“But Noah Found Grace…”

"But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God. And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham and Japeth. (Genesis 6:8-10)

Noah, following closely upon Enoch, also "walked with God;" a sign of his being in constant communion (intimate fellowship) with God. Noah's righteousness is discussed in Hebrews 11:7 (right below the righteousness of Enoch):

"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."

2 Peter 2:5 describes Noah as a "preacher of righteousness."

Genesis 6:8 tells us that Noah was a "just man and perfect in his generations;" in other words, even though certain descendants from the line of Seth eventually gave way to wickedness, yet those that were direct ancestors of Noah, including Noah himself, were found to be "perfect." This does not mean they were sinless, only Jesus was that. But it does mean that they were righteous (obedient) before God.

The scripture in Hebrews above describes Noah as being faithful and moved to obedience to God through his fear of God and of the destruction that God says will soon come upon the earth because of wickedness. But I believe it is strictly because of his close fellowship with God that Noah is said to have "found grace in the eyes of the Lord." Grace is unmerited favor, in other words, favor from God that has not been earned. God simply loved Noah and provided His grace towards Noah.

Noah is described as a "preacher of righteousness" by Peter. Being a righteous man, Noah would have done his best to warn his neighbors and other family members of the judgment on the earth that was about to come from God, but it appeared that the wickedness was so great that in the end, only a handful of people were spared judgment.

And the ark itself, which we will see Noah build according to God's instructions, will become a testimony to an unbelieving world of coming judgment. The world did not believe and so the world did not enter into the ark of God's protection; only Noah and his family did. A day may come in the future when that same ark that was carefully constructed with its preservation in mind (Genesis 6:14) might become a testimony for a second time to an unbelieving world of coming (and final) judgment.

Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japeth. Interestingly they are not listed in order of their birth; instead, Shem is given pre-eminence over his brothers by being listed first. If you recall from the third chapter of Luke, Noah and his son Shem are listed in the genealogical record of Mary, the mother of Jesus. We will see that Shem proves himself to be righteous, as does his brother Japeth, but Ham dishonors his father and thus brings upon himself and his descendants a curse of servitude.