"By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family. By his faith he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness that comes by faith." Hebrews 11:7

Do you know what it means to fear God? Not be afraid of God but to fear him. The Bible often talks about the fear of God. Our next stop in our walk through the Hall of Faith shows us godly fear in action as we look at Noah.

You probably remember Noah. At a time when almost no human beings believed in the true God, Noah was one of a handful who worshiped and served the LORD. God didn't overlook faithful Noah and his family in those dark days. When the smell of human sin had grown too offensive to God's nostrils, God announced to Noah that he was going to destroy life on earth with a great flood. In mercy the LORD instructed Noah to build an ark in which Noah's family would be saved along with enough animals to repopulate the earth after the flood.

That story sounds familiar and so simple to those of us who have known it ever since childhood, but have you ever thought about the faith it took for Noah to follow God's directions? To build an ark (which was designed as a big, floating crate, not a boat as is often imagined) when there was no sign of a flood was an act of faith on Noah's part. All the evidence was telling Noah that life on earth was going to go on just as it had with sin growing more rampant every day. Unbelievers who knew Noah must have wondered about their lunatic neighbor who with his sons was building an ark while he warned others about the wrath of God that was to come.

And don't forget that this went on for 120 years! God waited more than a century between the first warning of the flood and the first flood rains. For over a century Noah no doubt suffered ridicule from his unbelieving neighbors while he worked feverishly to follow God's instructions. (The scorn of Noah's neighbors would have been even more intense if the world of that time had developed a very high level of technology as some believe it did. Just imagine what you would think in this scientific age if your neighbor was building an ark in his backyard because he said God told him to.)

But in those 120 years, Noah's faith didn't waver. By faith he built an ark out of holy fear. Noah wasn't afraid of God, but he did fear God. Even when almost all of the people on earth were shaking their defiant fists at their Creator, Noah acknowledged the LORD as the Maker of heaven and earth. Noah still trusted the promise of a Savior that God had made centuries before. Noah respected God's position as the rightful ruler of the universe and knew better than to defy him. And so, out of faith in God and respect for God, Noah lived by God's words even when those words told him something so seemingly ludicrous as to build an ark.

Do we fear God's words as deeply and follow them as faithfully as Noah did? Do we follow God's words even when we can't understand the reasoning behind them? It's easy to trust and follow God's words when we like what he has to say. After all, we like to hear that he loves us and forgives us. Christians gladly listen to that. But what is our response when God's words tell us what we don't like to hear and when his words require us to do the hard things? For example, most people just ignore what God says about the purpose for which he created sexuality and that he intended it for husbands and wives only. Most people disregard what God says about the roles he designed for men and women to fill in the home and in the church. And we don't see too many Christians following Scripture's directions to watch out for those who hold to false teaching and to keep away from them, do we? Those words of God are hard to live by these days because doing so will make us unpopular or will mean giving up sins we don't want to give up.

Surely Noah must have felt the pressure to join in the sins of the world rather than follow the LORD, but Noah remained faithful. And the day came when Noah's faith paid off. How quickly public opinion of Noah and of God must have changed when the first rains of the flood fell from the sky! Did people who had mocked Noah for 120 years suddenly run for cover from the flood, terrified that Noah was right? By his faith, Noah condemned the world, the writer of Hebrews tells us. Noah believed what most others refused to believe--that the LORD is God and that he means what he says. In a tragic way, Noah condemned those who refused to believe as he gazed out from the ark and watched the wrath of God sweep away those who didn't fear the LORD.

At the same time, Noah became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. This righteousness is Christ's righteousness. Noah by faith looked ahead thousands of years to the time when God would keep his promise and send the Savior who would live a sinless life and provide for all people the righteousness that counts before God. Noah by faith embraced the Lamb of God who would take away the sins of the world one day. Because Noah believed the promise of God, he already had the saving righteousness that Jesus Christ would eventually provide. And so Noah stood holy and righteous in the eyes of God. That was why Noah showed such godly fear.

We who trust in Christ are also heirs of the same righteousness as Noah. Looking back on the promises that God made and kept about the Savior, we too serve the LORD out of holy fear. There's no doubt that living in godly fear of the LORD means we will have to do things that will make us unpopular or which we find hard to do. Jesus promises us that. But like Noah we serve the LORD while looking patiently to the fulfillment of his words. Jesus once said, "As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:37-39). People may laugh at us and make fun of us now for our faith. But public opinion will change in an instant when the day of judgment breaks, the dead are raised and Christ appears on his judgment throne.

So, be patient, follow believers! Listen to God's words! Hear them, believe them and live them with holy fear as Noah did. The day is coming when we will be delivered from this world of suffering and will stand with Noah and all of God's people in glory.