I think most of us would list Abraham, Moses, and David as the top three OT saints.
After all, Abraham was the first patriarch of Israel and OT example of justification by faith alone. God called Abraham, “My friend” (Isa 41:8).
Moses gave up the riches of Egypt to deliver the nation of Israel from slavery in Egypt (Heb 11:24–26). God said of him, “My servant Moses…is faithful in all My house” (Num 12:7).
David was a man after God’s own heart (Acts 13:22), the first in the line of Davidic kings, and he will one day be the Prince in Jesus’ kingdom.
But did you know that God Himself listed three of the holiest men in the OT, and He picked three different men?
In Ezek 14:12–14, God listed Noah, Daniel, and Job.
The word of the LORD came again to me, saying: “Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only themselves by their righteousness,” says the Lord GOD.
Noah, Daniel, and Job.
Why those three?
All three are examples of believers who persevered through amazing opposition and trials.
Noah’s life story is amazing:
- Drawing ridicule and opposition from others, he built an enormous ark that God used to save his family and the animals. It might have taken him the entire 120 years that elapsed after God told him to build it.
- Mankind began anew from his family following the Flood, God’s “reset button.”
- He demonstrated faithfulness to God during one of the darkest times in human history.
Daniel’s life story is equally powerful:
- He was taken from his homeland to a country far away at the age of thirteen. He lived there during the entire seventy years of the Babylonian Captivity and remained faithful to God that whole time.
- In a new culture and language, he excelled in their university and became the number two man in all of Babylon, second only to the king.
- He continued to pray to God when faced with probable execution, and when he was thrown into the lions’ den he prevailed because he relied upon God to deliver Him.
- His book contains some of the Bible’s greatest, most amazing prophecies.
Job’s perseverance in trials is famous:
- The book of Job tells of all the trials Job went through and how he was victorious despite all that the devil threw at him.
- Even his friends tormented him with their mistaken advice, yet he persevered.
- The patience of Job was so well-known that James referred to it in his epistle (Jas 5:11).
There is a principle in Scripture, found in Ezek 14:12–14, that a person or a city or nation will not be destroyed until his or its sins are filled up.
That was true when God sent the worldwide Flood.
That was true when God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah. Not even ten righteous people were found there. But Lot was righteous, and his wife and daughters were spared along with him.
Remember Nineveh under Jonah’s preaching. The sins of Nineveh were full, and the time for judgment had come. But because everyone repented of their wicked ways, God relented (Jonah 3:1–10).
God did not allow Israel to go into the Promised Land for 400 years because the sins of the Canaanites were not yet full.
The message of Ezek 14:12–14 is that Israel was now so sinful that judgment was coming, and not even the presence of three of the greatest believers of all time would spare the nation.
Charlie Dyer in The Bible Knowledge Commentary makes this helpful comment:
God mentioned Noah, Daniel, and Job because of their similar characteristics. Each was a man of righteousness who overcame adversity. Righteous Noah was able to save only his immediate family from judgment (Gen. 6:8–7:1). Daniel was a righteous man in Ezekiel’s day whom God used to save his friends from judgment (Dan. 2:12–24). Job was a righteous man who interceded for his three friends to save them from God’s wrath after his own trials (Job 42:7–9).
Even if these three pillars of righteousness prayed together for mercy in a land under judgment, their praying for others in that case would be of no avail; they could save only themselves. (“Ezekiel,” BKC, p. 1254).
We should follow the example of this great cloud of witnesses. Thinking about their successful lives encourages us to follow their godly examples.
None of us have experienced as many—or as lengthy—trials as Job, Noah, and Daniel did. But just as God gave them the strength to persevere as they looked to Him in faith, He will give us the strength we need to persevere if we continue to look to Him in faith.
Keep grace in focus and you will be an example of perseverance to your friends and loved ones.
