Background Story: After creation, generations were born that we read about in Genesis 5. As mankind increased, so did wickedness. We read in Genesis 6:5 that, “The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.” So the Lord called upon a man named Noah.

Read Genesis 6:8-7:16

 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. ⁹ This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. ¹² God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. ¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. ¹⁶ Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”

²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

7 The Lord then said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and your whole family, because I have found you righteous in this generation. ² Take with you seven pairs of every kind of clean animal, a male and its mate, and one pair of every kind of unclean animal, a male and its mate, ³ and also seven pairs of every kind of bird, male and female, to keep their various kinds alive throughout the earth. ⁴ Seven days from now I will send rain on the earth for forty days and forty nights, and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature I have made.”

⁵ And Noah did all that the Lord commanded him.

⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth. ⁷ And Noah and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives entered the ark to escape the waters of the flood. ⁸ Pairs of clean and unclean animals, of birds and of all creatures that move along the ground, ⁹ male and female, came to Noah and entered the ark, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And after the seven days the floodwaters came on the earth.

¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month—on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. ¹² And rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.

¹³ On that very day Noah and his sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth, together with his wife and the wives of his three sons, entered the ark. ¹⁴ They had with them every wild animal according to its kind, all livestock according to their kinds, every creature that moves along the ground according to its kind and every bird according to its kind, everything with wings. ¹⁵ Pairs of all creatures that have the breath of life in them came to Noah and entered the ark. ¹⁶ The animals going in were male and female of every living thing, as God had commanded Noah. Then the Lord shut him in.

Big Idea: Following God has never been popular.

Most have heard this story before, but let’s never forget that these were real people. They didn’t have the Old Testament in their hand where they could read the highlights of their story. No- they lived it. Noah believed God would bring the rain, when it wasn’t raining. So for decades, he got up, picked up the hammer, and kept working. He lived with the mockery of the people around him, but chose to obey God and live differently.

You are called to the same. Jesus said that in the last days before His return, “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).

Just like in Noah’s time, people live today ignoring and rejecting their Creator. Like Noah, His followers are called to be different. To listen and obey God. And just like in Noah’s time, this decision will not always be popular. It has never been the masses that have followed God, but the few. Jesus said, “wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it” (Matthew 7:13-14).

To live like Noah takes conviction and courage. We throw off the applause of the masses for the applause of heaven, understanding that “today is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2). And just like in Noah’s day, one day Christ will return and the door will shut (Matthew 25:1-13). Until that day comes, let us keep about our Father’s business. May this be the generation that seeks His face!

Takeaway Verse:

Song For Today:

Looking For More?

Dig Deeper: 1 Thessalonians 4:13-5:11, 2 Corinthians 5, Jude, Romans 10:8-17, Hebrews 3:1-13, Revelation 20:11-21:5, Revelation 22:10-21

Similar Devotions: It’s Personal 2, The Perfect Sacrifice, Ultimate Miracle, Not Just A Consumer, An Allegory of Pride, Focused on Eternity

Devotions4Teens Videos: The Gospel- 3 Minute Presentation, Salvation in Jesus, 3 Tips to Help You Grow Closer to God!, Help Reading Your Bible, Becoming More Like Jesus, I Want to See, Sneaky Sin, Thirsting For God