No baby’s nursery is complete without a brightly coloured wooden Noah’s Ark on a shelf. We all know the story, some of us remember the childhood song (“The animals went in two by two, hoorah! hoorah!”), but for all that Noah is probably encountered more frequently in Sunday School than in church, the four chapters of Genesis that detail the whole rain-soaked episode are packed with “grown-up theology” that we do well to pay attention to.
In this column we’re currently cherry picking some of the heroes of faith in the famous list found in Hebrews 11 and today our focus turns to Noah, the ancient follower of God whose floating zoo provides a wonderful early doors type of salvation.
Naturally, in Hebrews 11 the writer focuses the reader’s concentration on Noah’s faith (it is, after all, the famous “by faith” chapter) evidenced in his building an enormous boat on dry land before there’s any sign of dark clouds gathering in the sky, but in thinking about Scripture’s first named sailor my interest has been piqued by thoughts of the relationship between grace, faith, and obedience.
Theology and praise
What springs to mind when you hear the word “theology”?Bookshelves full of weighty and dusty tomes that, if not …