Genesis 6:9-12

2. Noah: Man of Faith (Genesis 6:9-12).

9 These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, and perfect in his generations: Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begat three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 And the earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God saw the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way upon the earth.

(1) Noah was a righteous man, that is, it was his disposition to do the will of God in all things (cf. Matthew 3:15, John 4:34). Noah was perfectnot sinless, of course, but committed to moral integrity in his dealings with God. (The just is the right in law, the perfect is the tested in holiness, Murphy). In his generations: probably not the offspring of a promiscuous union of the godly with the ungodly, as were many of his contemporaries. Noah walked with God, as did Enoch (see supra). Hence, Noah found favor in the eyes of Jehovah. (Note the A.V.grace; grace is commonly defined as unmerited favor: the favor in Noah's case, however, was a recognition of his righteousness.) Noah was a man of faith: given the Divine plans and specifications for the ark, he obeyed in every detail and built it just as God had told him to build it. Had he not done so, as we shall see later, he would have destroyed its typical (hence, testimonial) significance. (Cf. Moses and the Tabernacle: Exodus 25:8-9, also chs. 39, 40). Faith manifests itself in implicit obedience: hence it is said that thus did Noah: according to all that God commanded him, so did he (Genesis 6:22); and so by faith he prepared an ark to the saving of his house, etc. (Hebrews 11:7). Moreover, having been warned of God concerning things not seen as yet, that is, the certainty of impending Divine judgment, Noah became Christ's preacher of righteousness to the ungodly antediluvian world (2 Peter 2:5).

REVIEW QUESTIONS

See Genesis 6:13.