part0011

The Bible teaches children to obey their parents in the Lord because it is the right thing to do. Ephesians 6:1 says, "Children, obey your parents in the Lord: for this is right." Colossians 3:20 says, "Children, obey your parents in all things: for this is well pleasing unto the Lord." It also teaches all people to obey the higher powers that keep the peace and maintain the order. One should note that that includes an employee obeying his or her employer, too. Romans 13:1 says, "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers . For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." Thus, being under someone else's control and finding oneself answerable to others is often a big part of this life and existence. But of all of the different authorities that one is instructed to obey, being obedient to the Lord is by far the most important. In response to the false prophets of this world and to the general ungodliness that seems to be all around, Deuteronomy 13:4 says, "Ye shall walk after the LORD your God, and fear him, and keep his commandments, and obey his voice , and ye shall serve him, and cleave unto him."

The Bible provides a few examples of individuals that had chosen to NOT obey the Lord. In each case, the results had been disastrous. Exodus 5:1-2 says, "And afterward Moses and Aaron went in, and told Pharaoh, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Let my people go, that they may hold a feast unto me in the wilderness. And Pharaoh said, Who is the LORD, that I should obey his voice to let Israel go? I know not the LORD, neither will I let Israel go." Because the Pharaoh of Egypt would not let the children of Israel leave that land, many of the Egyptian soldiers had ended up losing their lives. Pharaoh and the other families had ended up losing their firstborn sons. The countryside had endured numerous plagues. So in his case, not having obeyed the Lord had brought much grief to himself as well as to his people. Then after all of that the children of Israel had still left Egypt in the end. Thus, if Pharaoh had been able to see the end cost of his disobedience, he might have behaved differently.

Another example of NOT obeying the Lord had occurred between King Zedekiah and the Prophet Jeremiah soon before Judah would be falling to the Babylonians. Jeremiah had been thrown into a dry well because he had told the people of Jerusalem that they would soon be overthrown by the Babylonians. The people had retaliated against him in that way because they had not wanted to hear the Lord's negative words about their immediate future. But Jeremiah had been a faithful prophet of God. He had told them the truth even though it had had an unpopular tone. In Jeremiah 38:14-28, he had also urged the king to surrender. However, while the king had listened intently, Jeremiah 39:1-7 indicates he had not taken Jeremiah’s advice. When the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar came against Jerusalem, Zedekiah had tried to escape. But the Babylonians had chased him down, had killed his sons before his eyes, had put his eyes out, and had then taken him to Babylon to live out his final days. By contrast, in Jeremiah 39:11-14, Nebuchadnezzar had taken very good care of Jeremiah and had even allowed him to go back home to be with his own people. So once again, God had allowed the disobedient, the ungodly, and the rebellious to fall. But He had taken very good care of the one that had been faithful to Him.

As should be very clear from those two examples, disobedience to the Lord can come at a very high cost. While Noah would not have known about those cases since they were both still well into the future, he would have known about Cain and the trouble that he had brought upon himself with his sacrifice. Cain had offered his fruits of the ground with a bad attitude and that is just like being disobedient. Noah would have been able to observe the ungodliness of those people around him and would have seen the negative effects of that kind of behavior on a person's life. But he also would have had the positive examples of Abel, Enoch, Methuselah, and many other saints to show him the reality of living for the Lord and of being obedient to Him. Therefore, when he had felt in his heart the Lord leading him to build an ark, he had CHOSEN to do so without hesitation. It is important to understand that being obedient is ALWAYS a choice. Thus, God had given him very specific instructions about the ark's dimensions, about the animals that would go into the ark, and about the food that they would need for riding out the storm. In the end, Genesis 6:22 which was quoted above says that Noah had obeyed the Lord in every detail.

That may not seem like very much until one considers that God had probably NOT spoken out loud to Noah. As was discussed in chapters six and eight of this text, He had probably ONLY spoken to his heart. However, one should also realize that God's silent voice to a listening heart can sound like a zillion megaphones to his or her ears. To each of the seven churches in the Book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit through the Apostle John had encouraged the people of God to keep their spiritual ears open. Revelation 2:29 says, "He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches." So Noah had heard the Lord's voice in his heart and he had obeyed the strange leading that he had sensed. That leading would have seemed strange to him because it had probably NEVER before rained in the earth. As was indicated in the previous chapter with Genesis 2:5-6, the ground had been watered by a mist coming up from the ground. The leading may also have seemed strange to him because of the lengthy amount of time required to build such a large structure. The exact time needed for building the ark is not known. But one hundred years had passed from the end of Genesis, chapter five with the first mention of Noah to Genesis 7:11 when it had begun to rain. So the job for his family and for him had been very, very big. Nevertheless, he had still been faithful to do all that the Lord had wanted him to do. I Samuel 15:22 says, "And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice , and to hearken than the fat of rams."