Hebrews 11:7 Commentary and Bible Study

In the case of Noah we see that faith heeds God’s warning with great reverence, it acts on that warning, it condemns the world for its unbelief, and it becomes an heir of righteousness. This single verse is a perfect revelation and exposition of both saving and ongoing faith. Noah was the third longest living man in the Scriptural record. Like Adam, he is the ancestor of all people who lived after him. Never before or since has there been a universal flood on the earth and in the 600th year of Noah's life, as the book of Genesis tells us, he entered into the ark. In 2 Peter 2:5 we are told he was ‘a preacher of righteousness’. That means more than simply that he taught the law of God, the standards of God. He was a preacher of the given righteousness of God, which Adam’s great descendant, the one promised in Genesis 3:15, would provide for sinners. Everything was focused from the very first book of the Bible on that great descendant, the Saviour, the Messiah, Jesus Christ our Lord. The term ‘righteousness of God’ in the New Testament is about a righteousness that is given by grace to those who believe. Noah preached mercy and grace, and about available forgiveness, and he preached making use of the biggest visual aid that there has ever been in the history of the world: that 450-foot-long ark that took so long to build. Like Enoch, Noah walked with God; he had communion with God, and he would be the founder of a new race. There would be this great judgement, a literal judgement, and also at type a prophecy, a warning, an example of the final judgement of the entire human race. There would always be something in the history of the human race that had happened literally, a judgement on earth, to warn us of what is to come if we reject God, repudiate and insulted him at the end of life's journey. ‘Things not seen as yet’ – there had never been a judgement before in the world according to the chronology of Genesis. There would be a new society following the flood, a new beginning. Sin would still be there, waywardness and rebellion against God would still be there, but it would be a new society and Noah would be the father of it. These things could not be imagined. They were totally unknown, but God had spoken unmistakably. He believed it and that revelation from God, that intimation ruled his life for the next 120 years. It committed him to one central task beside preaching: the building of the ark. That is ongoing faith. With the eye of faith he could see beyond it all to great things and that gave him perspective and stability.‘Moved with fear.’ This voice of God so seized him that he reverently and carefully had to obey it to the letter. This is not terror. It isn’t fear of an angry God. This is respect and reverence. He had such an awareness of God that he must keep his instructions to the letter.‘Prepared an ark’ – the Greek word means ‘prepared thoroughly’; he prepared meticulously in the building of the ark. It was a long project, precisely accomplished. We may assume God gave him much more detailed instructions than the ones that are summarised in the book of Genesis. He did it against all ridicule. He did it alongside his preaching. He did it during the 120 years before the flood came. What great patience God shows! Things were so bad and yet God gave them not 5 or 10 years, but 120 years.‘To the saving of his house’ – that was the church in those days. It was limited to his house, to his family. In Noah’s mind the important thing was that his children would believe, that they trusted in the Lord and had their sins forgiven. Why was that so important? Not just because he cared for his children, his sons and their wives, but also because somewhere among them was the promised seed God had said would come through Adam's descendants and would break the serpent’s head.‘By the which he condemned the world’ – literally he judged the world. But wasn’t he preaching salvation? Yes he was, he was revealing all the heart and the kindness of God, but also his preaching and his ark were a warning to people and the fact that only eight people believed God and entered the ark served as a judgement upon those who didn't. They laughed at the ark and scorned it as a place of safety, representing a refuge from the wrath to come, and so Noah’s preaching was a condemnation of the people who would not listen. So is our preaching today. We want to be positive, but no matter how positive we are in pleading and urging people to come to Christ, if they reject him then that very preaching will be brought as a testimony against them. ‘He became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.’ That does not mean that all his work earned a place in heaven. It means that by faith he was given a place in heaven freely by God. The evidence of his faith however is that he was willing to obey God and embark on such an onerous task in obedience to the warning of God. In heaven, where every person is righteous and holy, what wonderful character we shall all have. How pleasant we shall all be, how filled with love. It is the eternal righteousness, Christ’s righteousness, that comes to us simply because we believe.