It’s not easy being part of God’s Called Remnant (a follower of Jesus) in today’s world, but when I started to think about this Holy Spirit brought to my mind all the people that I have been studying in the Bible, I’m currently reading through the Old Testament. I have made it through Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua and am currently reading Judges. When we stop looking at the people we are reading about as “characters in a book” and instead viewing them as the REAL living people that they were, it’s easier to see the similarities we share. The times may have changed, but circumstances really haven’t changed much when it comes to living for God and the problems we face in walking by faith instead of sight.
Think about Noah, He was the ONLY righteous man found living in a time when everyone outside of His family had turned away from God. Here is a man that is described in Genesis 6:9:
This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God.
Noah LOVED God. God spoke to Noah. God had an assignment He wanted Noah to fulfill and that was to build an ark. Can you imagine that? Listen to the description of the ark that God asked Noah to build.
“Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high. Leave an 18-inch opening below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.”
Now if you have worked in a job where you have a supervisor who gives you tasks to do, and you know what it is like to wonder HOW you are going to complete SOME of the things they’ve assigned you to do (even if you don’t “show” them that that is how you are feeling), you just get to work on it any way, I imagine that that HAD to have been how Noah felt at first when God assigned him that HUGE task. Honestly, I would have been like:
“Wait – You want me to what????!!!!” 🙂
Let’s be real! There had been NO rain, he did not live on the water, it’s no wonder that the people around him looked at him incredulously when he began to obey God by building the ark. Now if you think of the people you have in your life who look at you and think you are a “Jesus Freak” or just plain crazy for believing God for ALL kind of miracles to occur in whatever situation you are going through, then you can bet that Noah experienced the same. Yet walking BY faith means listening to what GOD is telling you and believing Him as you go about doing what itis HE has asked you to do. (The Bible is our GPS for life, remember? Each of the stories that it contains is there for us to learn and grow from).
NOAH BELIEVED HE COULD BECAUSE GOD WOULD’T HAVE ASKED HIM TO DO SOMETHING HE COULD NOT DO
How amazing it must have been to see the animals come to the ark two by two! To actually allow God to fulfill THROUGH Noah’s obedience what it was He wanted to have occur. You see, we can do NOTHING in and of our own selves. We truly are called to be vessels for the LORD’s good and perfect will to be carried out in our lives. And I have found that there is NO greater joy than to know that you are walking in the calling that God has designated for my life. If you don’t know what YOUR calling is, ASK HIM. God WILL reveal it to you. You just have to believe.
Not only was the task of building such a big boat something that had to have been difficult for Noah, but if we are completely honest in thinking about his life – it couldn’t have been easy for him or his family to be mocked, ridiculed, made fun of and probably ostracized for their faith in God. In fact, it must have downright hurt! It probably affected not only Noah but his entire family as well! Yet in spite of all they must have experienced Noah continued to carry out God’s request. Then let’s take a look at something else that must have been extremely hard, let’s look at Genesis 7:13-15:
That very day Noah had gone into the boat with his wife and his sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—and their wives. With them in the boat were pairs of every kind of animal—domestic and wild, large and small—along with birds of every kind. Two by two they came into the boat, representing every living thing that breathes. A male and female of each kind entered, just as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord closed the door behind them.
Notice that the last sentence indicates that God, Himself closed the door behind them. Can you imagine how heartrending it must have been for Noah and his family to hear the pounding on the doors of family members, relatives, friends, neighbors as they realized that the man they had mocked and made fun of, ridiculed had been right? I know how I feel when I hear people I know mocking me for my faith, thinking that I’m “super spiritual” that “I need to look at things realistically and logically” which is TOTALLY opposite of walking BY faith. I hurt for them. It makes me wince. The Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:1:
Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.
2 Corinthians 4:18 tells us:
As we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.
1 Corinthians 2:5 says:
So that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.
Hebrews 11:6 tells us clearly:
And without faith it is impossible to please him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him.
and Hebrews 11:7 says about Noah:
By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.
No doubt about it, your faith in the eyes of those unbelieving or unsaved is pure foolishness to them. Yet we need to look to God and not to people for all we go through and how we live.
OUR JOB IS TO BELIEVE GOD AND HIS WORD FOR OURSELVES AND TO INTERCEDE THROUGH PRAYER FOR THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE ONLY HOLY SPIRIT CAN CHANGE HEARTS THAT ARE WILLING TO BE CHANGED
Let’s take a look at another person – Moses. What I love about Moses is that in order to BELIEVE in the Jewish God, He was very clear about having to go up and experience God FOR HIMSELF. He didn’t just “believe” because of what other people said, He believed because He went up on that mountain and had a PERSONAL encounter with God in Exodus 3:1-6:
Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And He said, “Here I am.” Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.: And He said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
GOD DESIRES TO HAVE A PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH US, WE HAVE TO BE OPEN TO IT AND BELIEVE HIS WORD (THE BIBLE)
Again, if we look at Moses as the real person he was, he had faults and weaknesses and concerns and doubts like we do. God revealed to him that He had chosen him to bring His chosen ones (the Israelites) out of captivity. God explained to Moses that He wanted Him to go back to Egypt and tell Pharoah to let His people go.
Moses reaction shows how REAL and like us – human, he was. His response is definitely what I would call a:
“Wait – You want me to do what???!!!”
Kind of response! And who would blame him for that being his first reaction? There he stood for the FIRST time in his life seeing a “burning bush” and meeting God for the FIRST time! Then on top of that to hear the Lord tell him and to hear Moses’ incredulous response to His request found in Exodus3:10-14:
Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
“Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?” God said to Moses, “I Am who I Am.” And He said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I Am has sent me to you.’”
Still Moses pressed on with God his doubts on fulfilling the request that God was asking him to do. See Exodus 4:1-9 and through it all, God patiently assured him that he could do it:
Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” he said, “A staff.” And He said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand – “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So, he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
Yet STILL Moses refuted that he could fulfill what God wanted, indicating that he was not good at speaking. See Exodus 4:10-17:
But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man’s mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and He said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
Now if THAT doesn’t show you that Moses was MORE than “just a Biblical character” but a person like you and I, I don’t know WHAT will! We can do NOTHING without God’s guidance and Holy Spirit. It is good to recognize that, but if God has something He wants us to do or to step out in faith in, we HAVE to trust Him, step out on faith and DO IT. How patient was God in His response to Moses. How patient God is with us. I often wonder WHY God loves us like He does, we are hardheaded and obstinate and when we don’t choose to go God’s way or do what He tells us to do, He is even willing to make “our messes messages” that can help those who come along later. (That’s also something we should learn as we read through our Bibles, that’s why those stories are there too).
Someday God may have someone look at your life and be SO glad that you were transparent with it, that you allowed your weaknesses and your strengths to be revealed (which may help them relate better to you and be grateful that they have not been alone in their own struggles). What will they see if they are to learn from the life of you??? We are to learn from what we read in the Bible, it is a history book of genuine people, just like You and I! The Bible tells us in Exodus 1:9:
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again; there is nothing new under the sun.
Let us look to those we read about in the Bible of examples (both good and bad) as to how we are to walk with God (and how we are not to…) and to strive to fulfill as many of them did, His good and perfect will for our lives that He may get ALL the glory, ALL the honor and ALL the worship for the lives we have chosen to give over to Him. I am after His heart, are you?
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