Great Commission Churches

March 2008

Dear Sisters,

How would you feel if no one in your church knew your name? What if everyone just addressed you by your husband's name, with "Mrs." tacked on the front? For example, our author this month would be called "Mrs. Berk." Barbara Wilson presents us a fascinating look at Noah's wife, a woman with no name. If we think we've been persevering in supporting our husbands through tough times, think of Noah's wife enduring for over 100 years of ark-building! She must have been so humble, teachable, and full of faith. Let's imitate Mrs. Noah's willingness to "stand beside her husband, trusting God's plan, confident in a hopeful future."

United with you,
Sandy Hopler

Mrs. Noah

by Barbara Wilson, by Grace Community Church, North Carolina

Dear Pastors' Wives,

Whenever you are introducing yourself, do you ever feel like you have to qualify who you are? Perhaps you are your husband's wife, or your children's mother. For some strange reason I have this thinking that people won't remember who I am, so at church I always introduce myself to others as Berk's wife, or Luke's mom, or one of my other boys' mom. Why can't I just let myself be me? I'm afraid if I call one of you on the phone and introduce myself as Barbara Wilson you will go, "Who?" I hope that's not true, but sometimes we can get lost in who we are and qualify ourselves according to someone else's accomplishments.

That's why I have been so encouraged lately by Mrs. Noah. We don't even know her name, but of all the women in the Bible she was certainly lost in her husband's accomplishments. Think about it. She was one of eight people rescued by her husband from the worst natural disaster in the world. She survived so much before and after the flood that she's worth pondering.

I'm amazed at how strong for God, and her husband, she stood in the midst of a wicked and perverse generation. Genesis 6 describes the culture at that time as one where the "inclinations of everyone's heart was only evil all the time." Can you imagine having to always be on guard because you never know who is out to harm you? Her culture was violent and void of any room for God. Everyone was out for themselves. No one thought of her and what she needed, except for her family.

On top of that, Mrs. Noah was married to a man who was one of a kind. He "was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God." Don't think Mrs. Noah walked through the marketplace and didn't get laughed at by the heathen women who made fun of her "righteous" husband, building a ridiculous boat. And she didn't have to endure this for only a short time. It took over 100 years to build this boat. It's not easy for me when people criticize Berk for a sermon he preached or a decision he made concerning the saints. But that passes and things get back to normal. Mrs. Noah had to endure sneers and smirks for over 100 years! Besides that, in those 100 years, Noah didn't lead one person to the Lord. His conversion rate was zero. He had no credentials to put on his resume, other than building an enormous boat. Mrs. Noah didn't have a small group or a close friend to run to when she came home from the marketplace, having been laughed at by other women in town. Perhaps she ran to her daughters-in-law, but she certainly didn't have a peer that she could confide in. She didn't even have the Bible to open and get encouragement from God.

Yet, I wonder if Mrs. Noah didn't get out there and wield a hammer right next to her husband. If she didn't do that, she certainly had a good meal waiting for him when he came home after a hard day's work. I don't think he could have gone on if he was met with constant criticism everyday for building something so absurd. I bet she kept his spirits high. She encouraged him to get back out the next day and keep going. She stood by him. She supported him. She administered encouragement to a man who was in the trenches day after day. She set an example for her children of strong support for her husband. She rallied behind God's plan for all of them so that in the end, she had three sons and three daughters-in-law that accompanied Noah and her on board the ark.

Mrs. Noah had no idea what the future held. But she was willing to stand beside her husband, trust God's plan, and live it with him. After the flood, when the waters subsided, she found herself having to start all over in her old age (so much for a nice retirement), but she did start all over and why not? She learned an aspect of God that few others in her previous world had grasped. God held her safety and her future in His hands. He had already rescued her from destruction in the flood. Obviously, God still had work for her to do. So, she could confidently exit the ark knowing that her God was with her, her husband was righteous, and her future was hopeful. Isn't that what the rainbow helped her to see?

When I get to Heaven, I can't wait to find Mrs. Noah and find out her real name. I can't imagine going through what she had to endure. To me, she kept a steady course. She saw her job as a wife and mother as paramount in keeping her family looking to God amongst people who had no heart for God at all. What a testimony of her faith and trust in a God she couldn't read about, or sit in a Bible study and talk about, but one she experienced first hand in the midst of a wicked generation.

I hope you think about Mrs. Noah, too, when things get hard. She endured a lot for a much longer time than we will ever have to endure. But she trusted God. She supported her husband. And she was a model to her children of someone who held on to the goodness of God.