Trusting God When We Look Foolish

Trusting God When We Look Foolish
Words of Faith 2-11-2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2022
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Genesis 7
    Then the Lord said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household; for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time. [2] "You shall take with you of every clean animal by sevens, a male and his female; and of the animals that are not clean two, a male and his female; [3] also of the birds of the sky, by sevens, male and female, to keep offspring alive on the face of all the earth. [4] "For after seven more days, I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights; and I will blot out from the face of the land every living thing that I have made." [5] And Noah did according to all that the Lord had commanded him.
    [6] Now Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of water came upon the earth. [7] Then Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him entered the ark because of the water of the flood. [8] Of clean animals and animals that are not clean and birds and everything that creeps on the ground, [9] there went into the ark to Noah by twos, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. [10] And it came about after the seven days, that the water of the flood came upon the earth. [11] In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep burst open, and the floodgates of the sky were opened. [12] And the rain fell upon the earth for forty days and forty nights.

       Have you ever wondered what it must have been like for those seven days before the flood came? Noah had been faithful to the Lord. He had listened carefully and done everything the Lord had commanded him. He had strictly built the ark to the specifications given by the Lord. Now, he had to wait.
       What an enormous undertaking this was! Just assembling the materials for such a task would have been massive. We don't know how long the building project took, but it surely was months or maybe even years. Then the zoological collection came along. Gathering seven of every clean animal and two of every unclean was a massive effort. Even with some supernatural aid, it would have been an enormous task.
        It is often surmised that whatever neighbors or villagers there were would have been curious if not humored at first by the efforts of Noah. Noah likely became the butt of every local joke. His family would have heard about it, too. Being faithful to God is not always a popular place to be.
        But then, one day, the project was finished. The Lord commanded Noah's family and all the animals to be shut into the ark for seven days, awaiting the flood's start. It must have been a long seven days! Seven days shut up in a big boat full of animals while the sun is shining outside? Did people come by to gawk and laugh? Did they jeer a bit at this silly family with their animals were shut up in a dry-docked boat? Even Noah's family may have wondered if he had lost it, but of course, everything was precisely on schedule. Waiting was part of His plan.
        Then the rain started. And the flood came. Not only did it rain for forty days and forty nights, but the "fountains of the deep"-- the great underground rivers and springs that flow beneath the earth-- burst forth. God was right on time. Soon, the earth would be deluged and washed clean. As the floodwater rose, was there a point when people sought get into the boat? Was there banging on the door that the Lord had sealed up tight? We don't know.
        What we do know is that trusting God isn't always easy. Trusting God requires believing Him for things that we cannot see. Trusting God requires waiting for His timing. Trusting God may look silly or even stupid, but trusting God leads to life and salvation.
        Trust God today. He may not ask you to build a boat, but He will likely ask you to live in a way that looks very strange to the world around you. Purity looks very odd these days. Holiness is strange in our culture. Faithfulness is out of style. Genuine generosity is an oddity.
         Our call today is no different from Noah, even if not so spectacular. We are to listen. We are to trust. We are to obey. We are to walk with God.

          Father, give me the strength to walk with You. Give me the strength to be different in a culture that is that adrift. Give me the patience to wait upon You. In Jesus' name.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2022
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)        
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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The Words of Faith devotion is published five days a week by E-mail, excluding Federal holidays. Please feel free to forward this devotion to a friend who might be blessed by this devotion. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2022 Jeffrey D. Hoy. All rights reserved. Permission is granted to forward this copyrighted material or use portions of it with appropriate notation of the source for non-profit purposes.