Gen. 6:18-19

God establishes His covenant with Noah here. Notice that He didn't require Noah to do anything to earn this covenant. True, God required him to build an ark, but that was just an act of faith to show that Noah believed God. It is the same as later when Abraham believed God and God counted it to him for righteousness.(Gen. 15:6, Rom. 4:3) Our righteousness doesn't matter when it comes to God's perfect righteousness. Isaiah 64:6 says all our righteousness is as filthy rags next to God's.

God understands this, and is merciful. He doesn't require us to do anything but act in faith by trusting Him and what He can do for us. For Noah, He saved him from the flood, along with his family and a male and female of every creature, so he could start the earth anew. For us, He saves us from the sting of death and hell. For by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin, so that death passed unto all men, for that all have sinned.(Romans 5:12). However, while the wages of sin is death, the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.(Romans 6:23.)

So how do we get the same type of Covenant as Noah had, being saved from that horrible fate? Ephesians 2:8-9 says “by grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not of works; lest any man should boast.” We are not saved by any works that we do, because that would lead to boasting and believing we are better than others. God resists the proud, though, and gives grace to the humble.(James 4:6) We can't trust in anything we can do. It is only by trusting in what Jesus Christ did for us that we are saved.

Each person, then, is only a single, sincere prayr of repentence to Jesus Christ aay from eternal life; life which begins at the moment one trusts Him, because He comes to live in that believer’s heart through the Holy Spirit. God loved us so much, He knew we could not save ourselves and so He made a way for each person to be saved by faith. Each person must make their own decision to trust Jesus Christ by calling on Him to save them from their sins, and to make them new on the inside, so He can live in them through the Holy Spirit. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says, “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creature: Old things are passed away behold all things are become new.”

Another good way to explain it is, it's as easy as ABC - Admit you're a sinner, Believe that Jesus Christ, God in flesh, died to take the punishment for your sins and rose from the dead, and Call on Jesus to forgive you and save you, Choosing to turn from your sins and invite Him into your heart to make you new inside.

This is the Gospel, it is so easy a child can understand and yet has so much depth that a person can take a lifetime and not learn everything. If any readers want, they can go to Godlife.com and learn more, even asking questions of volunteers there. They can read blogs like takethespirituallead.gblogspot.com and learn how to be a leader in their community and share the gospel if they don't have a loving, gospel preaching church. It is especially geared toward young people, though it will help anyone.

Gen. 6:17

God shows that mercy here, and that he says quotes I even I unquote will flood the world.

God never delights in punishing the wicked, as shown in Ezekiel 33:11. He is always longsuffering toward us, and is willing but none perish but that all come to repentance. 2nd Peter 3:9. However, there comes a time when the consequences for sim must be paid.

Thankfully now the price has been paid in full, completely, forever through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross for our sins.

God still waited, of course, for people to come to him and turn from their wicked ways. Who knows, there might have been some willing to join Noah who were killed for their faith before Noah finished the ark. We are only told what God wanted us to know, in his wisdom. It wasn't important for us to know if anyone got saved under Noah's leadership but lost their lives. Noah's Ark is a type of how we escaped judgment, and just as the persecuted church now suffers and toils for their faith, there could have been those who suffered back then.

One other interesting point is that Noah hadn’t been told at first that he’d be spared. God spoke to Noah as He would later to Abraham. We don’t know if this was after a long time of prayer by Noah or anything, except that the Holy Spirit wasn’t free to roam about the world because of the curse of sin until the4 vein in the temple was torn in two, from top to bottom, at the moment of Jesus’ death which atoned for our sins.(Matt. 27:51) So, the Holy Spirit rested on people, not in them. The Holy Spirit moved in the world, but didn’t reside in peoples’ hearts.

We do know, however, that like Abraham, Noah was told what would happen and then told to do something that would take a lot of faith. Unlike Abraham’s long journey, Noah was to engage in a long project which would provide for the salvation of those who hhad not been corrupted by the incredible evil which was on the earth at that time.

Gen. 6:14-16

These three verses demonstrate God's wisdom when it comes to construction. In the last century or so, it has been discovered that the ratio of length to width to depth is perfect and just the right ratio for ship building. God, of course, knew this 4500 years ago. He knows all science, all technology, how everything works in the world. When we dedicate ourselves to following him, he blesses the discoveries and inventions of those who love him.

This does not mean that Noah knew these facts about shipbuilding of course.

Some will contend that technology was as far advanced by Noah's day as it is today. This may be true; we considered earlier the possibility of an Edison or another great inventor living as long as Adam did. They could indeed create great things and discover wonderful facts about our world. We know from some sources about ooparts, artifacts that appear out of place given where they were discovered. we also know that the pyramids have some shafts which could not have been created except with the precision tools we had in the late 20th century.

Either way, Noah doesn’t need to have had the requisite knowledge to build an ark apart from what God told him. Ship building requires specific skills which not everyone would know even now. Add to that the fact that it might not have rained upon the earth at that point, and you see that Noah could have been building the ark as a pure amateur.

This is certainly in keeping with God's practice of using people who don't measure up to human standards of greatness. David, for instance, was called from his position as a shepherd to slay the giant Goliath and then become king of Israel. Elsewhere in Scripture we are told that God uses the foolish things of this world to confound the wise.

There is, of course, another possibility, which is that all these shipbuilders were busy creating massive ships of war and were not following the Lord at a time when the world was rapidly  moving towards destruction.

Either way it's also worth noting that God had plans for anyone to be saved if they chose. There was room on the ark for many people, and in fact only 30% of the available space was occupied when the flood came. God always makes provision for his mercy to be shown, if only people will receive it. The rooms were almost certainly for the animals, but those three floors were clearly for more than just Noah, his three sons, and their wives.

Gen. 6:12-13

Gen. 6:12-13

All flesh had corrupted its way

One reason some speculate about the activity of Fallen Angels is because all flesh  had corrupted its way on the earth. This meant not only people but all animals, which is not something one sees elsewhere in the Bible. When God must punish a people for its sin - even sin as horrible as the Canaanites, who were sacrificing children and other despicable things - God does not punish the animals along with the people. Yes, He commanded that livestock be destroyed,  but not every creature in the area, wild included.

Whatever the reason, we see that all flesh was corrupt. This may have been due to tampering, similar to what people do now when they try to create crosses between people and animals. It is only in the laboratory, and very very primitive, but there could have been genetic engineering to create horrific things before the Flood. As stated before, we don't know what the technology level was, and some of the stories ancient Greeks told could be of actual creatures.

Whatever happened, we see that God was very upset. The Bible says He looked upon this corruption. Obviously, He had seen it before, but this was when he observed it very deliberately, paying attention to every little detail.

Something caused him to be much more upset than at regular sin. Even if that sin was just the atrocious actions of all the creatures on the earth.

This leads to the question of what is corruption? It is sin, breaking down of the perfec t world God had made where there was none of the violence which had come. Sin has a way of drawing people in and impacting everything. To avoid sin we must turn to God, because only he can combat  the evil which is in this world. We see in the spiritual armor, Ephesians 6:12-18, that the only offensive weapon God gives us is his word, and through it prayer.

Thankfully one day we shall be free from sin. 1st Corinthians 15 promises that this corruptible shall put on incorruption! What a wonderful day that will be when we are free from the evil of this world; evil which Noah and his family were also allowed to escape, through the ark, just like we shall through His returning for us

Gen. 6:10-11

The earth was filled with violence

Of course, God loves each of us and calls us all to repent of our sins and trust Him to save us. But, he hates it when people commit wanton, heartless acts to injure one’s fellow man.

But, God hates violence.

In 1st Timothy 3: 3, he insists that the leaders of the church must not be strikers, that is those who will act violently toward others. He mentions not drinking as part of that right afterward but that is not the only thing that causes violence.

God cites the violence which had spread throughout the land as one of those abominations which have so aggrieved him in Ezekiel 8 :17.

So what did the violence entail which had spread throughout the world in Genesis 6: 11? It was one of the things which had caused the whole earth to be corrupt, for all / to have corrupted its way upon the earth. Surely some of this was people  - quite possibly along with fallen angels - taking advantage of others, sometimes in a very violent fashion. The wickedness which occurred during this time was something which caused great sorrow. Noah undoubtedly felt this same sorrow, and perhaps it caused him to not have children until he was 500 years old.

Noah had three sons. We know that Noah waited till he was 500 years old. The Bible reiterates about him and his sons, and then goes on to mention that the whole world was corrupt.

We see in verse 10 and 11 that mankind had corrupted his way on the earth. This idea of corrupting means to make it unusable, the exact opposite of the world without sin which God created.

This breakdown, with mankind not wanting God involved, was inevitable with people who rebelled so much against God. And, it shows itself in scientific principles,  too.

The law of entropy the second law of thermodynamics shows that things break down over time u

unless some force prevents it; just as God would have done had man not brought sin into the world.

This can be gravity in the case of orbits, for example. God is the Sustainer of all life, no matter where it is, but He could not interfere with man's free will every single time without ending cause and effect. It grieved the Lord that people had corrupted it so much.

Gen. 6:9

Noah was perfect in his generations

Perfect here, of course, does not mean without sin, for all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. (Romans 3:23)

Rather it means that Noah had matured in his walk with God to the point where he was drawing close and remaining close to the Lord at all times. Ephesians 5 18 tells us to be filled with the Holy Spirit; that filling means a total control by the Spirit. While the Holy Spirit did not indwell people at this time, because the curse of sin had not been broken, the spirit did rest on believers. This is how the Lord spoke to Noah and all the Old Testament prophets, along with anyone else used by the Lord for His work. 

There is another theory, that perfect in his generations means he had No genetic mutation  like the fallen angels had created in most people. This could be true even if the fallen ones creating the Nephilim only made genetic alterations and there was no intercourse with humans. One reason this could be is the "in his generations" part. Others say that means there was no descendent of Cain in his genealogy. However, it should be noted that not only is there no stated rule against marrying Cain's descendants, but even where God forbids marrying Canaanites, several such women are listed in Matthew 1 in the line of Christ. God in His mercy permitted them to have a part in the line of Christ, so it's not likely this is referring to whether or not Noah was fully Sethite.

As before when this was discussed, this is not a question of doctrine when it comes ro salvation and therefore not a matter to be too insistent upon. Rather, like the women in Philippians 4:2-3, since it's not fundamental to salvation, we must be of one mind in the Lord, agreeing to be satisfied with being united in our faith as believers.

He was also a just man. As noted, he walked with God, but special note is made that he was just. In a world filled with evil and wickedness he stood out. He likely faced much ridicule for his justice, considering how much he gave up. However, he was determined to do what was right. As Micah 6:8 says, “He hath shown thee oh man, what is good and what the LORD doth require of thee: but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy god.”

Noah did these things, and the combination of justice and mercy shows the character of God. He is always just, yet He is always merciful toward his people, constantly giving chances to repent and be saved by faith. However, His justice requires that a price be paid, and that we each accept, before we die, that this price was for our sins. Praise the Lord that price was paid when Christ took the punishment for our sins on the cross where he died and then rose triumphant plea from the dead. Noah was a symbol of what Christ would one day do for us.