The Bible is filled with verses that tell us to trust in the Lord. One of my favorites is Jeremiah17:7-8 (ESV):
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose trust is the Lord.
He is like a tree planted by water, that sends out its roots by the stream, and does not fear when heat comes, for its leaves remain green, and is not anxious in the year of drought, for it does not cease to bear fruit.”
Don’t you want to be like that tree?
Yet, trusting in the Lord is not easy. Especially when we must wait a long time for Him to act. Hebrews Chapter 11 highlights many people who had to wait for years for God to fulfill His word.
Noah was one such person:
“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. (Hebrews 11:7 ESV – bold and italics mine)
Now, how long did Noah wait for God to fulfill His word that He would “bring a flood of waters upon the earth” (Genesis 6:17 ESV)? Well, when Noah is first mentioned in Genesis 5:32, he is 500 years old. And Genesis 7:6 tells us that he was 600 years old when the floodwaters came upon the earth. So, many scholars conclude that it could have taken Noah decades to build the ark. With some saying it took as long as 100 years!
Now, put yourself in Noah’s sandals. God tells you He will flood the earth with water, but He doesn’t tell you when it will happen. He just tells you to build an ark. So, you build and wait. Build and wait. Build and wait. And perhaps you start to wonder, “When is this flood coming?” Or “Is this flood even coming?” And you might be prone to just stop building. But not Noah. He just kept building. Why? Because he believed God would do what He promised no matter how long it took.
That convicts me …
Because sometimes I ask God to do something that I believe is in accordance with His will, and if it goes two weeks, I feel myself growing impatient! How about waiting 100 years for God to act?!
So, what is our takeaway from Noah and the ark?
May I suggest that we strive to have a faith that waits and works like Noah’s? This means that even though we are waiting for Jesus to fulfill the promise of His return (which He made over two-thousand years ago), we should wait and work to build His Kingdom. So, we wait … and witness. We wait … and serve others in Christ’s name. We wait … and love as He loved us. We wait … and preach and teach the Bible. And we wait … and spend time with the needy, the loveless and the lonely. And we do so believing that our Lord is coming back, even though it has been so long.
“And let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up.” Galatians 6:9 (ESV)