I was reading through the story of Noah again this morning and I find the Patience of Noah really amazing. I believe we can all learn from him, maybe we can stop putting ourselves under unnecessary pressure.
In Genesis chapter 8. Noah already spent 150 days locked in the ark along with all kinds of animals, you really don’t want to imagine that. The pupu, and how they’ll make a mess of every food. Noah and his family will practically have to keep cleaning the Ark morning and Night if they want to achieve some level of sanity.
Finally, the opportunity of their freedom came on the 150th day, i would have thought that Noah will just jump down and be happy but in Gen 8:6-7 “ After forty days Noah opened a window he had made in the ark 7 and sent out a raven, and it kept flying back and forth until the water had dried up from the earth.” While this was a fair enough signal for Noah to come down, he didn’t rush.
“Then he sent out a dove to see if the water had receded from the surface of the ground. But the dove could find nowhere to perch because there was water over all the surface of the earth; so it returned to Noah in the ark…” (Verse 8). Verse 10 tells us that he waited another 7 days before sending the dove out again. When the dove returned to him in the evening, there in its beak was a freshly plucked olive leaf! Then Noah knew that the water had receded from the earth. Noah is now convinced beyond doubts, the facts are there. Any reasonable person should step out at this time but not Noah.
“By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry”. (Verse 13). Surely, Noah himself can see with his own eye that everything is set but verse 14 tells us he waited for another 27 days. Clearly, Noah was no longer waiting for dry land. He must be waiting for something else. What was Noah waiting for? Verse 15-16 tells us that “Then God said to Noah, 16 “Come out of the ark, you and your wife and your sons and their wives.”
There you have it, Noah wasn’t waiting for the perfect timing based on what forecast says or what he could see with his eyes, he was waiting for the instruction of the Lord, for the Lord’s timing. How beautiful will it be if we can learn such patient waiting upon the Lord till he speaks we shall do nothing of our own wisdom. Solomon understood it better when he said: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not unto your own understanding…”
May God grant us such spirit like Noah, that we may also patiently wait and not move till we actually hear him beacon to us-come!
