Not A Hero Concluded

Noah on the other hand is known for three qualities. He was “adeek”—righteous, just. Second, he was “tomime” He was complete, whole, sound, integrated. In other words, inside and out, Noah did what was right. Third, Noah “walked with God”. It is the exact same expression used to describe Enoch…also in Seth’s line who did not die but just disappeared from the world at for the time was a very young age (a mere 365 years old). Literally it reads that he walked himself fervently with God. The gist of it is that Noah pushed an intimacy with God, worked at it, made it important.

Noah’s credibility on the world scene was negligible. He had none of the acclaim of the Nephilim, was culturally irrelevant and for a hundred years looked like a fool. Noah was the antihero, the Napoleon Dynamite of his age. Our time is one of jostling for power, posing for mirrors, clamoring for attention and Noah was the antithesis of this. In an era when no one had ever seen rain, let alone believed in its existence, Noah clung to a faith in God that was nonsensical yet he built his life not on thoughts of world-wide floods but on a craving for God. A good reputation did nothing for him. A hundred years building an ark takes out of you the pangs for acceptance and acclaim. Give one man enough time pursuing God and he is at peace with the most astounding of circumstances.

I am not sure what I would have thought of Noah if I knew him back in his day. I probably would have considered him just plain odd. But I know what I think of him now. He is all I want to be. Skip over to the ark for just a moment. It too was nothing to look at. It was just a giant box. No beautiful engineering lines, no slick cabins or lovely dance floor. It was just a big wooden box 547 feet long, 91 feet wide and 47 feet high with planked off compartments inside to separate out the creatures. Noah’s sole task in life, above all else was to get himself and his family in the ark. Regardless of what else may go well or badly for him; that was it. Hide yourself in the ark. We sometimes complicate life far too much with our goals and plans and responsibilities when it is the one thing that must happen.

If we can take a small liberty with scripture and make a comparison that seems apt, it is that Christ is our ark. If we do nothing but hide in Jesus, regardless of how everything else may turn, we have lived. But if we do not hide ourselves in Him, it does not matter what we do with ourselves, it is all in vain. What else did the Apostle Paul mean when he reminds us that because of our faith in Jesus Christ, we are dead to everything that was before? For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory. (Colossians 3:3-4 NIV) An interesting detail of the ark is that you could not be partway in it and live. You were either all the way in or completely out. There was no hanging on to the side for long.

We are completely hidden within Christ and saved or we are outside Him and totally lost. Every part of us is that way, every act of ours is that way and every thought of ours is that way. Hidden in Christ and saved or outside Him and perished. Imagine Noah, as so many are with God, straddling the opening and just happy to be around the ark. Many believers have the same form of faith. Just enough of Jesus to be near Him; just enough devotion to keep Him in view and no more they insist. How much of the ark did Noah need to preserve his family? How much Christ will preserve yours?

Last week my blog tracking stopped. In other words, I could not see how many were reading my blog and for all I knew no one was looking at it. All I was left with was a desire to write in God and a hope He wanted to be with me as I did it. The assumption that the value of my life is based on what someone else, anyone else thinks of me is absurd. Leo Tolstoy once famously wrote, “Attack me, I do this myself, but attack me rather than the path I follow and which I point out to anyone who asks me where I think it lies. If I know the way home and am walking along it drunkenly, is it any less the right way because I am staggering from side to side!” There is one thing you need to do each day and every hour that is more important than anything else you attempt. Figure out a way to hide yourself in Jesus. We surely may look like stumblebums at times and how we do it may make us the anti-hero, but we have no other way to live.