Finding favor
You’ve probably heard about a guy in the Bible named Noah, but have you ever thought about what it would be like to be Noah?
After the LORD created man, many years passed and the population of the earth grew. As time passed, it became apparent that the people were not walking with God. In fact, they had grown so far away from their Creator that the LORD became sorry that He had even made them, the Bible says.
You’ve probably heard about a guy in the Bible named Noah, but have you ever thought about what it would be like to be Noah?
After the LORD created man, many years passed and the population of the earth grew. As time passed, it became apparent that the people were not walking with God. In fact, they had grown so far away from their Creator that the LORD became sorry that He had even made them, the Bible says.
“Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.” (Genesis 6:5-6)
The whole world had turned to sin and disobedience, and God was very angry about this. He decided to destroy all of the evil in the world He had created.
But there was one man who had found favor in the eyes of God. This man was Noah.
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD,” Genesis 6:8 says.
When describing Noah, the Bible says, “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9)
We don’t know too much about Noah, the man. We don’t know what his job was or where he lived exactly. There’s not a lengthy description about how Noah went to church every Sunday and read His Bible every day and never stole anything or told a lie. He simply walked with God, the Bible says.
Walking with God wasn’t a very popular thing to do at the time (or now, right?), but it was his salvation. Noah was the only one who was doing this. Everyone else was caught up in their own lives, following their own desires and forgetting about God. The Bible uses pretty strong words to describe what was going on: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11). The word “evil” is used to describe the people.
God was so angry about the evilness of the people that he decided he was going to destroy them all – all except for one person. God wanted to save Noah and his family from destruction because of Noah’s obedience and devotion to the Lord.
Standing alone
Imagine if you were the only person doing what is right. Everyone around you is serving their own flesh, doing what they want and not caring about God’s commandments.
There are people all around you who are making poor choices and doing things that God is not pleased with. It’s natural to be pulled into the sin that is around you. It’s easy to be swayed by the people around you and it’s hard – no, it’s impossible to stand for what is right unless you are walking with God as Noah was when evil was all around him.
Holiness means to be sacred and set apart from the profane (unholy) and to be for God. Maybe you think holiness is best left to pastors and priests who live their lives for God. But God calls us unto holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7 and 1 Peter 1:15). He wants us to be holy in all our ways.
We can’t be just a little bit holy. Holiness is not just for Sundays or summer camp. Holiness is all or nothing. And it’s only possible with God’s help.
When we are holy, we can obey God’s voice – even when it’s difficult, illogical or unreasonable.
When God told Noah that he was going to destroy the evil people, he asked Noah to build an ark. Keep in mind that this was a ridiculous thing to do. No one could fathom what was coming (the torrential rains and the flood of destruction) and so they mocked Noah as he obeyed God’s commandments. But that didn’t keep Noah from believing and obeying God.
In Genesis 6, you can read how incredibly specific God was with Noah, giving him the exact dimensions of the wooden ship, telling him what kind of wood to use, where to place windows and doors, how to fill it with animals and food to sustain them, etc.
Here’s the beautiful thing … Noah did it all. He followed God’s directions completely.
“Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22).
And when the rains came and the earth was flooded, Noah and his family were saved. Everything that had the breath of life was destroyed from the earth. God wasn’t playing around. He did what He said He would do.
Wholly holy
Most of us know how the story of Noah ended. After 40 days and 40 nights of torrential rains, the earth was flooded and the evil was destroyed. After 150 days, the waters started to recede and the ark landed at Mount Ararat. God put a rainbow in the sky as a sign of His promise to never flood the whole earth again.
There are a lot of lessons for us in this Genesis story, and we’ll tackle many of them during B.I.B.L.E. Camp this year. But for now, let’s think about how Noah stood up for what is right when everyone around him was doing evil and laughing at him for doing good. Maybe this sounds familiar to you.
God did an amazing thing in Noah’s life. He is The One who caused Noah to obey Him. He is The One who gave Noah a heart to serve Him. And He is the One who does the same thing for us.
Not much has changed in the world today from how it was in the days of Noah. There is still evil all around us. And, despite that, God is still calling us to be holy. Wholly holy.
The whole world had turned to sin and disobedience, and God was very angry about this. He decided to destroy all of the evil in the world He had created.
But there was one man who had found favor in the eyes of God. This man was Noah.
“But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD,” Genesis 6:8 says.
When describing Noah, the Bible says, “Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God.” (Genesis 6:9)
We don’t know too much about Noah, the man. We don’t know what his job was or where he lived exactly. There’s not a lengthy description about how Noah went to church every Sunday and read His Bible every day and never stole anything or told a lie. He simply walked with God, the Bible says.
Walking with God wasn’t a very popular thing to do at the time (or now, right?), but it was his salvation. Noah was the only one who was doing this. Everyone else was caught up in their own lives, following their own desires and forgetting about God. The Bible uses pretty strong words to describe what was going on: “The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11). The word “evil” is used to describe the people.
God was so angry about the evilness of the people that he decided he was going to destroy them all – all except for one person. God wanted to save Noah and his family from destruction because of Noah’s obedience and devotion to the Lord.
Standing alone
Imagine if you were the only person doing what is right. Everyone around you is serving their own flesh, doing what they want and not caring about God’s commandments.
There are people all around you who are making poor choices and doing things that God is not pleased with. It’s natural to be pulled into the sin that is around you. It’s easy to be swayed by the people around you and it’s hard – no, it’s impossible to stand for what is right unless you are walking with God as Noah was when evil was all around him.
Holiness means to be sacred and set apart from the profane (unholy) and to be for God. Maybe you think holiness is best left to pastors and priests who live their lives for God. But God calls us unto holiness (1 Thessalonians 4:7 and 1 Peter 1:15). He wants us to be holy in all our ways.
We can’t be just a little bit holy. Holiness is not just for Sundays or summer camp. Holiness is all or nothing. And it’s only possible with God’s help.
When we are holy, we can obey God’s voice – even when it’s difficult, illogical or unreasonable.
When God told Noah that he was going to destroy the evil people, he asked Noah to build an ark. Keep in mind that this was a ridiculous thing to do. No one could fathom what was coming (the torrential rains and the flood of destruction) and so they mocked Noah as he obeyed God’s commandments. But that didn’t keep Noah from believing and obeying God.
In Genesis 6, you can read how incredibly specific God was with Noah, giving him the exact dimensions of the wooden ship, telling him what kind of wood to use, where to place windows and doors, how to fill it with animals and food to sustain them, etc.
Here’s the beautiful thing … Noah did it all. He followed God’s directions completely.
“Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:22).
And when the rains came and the earth was flooded, Noah and his family were saved. Everything that had the breath of life was destroyed from the earth. God wasn’t playing around. He did what He said He would do.
Wholly holy
Most of us know how the story of Noah ended. After 40 days and 40 nights of torrential rains, the earth was flooded and the evil was destroyed. After 150 days, the waters started to recede and the ark landed at Mount Ararat. God put a rainbow in the sky as a sign of His promise to never flood the whole earth again.
There are a lot of lessons for us in this Genesis story, and we’ll tackle many of them during B.I.B.L.E. Camp this year. But for now, let’s think about how Noah stood up for what is right when everyone around him was doing evil and laughing at him for doing good. Maybe this sounds familiar to you.
God did an amazing thing in Noah’s life. He is The One who caused Noah to obey Him. He is The One who gave Noah a heart to serve Him. And He is the One who does the same thing for us.
Not much has changed in the world today from how it was in the days of Noah. There is still evil all around us. And, despite that, God is still calling us to be holy. Wholly holy.
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