Article 2015-05 - Noah’s Mission

Chapter 8: Noah’s Mission

Introduction

When God calls a missionary, He gives clear assignments. Noah’s vocation demanded a response of faith and had to ‘win the missionary battle at home’ first: winning his family for the words that God had spoken to him. God’s calling does not guarantee a positive response from your family. On the contrary: working out a missionary vocation often brings also social suffering with it.
God’s principle that there is only one way of salvation comes out clearly in Noah’s story. The centuries before Noah show that generations without a preacher drift away from God automatically. Noah’s story illustrates that God can use any means to reach His goals.
We now look into the next two themes: God’s solution for the sin-problem, and Forfeited salvation means judgment.

Scripture reference

• Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God … God said to Noah, ‘I am going to put an end to all people … I am going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark … I will establish my covenant with you (Gen. 6:9,13,14,18)
• By faith Noah, when warned about things not seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family (Hebr. 11:7)

The story.

Noah must often have been dismayed about the godless behavior of the people around him. But now God had spoken to him very clearly. What He had to say was not nice. He told him what He intended to do: destroy this whole generation through a great Flood that would come over all the earth. He gave a way of escape, however. Noah had to build a huge boat that would float on water. He and his family were to board it and whoever wanted to join could do so. He also took pairs of all sorts of animals with him and enough food for his family and the animals to survive. 

Noah’s sons and their wives had to get used to the idea, and because none of them had ever seen rain, they had a hard time imagining how such a thing could happen. They also wondered how their father, a farmer, could possibly build a boat. The more they thought about it, the more ridiculous it was in their eyes. But Noah repeated that he did not know how and when it would be done, but that he was certain that God had spoken.

Later his sons saw that Noah meant what he said. He collected wood, nails, tar, rope, tools and all sorts of other materials needed to build a big boat. At first they had laughed at him when he had told them that God had even revealed the exact measures of the boat, which he kept calling ‘Ark’. But when they saw how Noah started building, even hiring personnel to help him, doubt started to rise in their hearts. What if God had really spoken and a great Flood would come indeed? Besides, that boat did not look so strange after all. Gradually they warmed to the idea and started to help their father. Noah’s unshakable faith in the words of God rubbed of on the rest of his family and before long, the building of the Ark had become a family enterprise.

Most reactions to Noah’s enterprise were mocking and ridiculing. That hurt, but Noah took God more seriously than his fellow men and eventually he got used to such reactions. Every time when people asked him what he was doing he told them about God, His message and what would happen to those who would not board the Ark. He never failed to invite people to leave their godless ways and join his family to sail with the Ark. When Noah said this, the usual reaction was one of mockery about such foolishness.

When the Ark was ready, after about a century, Noah purchased food for his family and the animals. After this, animals started to come to the Ark from self. Noah understood that God sent them, and for his family it was proof that God was behind the plan. One day Noah said that there was only one week left before the rains were to start. He intensified his messages to the watching population but met with laughter and indifference. After family and animals had boarded the huge boat God closed the door, which Noah had left open, just in case somebody else wanted to join in the last minute.

The ordeal that followed was horrendous. Rains started and continued for what seemed an eternity. After a while they noticed that the Ark floated. Frightening were the knocks of people who had lost ground under their feet and later the agonizing cries of the drowning. Eventually the rains stopped and a strange peace enveloped the Ark. The demands of divine justice had been met.
For months the Ark floated and men and animals ate their allotted ratios, wondering how this adventure would end. One day they noticed that the water was going down because mountain tops had become visible again. After some more weeks the Ark came to rest on a mountain top. A month later there was enough dry land to disembark and man and beast left the vessel that had saved their lives.

First Noah built an altar for God to worship Him with his family. God renewed His covenant with mankind and promised that such a flood would never happen again. The rainbow would be God’s reminder to people of the following generations. Slowly his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren re-populated the earth.
The story of the great Flood was told many times, from generation to generation, instilling a new fear of God, Who did what He said, whether He was believed or not. With the growth of the population however and the passing of many years, people forgot about God’s commands again and started shaping gods of their own making.

What would God do this time, to bring His message across? He had pledged to refrain from judgments as heavy as the Flood. But could He just let people do their own thing? Evil as they were? The last developments showed that they had started to build a tower in defiance of what God had said, namely to spread over the whole earth. People decided rather to stay together, and bundle their efforts to become self-sustaining and independent from God. That was easy because they all had the same language and culture.

This time God’s solution was easy and nobody had to die. He simply confused their language and because they could not understand each other any longer, people moved away to places where men spoke the same language. The resulting chaos worked out God’s plan: people would become so different that they could reflect God’s character again. But before that would happen many more centuries had to pass. For the time being God would start the new phase of His plan with just one man and his wife. Another missionary was about to be called, but his story would be entirely different from Noah’s.

Scripture reference 

• But the Lord God called to the man, ‘Where are you?’ (Gen. 3:9)
• If a man owns a hundred sheep, and one of them wanders away, will he not leave the ninety-nine on the hills and go to look for the one that wandered off? (Matt. 18:12)
• But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us (Rom. 5:8)

Comment

In Genesis we see an important theme appear: God looks for man, even though he sinned and in spite of his disobedience. Man knew he had blown it, ran away and hid (as if that were possible). In this verse we see why our God is unique in comparison to other gods. Our God seeks His lost people and He has done so ever since the garden of Eden. Other gods can only be found by man’s own effort – and they cannot save.
Our God, by contrast, became one of us, lived a sinless life among us and finally died an innocent death to pay for our sins. He found us before we looked for Him. God had every right to let man walk away from Him in his lostness and sin. After all, He was the offended Party – but His love was too great to even consider that option.

This does not mean that God tolerates sin. He is not a smiling, senile old man on his golden throne who forgives all sins anyway; far from it. He is not only the all-loving God, He is also righteous and very strict in His justice. God’s character has two sides. He is the God Who so loved the world that He gave His only Son for it and the One of Whom it is written that it is dreadful to fall into His hands. He loved sinners enough to come from heaven to live His life among them and at the same time hated sin enough to die for it.
God made a Missionary out of His only Son and His mission had three components: He was to become in the likeness of man, He was to live a sinless life and He had to die innocently in order to justify sinners who believe in Him. 

A clear call and assignment from God are necessities for any missionary who wants to stand firm in the midst of the suffering his ministry brings with it. His faith-response to God’s vocation must be unwavering and works out best when his family backs his ministry. Lack of response to the message we bring to the nations does not free us of our assignment. We have to sow and whether we reap or not is not our responsibility. God requires unconditional obedience from us. Messages of all missionaries through the ages have in common, that God always offers only one way of salvation. If that way is ignored only judgment remains. Where this message is not being preached people will be inclined to follow Satan and the evil tendencies of their hearts. Sometimes God sovereignly interferes in the course of history to reach His goals, whether understood by us or not. The best way to brace one’s self for suffering in missionary ministry is to study the suffering of others and expect the same. Therefore we study Bible characters and learn from Jesus that we will be persecuted because He was. In the world we try to win back to Him we will have tribulation, trials, distress and frustration, He said. The good news is that He has overcome the world and we will overcome with Him. In Noah’s time the Ark was the only way of salvation; in our time Jesus Christ is that Way. Whoever is ‘hidden in Him’ will be saved as surely as Noah was.

People who refuse to join God’s only way of salvation forfeit it and will face judgment.
This brings us to our next theme:

The word ‘judgment’ means ‘separation between two groups, parties, or possibilities’. The Greek word ‘crisis’ is used. It means: ‘the passing from one situation to another, from one room to another, from one circumstance to another’. If you are in a crisis you are stepping over a threshold, leaving something behind and entering into something else.
Our task in missions is to announce salvation and acquaint people with the consequences of their choice. Either they choose to separate from their sins and be united to God, or they cling to their sins and are separated from Him. Preaching the gospel is indeed bringing people into a crisis: leading them from death to the threshold of life, encouraging them to take that step. Everybody faces that predicament, whether he knows it or not. It is our task to make it known. That is why Jesus sent us to all nations. It is not an option that we can either leave or accept; it is an urgent mission.

Scripture reference

Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear (Is. 59:1,2)

Some examples

Again, we run ahead of our story, before we pick up the thread again. Adam and Eve were told not to eat from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. They were also acquainted with the outcome when they did: they would surely die. Cain is warned to master over the sin that tempted him. He did not listen, sinned, refused to repent and hardened his heart. So he founded a God-less line of descendants.

• Even more obvious is the example of Noah: a whole generation had left the ways of the Lord and is warned about the coming of a worldwide catastrophe as judgment over these sins. No one except Noah’s family members believed the warning and all others perished.
• The fourth example is seen when the peoples of the earth resisted God’s will for them to scatter, so God interfered with a judgment that was more on a social level than a catastrophic one: the language confusion that forced them to spread out over the earth. 
• Another example is the fifth one: the story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah. When even the more or less righteous have to be dragged out of town by the angels, it is obvious that the rest would certainly not listen, and judgment befalls them. The sixth example we see when Ishmael mocks Isaac, just as his mother Hagar earlier had despised Sarah. They did not conform to the place of blessing, and had to be sent away.
• Example seven we see in Esau’s life The hatred he had for his brother Jacob, the God-chosen son of the Promise, was only formally reconciled many years after they separated. In fact there was a separation between them, all their lives.
• Finally, we see a worldwide famine hit in Joseph’s days. God, when judgment is necessary, also provides a way of salvation. Only people that went to Egypt benefited from Joseph’s provisions and were saved from starvation. All others perished, either because they didn’t know, or believe, there was food in Egypt. 

Discussion & Dialogue

Noah suffered, in carrying out his ministry. Discuss other ways of suffering modern missionaries may have to face, carrying out theirs

Give examples from other Bible books, of how God always offers just one way of salvation

Discuss what judgment means and why there is no alternative when salvation is rejected

Links to related content

• Powerpoint to use for this study
• Biblical Mission Stories - Teacher’s Guide
• Biblical Mission Stories - Table of Contents