Tuesday, March 14, 2017

Building a Boat
By Peggy Kleckner

“Build a large boat from cypress wood and waterproof it with tar, inside and out…..Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high….So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.”

Three short sentences packed with work and faith. Let’s consider the dimensions of this boat that God instructed Noah to build. I took out my tape measure and measured the length, width and height of my kitchen. I measured something familiar to try and understand the unfamiliar. I found that the length of my kitchen had to be multiplied thirty times in order to be the same length as this boat!

God does not always give easy assignments. Not only is this boat massive in dimensions, but it includes a roof, three decks and a door. Don’t forget that he had to waterproof the entire thing inside and out with tar. Finally, I have to wonder if Noah knew anything at all about boat building.

What does God’s Word say about Noah? It states that Noah found favor with the LORD, that he was a righteous man and that he walked in close fellowship with God.

That is how Noah “did everything exactly as God had commanded him” (v. 22).

All Noah had was God’s instructions…probably not written-out instructions, they were “invisible,” so to speak. Then he begins to build according to those instructions. Think of yourself as perhaps his neighbor. Maybe Noah shared his mission with you, maybe not. Before long, you begin to see something different going on at Noah’s home. Perhaps you saw the wood being brought in or heard the sound of sawing and hammering. Pretty soon something starts to be “visible.”

If you have accepted Christ as your new master, He has asked you to build an ark of faith…one day at a time, one board at a time. Your instructions are invisible to others and yet they have been given to you. So you begin to build. The work seems impossible because the vision is so BIG, but He has asked and so you build.

As your faith is built up in the One who instructs you, it becomes visible to others. His Word and work become visible. Jesus becomes visible in you. This may bring scoffing or ridicule from others, but perhaps someone will ask you why you are building, or where you got the plans. I wonder if that was Noah’s greatest hope.


GOING DEEPER:
1. Have you found favor with the LORD, been made righteous in Christ and now are walking in close fellowship with the Spirit?
2. If you have no idea what that means, are you willing to ask someone? If you do, how is your ark-building coming along?

FURTHER READING:


Peggy is a wife and mother of four adult children - - two sons and two stepsons, and is an active encourager at Oakwood Church in Delafield.