Genesis 6:9 – Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.
When God inspired Moses to write down Noah’s story, the description was threefold.
Noah was … righteous.
The name means just. He was lawful. He followed God’s rules. He offered sacrifices as God required them. While Adam & Eve, Cain, and pretty much everyone else was going “my way,” Noah was going “God’s way.”
And in the rest of the Old Testament, this word describes the person God was pleased with. It is used repeatedly in Psalms and Proverbs to describe a person associated with life (Prov. 10:11), security (Prov. 10:30), and blessing (Prov. 11:28).
Noah was … blameless.
This is the word used to describe an animal which was acceptable for sacrifice. It was whole. It was without blemish. It was perfect.
One of the notes on this word in my Bible says it can me wholehearted. In other words, Noah wasn’t without sin. But in God’s eyes, surrounded by all the people of his time, Noah stood apart, a shining example of what faithfulness looks like.
Noah … walked faithfully with God.
I love the word walk here. It means, Noah went with God. His life flowed with God, like a spiritual current. He wasn’t thrashing around, fighting God’s directions. He let the current carry him forward, toward God and all God had in store.
The concept of walking is a common one in both the Old and New Testaments. Enoch walked with God (Gen. 5:22) and one day, God just took him right along with him to heaven. And we’re reminded to walk worthy (Eph. 4:1), walk in love (Eph. 5:2) and to walk as children of the light (Eph. 5:8) all within a few paragraphs of each other in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians.
But why? Why would God use this word so often? I think because he cares about how we live. Not just what we do, or why we do it, but how we do it. Either flowing along with him, or dredging up “good works” out of our will and efforts. And Noah did the first. Noah walked with God.
So … what?
I guess this is the part where I’m supposed to tell you to be like Noah. That God wants us, expects us, to be righteous and blameless and to walk faithfully with Him.
But I’m not.
It’s not that God doesn’t want these things for us. He does, just like he wanted them for Noah. But we can’t do them. And my pretending that you can try really hard and make these things happen in your life is unfair and, frankly, unbiblical.
Because Noah’s story didn’t start with righteousness, blamelessness and walking. It started with grace.
Noah … found grace.
That’s what it tell us in verse 8: Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
That word favor is grace. And the important part here is that verse 8 comes before verse 9. I know this is pretty basic math, but it’s still important to recognize. Because if we let ourselves get distracted, we will start to think that God gave Noah grace because he was righteous and blameless and walked with him.
But that’s not the order. Noah found grace first. And out of that grace came all the rest.
Noah is not an example of how we can be what God wants and so he blesses and protects us. Noah reminds us that God’s grace is a free gift that provides, not only salvation, but also rightness, wholeness, and easy friendship with God.
Out of grace comes the relationship. Out of grace comes protection and blessing. Because of grace, Noah and his family were chosen.
I don’t have to be Noah and, somehow, earn God’s favor. I am granted God’s favor because of Christ, and he pours out his presence and blessing on me because of grace.
