So the Lord said, “I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them.” But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
Genesis 6:7-10
These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
There are moments in our study of Scripture that we must recognize as an intentional pause that sets the stage for what is about to take place. Another thing that we should also remember when it comes to the study of Scripture is that chapters, verses, and even divisions within the chapters called pericopes (pronounced “per-i-co-pees”) are not inspired Scripture as they all came along thousands of years later after the initial writing of the Old Testament as a means of helping readers to locate their place in Scripture during corporate worship, as personal Bibles began to take precedence with the invention of the Gutenberg printing press in 1450.
While some manuscripts have been discovered with chapters and titles as early as the 9th century AD, the modern systematic chapter and verse divisions were not developed until the mid-16th century with the publication of the first English Bible to use the system devised by Archbishop Stephen Langton, developed 200 years prior. The system itself is not perfect as it often divides sections of Scripture in awkward places and occasionally interrupts the narrative flow.
Additionally, visually we have the tendency to view chapters and pericopes as complete thoughts, isolated by these artificial divisions, which can often impact our interpretation of a particular passage of Scripture and lead us to easily miss the context of certain passages. The sixth chapter of Genesis contains one such place where this division can cause some interpretive problems as verse 9 begins the toledot of Noah and transitions out of the toledot of Adam, as most translations of Scripture start here with a new pericope, segregating it from verses 5-8, that provide the interpretive framework for verse 9.
Chapter 6 begins with a summary of the world state as a result of mankind’s continued rebellion against the sovereign rule of our Creator God, culminating with the observations that “the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (v6) As a result, God chooses to bring His righteous judgement to bear upon the earth, but not without demonstrating His own grace and faithfulness to His word to Adam and Eve to preserve their line of descendants. In God’s infinite and sovereign grace and mercy, onto the stage steps the one man that has found favor in the eyes of God in the midst of this darkness – Noah.
But what is it about Noah that God finds so appealing and worth using as an instrument of His salvation for the human race? What is it about Noah that the omnipotent God of Creation finds worthy of redemption? Genesis 6:9 begins our next toledot, that is in effect a shift from the family line of Adam, to the family line that would eventually repopulate the earth following the Great Flood to come. And it is really easy to miss this part of the story as we rush to transition out of a long litany of “he lived and he died” and hurry to the climatic events of the Flood. We are quick to want to analyze all of the fine physical details, the size of the Ark, the efficacy of a global flood, the geologic evidence presented within the text to prove the historical reality (or disprove depending on your faith or lack thereof). Yet in our rush to argumentation, we often skip over a point in the passage that is intended to be a pause to reflect upon the state of the world past to prepare for the events to come.
“These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God. And Noah had three sons – Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” (Genesis 6:9,10) Two short sentences that interrupt the narrative flow and serve as a contrast for the past. A light of hope in the midst of the darkness of the world. Noah found favor in God’s eyes because he was “a righteous man, blameless in his generation.” This is likely a comparative analysis of Noah relative to the world around him as we have already discussed – the world becoming more and more corrupt with each successive generation to the point the kings would arrogantly declare themselves to be “sons of God.” But what makes Noah righteous is not his comparable behavior relative to the rest of the world. It was his continual fellowship with the Almighty Elohim.
The statement “Noah walked with God.” is striking in that it uses a Hebrew perfect reflexive stem that draws attention back to Noah’s continual action that had ceased at some point in the past relative to the reader. By using this form of the verb “to walk”, we can more literally translate the sentence “Noah walked himself with God.” While this translation is a bit wooden and awkward, it does provide a bit of interpretive context by emphasizing the continual, intentional fellowship that Noah had with the Creator. It wasn’t a casual stroll through the desert. It was an intentional seeking after the One that is sovereign, in spite of the pressures of the world around him. It was the willingness to seek the light of the knowledge of God within the darkness that enveloped the world. It was a pursuit with abandon to cling to the only One capable of granting eternal favor by His immeasurable grace and mercy by His sovereign will.
The question that this poses for us today is quite simple. As you look around at the world before you this New Year, are you consumed by the darkness you see or are you pursuing the light that is found only in the continual fellowship with the Almighty God of Creation? When your whole world is falling apart, are intentionally walking with the only One that has the authority to look upon you with His favor? When the Father of all life looks upon you, will the summary of your life read that you are righteous because you lived a life of intentional pursuit of the glory of God despite the circumstances of the world around you?
Or will the summary of your life be one of regret – a life spent in the pursuit of self-righteousness and power and pleasure? Will the summary of your life be one that reads as “every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually”? Will the Father of life look upon you with regret and a grieved heart?
As we enter the new year and a new season, I pray as we reflect on our past year and consider the future you, dear reader, will make it the intention of your heart to fellowship with Him and walk with Him continually. I pray that this is the year that you will see the favor of God upon your life, not so much with physical and material blessings, but with the outpouring of His grace and mercy upon you as you obediently seek His face in spite of the condition of the world around you. As the apostle Paul wrote and promised “For God, who said ‘Light shall shine out of darkness.’ is the One who has shone in our hearts the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ Jesus.” (2 Corinthians 4:6) It is my earnest prayer that His light will shine in your hearts as you grow to know His glory as seen only in the face of the truth of Jesus.
If you’d like to know more about walking in relationship with Jesus, please feel free to reach out to us here. You may also visit https://needhim.org. Happy New Year, everyone.