†. Gen 6:8 . . But Noah found favor with The Lord.
The word for "favor" is from chen (khane) and means: graciousness.
Translators sometimes render chen as grace. It can be either grace or favor;
but the important thing is that The Lord didn't find chen with Noah. No, just
the opposite-- Noah found chen with The Lord.
Webster's defines "graciousness" as merciful, compassionate, kind,
courteous, cordial, affable, genial, and sociable. Those are all good qualities,
and the very things you would expect to see in someone you loved and
trusted-- like your spouse or a very close friend.
FAQ : was Noah exempt from Gen 6:5's indictment?
Answer : Yes
FAQ : how so?
Answer : Noah walked with God.
†. Gen 6:9 . .This is the line of Noah.-- Noah was a righteous man;
he was blameless in his era; Noah walked with God.
No doubt Noah had plenty of sinful thoughts in his head right along with
everybody else before the Flood, and no doubt those thoughts contributed
their fair share towards the sadness God felt because of man's wickedness;
but nevertheless; Noah was blameless-- and that's because unlike Cain who
walked away from God, Noah walked with God; in other words: Noah let
himself be illuminated by the light instead of shielding himself from the light.
†. John 3:19-20 . .This is the condemnation: that the light has come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the
light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
People walking in the light don't object to having their evil thoughts exposed
because they can get them expunged in a matter of seconds.
†. Ps 32:5-6 . . I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide
them. I said to myself "I will confess my rebellion to The Lord" and you
forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Therefore, let all the godly confess their
rebellion to you while there is time, that they may not drown in the
floodwaters of judgment.
†. 1John 1:8-10 . . If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just; and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
And that's the secret to fellowship with the Bible's God.
†. 1John 1:6-7 . . If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ
his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Did Noah know about Christ all the way back then? He sure did.
†. 1Pet 1:10-11 . . Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the
grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,
trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in
them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories
that would follow.
The other thing said of Noah was that he was righteous. The Hebrew word is
tsaddiyq (tsad-deek') which means: just.
Webster's provides several definitions of "just", but perhaps the ones best
suited for our purpose are: conscientious, honest, honorable, right,
scrupulous, true, dependable, reliable, tried, trustworthy, dispassionate,
equal, equitable, impartial, nondiscriminatory, objective, unbiased,
uncolored, and unprejudiced. So then, Noah was not only religious to his
fingertips; but he was a pretty decent guy to boot.
The most incredible thing about Noah was his degree of piety in a world
gone mad with evil. He must have endured an enormous amount of
opposition, ridicule, criticism, and thoughtless remarks. Yet he persisted and
didn't cave in to the thinking of his neighbors and friends; nor of his brothers
and sisters, nor of his nieces and nephews, nor of any of the rest of his kin.
Only his wife, and his three sons and their wives responded to Noah's
preaching; yet he continued to warn people about the Flood right up to the
end.
To the majority of modern intellectuals, Noah is merely a mythical character,
and to them his ark and its animals are nothing but a story-book menagerie
for children's coloring books. To them, it is much too naïve to give any
serious consideration to Noah being an historical person. However, later
writers of the Bible felt differently. God lists Noah among three of the most
righteous men in history.
†. Ezk 14:13-14 . . Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent
unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of
bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these
three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only
themselves by their righteousness: testifies Yhvh God.
Noah was actually a nobody in his day; eclipsed by the Nephilim, those
mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. They got all the press, the
publicity, and the notoriety while God's man went marginalized and largely
ignored.
†. Gen 6:10 . . Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Were those the only kids Noah had? And no daughters? I seriously doubt it.
Noah was six hundred when the flood began. It is unlikely that a healthy,
hard working, robust man would live that long without engendering a much
larger family than three; especially in those days without birth control. But
these three boys are the only ones that count now because they're going on
the ark with their dad.
†. Gen 6:11a . .The earth became corrupt before God;
The word for "corrupt" is shachath (shaw-khath') which means: to decay;
viz: to become decadent.
The perspective "before God" indicates the Almighty's own personal
estimation. No doubt the antediluvians disagreed with God's evaluation of
their spiritual condition just like people today disagree with His evaluation of
their condition. And again, this disparity of evaluations has its roots all the
way back in the garden when humans became their own gods; discerning
right and wrong from within a humanistic system of values instead of their
creator's.
Cont.
/
The word for "favor" is from chen (khane) and means: graciousness.
Translators sometimes render chen as grace. It can be either grace or favor;
but the important thing is that The Lord didn't find chen with Noah. No, just
the opposite-- Noah found chen with The Lord.
Webster's defines "graciousness" as merciful, compassionate, kind,
courteous, cordial, affable, genial, and sociable. Those are all good qualities,
and the very things you would expect to see in someone you loved and
trusted-- like your spouse or a very close friend.
FAQ : was Noah exempt from Gen 6:5's indictment?
Answer : Yes
FAQ : how so?
Answer : Noah walked with God.
†. Gen 6:9 . .This is the line of Noah.-- Noah was a righteous man;
he was blameless in his era; Noah walked with God.
No doubt Noah had plenty of sinful thoughts in his head right along with
everybody else before the Flood, and no doubt those thoughts contributed
their fair share towards the sadness God felt because of man's wickedness;
but nevertheless; Noah was blameless-- and that's because unlike Cain who
walked away from God, Noah walked with God; in other words: Noah let
himself be illuminated by the light instead of shielding himself from the light.
†. John 3:19-20 . .This is the condemnation: that the light has come into the
world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were
evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the
light, lest his deeds should be exposed.
People walking in the light don't object to having their evil thoughts exposed
because they can get them expunged in a matter of seconds.
†. Ps 32:5-6 . . I confessed all my sins to you and stopped trying to hide
them. I said to myself "I will confess my rebellion to The Lord" and you
forgave me! All my guilt is gone. Therefore, let all the godly confess their
rebellion to you while there is time, that they may not drown in the
floodwaters of judgment.
†. 1John 1:8-10 . . If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just; and will
forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
And that's the secret to fellowship with the Bible's God.
†. 1John 1:6-7 . . If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in
darkness, we lie, and do not the truth. But if we walk in the light, as He is in
the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ
his Son cleanseth us from all sin.
Did Noah know about Christ all the way back then? He sure did.
†. 1Pet 1:10-11 . . Concerning this salvation, the prophets, who spoke of the
grace that was to come to you, searched intently and with the greatest care,
trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in
them was pointing when he predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories
that would follow.
The other thing said of Noah was that he was righteous. The Hebrew word is
tsaddiyq (tsad-deek') which means: just.
Webster's provides several definitions of "just", but perhaps the ones best
suited for our purpose are: conscientious, honest, honorable, right,
scrupulous, true, dependable, reliable, tried, trustworthy, dispassionate,
equal, equitable, impartial, nondiscriminatory, objective, unbiased,
uncolored, and unprejudiced. So then, Noah was not only religious to his
fingertips; but he was a pretty decent guy to boot.
The most incredible thing about Noah was his degree of piety in a world
gone mad with evil. He must have endured an enormous amount of
opposition, ridicule, criticism, and thoughtless remarks. Yet he persisted and
didn't cave in to the thinking of his neighbors and friends; nor of his brothers
and sisters, nor of his nieces and nephews, nor of any of the rest of his kin.
Only his wife, and his three sons and their wives responded to Noah's
preaching; yet he continued to warn people about the Flood right up to the
end.
To the majority of modern intellectuals, Noah is merely a mythical character,
and to them his ark and its animals are nothing but a story-book menagerie
for children's coloring books. To them, it is much too naïve to give any
serious consideration to Noah being an historical person. However, later
writers of the Bible felt differently. God lists Noah among three of the most
righteous men in history.
†. Ezk 14:13-14 . . Son of man, when a land sins against Me by persistent
unfaithfulness, I will stretch out My hand against it; I will cut off its supply of
bread, send famine on it, and cut off man and beast from it. Even if these
three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver only
themselves by their righteousness: testifies Yhvh God.
Noah was actually a nobody in his day; eclipsed by the Nephilim, those
mighty men who were of old, the men of renown. They got all the press, the
publicity, and the notoriety while God's man went marginalized and largely
ignored.
†. Gen 6:10 . . Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
Were those the only kids Noah had? And no daughters? I seriously doubt it.
Noah was six hundred when the flood began. It is unlikely that a healthy,
hard working, robust man would live that long without engendering a much
larger family than three; especially in those days without birth control. But
these three boys are the only ones that count now because they're going on
the ark with their dad.
†. Gen 6:11a . .The earth became corrupt before God;
The word for "corrupt" is shachath (shaw-khath') which means: to decay;
viz: to become decadent.
The perspective "before God" indicates the Almighty's own personal
estimation. No doubt the antediluvians disagreed with God's evaluation of
their spiritual condition just like people today disagree with His evaluation of
their condition. And again, this disparity of evaluations has its roots all the
way back in the garden when humans became their own gods; discerning
right and wrong from within a humanistic system of values instead of their
creator's.
Cont.
/
