Futility and Grief: A Study Taken from the Life of Noah

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(This is an edited and rewritten version of an article that previously appeared on this blog.)

FUTILITY AND GRIEF
Have you ever been required to do something that you knew was doomed before you even began? Or something seemed like a good idea at the time but later it became obvious that it was going to fail? Or perhaps through circumstances beyond your control you had to sit on the sidelines watching the game of life instead of participating in it?

This feeling of futility can result in grief which can then lead to depression. It can often be identified when someone throws up his hands in exasperation and says, “What’s the use?” This question signals that the person concludes that further effort is a complete waste of time.

Futility can strike anyone. Some examples are people having a hard time recovering from illness, the elderly who have been confined to hospitals and nursing homes, or preachers who pour their hearts into their ministries but see no evidence of lives being changed. There are many other circumstances that cause it as well.

It is not uncommon for those whose health was once vigorous to reach the point of depression when they become so ill that their recovery, if it comes at all, takes longer than anticipated. Perhaps the rapid advances in the field of medicine have tempted us to believe that almost anything can be cured instantaneously.

A frequent visitor to nursing homes will often hear the complaint, “Why has God left me here? He should take me home because I cannot do anything anymore.” Evidently a person in this predicament can still minister in some way even if it is only to teach the more vigorous people the lessons of patience and grace necessary for completing life's race. This is particularly true of those suffering from dementia.

Other suffering Christians that have their wits can still have a vibrant ministry even though their bodies are failing. They can be the retired soldiers constantly petitioning the Commander-in-Chief on behalf of those on the front lines. Everyone has an assignment from God even when they think they serve no useful purpose.

As a pastor’s wife I have met many families going to and returning from the mission fields. Those going are excited and challenged by their future. Those returning often show signs of depression caused by futility. Can you imagine learning a foreign language as an adult, uprooting your family to an area where the customs and culture are totally unfamiliar and then reaping a spiritual harvest of . . . no one. Not a single convert! This sometimes happens. These feelings are not reserved for those who minister in foreign countries. Many pastors in so-called "Christian" nations reach the same level of frustration when they prepare nourishing spiritual food each week only to see it rejected for worldly junk food.

Noah was just such a preacher. Like the Christians of today, he was only a sinner saved by grace. He believed God and obeyed Him by building the ark to save mankind and the animal kingdom from extinction. According to II Peter 2:5, Noah was preaching as he was building. It is evident that none heeded his message as the only ones who entered the ark were Noah and his immediate family. Preaching to the masses seemed futile, but obeying God is never futile. As a result Noah and his family did not suffer the same fate as the rest of mankind.

We rejoice in the story of Noah’s triumphant salvation from the flood but do we consider what his life was like after it? Noah became a vineyard keeper. Perhaps all those years of preaching without having even one convert tore at this heart and resulted in his drunkenness. Not only did all of his neighbors die a physical death but they died a spiritual one as well! That thought could cause one horrendous case of grief!

Only God and Noah know what went on in Noah’s heart during those years when the earth’s population was sparse and the memory of its former population lived only in his mind. Unlike Adam and Eve who lived alone with just their own family and knew no one else because there was no one else, Noah and his family had encountered many people.

Not only did all of Noah's acquaintances die in the flood as a consequence of rejecting his message, but his own descendants did not take seriously the consequences of disobeying God! The seeds of wickedness found fertile soil almost immediately. About 100 years after the flood Noah's extended family built the Tower of Babel upon the Mesopotamian plains, that monument to man's depravity that necessitated a restraining act of grace by God. This was an event Noah lived long enough to see. In comparison, it took Noah and his immediate family 120 years to build the Ark, that former monument to man's depravity and God's grace.

We preach the same message that Noah preached and work for the same God that he did. The Bible says that we live in a wicked world similar to the days of Noah, and like Noah, those who believe God find grace. There is destruction coming, but God has provided an Ark of safety. It was God’s message in Noah’s day and it is still God’s message today.

7 Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. 8 For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. 9 And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not. 10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.
Gal 6:7-10 (KJV)