From episode: Relating to the Rescuer
It's important for us, especially as we go through the story of Noah, to humanize Noah. We have to bring him down to our level on purpose so that we can relationally connect to him. Maybe you're like, "how can I do that? That's someone who's been dead for a long time." But it's the same way that you would read a good novel today, and you would relate to the characters because they reminded you of yourself. Sometimes we fail to do that in the Bible because we just think of these grand stories that are told in here and we think, wow, I could never be as righteous as Noah. And it's true, we all have flaws, but Noah also has flaws. What God likes about Noah is his faith. His faith in God creates his desire to be obedient to a voice that he's hearing. We don't know if he's hearing it inside or outside. But he is being obedient, and sometimes you've heard that voice inside, outside, maybe it was a feeling. We all have a history with God. So it's important for us to relate to Noah in this story and connect to his humanity.
Now let's imagine a modernized version of Noah, you know, likely someone who is wildly full of faith but not untouchable. He would want to share it. He would want us to understand it. At the time, there was nobody for him to share with, so we don't get a real big picture of who he is in a community, but we can imagine that he would be an influencer. A person who would share his faith because of how strongly he felt about it. You know, he's a guy that's brilliant when it comes to following instructions about architecture. His faith led him to hear and design and build and move in this amazing, never before seen way. I mean, he is a tip-of-the-spear kind of guy. He loves animals. If he didn't before, you know, God puts it on him to bring in these pairs. He's a man of the land, very observant. And so in so many ways, given the circumstances, this is someone we could get to know, right? And we could have known, and we could know.