“Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.” Genesis 6:17-21 (NLT)
My natural bend is to be a task oriented person (God is working with me on this.) So I look at today’s text and see a list of things to do.
Build the boat.
Gather all the animals.
Get them into the boat.
Bring your family.
Gather food for the animals and your family.
Each one of those has a million subtasks. Like for example, where do you get the materials to build the boat? How are you going to clean up after the animals? How are you going to keep the food from going bad?
Do you think when God said to Noah “This is my plan for you” Noah’s eyes glazed over and he got stuck? Being the way I am, I would have started making lists. Endless lists of what had to be done and when. I would have become so focused on the lists that I’d forget to look at God.
Another thing I would probably do is ask God to lay out exactly when I needed to have everything done. I would want to know when the flood was going to start. I probably would have had endless questions.
But, as I ponder the story, God worked with Noah for around 100 years to get the job done (give or take depending on the calculations you use.) He gave him the information he needed when he needed it. For example, when the boat was ready, God said “Seven days from now I will send the rain.” He didn’t tell him way in advance. At the end of the flood, God told Noah when he was to come out of the boat. He didn’t leave a lot of room for guessing.
A couple of things pop into my mind when I read this story. First, God chooses us for his plan and he gives us the ability to do what he asks. There were so many parts of this job that Noah had never done. Heck, they’d never even seen rain before! But God walked him through it, step by step. Next, God’s timing and his communication about that timing is perfect.
He told Noah what Noah needed to know when he needed to know it. Every part was covered even down to the part about taking seven of the clean animals so at the end Noah could offer a sacrifice without killing off a species.
What was Noah’s role? To listen for God’s direction and do what God said when he said it. Today, as you look at the list of things you have to get accomplished, maybe instead of getting overwhelmed you could give it to God and ask for his plan. Maybe if we make his plan our plan we’d do amazing things for him like build an ark or spread his kingdom to the corners of the world. What do you think?