Scripture
8 But Noah found favor in the Lord’s eyes. 9 This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God. 10 Noah became the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Audio Commentary
Abstract
After a chapter of judgment, Genesis 6:8-10 turns on one sentence: Noah found favor in the Lord’s eyes. The commentary is careful about the order. Noah’s righteousness did not earn God’s favor. God’s favor produced his righteousness. Grace made one man blameless while the world drowned in evil. His life quietly vindicates God’s justice. It proves God weighed each heart on its own before judging the age. Noah was likely hated and persecuted, for his life and preaching condemned his generation. He stood only by grace. God’s favor honored him above the very Nephilim the world admired. That favor outweighs any worldly esteem, and is worth the world’s hatred. The commentary reads Noah as justified by faith in the promised seed — the gospel at work before the incarnation. It also reads him as a picture of sanctification, whose keystone is honesty. His was a perfection not of sinlessness but of sincerity — walking with God, and confessing Him against the crowd.
Brief Observations
- Favor before righteousness — Noah’s righteousness did not earn God’s favor. God’s favor produced his righteousness, while the world fell.
- One righteous man vindicates God — Noah proves it was possible to be righteous amid the evil. God weighed each heart before judging the age.
- Mercy we struggle to imitate — God’s grace was magnified in sparing Noah. We tend to condemn whole categories rather than see individuals.
- Honored above the Nephilim — Noah was likely hated and persecuted, standing only by grace. God’s favor honored him above the Nephilim the world admired.
- Righteousness as grace’s effect — Noah was only human. His righteousness was the effect of God’s grace, never more than the grace working in him.
- Justified by faith before the cross — Noah was justified through faith in the promised seed. It was the eternal gospel at work before the incarnation.
- A picture of sanctification — Godly principles were implanted in him, making him wise and trustworthy. Honesty, the commentary argues, matters more than intellect.
- Perfection as sincerity — Noah’s perfection was not sinlessness but sincerity — telling God the truth always. That is how he walked with God, as Enoch did.
- Faithful against the crowd — What most commends Noah is faithfulness in an evil generation. Strong faith loves God when it is dangerous, not only when it is fashionable.
Full Commentary
This is the passage of scripture which most clearly highlights Noah’s righteousness. God’s favor distinguished Noah from the rest of his generation. God’s grace empowered Noah to be righteous when the rest of the world had fallen into evil. So it’s not that Noah’s righteousness earned him salvation from the flood, it’s merely that God’s favor resulted in Noah being righteous and God loved Noah’s righteousness.
Not that God’s justice needs vindicating, but Noah’s existence largely vindicates God’s justice and displeasure against the rest of the world. Noah proved that it was possible to be favored by God and to be righteous among the prevailing winds of evil. The fact that this resulted in Noah’s being spared reveals that God strictly examined the character of each individual heart before pronouncing it universally corrupt. He allowed the same person-by-person evaluation when Abraham interceded for Sodom and Gomorrah.
Not only was God’s justice vindicated, but His grace was magnified by His mercy on Noah. Human beings aren’t so good at this kind of mercy. If we’re attacked or hurt by a specific animal or even a race of people, it’s not uncommon for us to condemn the entire category rather than seeing each of them as distinct individuals.
It’s likely Noah was hated by his fellow man. He may have been broadly persecuted because his life and his preaching condemned the pervasive evil of his time. He could stand up under the pressure of animosity from the world only because of God’s grace. The favor of God was enough honor and comfort for him even against the slander of man. God’s focus and attention on Noah’s life illuminated him as greater even than the Nephilim. The world honored the Nephilim for their power and wickedness, while God honored Noah for his faith and righteousness. To be chosen in God’s favor exceeds being uplifted by the world, and is worth being persecuted by it.
To find grace in the sight of God should be the pinnacle of human ambition. No matter where we are or what we’re doing in the world, we should make it our aim to be pleasing to God. Being favored by God is a blessing which transcends persecution because it is more durable than persecution. Those who persecute you can only kill the body, God has the final word and the power to kill both body and soul in Hell.
So what do we know about Noah? First we know he was only human. Some consider Noah’s singular righteousness as currying singular favor from God. I think it’s true God loved Noah because of his righteousness, but I would argue Noah’s righteousness was an effect of God’s grace on him. It’s true God loved Noah because Noah loved God, but Noah’s love for God did not originate in himself — rather it was given to him by God’s Holy Spirit. Noah was observably righteous, but Noah’s righteousness never exceeded God’s grace working in him.
Noah was also a just man in that he was justified before God through faith in the promised seed. This was the eternal gospel at work in Noah’s life before the incarnation ever happened. Noah lived in the fear of God, and so he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness which is by faith.
Noah’s life is also a biblical picture of sanctification. Godly principles and a Christlike disposition were implanted in Noah by God. This made Noah wise in the way he treated himself, other people, and God. He practiced reciprocity for others while being mindful of whether his actions honored God. He was trustworthy in conversation because he was an honest man.
The major distinction between conversation which honors God and conversation which dishonors God is honesty. In this way honesty matters more than intellect. Intelligence can be found in honest interlocutors as well as deceptive ones. True wisdom can only be found in God, but intelligence itself appears morally neutral. This is why God sometimes chooses the foolish things of this world for honorable work (foolish meaning uneducated by our standards). While God sometimes uplifts uneducated men, He never uplifts deceptive ones.
Noah also represented what scripture calls Christian perfection. This does not mean Noah was sinless. It’s impossible for a human being to be without sin in this life. Christian perfection is possible because it depends not on sinlessness, rather on the sincerity of your relationship with God. It’s possible to be perfectly sincere in your relationship with God — all you need to do is tell Him the truth all the time. Noah was a man who scripture says walked with God in the same way Enoch did. Of all the attributes required for walking with God, constant faithful honesty is probably the keystone.
Noah lived and acted as one who was always aware of the watchful gaze of God. He didn’t try to hide from Him as Adam did in the Garden of Eden. Noah lived in a continuous state of practiced communion with God. Greater than personal ambition was his desire to conform to the will of God. Noah wanted to please God and be approved by God. With both Enoch and Noah the equation is simple: God looks down with favor upon those who look up with faith.
What made Noah most admirable wasn’t only his faithfulness, but the fact of his faithfulness in the midst of a fully evil generation. The crowd was against him. It’s easy to be vocal about your faith when you’re in the middle of a faith community like a church. It’s much harder when you know the people around you will condemn you for it. It is evidence of strong faith if a person loves God just as much when its fashionable as when it’s dangerous to do so. Noah showed up for God when no one else was willing to, and God counted it to him as righteousness which would redound to his eternal honor. Jesus said this in Matthew 10:32-33:
Matthew 10:32-33 32 Everyone therefore who confesses me before men, I will also confess him before my Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever denies me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.
And that’s the challenge I would leave you with today. Is your faith such that you would confess Jesus in front of any crowd? If it’s not, it could be. You can pray to God that He would give you the faith of Noah and of the other great saints of scripture. His Spirit will lead you down a path of sanctification, and that path ends with God.