Outrageous Faith

Thinking about Noah and the Ark I began to wonder about how outrageous faith is.

Faith is something that’s completely against all reason and logical thought. This is seen in faith’s description.

“Faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)

Basically we’re told to believe without concrete evidence to back it up. But without this kind of faith we’re also told we cannot please God, Hebrews 11:6a.

This is the faith Noah had, and the faith required for our own righteousness.

“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” (Hebrews 11:7)

Noah lived in a world filled with such wickedness that God couldn’t take it any longer, and so He said to Noah, “I’m going to destroy all flesh, but save you and your family, along with a remnant of all animal life,” Genesis 6:18-19.

God then gave Moses the dimensions of a very large boat, because He was going to wipe all other life out in a flood.

Can you imagine Noah trying to grasp the immensity of this? God was going to send a cataclysmic flood that’s going to wipe out all life, and he was supposed to build this humongous boat that’ll become a floating zoo.

That’s all Noah was told, and without any supporting evidence he was to accept it as fact and move. And he moved out of total reverence for God, “godly fear,” for the next 100 or so years he followed God’s directions and built the ark, even while his neighbors mocked and ridiculed.

God has given to you a word of promise. It is finished, it is enough, and by faith God is asking you to stand upon it. Yes, it’s outrageous, but it’s the only kind of faith that pleases Him.