There are three men mentioned in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, as living before the flood, who are specially cited in order to bring out three great principles of faith, principles as much needed by men today as they ever were.
Abel is the first:
He gives the beginning of life, and the principle of faith as the ground of righteousness, based on the revelation which God had given. He saw that the only way to approach God was by a living sacrifice—by the shedding of blood. Against God he sees he has sinned, and he comes with his confession, and “God had respect unto Abel and to his offering.”
The sacrifice he brings gives him acceptance, and this he has not thought out for himself, but is based on the revelation that God had given of the woman’s seed which should bruise the serpent’s head. Faith taught him that his sacrifice must speak to God of that. The manner of his coming to God is also of importance, since it shows a true spirit, an honest heart, and it meets with God’s approval.
Man had forfeited the life he had with God when he sinned, and since Adam’s fall all men are born in sin and under condemnation—without life as God views it. Abel sees and owns it, and the offering he brings is a type of Christ, the “Lamb of God, that taketh away the sin of the world.” His was a more excellent sacrifice than Cain’s, and God accepts him at once, and declares him righteous also. How important, then, and how beautiful is this faith of Abel’s. It is a living faith today, “By it he being dead yet speaketh.” He is still pointing out to men the only true way of approach to God.
Enoch comes next:
He gives us the principle of the life of faith, in dependence upon God. A life before God and for Him. A life of testimony to God’s goodness and care, as well as to His holy character. A life in which there is constant self-judgment practiced. If Abel shows us the life obtained by faith, Enoch shows us that life now sustained by faith.
In the former it is justification by faith, and in the latter it is the practical life, acceptable to God by faith; and so a good conscience before God and men; a life victorious over sin, in communion with God. He is thus identified with God, and God is identified with him. He is thus delivered from himself and in fellowship with God. God’s things and interests are his object in life. He may be limited in every way, but there are no limitations to God. He needs wisdom, power and grace, and finds them all in God, and not in himself. His faith finds all in God, the inexhaustible one, and God is with him in everything and everywhere. Enoch’s life is thus one of progress and development an “adding to faith, virtue (courage), and to courage, knowledge.” He is pre-eminently a type of the church, which church is to be translated. He was God’s delight, and God takes him to be with Himself.
Noah is the third:
He gives us the principle of faith for the inheritance of God as a future thing, which is not in a scene so defiled as the one in which he lived. He does not lay up, then, treasures here; but for a new scene entirely. By faith he condemns the world. He knows that the present scene is to be visited with God’s judgment, and so his faith lays hold of God for the new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness. The world cannot give him anything, nor take away what he has by faith in God. God’s dwelling-place is not in this present corrupt scene, and neither is the inheritance which Noah looks for.
God may visit this world, as He does in His grace, but it is only as a visitor. So Noah cannot settle down where God is not. By faith he receives warning of the coming judgment, and he believes God and builds the ark. There are no signs to be seen, but faith counts upon God’s Word. The men of that day may have thought him a strange character; but that does not concern him. They were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage—making the most of this present life, and living in independence of God; but faith makes Noah a stranger to all that, and gives him the hope of eternal things.