The Faith of Noah

In Genesis 7:1, the Bible declares,

“And the Lord said unto Noah, Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation.”

I remember asking a group of young people, “Why do you think God asked Noah to build the ark?”

“To save all the animals,” was their immediate response.

No. He prepared it for his family. Noah, “being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house” (Hebrews 11:7). What faith Noah must have had! People living in his day had not seen water fall from the sky, and this man declared, “It is going to rain, and the whole world will be flooded!”

Quickly, he began building an ark to save his family from something he could hardly describe.

God saw only Noah as pure and virtuous, yet his family was rescued. “Oh, you foolish man,” the people must have laughed.

Before this time, rain had never fallen upon the earth. The earth had been gently watered by the dew. Imagine what the wicked people of that generation must have thought when Noah began to preach about the flood and the peril that was coming. At first they dismissed Noah’s warnings, but as he continued, they probably asked, “What is he talking about?”

Noah told everyone who would listen that it was going to rain and flood the earth. He had total faith in something he did not fully understand and began building an ark to save his family from something he could not even describe.

In a world filled with iniquity, there was only one person who found grace in the eyes of the Lord: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). As a result, we know that his family escaped the flood, for the Lord said to Noah, “Come thou and all thy house into the ark; for thee have I seen righteous before me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1).

God saw only Noah as pure and virtuous, yet his family was rescued. I believe when you are righteous before the Lord, your entire family will be touched by God’s amazing grace. Centuries later, Peter wrote that God “spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly” (2 Peter 2:5).

Eight people were spared? Noah’s three sons (Shem, Ham, and Japeth) and their wives, Noah’s wife, and Noah – the eighth person. God placed him last, showing clearly that all of his children, even though unrighteous, were included in His righteousness.

Is the Lord concerned about your family, regardless of their spiritual condition right now? You can count on it! It is a foundation throughout the Bible.