“By faith Noah, after being warned about what was not yet seen, in reverence built
an ark to deliver his family. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith.” Hebrews 11:7
Thank you for returning to our lawyer’s “tour” through the Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith. The Introduction summarized the premise of this chapter of scripture, that faith is an impetus for action. While not every action will be inspired by faith, true faith should always inspire action. The author then provided numerous examples.
The first one we’ll evaluate is Noah, who is rightfully commended in the Hall of Faith. His task was literally enormous. The ark he was commissioned to build measured about 1.3 NFL football fields long and four stories tall. It would house 1-7 pairs of every kind of land animal or flying creature for more than a year. The preservation of the human race and the vast majority of Kingdom Animalia depended on the seaworthiness of this vessel.
Scripture gives no indication that Noah had any shipbuilding experience. He was not selected for this task because of his work history, but because of his faithfulness to Yahweh God. This assignment bore no resemblance to anything Noah had ever done.
Furthermore, the reason for such a vessel was a first occurrence event. Scripture implies that Noah’s homestead was inland, not on the coast. He was not directed to go to the shore for this project, as the ark was not intended to navigate then-existing bodies of water. No, this vessel’s purpose was to survive a cataclysmic flood. Another implication from scripture is that humanity had never before experienced rain.
Putting all of this together, Noah was called to do something he had never done before, the magnitude of which was unfathomable, to prepare for an event that had never occurred before. This was truly unprecedented, in his life and in the history of mankind.
“And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.” Genesis 6:22.
I am risk averse. As a result, my law practice has generally stayed within fairly clear “lanes”. Early in my career, my caseload was a bit diverse as I was establishing myself in the market. Then, I followed the pattern of most professions and began to focus, specialize, in certain types of cases. I suspect you have done likewise, honing your craft on a fairly narrow subset of the totality of legal issues lawyers handle.
Has God called you to handle something far afield of your experience and comfort? When potential clients reach out to me on issues I’ve never handled, I generally decline and redirect them elsewhere. I usually don’t pause to consider whether God has orchestrated this encounter. That is error on my part, which I will aim to correct.
To be clear, I am not challenging us to take every case that comes our way, straying into areas of incompetence. Rather, I am challenging us to not be so confined by our comfort zones as to ignore a divine assignment. If our faith is genuine, we must be willing to do the unprecedented when called by God.
