Noah: Following God's Plan
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.” – Genesis 6:8
Shortly after God created mankind on the earth, mankind corrupted it. God was grieved. We can sense the passion of the Lord, because He had desired so much from humanity, but sadly, He was overwhelmingly disappointed and “sorry that He had made man on the earth” (Gen. 6:6). It pained God to see what man had become. Today, God is grieved by the sin that exists in the world, and even more specifically, my sin and your sin.
But Noah gives us hope. Even in a wicked world, there was Noah, who did not follow the crowd. In all the earth, there were only eight souls who were pleasing to God. Noah gives us hope that we, too, can live a Godly life in a wicked world. Despite the conditions of Noah’s day, he was a just and blameless man—and God was aware of Noah’s goodness. Noah found favor in God’s sight, which resulted in him and his family being saved from the flood. Likewise, God is aware of our goodness, and we will be saved come the Day of Judgment if we maintain our faithfulness.
Noah “did according to all that the Lord commanded him” (Gen. 6:22, 7:5). Where did the obedience of Noah come from? Faith (Heb. 11:7). Noah’s faith moved him to obey God: God called upon Noah to exercise a great amount of faith. It had never even rained before, yet God promised that a flood would destroy every living thing upon the earth. Noah believed God in spite of this, was moved with godly fear, heeded the warnings and obeyed God’s instruction. As a “preacher of righteousness,” Noah’s faith in God caused him to undertake the task of building an ark in preparation for rain—simply because God told him to.
So why do we need to find grace in the eyes of the Lord? It’s not because we face the threat of a worldwide flood. God promised He would never again destroy the world in such a way (Gen. 9:8-17). It’s because we face the promise of the end of the world. Peter reminds us in II Peter 3 that just as the world was once destroyed by water, so it shall be destroyed by fire when Jesus returns. With this promise in mind, Peter calls us to “be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless” (II Pet. 3:14). Just as Noah “found grace in the eyes of the Lord,” we need to be “found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless.”
We have a choice. God lets us choose which path to take. In Noah’s day, the world had a choice; the majority made the wrong choice. We don’t have to go along with the majority. Like Noah, we can be faithful to God in an ungodly world. God does not want anyone to perish, but for all to come to repentance (II Pet. 3:9). So when we turn from sin and turn faithfully to God, what do we find? “Grace in the eyes of the Lord.”
— Steven Matthews
