By FaithSample

Building by Faith 

The story of Noah’s ark is quite popular, even to those who aren’t familiar with the Bible. Among the entire human race, there was only one person who pleased God, and his name was Noah. God sent a flood to destroy everything on earth, but promised to spare Noah and his family. 

Hebrews 11:7 (NLT) says, “It was by faith that Noah built a large boat to save his family from the flood. He obeyed God, who warned him about things that had never happened before. By his faith Noah condemned the rest of the world, and he received the righteousness that comes by faith.”  To understand this verse, we have to jump back to Genesis, the first book of the Bible. 

In Genesis 6, God tells Noah that He'll flood the earth and then gives Noah detailed instructions about the ark he is to build. He tells him how big to make it, how many rooms it should have, what materials to use, and who to bring on it. And according to Genesis 6:22, we know that Noah did everything God said to do. 

Some time later, the rain fell and the waters began to rise. Noah, his wife, his three sons, and their wives all entered the ark. In addition to those eight humans, a male and female pair of every kind of creature was on the boat. Once everyone was settled, God shut them into the ark. The flood kept coming on the earth for forty days, causing every living creature on the earth to perish. 

At this time in history, the land was dry. The Bible doesn’t specify if there had never been rain on the land, but most scholars believe there was definitely a lack of it. So when it says in Hebrews 11:7 “things that had never happened before,” this could mean they’d never seen rain or they’d never seen rain in the quantity that would flood the earth. 

The faith it took to build an ark under these circumstances—and for the better part of a century—was extraordinary. The magnitude of what God asked was equally exceptional. This human race-saving vessel wasn’t small—it was the length of one and a half American football fields, as high as a four-story building, and had the capacity of what 450 large trucks could carry.

Maybe what’s in front of you appears impossible. You may be struggling to stay strong in your career, or you may be battling a chronic illness or disability. We can learn a great lesson from Noah’s life. We can live by faith even if we have no idea how everything will turn out—and even if He’s calling us to do something that we’ve never seen before.