Good morning. On this fine Thursday morning our thought for day, in keeping with my practice of considering a Bible character on Thursdays, will be one of the most ancient of all Bible characters, Noah.
Noah was the son of Lamech, and the tenth generation from Adam and Adam’s son Seth. Lamech seemed to recognize that Noah was destined for a greater purpose when at his birth we read: He named him Noah and said, “He will comfort us in the labor and painful toil of our hands caused by the ground the Lord has cursed.” In the Hebrew language the word Noah means “rest.” Lamech was the son of Methuselah, the longest lived person recorded, having lived 969 years. Some suggest that Methuselah and Lamech were still living at the time of the flood, but the math would indicate that they were not.
As Noah lived his life there were two especially noteworthy things happening. One, people were living for a very long time. I would attribute this to the lack at that early stage of many of the things that cause ill health and death, such as viruses and other diseases. In Genesis 6:3 we read Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with mankind forever, for they are corrupt ; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” This is usually taken to mean that God decided at that time to limit the longevity of mankind, but that is not necessarily what is being said. Given the words used and the context of this statement it seems more likely that God was indicating the time frame of 120 years until the flood would remove mankind due to their spiritual corruption, with the exception of Noah and his immediate family. It is actually in Genesis 11:10-26, where we read of the generations of Noah, that we see each generation beginning to live for a shorter span of time.
The other very noteworthy thing that was true at the time of Noah before the flood was the nearly absolute corruption of mankind through sin. God says in Genesis 6:5-6 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled.
It was in the midst of this corruption of the flesh by sin that God recognizes Noah in Genesis 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Is this verse indicating that Noah was sinless or perfect? Of course not! Only that he was a person who strived for righteousness and feared God. God saw in the faithfulness of this one man a hope for the future of man the created being, born of flesh and spirit.
God commands Noah to build the ark, and tells him that his wife, his sons, and their wives will join him on the ark. This is said in the context of God’s saying in Genesis 6:3 that the flood will come in 120 years, and we know from Genesis 5:32 that the sons of Noah who would join him on the ark were not born until after Noah was 500 years old. We also learn in Genesis 7:11 that the flood occurs when Noah is 600 years old. So, subtracting 120 years from 600 we get 480. This means that when God is commanding Noah to build the ark, and that his sons and their wives would be able to join him on the ark, it was at least 20 years before they had been born! Consider for a moment all that Noah is accepting from God purely as a matter of faith. But in addition to his faith, we also read this from Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as yet unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the world and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith. It is by faith that Noah acts, but it is also due to a “reverent fear”.
Noah begins work on the ark and it takes him about 120 years to finish it. During that time his sons are born, grow up, and are married. God has told Noah that He will end human life, other than Noah and his family, by bringing rains that will flood the earth. We haven’t read in scripture of rain before this time. We read in Genesis 2 that God provided the moisture needed for life to flourish through a heavy mist. That doesn’t mean that rain didn’t exist by the time of Noah, only that we don’t read about it. But imagine the faith that it takes to build the ark, knowing that it will be a job that goes on for over 100 years, if the rain God speaks of has not yet been seen.
As I mentioned, Noah’s grandfather was Methuselah, who lived to be 969, an all time record. But did you know that Noah lived almost as long? We are told in Genesis 9:28 that Noah lived to be 950 years old.
The record of Noah and the flood is found in Genesis chapters 5-9. There is a lot more information than what I can share for today’s thought. But please consider the faith of Noah, a faith that is supported by his healthy fear of the Lord. It is a faith that sustains him through what had to be an incredibly difficult time, but he was faithful, as was the Lord God who preserved and supported him.
God bless your day!
Vern