Noah found grace
Wee just saw a
world so rife with evil the people only imagined evil all day long. God was so
disgusted by that sin, He planned to destroy the world of sin which had grown
since Adam and Eve chose to do evil.
Noah surely
faced temptation to follow that evil. B ut, he chose to do good. In fact,
he seems to have done so quite actively, since we read he found grace. Some,
God simply chooses, knowing what they'll do, like he tells Jeremiah that before
he was born God appointed him to be a prophet. He raises up whomever He
chooses, not on anything but His unending love, since none of us is worthy of
His love and favor.
That grace is a
free gift - one famous acrostic defines it as God's riches at Christ's expense.
It is unmerited favor, neither earned nor deserved. This is why the Bible
doesn't say he earned grace. That, by definition, is impossible. If it is
by grace it is no.more works. It can't be grace and works, because once you
start working for something it isn't free.
Noah, however,
found grace. It was discovered through his following God very closely. Noah had
certainly heard of how his great-grandfather Enoch had walked with God so
closely that God took him. He translated Enoch from life on this world to life
in Heaven so he did not see death. This is a picture of the rapture as told
about in 1st Corinthians 15 verses 51 to 53 and 1st Thessalonians 4 vs 13 thru
18.
Notice, too, it was in the eyes of God. God is always watching for us to turn to Him, waiting for us to call out to Him, admitting our need for Him. He is willing that none perish but that all would come to repentance.(2 Peter 3:9) We see often that His mercies are new every morning.
In all that
wickedness, God kept waiting. Noah was willing where nobody else was, to
follow the Lord with all his heart, soul, mind, and strength. How vital that he
had examples like Enoch, Methuselah, and God Himself in His goodness yet also
God's insistence on remaining separate from sin.
It's vital for
everyone in this day and age as well to have good Christian role models who
will show how to live Godly lives. Yet, if there are none we can turn to the
Bible and Jesus Himself to see how we can be the examples of Jesus Christ God
wants us to be. A world of people are looking for answers. We have them in
God's Word, but often they need to see we are real first
