Noah the Lonely: Genesis 6:9-13
What does it take to walk with God when nobody is there to help us? Don’t get me wrong. I’m grateful for my network of faith. I’m grateful I have people to hold me accountable. Would I be as strong without them?
Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. To be sure, Noah walked with God. He understood God’s ways. He tried to embody God’s ways in his actions.
To say that Noah was blameless in his generation, though, is not a big compliment. The author of Genesis claims Noah was blameless compared to the people around him. Noah wasn’t completely blameless; the Bible tells us that all have fallen short of the glory of God. Rather, Noah was blameless compared to the people around him.
This might initially seem to be a slanderous comment to Noah. It might appear the author claims Noah was only considered good because the rest of the people around him were so bad they made God regret making humankind. If that’s the bar, pretty anyone who occasionally does good would seem like a bastion of righteousness!
On the other hand, consider Noah’s choices. Everyone around Noah was selfish. Everyone around Noah was making decisions that only thought of themselves. Everyone around Noah was filled with violence. How hard must it have been for Noah to choose another way! Noah didn’t have a circle of friends to help him stay strong. Noah didn’t have a small group to hold him accountable. In one of the darkest moments of human history, Noah was God’s light.
This raises an intriguing question. Who is better, the person who performs perfectly under the ideal circumstances or the person who gets the job done when everything is against him? I don’t think there is a single right or wrong answer to that question; it is a great question for conversation and debate. When we are surrounded by support and everything points us to God, it is easy to be faithful. When we are alone and everyone pulls us away from God, it is difficult to hold fast.
In my past, I’ve thought poorly of Noah because nowhere in the Bible does it mention any attempt by Noah to invite others onto the ark. Nowhere in the Bible do we hear about Noah trying to get people to repent. Nowhere in the Bible does it say Noah didn’t do these things, either. All we know is Noah obeyed God’s directives. When the entire rest of the planet was violent and walking away from God, Noah stood firm and walked with God.
This is a great opportunity to reflect on how we would behave in the same situation. If each of us had little support network and had nobody to help us in our ways, would we be like Noah and still walk with God? What does it take to walk with God when nobody is there to help us?
