Noah

          By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that is in keeping with faith. (Hebrews 11:7)

          In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights. (Genesis 7:11-12)

          Ah, our next portrait is of someone we’ve heard about. See all those animals in the background? See the rain and lightning behind them, and the jeering people in the foreground? Yes, it’s Captain Noah. Like so many of the great figures in Judeo-Christian history, we’re told he never existed, that there was no flood. It’s curious. They find evidence of great floods, and there are flood stories in many cultures, spread across the globe, but it’s not possible that the flood really took place. They’ve even found that there are huge reserves of water under the earth. That confirms what our second passage claimed thousands of years ago: all the springs of the deep burst forth.
          People also scoff because the mountains are so high! But what if the process of the springs of the deep bursting forth involved a mechanism that resulted in the Indian continental plate crashing into the Asian, and forming the Himalayas? What if the mountains when Noah was born weren’t nearly as high as the mountains when Noah died? Current science informs us that the continents move, that the high mountains were formed by collisions. I think they just get the timing off.
          But, what of Noah’s faith? God told Noah to build an ark, because He was going to destroy the world. It was going to rain. According to Scripture, it hadn’t rained yet. There was fog and dew, but not rain. But it was going to rain. Noah needed to build a big boat, and take animals aboard, seven of some, two of others. People scoffed then. People scoff now. According to Scripture, Noah didn’t scoff. Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives did what God told Noah to do.
          For a hundred years, they built the ark. I suspect it got shared on the social media of the day (whatever that was.) People would have taken selfies with themselves in the foreground laughing or making rude gestures, and the ark in the background, with four-hundred-something-year-old Noah and his boys hanging from ropes or out windows. No doubt “well-meaning” folks would have tried to get him to sit down and listen to reason. “Water has never fallen from the sky. The world can’t possibly flood, there’s not enough water. Give up this Don Quixote madness!” And Noah would listen gravely, nod his head, excuse himself and go back to building.
          We talk about how patient Joseph was, to wait in prison for seventeen years, or Abraham, who waited for an heir for seventy-five years, but Noah worked on the promise he’d been given for a hundred years. Maybe that’s part of how Abraham did it, remembering what he’d heard from Shem.
           I could relate to Abel. I couldn’t relate to Enoch, but I could be inspired by him. I can relate to Noah. I face a tiny percentage of the ridicule he faced. Maybe a hundredth of a percent, maybe a millionth of a percent, but I can relate. But God has had to tell me to wait three days or wait until the end of the month. I can’t imagine being told to wait a hundred years.
           But that’s the thing about faith. It never has an expiration date. It’s always “wait as long as it takes” and “do for as long as it takes.” And, millennia after his death, I think Noah is still demonstrating faith, because he’s still experiencing a sort of persecution. Even if he doesn’t notice, it continues. We should be encouraged by his patience, by his focus on what God told him, and not on the scoffers. We may not be vindicated in our lifetime, as he was in his, but our message may live on, in part, because of the scoffers.