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the LORD has cursed." (Genesis 5:29) So from the beginning, we are optimistic concerning Noah.

Genesis 6:5-10 --

5 The LORD saw how great man's wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. 6 The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. 7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth-men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air-for I am grieved that I have made them." 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD .

9 This is the account of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

This is not unusual for the LORD. Later, under Moses' leadership, He threatens to destroy the entire nation of Israel. And one can certainly understand why. People are pains in the butt. Yet Noah, as did Enoch, "walked" with the LORD. He stood up for justice, lived his life in peace, took care of his family, his neighbors, and in so doing, honored God. He also presumably honored Him purposefully by prayer and sacrifice.

Genesis 6:11-13 --

11 Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, "I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.

Um -- Whoa! God's talking to Noah. Yowsa... We in the modern era don't get the privilege of hearing (well, except for televangelists) the audible voice of God. One wonders how things like this worked back in the day.

But we also have to remember that these stories were transmitted orally for years before anyone (historically Moses) bothered to write them down. And in the context of an oral story told 'round the campfire or in the sheep field, it's immensely more convenient to say, "And then God said," versus rambling on and on.

Still the questions remain. Was this an intuition? A dream? A vision? An hallucination? Or was God really and truly talking with Noah? Dunno'. But it's obvious they were pals.

Genesis 6:14-22 --

14 So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. 15 This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high. 16 Make a roof for it and finish the ark to within 18 inches of the top. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. 17 I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. 18 But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark-you and your sons and your wife and your sons' wives with you. 19 You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. 20 Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. 21 You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them."
22 Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

However this information was transmitted to Noah, it was obviously specific. And I think dwelling on the transmissional form itself is missing the point entirely. The thrust of this passage (for our purposes, anyway) is that Noah did everything God asked him to do.

Noah and God had already established a relationship with one another. Notice how he -- and only he -- "found favor in the eyes of the LORD". Nothing is mentioned about the righteousness of Noah's sons. However, because of the LORD's regard for Noah, He promises to keep His covenant not only with Noah, but also his offspring. He could have ordered Noah to forsake his wife and children, placed him in the ark alone, created him another wife (i.e. a second "Eve," if you will) and propagated an entirely new human race. But He didn't. He chose to preserve Noah's family.

So Noah does all that is asked of him. He puts his family and all the birds and beasts (which are "clean", further bolstering the presumption that Moses transcribed this tale from his perspective) gets in the boat and endures the rain and the flood. He sends out the birds, finally gets out of the boat (with an aching back, no doubt) and, before he even settles his family, builds an altar to the LORD in gratitude (as would I... can you imagine?).

Genesis 8:21-22 --
21 The LORD smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: "Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.

22 "As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night will never cease."

God was happy. And he blessed Noah.

Genesis 9:1-3 --

God's Covenant With Noah

1 Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. 2 The fear and dread of you will fall upon all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air, upon every creature that moves along the ground, and upon all the fish of the sea; they are given into your hands. 3 Everything that lives and moves will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

Were you aware that people were originally vegetarians? Yep, it says so right there. ('Course there's no Biblical backing for it now, according to the preceding.)

Notice how this blessing echoes almost perfectly the blessing God gave to Adam and Eve in the creation story in Genesis 1:28-30 --

28 God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground."
29 Then God said, "I give you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the whole earth and every tree that has fruit with seed in it. They will be yours for food. 30 And to all the beasts of the earth and all the birds of the air and all the creatures that move on the ground-everything that has the breath of life in it-I give every green plant for food." And it was so.

God promises never to destroy the Earth with a killer flood (which doesn't preclude any other form of destruction) and signifies His Promise with a rainbow. Very nice. Then we are introduced to Noah's kids.

Genesis 9:18-27 --

The Sons of Noah

18 The sons of Noah who came out of the ark were Shem, Ham and Japheth. (Ham was the father of Canaan.) 19 These were the three sons of Noah, and from them came the people who were scattered over the earth.

Looks like Ham at least didn't father a people who were faithful. The Canaanites became an idol worshipping people who were eventually displaced and partly destroyed by Israel years later under Joshua.

Still, Noah's reputation is untarnished. One can envision him sitting in meditative prayer most of the day doing all the things that the sainted ascribe to; he never quarreled with his wife, lived under a happy rainbow with his children, kept to himself, worked hard, never played cards, smoked, danced, or was overtly passionate.

Then, we get this:

Genesis 9:20-
20 Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. 21 When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent.

Way to party, Noah! He's happy with the grape harvest and the first batch of wine he's made, so he gets a little drunkie-wunkie and passes out -- naked. This is a pretty typical Friday night at university. Albeit, without the Polaroids...

SO...

Genesis 9:22 --

22 Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father's nakedness and told his two brothers outside.

Ham gets a chuckle out of this. Thinks it's funny. The old man's passed out again. "Hey! You guys gotta' SEE this! Dad's not only shnoockered, he's bare-butt naked, too! Come 'ere! Check it out!"

Genesis 9:23 --

23 But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father's nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father's nakedness.

Which is really the respectable thing to do. And we expect that a man such as Noah would wake up and settle the matter peacefully, right? Nope. Uhn-uh. He wakes up PEEVED.

Genesis 9:24-27 --
24 When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, 25 he said, "Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers."

26 He also said, "Blessed be the LORD , the God of Shem! May Canaan be the slave of Shem.
27 May God extend the territory of Japheth; may Japheth live in the tents of Shem, and may Canaan be his slave."

Which is interesting because:

Joshua 16:10 --

10 They did not dislodge the Canaanites living in Gezer; to this day the Canaanites live among the people of Ephraim but are required to do forced labor.

The point? Noah was a hard worker who relied on the wisdom of the LORD. He walked with Him, prayed to Him, and yet, was a real person who made mistakes.

God might not come to you and me and request that we build an ark, start a ministry, or travel to Africa for missions work. He may only request that we love and serve, use our talents for Him (however humbly), and take care of ourselves, our families, and the strangers we encounter on the road. Remember, everyone's load is equal in the sight of the Lord.

What is significant is our response to His requests. Must we carry them out perfectly? No. We will try to, but because we inhabit this strange mortality where good and evil feud within the bounds of our skin, we cannot expect to be perfect in our bodies. We are however, perfect in His eyes through the accepted work of His Son. We strive to live in goodness because of our appreciation, but God's grace allows us, like Noah, to be imperfect in that striving.

Next: Abraham

Edited for misspellings and style -- WG