MAKE YOURSELF AN ARK
- Sherry Coyle
- Oct 23, 2021
- 4 min read
Updated: Jan 14
I read a verse last week, one I’ve read many times prior in a chapter I’ve read more times than I can recall, yet as I absorbed each word in that quiet morning moment, I knew immediately it was the answer to a specific prayer I had prayed just minutes before while seeking God’s wisdom on a matter weighing heavily on my mind.
“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 his faith he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith.”
Hebrews 11:7
Though I knew right then that the Spirit had used these familiar words to answer the request I had just uttered, I found myself all that morning (and the days that followed) considering this verse on a scale much larger than the confines of my early morning plea for wisdom, as it pertained to my particular situation.
These forty-four words and the message they communicate have never been more relevant or needed than in these sobering days in which you and I live.
When you read the story of Noah, you can’t help but conclude that this man wasn't just a mere cautious identifier with God, just a mere casual recipient of God's goodness and favor. No, the Flood account, recorded in the Bible’s inaugural book, proves him to be a radical, all-in follower of the Lord, even though it meant living counter-culturally within the society of which God had purposely designated his life to be a part.
In an all-encompassing, all-consuming environment of darkness and depravity, Noah "walked faithfully with God" (Genesis 6:9). Indeed, his life of reverent, righteous living—authentic daily intimacy with the Lord and reverenced obedience to His voice—set him apart from from the rest of society.
And it was in this day-in, day-out fellowship that the Creator and Sustainer of all living things would speak plainly to Noah about the criticality of the situation, the things to come, and the specific instructions regarding the ark's construction, which would provide salvation for Noah and his family.
A detail I find interesting about God's initial command is what's referred to in the grammar world as a reflexive pronoun. It's when the sentence's subject and object are the same; the subject is the doer of the action, and the subject is also the receiver of what is done. In Genesis 6:14, God says to Noah, "So make yourself an ark. . ." (italics mine). In this first recorded mention of an ark, we see God's heart concerning Noah and God's commendation of Noah.
In Hebrews 11, the Bible's quintessential chapter on faith, the writer places Noah within a listing of Old Testament saints who pleased God—those who heard God's voice and took seriously what they heard, so much so, that they obediently acted upon it. Though Scripture reveals they were far from perfect, what is evidenced in their individual stories is that they truly believed what God said. How do we know? In response to God's commands, they did what God said.
This is faith at its foundation, authentic faith at its core. And this is what their Creator commended them for, what their Creator deemed righteous.
I believe that long before God instructed Noah to build the ark, Noah was already habitually listening for God's voice, already saying yes to Him, already living his life in active, evident belief that what God said was truth—not what the culture around him spewed forth.
So God entered a covenant relationship with the man who had "found favor" in His eyes (Genesis 6:8). From this relationship, Noah became a benefited receiver because of his obedient action. As the writer of Hebrews 11:7 thousands of years later pointed out, Noah's reverential obedience—his doing—created a protection and preservation, an ark of safety, for himself and his family.
From the first drop of rain to the height of the floodwaters' consuming devastation, the ark meant life to all sheltered in it.
In Jesus Christ, I know I have nothing to fear in this life or the life to come. He alone is my impenetrable, unsinkable ark. Though I've done nothing at all to deserve so great a gift of mercy and grace, so great a relationship of incalculable favor, even so, I know that when God brings judgment upon this sin-corrupted world for the final time, because my Savior lived a life of faithfulness, reverence, and obedience to the Father—culminated in the cruelest of deaths and the most glorious resurrection—I will be safe. Completely sheltered. Forever secure.
My glorious ark is He!
Indeed, my Lord did the hard work. What a Savior! And because of this declaration of incalculable love, incomparable to any love I’ve ever known, I've chosen to trust His words and unashamedly follow Him. I'd be a fool not to.
But, aside from this most foundational application, I also realize that while I'm left on this earth, God has given me a Noah-like purpose. And it is this: As earthly time flows swiftly toward completion, to resolve my heart toward faithfulness and obedience, striving to live and love like Jesus in a culture that continues with rapid progression towards complete consumption of darkness and depravity.
Fellow Christian sojourner, He's given you this purpose too.
Like Noah and the others we read about in Hebrews 11, we will not do it perfectly, and there will be failures more than we can recall; but, through repenting and reverently realigning ourselves to the ways of the all-wise, always-right, always-loving Heavenly Father (in submission to His Word and Spirit), we will find ourselves living more according to what a holy Creator says is acceptable and less to what an ungodly culture says is alright. We will find ourselves progressively maturing, which is the goal. And over the days, months, and years, you and I will find ourselves becoming more and more like the Savior. In this, our Father is glorified through our designated time on Earth.
In this—yes, even when life is raining hatred, perversity, hardship, and suffering—we are most blessed sojourners.
And, in this—I firmly believe—those who live within our most immediate, intimate realm of influence and impact (the individuals in our households) are overwhelmingly targeted and surrounded by God's sustaining love and saving grace.
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