Year 1, Day 7: Genesis 7

Obedience Minus Compassion

Something hit me today as I read Genesis 7.  And it ties in really well with how I concluded the thoughts on Genesis 6 yesterday.  Noah obeyed.  He put his own agenda and followed God’s plan to the letter.  And that is commendable.

However, I got to thinking about what I was taught as a child in Sunday School and what I actually read today in God’s word.  Read Genesis 6-7 again.  Tell me if you find any evidence of Noah telling the people around him that God was going to destroy the earth.  In fact, read those verses again and tell me if you find any evidence that the people around him mocked him!  I remember being taught in Sunday School that the people around Noah made fun of him, joked about his insanity, and were downright rude to Noah.  I even read this comment in a commentary of a theologian that I respect: “For over a century Noah had been warning people about the coming judgment but only his own family had believed him and trusted in the Lord.”  (The Bible Exposition Commentary, p. 44 – truly a really great resource in spite of the fact that I am lifting up this passage as wrong)  How do we know that statement is true except by assumption?

I think we’ve got Noah all wrong.  We talk about Noah as this faithful servant, and he was extremely obedient to be sure.  But where is Noah’s evangelism?  Where is Noah’s compassion?  Where is Noah’s love?  Noah is obedient but lacking compassion with respect to the world around him.

Let me put it this way.  Let’s say that God sent me a message that in 1 week all of America was going to be decimated by scorpions and only those people who paint their house pink with green polka dots will escape the plague of scorpions with their life.  Of course, I go out and immediate paint my house accordingly.  But I don’t tell anyone else about it.  I don’t invite anyone else into my house.  I simply sit back and enjoy the fact that God has saved me and my household.  I don’t know what history would call me … but I am sure it is not a saint!  Yes, I would be called faithful to God.  Yes, I would be called loyal and trusting.  But I would not be called compassionate or loving to my fellow mankind!

In contrast, let’s look at Exodus 32 – The Golden Calf.  There the Israelites have come out of Egypt.  Moses goes up to receive the law from the Lord.  The Israelites build a Golden Calf to worship.  In Exodus 32:10 we essentially get a parallel of Genesis 6-7.  God says to Moses, “Now therefore let me alone that my wrath may burn against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation out of you.”  (ESV)  God desires to get rid of the Hebrew people and start over with Moses just like God judged the world and started all over with Noah.

Now read on in Exodus.  Exodus 32:11-14 shows us a clear case where Moses argues against God’s planned wrath and God listens to him.  Granted, Moses will temporarily regret this decision when it causes him to wander in the desert for 40 years and ultimately miss out on entering the Promised Land.  But here’s my point.  When Moses is faced with the destruction of the people around him he is compassionate.  When Noah is confronted with the destruction of the people we are told that he follows God to the letter of the law.  We are told nothing about Noah giving out warnings or doing any kind of evangelism at all.

I think we should pay attention here.  Noah may have done right in God’s eyes according to his choices and lifestyle, but he was nowhere near the great leader of God that Moses was.  Noah was the dutiful servant that followed God’s instructions explicitly – and while he was saved because of it a lot of wicked people died before they could repent.  Granted, their evil is not Noah’s fault; it is their own fault.  But Noah doesn’t seem to be doing anything to help them, either.  It is one thing to be obedient; it is entirely another thing to be obedient in a manner that reflects Gods compassion.

Reflections

So don’t get me wrong.  I’m not arguing that the people weren’t wicked and I’m certainly not arguing that God was wrong in the flood.  Lord knows I’m not questioning God!  I guess I’m just saying that we might want to stop for a moment and not elevate Noah up as high on the “saint ladder” that we might think we should.  Noah was a great follower, but it appears that he was a really poor leader and evangelist.

I’m also saying that we might want to reconsider a bunch of what we teach our kids in Sunday School and start teaching what’s actually in the Bible.  Nowhere that I could find does it mention Noah evangelizing or being jeered.

This doesn’t mean that we should look negatively at this story.  It is still certainly a story of faithfulness.  God fulfilled all of His promises to Noah.  God promised rain and boy did it rain.  God promised he would be saved and Noah and his family were saved.  God promised judgment on the earth and boy was the earth judged.  Even in darkness and in the midst of evil, God can and will deliver.  The question that I am left asking when I read this story is whether or not we are thinking of others even as God delivers us.  Are we too focused upon our own deliverance to care about the deliverance of the poor souls around us?