Noah & Joseph (Men of Courage)

I know that I have been terrible these past two days! My hubby just got back from a weekend business meeting and I decided to invite my MIL to spend the weekend with the kiddos and I so, I've been somewhat preoccupied but, I hope that you can forgive me!

When I was thinking about who I wanted to start with as my biblical man of courage my immediate thoughts went to Noah. Not only because that is my son's name :), but because I think that he is a great example that the Lord provided to us in His word of a man that had true courage!

The Story of Noah can be read in the book of Genesis. I want to begin in Genesis 6:5-8. Here it is made clear that the Lord was so grieved in His heart that He actually says that He was sorry He had made man. So out of all that wickedness and evil, out of all the men whom the Lord wanted to utterly destroy. NOAH, found FAVOR in the Lord's eyes! That is huge considering what happens next. Over the course of, I would venture to say, several years (the Bible is not time specific on the construction of the ark), Noah completes this monumental task that God has given him. I mean think about it for a second. Here he is, Noah, I would assume a simple man. He's married, has 3 boys and they all have wives. I'm sure there were hopes of more little ones to come in the future but all of sudden God, the Almighty maker of heaven and earth calls upon him and says, "You're it! You're the only one that I can find who deserves to be saved from what I'm about to do." God entrusted Noah, with the task of building the ark, taking care of ALL of those animals and essentially re-populating the earth, as well as his children.
Noah, not only built the ark, he obeyed God in everything that He asked of him. He didn't argue and say, "Well, are you sure that you need to take ALL of those animals? I mean, this is going to to be a LOT of work." If that was the case of his character, I firmly believe the Lord would have destroyed him too! Once the water had dried up, Noah and his family built an altar and gave thanks and praise to God for what He had done. As token of thanks and a sign of an everlasting promise. The Lord placed a rainbow in the sky as a reminder to Noah and I believe to Christians as well, that He will never again destroy the earth with a flood.

Now, every time you look at a rainbow you remember the courage of 1 man, the only man at time when the world was NOTHING but evil, a man full of courage and faith was found and the Lord found favor with him, Noah.



Since I'm playing a bit of catch-up, we'll look at just one more character today. He was a boy that was in a big family and had become a favorite of his father and mother. There was obviously something different about him and eventually everyone found out what that difference was.

Joseph was a boy whom the Lord had given dreams. I don't mean dreams of being rich, or dreams of owning his own business. I mean dreams that had meanings. One night after having one of these dreams, he awakened everyone to tell them. Genesis 37:5 After telling them this, his brothers began to hate him even more. In vs. 8, after hearing what the dream was his brothers reply with the following, "Are you actually going to reign over us? Or are you really going to rule over us?" I think most would have a haughty attitude if we were a strapping 20 something year old or even 30 year old for that matter and here we are having our 17 year old brother, who we know is dad's favorite, telling us such things.
Ultimately, that hatred became so strong that the brothers decided to sell Joseph. In doing so, they had to lie and say that an animal had attacked him and killed him so that their father would have an answer for his disappearance.
17 years old and the family whom he loved, the brothers that he admired, in some ways, had turned their backs and sold him as a slave. The thoughts that must have gone through his mind. The questions that he must have had. How could a young boy going through something like that be anything less than courageous to have had the outcome he did?

Joseph faced many obstacles and trials while being a slave in Egypt. He worked for Potiphar as his personal servant. Genesis 39 He was Potiphar's "right-hand-man". But, there was another who had their eyes on Joseph. Potiphar's wife. One day when Potiphar had gone away and left everything in the charge of Joseph, that's when she started at him. Of course remaining faithful to his master and knowing that what she was wanting from him was wrong and displeasing to the Lord, he refused her. Of course she wasn't going to have some Hebrew slave treat her in such a way so, she lied and made terrible accusations against Joseph and that is when he was thrown into prison.
Again, a man who was trying to obey and do the things that he believed in his heart to be right, faced challenge after challenge. But, he never seemed to lose his courage.

Being in prison now, he met two other men who had worked for the Pharoh. Both men had had dreams and, having been given a gift, Joseph was able to interpret those dreams. Genesis 40 One man's end result was death, according to his dream. The other, a second chance at working for Pharoh once more, according to his dream. Both man's dreams came true and when it was time for the chief cupbearer to return to his position, Joseph asked him to remember him, but he did not. 2 full years went by until Pharaoh had a dream. Genesis 41 Once Joseph had been rememberd by the cupbearer he was summoned at once. He then was presented before Pharoh and interpreted the meaning of the dream. Joseph was put as second in command over all of Egypt. Only Pharoh was more powerful than he. In the end the brothers were brought before Joseph unaware that it was their brother whom they were bowing before and at that moment, the dream that had led them to sell their 17 year old brother into slavery so many years before, had finally come true.
Jospeh forgave them and proceeded to move the entire family, his father included, to Egypt where he was. There was no anger, bitterness, resentment etc towards his brothers or even God. Joseph was another biblical example of courage. A man, that despite the awful things he endured, he persevered and in the end the Lord rewarded him GREATLY.


We live in a world where men of valor and courage are few and far between. Instead we see, arrogance, pride, slothfulness, laziness and ultimately a dying masculinity amongst men. What will it take to empower our men, our sons, our husbands to take a stand and answer the call, "WHERE ARE YOU MEN OF COURAGE?"