What’s the Truth About Noah’s Ark & Why Does it Matter?
The story of Noah’s Ark is so popular, even atheists like it, as evidenced by the most recent movie of Noah to hit the market, which was co-written by a self-proclaimed atheist. Why wouldn’t he like it? It’s a great story.
This screenwriter’s version, however, was only based on the true story. It uses some of the same names and there’s a big boat and a world-wide flood, but this is not the account from Genesis. It’s sort of like the TV series, Once Upon a Time. In this TV series, fairytale characters are all connected to each other in ways we never read about in the storybooks we grew up with.
But I’m not here to discussing the movie, Noah, or the TV show, Once Upon a Time. I want to talk about the real story of Noah and find where God gives us a clue of Christ in the Old Testament. I call it The Red Thread.
I want us to find The Red Thread in Noah’s Ark.
The record of the fascinating events begins where Cain & Abel’s story leaves off: Genesis 4:16. After Cain went his own way, leaving the presence of God and settling east of Eden, a society of men and women who had no interest in God quickly grew.
Over time it spread like a cancer until “every intent of the thoughts of his [man’s] heart was only evil continually…But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (Genesis 6:5,8-9 – brackets mine.)
Noah’s wife didn’t find favor with the Lord, and neither did his three sons or his three daughters-in-law. Only Noah found favor with God. Only Noah was holy.
Did that mean Noah was sinless?
Not a chance.
Remember, Noah was born with sin in his heart as a result of the fall. (See my post Naked & Ashamed for the story.) Therefore, there was no chance Noah wasn’t going to sin. He was born a sinner, and sinners sin.
So why did Noah find favor in God’s eyes?
Noah wasn’t blameless in actions; he was blameless in sincerity.
Noah was earnest.
Now, I don’t claim to have a heart like Noah’s, but years ago, the ladies in my Supper Club and I wrote down a word or two about each other to sum up what we loved most about one another. One of my best friends gave me this word: Earnest.
What comes to your mind when you think of this word?
Earnest
I’ll tell you what came to my mind — that brilliant, and useful, Southern phrase:
Bless her heart!
To me, being called earnest was like her saying, “Bless your heart, Jean, you sure try hard, but, well, we can’t all be good at . . .” and then the list would go on and on of all the things that I just can’t seem to do right or well.
My dear friend (yes, she’s still one of my very best friends) assured me that she was giving me a compliment.
Why wouldn’t I take it as a compliment? I mean, it’s right up there with: Julie is a “true friend,” and Jan is “exceedingly generous.” What’s Jean? Well, bless her heart, she’s, ummm, well, she’s “earnest.” Yeah, that sounds like a compliment, doesn’t it?
I can’t say I was excited about being considered earnest by one of the people who knew me best on this planet, but then she clarified it.
She meant I had a sincere heart.
I now LOVE being considered earnest. Noah was earnest.
I’m no Noah, but I actually, really do want to earnestly bring God glory–not shame–in every thing I say and do, but bless my heart, my mouth and my sin-stupidity get in the way so often. But Noah succeeded where most of us fail.
Noah wasn’t sinless — Jesus Christ is the only who was born sinless and lived a sinless life — but the earnestness of Noah qualifies him to point us to Christ through his life.
Noah gives us many Red Thread Clues. Here’s our first one:
Noah was blameless in his desire to follow God in all his ways. He found favor in God’s eyes. [1]
Jesus was sinless in all His ways. He found favor in God’s eyes. [2]
Noah gives us a beautiful clue of Jesus, even in the midst of a world that was hostile towards God. Bless His heart. (And I actually mean that!)
We’ll look at more Red Thread Clues over the next several posts. I hope you’ll join me.
If you enjoyed this post, you may want to start at the beginning of my Red Thread of Jesus series.
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Read about Earnest Noah and The Red Thread in Noah’s Ark — (Part 1) (Click to Tweet)
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[1] Genesis 6:9
[2] Matthew 3:17, 2 Corinthians 5:21
