Genesis 6:22

This isn't the first time you will hear this said about Noah. The magnitude of this sentence can only be appreciated when it is set in the context of what precedes it. Noah had been set an absurd task. In the midst of a community that he lived with for hundreds of years he was called to build a boat three and a half football pitches long and yet there wasn't an ocean to be seen in any direction.

Society is full of rules about appropriateness. We manage our behaviour according to the situation we find ourselves in and if we don't we quickly learn from those around us that if we continue in that manner we will soon find ourselves excluded. I'm sure we would find this effect at work in all cultures and throughout history. It seems a condition of humanity. How, then, would Noah's community have responded to him when he begins a project that must have taken decades and made absolutely no sense at all. Inevitably he would have been labeled as a cause for concern or something far worse. What value would Noah have been to the community while he was busy with his woodwork project?

Noah response to God's commandments required deep and enduring faith. Obedience and faith in the seemingly absurd reflects Noah's conviction in the faithfulness and character of God.

At times we do not always see the purpose and reason behind God's instructions or his prophetic leading but if we know God and his character then his command can be confidently embraced.

As Christians we may struggle with questions about war in the Old Testament, hell in the New Testament or we may feel left confused by a season of suffering or a challenging situation we find ourselves in. However through all of these challenges we must come to know and trust the character of God that has been revealed to us in the scriptures. We then will be able to trust the God that Noah had walked with and so deeply depended upon.