And the LORD said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation . . . And Noah did according unto all that the LORD commanded him." Genesis 7:1, 5
"By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith." Hebrews 11:7
"Which sometime were disobedient, when once the longsuffering of God waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was a preparing, wherein few, that is, eight souls were saved by water." 1 Peter 3:20
What can we learn about home schooling from Noah? While riding in the car one day, we heard over the radio a teaching from Hebrews 11, and in it, a statement I have never before considered: When Noah obeyed God, by faith, he condemned the world (Hebrews 11:7).
I do not think Noah meant to condemn the world. The Word says he believed God and acted accordingly. His was obedience born of faith. God looked for someone who was righteous, whom He could call out of the judgment that was to come. He found Noah. The results were that Noah and his family escaped the disaster and no one else did.
Now, let us take our eyes off Noah and look at the home schooling experience. How was it for you? Did you try to make a change in the world, as Noah did when he was preaching righteousness? I did. I went to the school officials several times with my concerns about how things needed to change. I was about as successful as Noah was, too.
Did you hear God seeming to speak to you about home schooling? What was the motivating argument He used with you? For me it was guns and fighting in the schools (over 20 years ago, in a little country school). You could say we "moved with fear" as Noah did. I am sorry that I cannot say that in those days we saw Scriptural or Constitutional reasons for it; we were only trying to survive with our children intact. God blessed us, anyway.
Did you do everything the Lord commanded you? For me, those were such crazy days, with a house full of students, I barely knew what I was doing, let alone what I should be doing. I had a rough outline, as Noah did for the Ark, but that was it. I think the Lord sometimes takes us through times when the only choice is simply, as Elizabeth Elliot said, to "Do the next thing." Sometimes that is how it has to be.
God was patient with us just as He was longsuffering with Noah (1 Peter 3:20). Sometimes we are slow to get the idea, gather the tools, or execute the plan. God has eternity, and loves to give time to us. His patience was sometimes the energizer for me—I would realize how long we had been working at His will and begin to think of how many good things ought to be done by now. I guess you could say that His patient waiting would make me impatient to do better.
So we saw the evil around us, "heard" God speaking about a better way, jumped in and began to build according to His will. We continued waiting upon Him, made adjustments when necessary, and entered into the home school experience with full harmony. I was so busy trying to hear God, and all the things that home schooling requires, that I was not at all prepared for what followed.
People began to feel condemned by my actions.
I was so puzzled. Making people feel bad was not my intention. I could not believe some of the hotly spoken comments that my actions elicited. In fact, I was so naive about what I was doing, and its effect upon my friends, family, and neighbors, that at first I had thought everyone would follow my good lead and begin home schooling their children, too. Silly me! Of course I soon gave up that idea, but for the longest time (for the last 20 years) I have never been able to figure out why people always seem to take my quiet, private actions so very personally and painfully.
