By Kathy L McFarland
We now know a little bit more about the environment Noah lived within. It was a mess. The different people, those of the world and those belonging to God, intermingled. They no longer maintained that separation that God had demanded from them; they chose instead to mingle their bloods and create flesh that was impure to both races. The Profane were mixed with holy, natural desires mixed with spiritual hunger, and the LORD God became irrelevant to everyone.
It wasn’t just that mankind was doing a lot of transgressions against the LORD God in an active way. They had the putrid sin flowing through every pore of their body, and they liked it! They liked that feeling of sinful abandonment so much, when they weren’t actively sinning, they were thinking about sinning!
Genesis 6:5
“And GOD saw that the wickedness of man [was] great in the earth, and [that] every imagination of the thoughts of his heart [was] only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5)
It almost seems as if the wicked things in their imagination were even greater than the potential their mortal bodies had to carry out their sins! They were polluted with darkness completely and so engulfed with sin that they were pleasured by their thoughts.
The LORD God regretted ever creating Human Beings. Often times in religious theory, an attempt is made to make the LORD God without the ability to make mistake, regret an action, or correct a wrong; this view suggests that His Perfection must remain untouched, or He cannot be above all gods. Yet, we see in Genesis 6:6, that the LORD God repented of his creation of mankind; both the profane and the once holy.
Genesis 6:6
”And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart.”(Genesis 6:6)
The LORD God suffered GRIEF! He cried. He sobbed. He shuddered. He regretted. He grieved. He mourned. His heart broke. He had wanted His creations to achieve great things. He had planned a perfect world, with a perfect plan, but something had gone horribly wrong. The evolved and the imaged were both corrupted from the mingling with each other and shared their ever increasing sins.
There was no purity in either of them. The whole of created mankind was corrupted as a direct result of the free choice He had given to man; they were free to choose and they chose to mingle with the dirty rather than stay pure, clean and separated to God’s purpose. It broke the LORD God’s heart!
There was only one solution to the utter failure of mankind to embrace the LORD God’s will and ways. He had to destroy His creations. It was not just the evolved creation that had gone bad, but the imaged creation also. The common and the separated, the profane and the once holy were all filled with the same creeping darkness of absolute sin. There was no hope in spiritual restoration, or chance of making good and honest people out of them. They were dead way before they were removed from the earth, by their poor choosing. But the LORD God chose to destroy every living thing of creation from the face of the earth, because He was sorry He had ever tried to create them in the first place.
Genesis 6:7
”And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them.” (Genesis 6:7)
Everyone, that is, except for Noah! While the wickedness of mankind reached proportions that totally engulfed mankind with evil doings against the things of God, Noah remained faithful to Him!
Genesis 6:8
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” (Genesis 6:8)
The LORD God looked at Noah, and favored Him.
The LORD God favored Noah because he was just and perfect and walked with Him. Note those three characteristics of Noah well, because they become a pattern for you to focus upon in these days when wickedness seems to permeate every corner of life.
Genesis 6:9
“These [are] the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man [and] perfect in his generations, [and] Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9)
Noah was just. He was righteous in his conduct in life. He was also righteous in his innermost being. He was virtuous, moral, honest, fair, and great inside and out. Noah was a wonderful man that lived his life fully with the nature of holiness that the LORD God created him to be.
Noah was “perfect in his generations,” which suggests his blood was pure and contained the “created in His Image” blood throughout his lineage. He did not have any blemish upon him. He walked upright, even in the midst of wickedness that surrounded him. He was sincere, healthy and whole. He did not have any brokenness within him.
Noah walked with God. He was one of those created in His image. He was obedient to the LORD God with all things. Noah emulated the things of God that were given him, and he always sought to do His Will and Ways. In fact, it is that characteristic that caused Him to help keep a chance for you and me to live one day. It is also the reason why Noah is mentioned in Hebrews 11:7 as an example of great faith.
Hebrews 11:7
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” (Hebrews 11:7)
Then the LORD God looked upon the results of mankind sins upon the earth and He was horrified. All the flesh of mankind had corrupted His things that He had created, and violence was everywhere.
Genesis 6:11-13
“The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth. And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.” (Genesis 6:11-13)
They lived the way of the cursed earth, and embraced the wickedness of fallen mankind, over the holiness of the righteous LORD God. The LORD God committed to destroying them, save Noah and his family, with the same earth they wickedly embraced.
The LORD God instructed Noah:
Genesis 6:14
“Make thee an ark of gopher wood; rooms shalt thou make in the ark, and shalt pitch it within and without with pitch.” (Genesis 6:14)
In the midst of all of the troubles that mankind had visited upon the earth, and taken within themselves, stood Noah, at odds with the rest of the world. The LORD God instructed him to make a giant ark and gave him implicit instructions to carry out His plan. Noah obeyed. He was uncertain of the future plans of God, but he trusted His Will and Ways. He built the boat.
And that action displayed the greatest of faiths of a man toward his God. He trusted his LORD God, and immediately reacted as one of great faith. More importantly, Noah feared the Judgment of the LORD GOD, a fear long lost to the rest of the wicked mankind. He had full confidence of the power of the LORD God to squish mankind at His will, and He quickly moved to build the ark according to God’s instructions.
Hebrews 11:7
“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” (Hebrews 11:7)
It is that belief that the LORD God has planned for our salvation and righteousness through His covenant, when His wrath comes against mankind. It is Noah’s faith that expresses the belief that God will prolong the days of those that fear Him by moving the faithful to the righteous places He has prepared for their protection and His good works, and will shorten the days of the wicked which do not fear Him. And it is Noah’s preparation that encourages our own, as we have confidence in our Lord Jesus Christ to provide survival instructions to us during these End Times as we watch and prepare; that will be our focus in our next lesson.
