God Rewards Faith (8:15-19)
Noah was a man of faith whose name is recorded in Hebrews 11 with those of other heroes of faith (v. 7). He had the faith to walk with God when the people of the world were ignoring and disobeying God. He had the faith to work for God and to witness for God when opposition to truth was the popular thing. Now that the flood was over, he exercised faith to wait on God before leaving the ark.
After being confined to the ark for over a year, he and his family must have yearned to get back on dry land, but they waited for God’s directions. Circumstances on the earth looked suitable for their disembarking, but that was no guarantee that God wanted them to exit immediately and begin their new life. Obedient faith is our response to God’s Word, for “faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God” (Rom. 10:17 nkjv).
Was Noah revealing unbelief when he sent out the birds or opened the hatch to look at the terrain? No, he was simply using available opportunities to gather data. It isn’t wrong to have an understanding of the situation; just don’t lean on your own understanding (Prov. 3:5-6). Obeying the will of God involves not only doing the right thing in the right way for the right motive, but it also means doing it at the right time. “My times are in Your hand” (Ps. 31:15 nkjv).
God rewarded Noah’s faith, and the faith of his family, by caring for them in the ark for over a year and then preparing the earth for them so that they could leave the ark. Noah was like a “second Adam” as he made this new beginning for the human race. God had brought the earth out of the waters during creation week, preparing it for Adam and Eve, and now He had brought the earth through the flood and made it ready for Noah and his family. The Lord even gave Noah’s family and the animals the same mandate that He had given at the beginning: “Be fruitful, and multiply” (Gen. 8:17; 1:22, 28).
Noah prepared the ark “for the saving of his household” (Heb. 11:7 nkjv), and God was faithful to save his household. There’s no indication in Scripture that Noah in his witnessing invited others to join him and his family in the ark, but he certainly must have encouraged them to trust God and prepare their own arks. Of course, nobody took his message seriously, and the world of that day perished (2 Peter 3:6).
What was it that caused the population to reject God’s word and perish? They were like the people in our Lord’s parable (Luke 14:16-24) who were occupied with the ordinary things of daily life (Matt. 24:37-39) and unconcerned about eternity. They believed that life would go on as it always had and that nothing would change. They said that God wouldn’t invade the world or interrupt the scheme of things, but He did! People today have the same attitude concerning the return of the Lord (2 Peter 3:1-9; 1 Thess. 5:1-10).
When it comes to saving faith, each of us must trust Jesus Christ personally; we can’t be saved by the faith of a substitute. Noah’s wife, their three sons, and their three daughters-in-law were also believers; and they proved it by standing with Noah while he worked and witnessed, and then by entering the ark in obedience to the Lord.