What Made Noah A Great Spiritual Leader!

Noah is a great example of a godly, shepherd of people. By the world’s standard he was not a leader of individuals, however the world has the wrong measuring stick. God makes it plain in His infallible Word that Noah was a unique man who had character. It was his character that enabled him to be the leader that he was. I want to share three portions of his character that should serve to instruct us about godly leadership.

First, we should notice that Noah was godly. Genesis 6:8 states that Noah found “grace”. This signifies that Noah was a saved man. The Bible teaches that one who is saved has the righteousness of Christ imputed to their account. This was certainly the case with Noah. Out of his salvation experience, Noah began to apply the godly principles that were taught him by his godly forefathers. The Bible goes on to describe him in verse 9 as one who was “just”, “perfect”, and one who “walked with God”. To me when God describes Noah as “just” He meant that he was righteous and that he performed acts of righteousness. In other words, he served God! “Perfect” means that he was mature or “complete in moral excellencies”. Noah was a man of maturity. This developed as he applied the principles of God’s Word to his life and walk. The terminology that is often used to describe agreement is that of “walking”. Noah is said to have walked with God. In other words, he agreed with God on everything and just followed the leadership of God in his life.

Second, Noah was a man of obedience. I believe that Noah’s obedience in the midst of such perversity is the clearest indication that he was a saved man and that he was destined for leadership. You find that after God gave the instructions to build the ark, the plans on how to build it, and the reasons for the construction, Noah just went right along with it! Genesis 6:22 declares that Noah obeyed “according to all that God commanded him”. As the children’s song says, “Obedience is the very best way to show that you believe, doing exactly what the Lord commands, doing it happily” thus Noah would be a great example of what this means. Noah simply obeyed God. A true leader must be able to obey or he will not be what God intended he should be.

Finally, Noah was consistent. Spiritual leaders must be consistent. For 120 years Noah labored bi-vocationally, through the construction of the ark and through the preaching ministry. The ark and the subsequent travels of the animals to the ark were all an object lesson of the fact that God was doing something and that people must be saved! For 120 years the people derided him and caused him grief. They mocked him, but he kept building and preaching. When it was all said and done, only his family made the ark their place of safety. Some would say Noah failed, but I hasten to point out that God was pleased and that is all that matters. He won his family after all of those years. Many today, as spiritual leaders, overlook their families and win everyone else. May we all seek to win our families as fervently as we do others! If Noah was not a consistent man, he would have never finished the work God gave him to do.

In conclusion, we see that Noah was a great spiritual leader. He had character when no one else did. He sought after righteousness when it was not popular, he labored for God when it was not profitable in the world’s economy, and he sowed the seed of God’s Word in spite of the soil conditions. Character is what enabled him to win his family and be used of God in such an earth changing way!