Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
From this verse we can see that Noah was absolutely obedient to God. No matter what God said, he did it accordingly without reservation. That was why God saved Noah. In the time of Noah, it had never rained. But God said to Noah that He would use a flood to destroy the world and made Noah build the ark. That was far beyond man’s conceptions. At that time, all people all thought that it could not rain. Only Noah believed and listened to God’s words and built the ark as God instructed. It was his absolute obedience to God that enabled his family of eight to be saved by God, so that they survived the flood. Apparently, being able to obey God’s work that is at odds with man’s conceptions is the fundamental condition for us to be saved by God. Let’s read God’s evaluation of him. God says, “When Noah did as God instructed he didn’t know what God’s intentions were. He didn’t know what God wanted to accomplish. God had only given him a command, instructed him to do something, but without much explanation, and he went ahead and did it. He didn’t try to figure out God’s intentions in private, nor did he resist God or have a double heart. He just went and did it accordingly with a pure and simple heart. Whatever God let him do he did, and obeying and listening to God’s word were his conviction for doing things. That was how straightforwardly and simply he dealt with what God entrusted. His essence—the essence of his actions was obedience, not second-guessing, not resisting, and moreover, not thinking of his own personal interests and his gains and losses. Further, when God said He would destroy the world with a flood, he did not ask when or try to get to the bottom of it, and he certainly did not ask God just how He was going to destroy the world. He simply did as God instructed. However God wanted it to be made and made with what, he did exactly as God asked and also commenced action immediately thereafter. He acted according to God’s instructions with an attitude of wanting to satisfy God. Was he doing it to help himself avoid the disaster? No. Did he ask God how much longer before the world would be destroyed? He didn’t. Did he ask God or did he know how long it would take to build the ark? He didn’t know that either. He simply just obeyed, listened, and did it accordingly.”