Noah built a boat. Right. But what about Noah's tale tells us about worship? What was Noah's encounter with God? Glad you asked. Let's explore the center of Noah's worship...
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. Genesis 6:9
First, we might say that Noah's story is about worship because Noah walked with God. What does the Bible mean when it says that Noah walked with God? It doesn’t say, exactly, but it does say that he was righteous, and blameless in his generation. Whatever it was that everyone else was doing while they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, it was without regard for God. But Noah was intentionally swimming against the current, perhaps bringing offerings and sacrifices, but more than that. He walked with God.
Now you ask, "What does that mean, to walk with God?" Maybe it means to be somehow in two-way conversations with God, just as Adam seems to have had before the Fall. Maybe that’s also what a man named Enoch did. Here's what I think it means: I think that means they were in step with one another, in close communion, possibly even sharing in audible conversation, or at least the spirit of Noah was calling out to the Spirit of God, deep calling to Deep, in a mysterious union of wills. Noah walked with God, and thus he worshiped.
We also worship when we walk with God. Paul calls it being in step with the Spirit, being continuously filled with the Spirit, or walking in the Spirit.
Noah did this; he did all that God commanded him. Genesis 6:22
And Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him. Genesis 7:5
We could also say that Noah worshiped by doing all that God commanded him to do. He obeyed God and built the ark according to His specifications. In truth, Noah knew that judgment was coming, so he built with holy fear. He worked hastily, knowing that the time was coming near. He worked diligently, knowing that God had specified every detail of his design. He also worked thoroughly, knowing that this boat was the only means of safety for him, his family, and all those animals in a great cataclysm of water. Worship, after all, is obedience: instant, willing and complete.
. . . if he did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly; 2 Peter 2:5
Noah worshiped by walking. He worshiped by working. He also worshiped by preaching, for a hundred years!
That’s right. He was a herald of righteousness. And MAYBE he even used words when he preached (to paraphrase Francis of Assisi.)! God had personally told Noah what His plans were, what was ahead, and why it would happen. And so, with every tree he cut down, every nail he drove, every animal gathered, he proclaimed what was right and what was wrong. Judgment was coming! Repent! The entire Gospel was already in place, and Noah was proclaiming it.
The Gospel story was something like this: Adam was intended to live in fellowship and dominion, but he fell into sin, and God said that in “that day” he would surely die. “That day” was the Day of the Lord, the era of death. For sin brings death. God had warned him and Eve, but they had disobeyed. And so God prevented them from eating of the tree of life, but He covered their shame by means of an animal sacrifice. We, too, may be restored by sacrifice and repentance. If you let yourself want to want to obey, that’s the first step.Turn today, before it is too late!
Indeed, once the tree of life was off limits, the lifespan of men became limited, resulting in lifespans of something less than 1000 years. That was about to change again, as God is putting limits on how long those wily rebels can extend their plots and influence on earth. God said that they would be limited to 120 years. Mankind is wholly corrupt, and God will not strive with men forever! But there is a way out! Adolescents that we are, God’s relationship with us is marked by strife. And even the innocent will receive the early death penalty.
Listen. Obey. Tell. These are the marks of worship still today. And so came the flood. And Noah was saved. And he continued to worship.
Then Noah built an altar to the LORD and took some of every clean animal and some of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, "I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the intention of man's heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night, shall not cease." Genesis 8:20-22
Sure enough, Noah built an altar, and on it he sacrificed some of the life that he had safely carried on the ark for the last year of floods. And God was pleased with the aroma. I know about that. If it smelled anything like a steak on a grill, I can imagine it to have been very pleasing to God, indeed. But it was not because God was about to eat a big slab of meat; it was because sin had been atoned for once again by the sacrifice of innocent blood. Redemption, Old Covenant style. And it was sweet to Him.
Let me clarify something: Noah was blameless. He was righteous. But he was not perfect. He sacrificed for his own sins, and those of his family. And it pleased God.
Finding out what pleases God is the very purpose of our lives, you might say. Noah sacrificed to the Lord, and it brought the Lord pleasure. As the psalmist David later wrote:
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O LORD, my rock and my redeemer. Psalms 19:14
Take note of this: Everyone worships. Everyone holds something as of highest value to them. But only some kinds of worship bring God pleasure (Some translations call it acceptable). Some worship is acceptable, and some it not. True worship, worship that is in spirit and in truth, pleases God.
There was an old movie that influenced me as a young man, and I still remember this scene from it. Eric Liddell is called to be a missionary to China. But he is training for the Olympics. And he says, “I believe that God made me for China. But he also made me fast. And when I run, I feel his pleasure.”
May you feel the Father’s pleasure in what you do today.