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the background of a world situation not so dissimilar from that today that Noah was
called.
In the midst of all the corruption and violence there was one notable exception:
"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord" (Gen. 6: 8).
Noah only was acceptable to God, and when this is so, acceptance by God brings
responsibility, and so it was with Noah:
"And God said unto Noah, . . . . . Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou
make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch" (verses 13-14).
Could anything be more ridiculous? Here was a man who was not merely holding to
old fashioned, outmoded ideas, but was stupid enough to try to build a ship on land, far
from any sea. But was he subject to any more ridicule than before? He had always been
the `odd man out' among his contemporaries. Verse 9 could be rendered:
"This is the family history of Noah: Noah was a just man and without blemish among
his contemporaries, and Noah walked habitually with the Creator."
All his past life had been a preparation for the work he was now to undertake for God.
He had been `faithful in little', now he was to be given the opportunity to be faithful in
much.
Paul summarized Noah's call in these words:
"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear,
prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and
became heir of the righteousness which is by faith" (Heb. 11: 7).
Noah was `warned of God'. The word `warned' is one which is always used of divine
communications, and in Luke 2: 26 a corresponding word is translated `it was revealed'.
In the response to this revelation `moved him with fear'. It was not fear in the sense of
terror, but of caution, being circumspect or discreet, even to wait quietly for. Arndt and
Gingrich put it "Noah took care and built an ark". The cautious man builds a ship on dry
land! Then quietly waits for all that God has revealed. It was through faith Noah did
this. He trusted God, trusted in the revelation given to him, taking heed to do all that
God had said, taking care to do what God had told him, quietly waiting God's time. The
truly cautious thing to do at all times is to trust in God, and to do His will.
In this way Noah became "a preacher of righteousness".
"God . . . . . spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of
righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly" (II Pet. 2: 5).
The context of this statement is instructive: "The angels that sinned"; "Sodom and
Gomorrah". In a time of moral and spiritual corruption Noah became a preacher, or
better, a herald. He proclaimed righteousness, and proclaimed it whether his hearers took
heed or not. Surely the `righteousness' he proclaimed was that the coming judgment was