It Wasn’t Raining While Noah Built the Ark
One of Christopher’s favorite movies is “Evan Almighty”. He’ll sometimes put it on when I’m around: it’s his way of telling me he wants me to sit down and watch it with him.
If you’re familiar with the film, you know it is a comedic, modern-day retelling of the biblical narrative of Noah’s Ark, where congressman Evan Baxter, played by Steve Carell, is commissioned by God to build an ark in preparation for a soon-to-come flood.
As Evan goes about constructing the massive vessel, he becomes the laughingstock of the people around him.
His wife, for one, is convinced he’s going through some sort of midlife crisis. She eventually concludes that Evan has gone insane.
Why else would he grow a ridiculous-looking, long, white beard, wear antiquarian robes, have pairs of animals follow him around, and, worst of all, spend all day, every day, building an enormous boat in the family’s backyard?
Evan’s actions don’t make sense to anyone. His actions aren’t even making sense to Evan!
Liberal as the movie may be in its retelling of the biblical account, which we find in Genesis chapters 6-9, here I believe the filmmakers hit the nail on the head (no pun intended): Teasing and ridicule must have been precisely what the real Noah faced on a daily basis. I imagine he must have felt terribly misunderstood. Alone. Overwhelmed. Probably depressed at times. He may even have thought his wife was right that he was losing his mind.
Because remember, it wasn’t RAINING while Noah built the ark.
In fact, Noah and his contemporaries likely hadn’t seen a drop of rain their entire lives, as most scholars believe precipitation didn’t exist before the Flood!
And yet, when God ordered him to start on what must have seemed like an outlandish project to Noah, Noah didn’t object, complain, or question God. He simply obeyed.
He rolled up his sleeves, grabbed his hammer, and went to work. Day after day, year after year, decade after decade, he labored tirelessly while others made fun of him, constructing a giant, odd-looking ship in the middle of dry land.
Although Noah is an extreme example, it’s not uncommon for God to ask us to perform actions that don’t make sense on a human plane and without revealing His intentions behind the instructions.
Maybe He’ll tell you to pass on what appears to be an excellent job offer. Or to break up with the great guy you’ve been dating. Or to move out of state or across the world. Or go live with your mom, or take in a foster child or a homeless person. Or do any number of other things that don’t line up with your goals or expectations.
It may not be until years later that you can look back and trace God’s hand in it all. Only then do you see that His plan was to lead you to a job more in keeping with His purposes for you. Or you see that he had a much better match for you than that boyfriend He wanted you to walk away from…or He knew you would be better able to glorify Him by staying single.
You see that He had a unique ministry opportunity waiting for you in the new city He called you to move to. Or that He intended for you to be a Christian witness to your aging mom, that abandoned child, or that lady who’d lost everything she owned.
You see it only in hindsight.
But while it’s true that we usually see more clearly in retrospect, it’s also true that, sometimes, God chooses NOT to reveal to us the reasons for everything He asks us to do.
Of course, God isn’t obligated to share His agenda with us, and He doesn’t owe us an explanation. He is simply to be obeyed, end of story. Even when His commands don’t make sense to us. Even when others question, criticize, or ridicule us or our loved ones don’t get it. Even when we’re made to look like a fool.
Even when all we want to do is quit.
The moment the Flood hit, Noah was able to piece everything together perfectly. He understood why God had commissioned him to build the ark.
But all those years before? While he didn’t know the full scope of God’s plan yet, and he was still assembling the ship, plank by plank, bolt by bolt, while the sun was beating down on his face and there wasn’t one little rain cloud in sight?
Not so much.
Yet, remarkably, Noah persevered until he had completed the project.
And that right there is the important takeaway for you and me today: God wants His children to have a Noah-like faith. It’s a faith that believes implicitly, trusts unconditionally, and takes action immediately and repeatedly.
Not because it can already see how everything’s going to pan out. Not because it knows for a fact that someday in the future, things will make perfect sense when looking back.
But simply because God said so.
L.B.
Do you find it difficult to have faith like Noah? Has God ever asked you to do something that didn’t make sense, humanly speaking? Please share in the comments section below!
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