Leading a Rebellion Pt 1: Noah

Leading a Rebellion:

Noah

            Tonight we are starting a new Bible Study series called “Leading a Rebellion.” We will be studying individual rebels throughout biblical history. But before we do that we have to have a working definition of what a rebel is. The definition of rebel we’ll be using is a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition. What are some things that have authority, or control over us? The government, your family, your school, your boss at work are the obvious ones, but what about your peers, or your friends? Do they have authority over you? If they can influence you into doing something you know to be wrong, then yes they do. What about traditions? I had a friend in college who’s dad had a tradition that went back a few generations where the father would drink beer with the son on his 21^st birthday. My friend didn’t drink, didn’t want to drink, and his dad came home with a six pack of beer expecting to drink with his son. When my friend rebelled against his father’s traditions and stood his ground, it made his father very upset and created quite a rift between them. It hurt my friend very deeply.

            Another term we need to look at is “counter-cultural.” When all of society is going one direction, or believes one way and someone is going the other direction, or believes another way that person is said to be counter-cultural.

            Of course there is good counter-culturalists and bad counter-culturalists; good rebels and bad rebels. In our culture, cannibalism is not accepted. Therefore, someone who eats other people would be counter-cultural but they would fall under the bad counter-culturalist category. You all got that? On the flip side…how many of you have heard of a guy named A.C. Green? A.C. was a professional basketball player that holds the record for most consecutive games played in NBA and ABA history. In fact, he played in 1,278 of the 1,281 games in his career, earning him the nickname “The Iron Man.” All three of the games he missed came in the second season of his 16 year career. But that isn’t what I know him best for. I know him best for his outspoken Christian faith, and his outspokenness about being a virgin in a league where most players have a new and different girl in every city. He began and ended his career as a virgin. How did some of his teammates respond to his commitment to stay pure? By sending girls to his hotel room to tempt him into having sex. A.C. Green is a good counter-culturalist. He was Tim Tebow before Tim Tebow.

            We tend to think of our founding fathers as good rebels because they stood up to the tyranny of the British government and gave us the great country we have today. Timothy McVeigh, and his cohorts who tried to bring down the U.S. government by bombing the Oklahoma City Federal building would be seen as bad rebels.

            So the rebels and counter-culturalists we’ll be looking at are not the ones who have the giant blue mohawk, tattoos, and piercings who are different just to be different. We’ll be looking at rebels and counter-culturalists who are different because of a calling on their life. They’re different not because they want to be but because they have to be.

Our first rebel is Noah. What do we know about Noah? Suprisingly, very little. We know he had a wife and three sons, (his wife is mentioned several times, but never by name—I always call her Joan) and he built a giant boat. Let’s read the biblical account of the flood. I’ll be skipping around in Genesis 6-7.  6:5 “The Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. ⁶ And the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. ⁷ So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” ⁸ But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

Noah and the Flood

⁹ These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² And God saw the earth, and behold, it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. ¹³ And God said to Noah, “I have determined to make an end of all flesh,^[c] for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of gopher wood.^[d] Make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and out with pitch…. ¹⁷  For behold, I will bring a flood of waters upon the earth to destroy all flesh in which is the breath of life under heaven. Everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you…. ²²  Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him.

7:1 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation….⁴ For in seven days I will send rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and every living thing^[i] that I have made I will blot out from the face of the ground.” ⁵  And Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the flood of waters came upon the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons' wives with him went into the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, and of animals that are not clean, and of birds, and of everything that creeps on the ground, ⁹ two and two, male and female, went into the ark with Noah, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after seven days the waters 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 that day all the fountains of the great deep burst forth, and the windows of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell upon the earth forty days and forty nights. ¹³ On the very same day Noah and his sons, Shem and Ham and Japheth, and Noah's wife and the three wives of his sons with them entered the ark….And the Lord shut him in.

            Here’s what we know: The earth was filled with evil people, with nothing but evil thoughts continually going through their heads, but Noah found favor in God’s eyes; God used Noah to prolong humanity. We don’t know where Noah lived prior to the flood but most of the other Biblical stories at that time were in the very dry, arid desert regions around modern day Iraq. We don’t know if he lived near any body of water at all, but in my sanctified imagination I picture him in the middle of a very dry environment with no water within miles—there would be no reason for anyone in that area to build a boat. Scholars believe that based on the timing of the birth of his children and their subsequent marriages that it took Noah between 55 to 75 years to complete the giant boat. The ark was 1 ½ football fields long and taller than a three story building. And lastly, scholars believe that scripture indicates that it never rained prior to the flood.

            Imagine a world filled with the meanest, cruelest, bullies, who think nothing but evil thoughts all day, and there is one guy who isn’t like the rest of them. Just that point alone will tell you what the rest of the world would think of Noah. They would pick on him, make fun of him, call him names like “Goody two shoes,” and say he is “holier than thou.” In movies we always pull for the under-dog, or the one that doesn’t quite fit in, but in reality it’s a different story. You know that if you don’t make fun of the weird kid, then you’ll be made fun of. Just the fact that Noah wasn’t like everyone else caused him to be the subject of intense ridicule. Do you know what Noah said to these people? Nothing.

            Then Noah started building a giant boat…because God told him to. I can picture all of his neighbors rolling on the ground, crying because they’re laughing so hard. Do you know what Noah said to his neighbors as they laughed at him? Nothing. God tells Noah to build a giant boat because he was going to prolong the human race through him and his family, but destroy the rest of the world. Do you know what Noah said in response to this? Nothing. Can you imagine being Noah’s three sons? “Hey! Nice boat your crazy dad is building!” Do you all know the Culligan bottled water company? Their slogan is pretty simple, “Hey, Culligan man!” I dated a girl in high school whose mom went to school with the Culligan man’s son. She said they used to tease that boy relentlessly, “Hey, Culligan man!” Guess what? They aren’t laughing now. And neither are the ones who laughed at Noah or his three sons. I have always pictured Noah’s ark to have claw marks on the side from all of his neighbors trying to save themselves when the floods came. It’s a sad image of repentance that came too late.

            Noah was a counter-culturalist because he rebelled against what the rest of society thought was normal. He wasn’t wicked. Not every thought he had was evil. He was a good and righteous man and caught the eye of God. He didn’t rebel just to be different he rebelled because he had to. I guarantee you that it was not easy, and that he probably wished he could quit several times, but he didn’t. God told him to build the ark. He didn’t ask for directions. He didn’t ask for a sign like Gideon did. He didn’t ask for clarity. He didn’t protest or offer alternatives like Abram and Moses did. He didn’t need to be blinded and knocked to the ground like Saul. He didn’t say anything. He just built the boat. We don’t know his thoughts or his feelings. All we know is his actions. And that is what makes him a rebel.

            Do you want to be a rebel in today’s culture? You don’t have to be a goth, shave your head, get tattoos, brandings, or piercings. You don’t have to drink, smoke, or do drugs. You don’t have to have to protest anything. Besides, most of the so called rebels today are different just like everyone else. If you want to be a rebel you have to do the things no one else is doing. Read your Bible. Pray. Go to church. Eat with the smelly kid. Stand up for what’s right. Point out what’s wrong. Dress conservatively. Save your virginity for marriage. That’s real rebellion.

            But remember, you need to be different not just to be different but because you have to be different. Christians are called to a higher standard of living. Do you think A.C. Green and Tim Tebow maintained their virginity because it was fun to be different? No they did it because of the calling God placed on their lives. 1^st Peter 1:16 says “Be holy for I am holy.” Christ gives us the power and the directive to be different, and therefore, Christ gives us the power and the directive to rebel. If you are trying to do this on your own strength, you will fail, and you cannot be part of the rebellion. If you want to be part of the rebellion you have to put Christ first in your life, and then, like Noah, you have to start doing what He says.

            Remember the image of the neighbors trying to get on the boat when the flood waters came? It was an image of repentance coming too late. People die every day, and the Bible says that every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that Jesus is Lord, but many of those will be doing that too late. They will have the sudden realization that Jesus is Lord as they are being led to Hell. Please don’t make that same mistake. If you don’t know where you’re going to go when you die, then you need to repent of your sins and accept the gift of salvation through Jesus Christ. I pray that if you haven’t done that, that you will do that tonight.