Genesis 6 is a hard chapter. It is all about judgment, and none of us like being judged.
None of us like being judged
We love to judge. We just do not love being on the other end of it. I was in an airport this week, grabbing a sandwich on the go, when my buddy started reviewing it like a food critic. This bread is not holding its shape. This turkey has no personality. Bro. It is a soggy sandwich in the airport. We have a plane to catch.
Then there was the restaurant that rhymes with Mopoli. The folks behind the counter seemed inconvenienced that hungry people had shown up to give them business, and still wanted a big tip. So I opened my phone to leave a review — only to find I had already left a one-star review there a year ago. I am a judgmental man too.
We want mercy for ourselves and justice for everybody else. A study said 87.5% of people think they are better than the average driver. That math does not add up. So when we open a chapter about God judging the whole earth, something in us pulls back. How does this square with a God of grace? Here is where we are going: God's judgment is not a contradiction of His mercy. It is a part of it. Because the world had gotten that corrupt.
New day, same problem
Three times the chapter says it. Corrupt. Corrupt. Corrupt. Scripture is driving the point home. There were millions of people on the earth by now, maybe more, and most of them were not fearing or honoring God. Every intention of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually.
This week we saw a flying car. I have dreamed about that since I was a boy. And in the same week, an allegation came out against the very man behind that technology — about a fifteenth child out of wedlock. New day, same problem. Our ultimate need is not better technology. It is a new heart.
But Noah found favor
Then comes verse 8, and it hangs on one small word. But. The whole earth is corrupt, judgment has been declared — but Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. One shining star in the middle of the darkness.
Be careful how you read that. Noah did not earn favor. He received it. He was not a man too good to be judged. He was a man given grace in a world that deserved exactly what was coming. Favor found him first.
Walking with a limp
Verse 9 calls Noah righteous, blameless, a man who walked with God. It sounds like a verdict for a spiritual giant. But flip a few chapters. After the flood, after the trauma of three hundred days in a boat while the whole world was destroyed, we find this same blameless man drunk and passed out in his tent. A broken man.
So how is he called righteous? Not because he got everything right. Hebrews 11 tells us Noah believed God, and it was counted to him. It was an imputed righteousness — a standing given, not a grade earned. The same mistake sank Adam and Cain: they trusted themselves instead of God. Noah's one difference was that he believed God.
Christ died for the ungodly. I qualify. Do you? In the middle of all your brokenness, all your shortcomings, all your trials, you and I will not get it all right. But we can be counted blameless if we get one thing right — our hope and our trust is in God and not ourselves. That is how Noah walked with God, even walking with a limp.
Not successful, but faithful
What did Noah do? He built an ark. A boat longer than a football field, four stories tall, fifty-five to seventy-five years of work while millions watched. The biggest object lesson ever preached. And 2 Peter calls him a herald of righteousness, so we know he preached it the whole time.
Here is the line we most need to hear. We are not called to be successful. We are called to be faithful. Only eight people got on that ark when the rain fell. By the world's math, that is failure. By God's, Noah pleased Him.
Faithful looks ordinary. Staying true to your spouse. Teaching your kids the Word and modeling it for them. Refusing the shortcut at work when the whole culture cuts corners, and shining as light and salt right where you are. Noah did this. He did all that God commanded him. That is the call on your life too.
Before there was a flood, there was an ark
In the middle of a judgment chapter, God makes a promise — a covenant. "I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark." Before there was a flood, there was an ark. Before judgment, there is always mercy. Before condemnation, there is always a means of salvation. And it is always God who begins it.
The ark had only one door. Jesus is our ark. He is the one way through the storm, already built and waiting.
But God, but Noah
Let me leave you with a story. Andy Pages, an outfielder for the Dodgers, had a terrible season. People said he had no right to be on the roster. But his manager told the press, you do not get it — I believe in Andy. Game four, seventh inning, bases loaded, two outs. The manager sent Andy to the plate anyway. First pitch, he swung, drove it into the outfield, two runners scored, and they won.
You might not believe in yourself. Everybody around you might be saying you cannot. But God. But Noah. In the middle of all the brokenness, God says, you have My favor — not because you are righteous, not because you are obedient, but because I am changing things in you for good.
That is grace. God believing in you when you cannot believe in yourself and no one else does. You already have a name — you are a son, a daughter of God. You already have His love. So stop trying to earn it. Walk through the one door that is already open. Keep stepping up, and keep swinging, in Jesus' name. Because that is what it means to walk with God.
