Abraham is still held in high esteem by Jews and Gentiles alike. His name seems synonymous with respect and leadership. At least one of the reasons Abraham still enjoys this position of respect is because Abraham followed through on his commitments. Genesis 12-22

When defining leadership, many people have used the very succinct definition by J. Oswald Sanders where he simply states “Leadership is influence.” Every leader has a sphere of influence, people to whom their influence is direct and an extended sphere of influence where their influence is transferred through the next generation. According to Genesis 6:9 God chose Noah to be an influencer of an entire world starting over because “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time and he walked with God.” Read Genesis 6-11.

Just a glimpse at Noah’s sphere of influence comes when we understand a few facts about Noah’s life.

God delegated responsibility for a task and the authority to complete the task to man. Read Genesis 1:26-28 and 2:18-20.

When God asked man to do a job, He gave him all the authority needed to complete the assignment. Man was not completely tested nor trained when God assigned him dominion over His creation. God allowed man to make decisions that He did not overrule. Could God have done it better? Yes! Was God still in charge even though man was making some independent decisions? Yes! Was there a chance that man would somehow fumble the assignment? Yes, in fact that is exactly what happened.