Noah spent years building an enormous boat on dry land, for a flood nobody had ever seen.
“And God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. Make yourself an ark of gopherwood…'” (Genesis 6:13-14, NKJV)
Some readers take Genesis 2:5-6, where the ground is watered by a mist, to mean that Noah may never have seen rain at all. Either way, he was preparing for a catastrophe with no precedent, and Peter tells us he was “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Peter 2:5, NKJV) to people who no doubt found the whole project absurd. Hebrews explains what drove him:
“By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.” (Hebrews 11:7, NKJV)
Noah worked from things not yet seen. He had no evidence to point to, only the word of the God who had spoken to him, and he kept building until the rain came.
Abraham Rose Early
Abraham’s test was harder still, because the instruction seemed to contradict God’s own earlier promise. God had told him, “in Isaac your seed shall be called” (Genesis 21:12, NKJV). Then came this:
“Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him… ‘Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering.'” (Genesis 22:1-2, NKJV)
The next verse records no argument and no delay: “So Abraham rose early in the morning and saddled his donkey” (Genesis 22:3, NKJV). Hebrews tells us what was going on in his heart:
“By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son… concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.” (Hebrews 11:17, 19, NKJV)
Abraham did not decide that God had changed His mind. He concluded that God’s power to keep His word reached even beyond death. He could not see how the promise would be kept, but he knew the One who had made it.
Birds That Cross Oceans
Twice a year, migratory birds set off on journeys of thousands of kilometres, some of them across open sea, towards places they cannot see from where they start. They rely on a pattern proven over countless generations, and most of them arrive where they were heading. Their trust is not blind; it rests on a reliability established long before this particular journey began.
A Letter Nobody Thought She Owed
Picture a woman reading her Bible who keeps coming back to passages she cannot set aside. Paul asks the Corinthians, “Why do you not rather accept wrong? Why do you not rather let yourselves be cheated?” (1 Corinthians 6:7, NKJV). Romans tells her, “If it is possible, as much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men” (Romans 12:18, NKJV). And beneath both lies the truth her faith rests on: “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8, NKJV). God moved first, while she was the offender, and He has given her “the ministry of reconciliation” (2 Corinthians 5:18, NKJV).
She thinks of a sibling she has been estranged from for years after a serious betrayal. Everyone she trusts agrees she has no obligation to make the first move. There has been no apology and no sign of regret. By any reasonable judgement, reaching out makes no sense, but she cannot get past the pattern she keeps reading: the wronged party moving first and bearing the cost. She writes the letter. For months there is only silence. Then, slowly, over a couple of years, things begin to soften, first with a hesitant phone call and then another, and a careful rebuilding neither of them expected. She still finds Paul’s words uncomfortable. She is simply glad she did not wait to feel comfortable before she obeyed.
Trust, but Test the Voice
This is not an instruction to obey any voice that claims to speak for God. Abraham’s story guards against that. The angel stopped his hand (Genesis 22:11-12), and God never intended Isaac’s death; the account points forward to the Father who would one day give His own Son. God’s commands are always consistent with His character, even when they go beyond what we can see. Anything that pushes us towards cruelty, deceit or harm for its own sake fails the test Abraham’s obedience passed.
John gives believers a standing instruction: “Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world” (1 John 4:1, NKJV). Testing is not the opposite of faith. It keeps costly obedience aimed at the right voice. Noah and Abraham knew God’s character well enough to recognise His voice.
If God has been nudging you towards a step you cannot fully explain, test it against His word and His character. If it holds, take the step without waiting for every question to be answered.
