Noah - the man who built a floating box
I never thought much of Noah. Not that I don’t think he’s a great guy, just never really looked deep into his life. Oh boy, that guy was something.
First off, he was paying attention even when the owner of the voice was not one that he had been accustomed to from birth. By the time he arrived on the scene, the owner of the voice had become quite an unknown character in the scheme of things.
Mr. Noah started hearing voices. Must have been crazy stuff, being told what to build and how to build, specifically according to patterns of something he didn’t even know what. ‘Make a box of wood’, the voice began and then continued to instruct on dimensions.?
No one but a Mr. Noah could have made the ‘box’ according to the dimensions given without altering it a bit here and there. His personality was well suited for this. And of course, this same personality put Shem's dad in a bad place after the work he was commissioned to do was done. I’ll come to this later.
Mr. Noah sure had faith, a hugely gargantuan faith. He had never heard of floodwater before, neither had he ever experienced a rain in all of his 600 years before the flood came. But see Mr. Noah being an obedient human being. Surely whatever was causing him to pay attention to this voice must have been quite impressionable. Was it a booming voice? Quiet? Sweet? Rough? Like the sound of many waters? Or just mere nudgings of 'to dos’? Hmmm.
Mr. Noah didn’t even argue for a plan B. He got a plan A - make a box; this was going to have one door and one window and he didn’t protest that this was quite inconsiderate, or doubt that it was important to follow the plan and ‘make the box’ just as instructed. Making this box, of which he wasn’t even sure of what for except what the voice told him, took Mr. Noah 100 or so years! That’s some waiting on the Lord, if you asked me.
He brought all the animals in that came to him… WOW! The animals also heard the voice and moved. But those other people? Didn’t they see this and jump in? This is still something that we must study. I’m sure that can’t be us. Or can it be? A dog that will be lost will never pay attention to the sound of the hunter’s whistle, the adage whispers.
Cranky must be an under-estimation of how everything living that was in the ‘box-like container’ felt. 365 days plus in one place! How many waters will have fallen as tears inside the ark? Mrs. Noah would have been happy to be alive but how many times a day would she have asked ‘honey, when is your boss going to allow us out of here because this place stinks? And Mr. Noah was still able to hold his own and give leadership to all. Just accept your 'gobsas' Mr. Noah because at this point I am ready to call you Dr. Noah, Phd, Leadership in strange times, survivalist and whatever else you are deserving of.
Quick note before I skip on, Dr. Noah wasn’t even a perfect human being, he had flaws too. Yet in that generation he was perfect, he found grace and obeyed God.
The box had no steering wheel. Ok, that’s it. They were to get in, flood comes, carries the box to where no one knows, settles it down and they come out in a place they couldn’t even have been able to identify. And there they were to begin afresh. I’m wondering how many of the occupants were really pissed with both the builder and the instructor. ‘How dare be a shaking of our lives like this?’ Hopefully curse words were still unheard of then, though I seriously don’t believe that. Man’s mouth has been wired for 'orishirishi', I didn’t know how to use an English word there, since man was made.?
And here finally is the reason for my contemplation, the one I said I’ll come to later. Was Dr. Noah suffering from depression after the mighty work that he had done? Was it anxiety? Or PTSD? Did he have to deal with the guilt of everyone dying except his family? Did he constantly feel shame for not doing enough to get more people into the box? Is it possible that he felt he was supposed to have asked God to preserve other lives, the way that Moses would do when God was going to wipe the Israelites??
The faith journey will be different for all of us. Our personalities, perspectives, mental health, to mention but a few, will affect how we arrive at our journey’s end. Who you are will make you the most fit for your calling, it can also make you the most prone to the stumbling in that arena.
May you find life interesting and live it unashamedly so in conjunction with the Spirit of God.
Oluwaseun Dawodu