Skip to content
Christchurch Miami

Week of Wednesday, October 21, 2026

When God looks at a world this full of evil, what does He actually do about it?

A large storm moving across the sky over open water

The Question

When God looks at a world this full of evil, what does He actually do about it?

What We Talked About

We’re five weeks into Foundations, and this week Genesis hands us the flood.

By chapter 6 the world has gone all the way wrong. The LORD looks at it and sees that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually — not people who slip up now and then, but people bad at the root. And God is not indifferent to it. The text says He was grieved.

Then one name breaks the pattern: Noah. Righteous, blameless, a man who walked with God. Which raises the exact question a student should ask — how can a sinner be called righteous?

The answer is the hinge of the whole night: favor comes first. Before Noah built anything, Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD. God chose him, favored him, protected him, and sustained him — and only then did Noah pick up a hammer. Grace first, obedience second. It’s the same order with Abraham, who believed the LORD, and the same order in Ephesians: by grace you have been saved through faith … not a result of works.

Weathered gray wooden planks, like the timbers of a boat

Then the harder half. What is God’s reaction to a world this broken? Not a shrug. He announces the flood Himself — He takes evil seriously enough to judge it. But He judges from a grieved heart, not a cold one. Judgment is His “strange work”; mercy is His native language. He takes no pleasure in the death of the wicked, and in Jesus we watch Him weep over a city He is about to judge. He even gave the world 120 years of warning while the ark was being built.

Heavy rain falling on a dark water surface

And the ark is where all of it points. Noah spent over a year in a wooden boat that took the storm for him. We spend our lives in Christ, who took the storm for us. He is the ark.

So the question to carry home isn’t whether the storm is coming. The question is: are you in the ark?

Photos by Daniel Lerman, simon, and Abhishek Tewari on Unsplash.

Where We Landed

He doesn’t shrug. God takes evil seriously enough to judge it — but He judges from a grieved heart, not a cold one. And He always makes a way through: Noah had the ark, and we have Jesus, who took the storm in our place.

Keep Thinking About It

Genesis 6:8 — Noah found favor before he did a thing

Before Noah built the ark, before God ever called him righteous, the verse says he “found favor in the eyes of the LORD.” Favor came first. Hold onto that on a Monday, because school runs the other way — you earn the grade, you earn the spot, you earn being liked, and the second you stop producing the favor dries up. God doesn’t work like that. He favored Noah first, and the obedience came after, as a thank-you, not a down payment. One thing to do today: before you try to prove anything to anyone, remember you’re already favored. Then go live like it’s true.

For Parents · Family Talk

Gentle conversation starters — let your teen lead.

  • What’s the difference between Noah earning God’s favor and God giving it first? Which comes first in your own life?
  • What does it mean that judgment is God’s "strange work"? How can He be grieved and judge at the same time?
  • How is Jesus like the ark? See if your student can name two or three parallels.

Next Wednesday

More on how Jesus is our ark, the thread the flood story ended on.

Photos by Daniel Lerman , simon and Abhishek Tewari on Unsplash.

All Weeks