Students in Living Education’s Fall 2024 Writing Workshop were asked to identify the central theme of a biblical narrative and to expound on how three elements of that narrative serve to develop the theme. To give you an idea of the work students are doing, we present here (edited very lightly for publication) Miss Abigail Wissinger’s essay discussing the testing of Noah’s faith. Other students wrote on such topics as Abraham’s near-sacrifice of Isaac, Daniel’s friends’ deliverance from Nebuchadnezzar’s fiery furnace, and Satan’s temptation of Christ. Living Education–Charlotte is much more than the many enjoyable field trips and fellowship opportunities it provides for students, and we hope you will enjoy this sample of those students’ work!
—Editorial Staff
“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). During Noah’s lifetime the world around him fell into depravity, and he had to work hard to follow God in everything he did. Due to Noah’s righteousness, God called him to make an ark in order to save him and his immediate family along with a certain number of the clean and unclean animals, while those around him jeered and made fun of him for building a large ark on dry land. After a period of time, God sent a flood upon the land, saving those within the ark who endured there for many days and nights. In obeying God, Noah showed that trusting in God and yielding to Him through persecution brings faith to a higher level.
Throughout Noah’s life, he worked hard to follow God despite those around him turning away from Him. Noah’s faith was unwavering and did not turn aside. God called him a “just man, perfect in his generations” (Genesis 6:9). God characterized Noah as a man who followed Him despite a world where “every intent of the thoughts of his [the people’s] heart [were] evil continually” (Genesis 6:5). God recognized Noah as a man who obeyed Him faithfully and was not willing to follow the crowd despite the immense pressure to do so. Noah’s faith is contrasted here with the people’s turning away from Him and their complete lack of regard for God’s purpose in creating the world around them and placing them within it.
To further contrast Noah’s faith and willingness to work hard and follow God despite outside pressure, Noah did not complain about the task of building an ark. Noah was patient and complied with all of God’s tasks, “Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22). This shows how Noah was patient and willing to go along with what God told him to do, even if these were not the plans that he had created for himself. This contrasts greatly with the people, who cared only about themselves, as the “wickedness of man was great in the earth” (Genesis 6:5). All this led to Noah being able to trust God even more, because he faced difficult trials while staying with Him and not straying.
Noah’s life was filled with incredible hardship, but he never gave up. There was continual conflict with the people, as they were actively working to oppose God and Noah in their everyday lives. For years, Noah worked on building this ark that was “the length of… three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits” (Genesis 6:15). This ark was of huge proportions as the ark had to be able to contain all the animals, clean and unclean, as well as Noah and his immediate family. Due to the size of the ark and length of time for him to build it, the people would most likely have made fun of him. How could this man who was preaching about a coming worldwide flood be right? Despite this pressure, Noah refused to give in and “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). He overcame the hardship of living in a world where no one else believed his message. Noah never once gave up for an easier life, but instead moved forward and pushed himself to make sure his every action came into alignment with God’s will and purpose.
Noah came through this period of his life with a stronger faith than before. He was in the ark during the flood and “the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights” (Genesis 7:12). The number forty here signifies a period of preparation, trial, or testing that Noah had to go through to test his faith in God, to see if he would stay faithful or would call it quits. Being stuck inside the ark for forty days and nights is a significant period of time, especially with animals and family around him constantly. Noah needed to be able to trust God during this time, to believe that this period of time in his life would come to an end even if that time did not seem to be appearing soon. This time of being in the ark was preparing him to grow stronger and better place his trust in God and make sure that he was truly relying on God and not on himself.
Also, the great flood which Noah had to endure represents a cleansing, a sort of baptism. Noah needed to be cleansed and forgiven of his sins and had to realize that although he was “perfect,” he still needed to be forgiven for who he was, a fallible human being. This foreshadows how people are now to be baptized and be cleansed of their sins and realize that they as human beings still have the possibility to repent as they are not yet made complete.
In addition, the symbols of the rainbow and the dove with the olive branch play a prominent part in showing how this world is not the end. When the ark landed on Mount Ararat, God made a covenant promise to Noah, promising to never bring a worldwide flood to destroy human beings again. God told Noah, “This is a sign of the covenant which I make… I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth” (Genesis 9:12–13). The rainbow symbolized how God’s power was everlasting, and that when He made a promise His promise would be kept. This shows that if we place our trust in God we should have absolute faith and not worry because He is the Ever-Living One. God’s power lasts forever and when He says something will occur, it will come to pass. This allowed Noah and all of us to understand that we can have complete faith and trust in His words, knowing that He cannot and will not lie.
After the flood had passed, Noah “sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground” (Genesis 8:8). The dove along with the olive branch symbolized Noah’s hope in finding dry land. By this time Noah had been on the ark for many days and was undoubtedly growing tired from having to spend time in cramped quarters with animals and his immediate family, and this dove along with the olive branch symbolized for him the hope of finishing this great trial that he had come through. Further, the dove who carried an olive branch when he came back to the ark represents the hope that Noah will be able to walk in the newness of life. Instead of continuing in the ways in which he had beforehand, Noah now had more opportunities open to him, demonstrating that he had overcome this hardship. Noah would be able to walk on dry ground again, but this time in a world without human beings who disregarded God at every opportunity.
The rainbow and dove show that while the immediate time seems tough, God is there, and “He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6). Through the trial of having to build an ark and be on that ark for so many days while the earth was flooded, Noah’s faith was able to grow as he could see that if he could face this trial and get through this trial then he could get through any.
However, this trial was easier to conquer due to his previous life and the trials he had endured before embarking on the ark. Noah was about 500 years old when God called him to build the ark to rescue the animals, himself, and his immediate family. While the Bible does not mention about his life greatly beforehand, Noah must have been actively showing his willingness to obey God through his actions and must have endured some trials as the world had not descended into evil and depravity overnight. The matter-of-fact way in which God states that Noah was “perfect” and “walked with [Him]” (Genesis 6:9), shows how this must have been a well-known fact to his family and neighbors. Since Noah obeyed God in a society where they actively rejected Him, he must have faced being made fun of throughout his entire life. These trials in his life beforehand, as well as the trial of building an ark, took many years.
Noah was prepared to face the situation that lay ahead. These trials prepared him for life aboard the ark, they built resilience. Through the cumulation of all the trials throughout Noah’s life, but especially that of the flood, Noah’s faith was able to increase to a level that otherwise would have been unattainable.
Overall, the biblical story of Noah and the flood demonstrates how trusting in God through persecution brings faith to a higher level than was previously attainable. This passage of Scripture utilizes the elements of symbolism, juxtaposition, characterization, and narrative conflict in order to develop how Noah was able to persevere and grow stronger in faith despite the enormous pressure against him to quit. The story of Noah not giving up inspires us, and helps us to understand how it is possible to persevere to the end of our lives and grow in godly character and faith.