Learn From the Story of Noah Building the Ark

By Xin Ming

It is recorded in the Bible, “And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make you an ark of gopher wood; rooms shall you make in the ark, and shall pitch it within and without with pitch. …And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every sort shall you bring into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. Of fowls after their kind, and of cattle after their kind, of every creeping thing of the earth after his kind, two of every sort shall come to you, to keep them alive. And take you to you of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to you; and it shall be for food for you, and for them. Thus did Noah; according to all that God commanded him, so did he” (Genesis 6:13-14, 19-22).

Noah’s Ark is one of the few Bible stories most people recognize. In that era, people reveled in eating, drinking, merrymaking, indulging in physical lusts. An extremely sinful culture was dominant, and the most licentious lifestyles were socially acceptable. The earth was filled with violence, evil, murder and plunder. Extreme evil prevailed in the lives of people. They ignored God’s existence, didn’t believe what God said. Their hideous depravity was unbearable for God to witness, incited the wrath of God, so God decided to wipe the evil and corrupt people off the face of the earth with a flood. God found Noah was the only righteous person, and He called upon Noah to build an ark. Noah accepted what God entrusted him with and built an ark according to God’s command and requirements. When the flood came, Noah’s family of eight were saved by God and survived in the end because they listened to God’s words and obeyed Him. So as Christians, what virtues of Noah can we learn from the story of ark?

Virtue 1: Noah listened to God’s words and obeyed God.

Let’s go straight back to the context. God called upon Noah to build the ark, telling him the scale and dimension; it had never rained prior to the flood, and people didn’t believe there would be flood. Noah didn’t know how to build an ark, but he didn’t state any reasons. Instead, he fell down on the ground to accept God’s commands. It can be seen that Noah’s obedience to God was absolutely true. If we were entrusted with the commission, what would we respond? We must have lots of questions: “When will God destroy the world? “How long will it take to build an ark?” “How much effort and hardship would it take?” “How much money will it cost?” “Will I get God’s blessing and rewards if I accomplish it?” Many motivations and impurities will fill our hearts, and we will never be like Noah who absolutely obeyed and listened to God’s words. At most, after weighing the benefits and shortcomings, we will obey selectively under the condition that our ambition and desire can be satisfied. But Noah’s obedience was unconditional. Despite different kinds of difficulties, as long as it was commissioned by God, Noah would get on with it accordingly. Clearly, Noah’s absolute obedience is beyond any of us. So we should learn this virtue of Noah: No matter what God says to us, what we are commanded by God, all we need to do is listen and obey, put God’s words into practice. This is the only way to receive God’s blessing.

Virtue 2: Noah has a simple and honest heart.

Noah accepted God’s commission, but he was not told the specific time of destruction of the world. However, he just simply listened to God’s words, and did things in strict keeping with God’s words. He didn’t wantonly guess God’s intentions or consider his own benefits. His heart remained open to God, and what he did was only for satisfying God. Apart from Noah’s family, no one believed the gospel Noah preached or offered help. Rather, people ridiculed Noah by saying he was crazy and insane. Noah kept on building with a pure and honest heart, and spent all his savings in order to fulfill God’s commission. After the completion of the ark and before the flood, Noah urged people to enter the ark hurriedly to escape from the flood. People didn’t believe him but mock him. In that case, Noah still strongly believed that God’s words would surely be fulfilled. People in the world called Noah a fool and insane, but in the eyes of God, Noah was pure and honest, a person blessed by God. Let’s look at ourselves today. We all have accepted God’s commission and are spending for God. But our motivation is to gain God’s blessings in exchange for our effort and dedication. It’s in order to enter the kingdom of heaven and get our reward, not merely for the sake of satisfying God’s demands. Thus, our acceptance of God’s commission has been tainted and is not praised by God. As we can see, Noah’s purity and honesty are also worthy of emulation.

Virtue 3: Noah had true faith in God.

While creating the ark, Noah had no idea about the shape of it, no specialism in building an ark. Even though there were many challenges, Noah faced them head on, and didn’t shrink back. He believed that God is almighty, and everything is possible with God. Since God had instructed him, God would surely guide him. Then he sincerely prayed to and depended on God, and gradually, he had a rough idea, a picture in his mind. Without delay, he and his family initiated to build it, and after 120 years, the ark was finally completed. What Noah built was not a canoe. The ark could accommodate all the animals God intended to preserve, and had adequate space for people. We can appreciate how hard it was to build the ark under such tough conditions. Such a huge engineering was just accomplished by Noah’s family because of Noah’s true faith in God. It is not hard to imagine that Noah encountered many difficulties and hardships, but his faith never drifted away from God. His persistence was the same every day for more than 100 years, which proved that Noah’s faith was able to withstand examination of time and facts.

Noah believed that God’s words could accomplish everything. It was because of his true faith in God that he didn’t be knocked down by changelings, and he finally completed what God entrusted. What he did deserved the emulation of all Christians. As for ourselves, can we remain faithful to God, stand firm and unwavering in front of all kinds of issues and difficulties? What would we do if we were in the situation of Noah? We would definitely make a big fuss to God, and think that God intentionally makes things difficult for us, right? We would generally choose to avoid or cower, or even deny God’s commission. Compared with Noah, our faith in God is truly pitiful. At this point, I cannot help but think of some scriptures. “But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavers is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed” (James 1:6). “And Jesus said to them, Because of your unbelief: for truly I say to you, If you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you shall say to this mountain, Remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible to you” (Matthew 17:20). Therefore, no matter what difficulty we face, we must have God in our hearts, and believe that all things are orchestrated and arranged by God. Relying on God can enable us to overcome challenges and see God’s actions.

According to historical records, Noah was the first person to receive God’s call to do God’s will. Many of his virtues allowed him to receive God’s blessing and survive the disaster and gain God’s salvation. In order to become people who are approved by God, let’s live out the virtues of Noah.