I am taking the fourth and fifth examples together. There is, in a sense, a place where faith seems to be crazy.
God told Noah to get ready for lots of water. So, Noah spent 100 years building a really big boat, hundreds of miles from the ocean. God told Abraham to move approximately 2000 miles from his family, and his support system, to create something new that would turn the world upside down ... in a good way. And both of them acted in faith, agreeing with what God said.
Each man responded to a word given to them. They responded in ways, to those around them, may have seemed foolish. But it was not foolish to them, because they knew, and trusted, the one who spoke to them.
I wonder how many others have responded similarly. Were people scratching their heads when Charles Finney left his law practice, and became an intolerant preacher? What did people think when William Carey got on the boat, to go to India? Or when Hudson Taylor, and his family, got on the boat to go to China?
Indeed, everyone, who responds to the gospel, turns away from their past, and life as usual, to embrace something new, different, and unknown. And this change should provide improvement in the character of the person. And, as a result, it should provide an improvement of society, and culture. Especially, if these changed individuals band together into a changed community.
Of course, it depends on how they embrace, and practice, the change.
