Standing outside of the crowd

By William R. Cunningham
October 7, 2007

Scripture reading: Genesis 6-7

Introduction

We are going to look at the story of Noah as an illustration of standing alone to do what is right and standing alone to do the will of God.
Christians are faced with the task of living righteously within a world that is unrighteous. We have to maintain our commitment to God’s way even though those around us live according to their own way. Christians resist being assimilated into the way of the world around them and sometimes that resistance causes social issues with the people that we associate with.

This study looks at the story of the flood—in particular the disposition of Noah, to see how we might be able to live righteously within an unrighteous world.

One Man Stand

"The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord." (Genesis 6:5-8)

Here’s the picture that is painted here.  There is evil everywhere.  Every thought in the hearts of humans was evil.  Things were so bad that God almighty was sorry that he created humans and decided to get rid of them.  Imagine things being so bad that God decides to wipe out the human race.  You think things are bad now

However, there was one man who found favor in the sight of God. This isn’t a small thing because remember that everyone else was busy practicing wickedness. How could Noah survive in such an environment? Picture yourself in an environment where everyone around you was constantly doing evil.  Would you join in? Would you lessen your morals so that you would fit in? Evidently Noah didn’t do that. He stayed righteous even in a sea of unrighteousness.

The difficult task to live righteously

We need to consider how difficult that must have been. Imagine trying to remain true to the righteousness of God on your job when others treat certain things as alright.  For example, the Bible teaches us to view fornication and adultery as unrighteous (See Lev. 21:9; 19:29; Deut. 22:20, 21, 23–29; 23:18; Ex. 22:16; Numb 5:11-31) , but the world condones both. Should we seek to fit in and condone those as well?

The effects of living righteously

Many times doing what is right can leave us feeling very uncomfortable. We really don’t want people to ridicule us and at the same time we want to do what is right. However, we should note that great people in history swam upstream so to speak. The great people in history did what the others around them were not doing. For example, consider Martin Luther who went against the behemoth of an organization, namely the Catholic Church. He stood up for what he believed in a time where many were going along.

What Noah did must have been a gigantic task being that all those around him were doing evil continually. Noah was the only person on the entire planet that was righteous in the sight of God. That is another thing that is very important. Noah was not merely righteous, but righteous in the sight of God. God is the standard for what is righteous and what is not. We can develop our own ideas of righteousness all we want, but in the end we will be measured against the righteousness of God (e.g. see Matthew 5:20).

Noah’s strength to live righteously.

Just imagine the strength that Noah had to have in order to stand for what is right amongst the complete unrighteousness around him. Imagine the stress that might have been on him all the time as those around him pressured him to do what is unrighteous. Now this doesn’t mean that Noah did not sin. It does mean that he remained righteous amongst a field of unrighteousness.  In other words, the unrighteousness around him did not assimilate him. We need to be like that all the time because there is always unrighteousness tempting us to do unrighteous things.

How did Noah do it?  How did he remain righteous such that God would find favor with him? That is an important question because the answer can help us to live righteously amongst the sea of righteousness around us.

Walk With God

" These are the descendants of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God." (Genesis 6:9)

The Bible says that Noah was a righteous man and that he walked with God.  We know he was righteous because he found favor in the sight of God because of it.  However, what did he do to be righteous to that extent? The clue that we have here is that he walked with God. What does it mean to walk with God?

Walking with God

The Bible also reveals that Enoch walked with God (see Genesis 5:22, 24). The Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (Eleventh Edition) defines “walk” as to pursue a course of action or way of life: conduct oneself: behave.  So to walk with implies that your behavior and course of life is consistent with God. Walking with God is indeed a lifestyle or disposition. So Noah conducted himself consistent with God’s way.

Relationship

I should point out here that we can’t walk with God if there is no relationship. Walking with God isn’t presented as following a list of rules. It is the way we conduct ourselves. There isn’t a rule or law that could specify what to do in every situation and decision that we may face in our lives.  Therefore, we need a guide more than a rulebook.  That guide is God through his holy spirit.

There are many times—most times—when we do not have a Bible and are faced with a decision or even a temptation. Can we look at our bibles to see if we should do this or that or if one action is sin and another is righteous? We need to know God personally so that we would be led by his spirit and not depend on rules and regulations. We need to have a relationship with God so that we would know him personally and not merely through the pages of a book.

So we can conclude that Noah had a relationship with God, especially since there were no scriptures that he could refer to. There was no Old Testament that he could refer to in order to know what was right or wrong. His righteousness was due to what he was taught perhaps by his parents and others and through his personal relationship with God.

Noah’s relationship with God was such that God told him what He would do to the earth. He told Noah how he was going to destroy all living creatures on the earth—including humans. Imagine if God told you that he was going to destroy the earth? Would you believe it? Would you think it was God? Well unless we have a personal relationship with God then we would not be aware of when he is really talking to us.

Doing Right Alone

It is one thing to do what is right when others are looking.  It is another thing to do what is right when we think no one is looking.  However, ultimately there are always two people who can see all the things that we do namely ourselves and God. We of course deceive ourselves sometimes and make wrong right.  However, God is omnipresent and he knows all that we do (e.g. see Psalm 139).

Noah’s righteousness declared by God not man

Noah was righteous in the sight of God not because everyone else thought he was a really good guy. He was righteous in the sight of God because God saw his righteousness. Righteousness isn’t something that is defined in the crowd or out in the open. Righteousness is something that we simply are or are not. Righteousness is when we are alone and when we are in the crowd. Righteousness doesn’t shine when we are with others because righteousness depicts the nature of our heart. We are either in right standing with God or we are not.  It doesn’t matter if we are seen or not.

Sometimes we do what is right and get no credit for it.  Sometimes we adhere to the righteousness of God when no one is around.  However, remember that God sees your good deeds in secret and that he will reward you openly (See Matthew 6:1-4).

Working Against the Tide

Have you ever done something and just about everyone was against you or telling you how you wouldn’t succeed? Have you ever felt as though God was prompting you to do something that seemed strange even to yourself?  Imagine how Noah must have felt building an Ark on dry land.  I’m sure it took Noah a long time to build the ark because it was only he and his family building it. Remember that everyone around him was continually doing evil. Perhaps Noah hired people to help him build.  I suppose that is a possibility, but how would they have been paid?  Consider the amount of work that was necessary to get the materials to build the ark. It was indeed a whole lot of work and I’m sure it took several years.

Imagine of God told you to do something similar today? Would you do it? What if God told you to do something that was just impossible at least in your mind? Would you try? It is amazing how peer-pressure and cultural pressures can steer us away from doing what we know we should do.  Sometimes we can let people rob us of success that we would have experienced if we only continued and tried instead of giving up after being discouraged by someone.

Sometimes we have to work against the tide, so to speak.   We have to swim upstream sometimes to get where God wants us to go. It may not be easy and it may cause an ark full of pain.  However, it is something that we have to do anyway because God told us so.
Noah went on and built that ark and he and his family were spared the destruction that befell everyone else. He accomplished what God told him and it saved his life. How many times do you think we have experience pain because we didn’t do what God said to do? As a matter of fact, we are all here today because Noah built that ark.

Many times we have to work against the tide and do what is right even in a culture that promotes doing what is unrighteous. Sometimes that may be very difficult, but in the end it is well worth it, because it is ultimately God we want to please.

The Way God Works

I would like to bring one more thing out with regards to the story here of Noah.  Notice how God destroyed the living creatures on the earth. He sent a flood to drown everything that lived on the land. I wonder why he did it that way.  Why didn’t God just command everyone besides Noah to drop dead? Instead he worked his will through earthly events and situations. It may have been natural events, but they still were controlled by God.

God seems to work more within the boundaries of his creation than outside of it. In other words, God will help us, but it will not necessarily be some miraculous event that rescues us. It may be one situation after another that occurs until we are delivered. God seems to work that way in our lives.

The implication of this is that the events of our lives are first of all most likely connected with other events in the past and in the future, and secondly these events are significant. We therefore shouldn’t take for granted the “little things” that God instructs us to do today, because collectively the end of the road may be a gigantic outcome.

Conclusion

Living a righteous life may mean that we are swimming upstream. I believe that for the most part we are swimming upstream when we live righteously because the world is going in a completely different direction, namely downstream. The things that we do today may result in great things in the future and we shouldn’t take events for granted. We should avoid wishing that we had done something in the past, but instead find ourselves rejoicing in the fact that we obeyed God and now see the fruits of it.

Living righteously many times means that we are standing and operating outside of the crowd.  Everyone else is doing their own thing while we do God’s thing. We should strive to live our lives consistent with God’s way and not conform to the world (See Romans 12:1-3). It’s OK to stand alone.  However, realize that we are never alone when we stand for righteous.  There are many others who stand for righteousness.  We just don’t know where or who they are most of the times.  Remember that Jesus said that there would be few who found the narrow way, which implies that most are on the broad way to destruction.

Do the right thing even if you are the only one standing there.  Do the right thing even though everyone else is doing something else.  God is always with you and it is he who is working through you to accomplish his will.  What you do today is significant tomorrow so realize how important you are to God and live like it! Amen.