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9 This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10 And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. ~ Genesis 6:9-12
Today, we continue our study of Genesis 6 where we have been observing the continuation of those who believed in the God of the Bible and those who didn't. During the days of Noah, the world was filled with people who were inwardly corrupt, outwardly violent and upwardly rebellious.
In v.9 of today's passage we read, "This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God."
Noah's genealogy is the third genealogy in the Bible. It was given here because he was at that point in time the central figure in the biblical story. Noah "was a just man" which means in the Lord's eyes he was found righteous because of his faith in Him, the God of the Bible. Noah was a man of faith and he was waiting for the Messiah whom he believed would one day come to this earth to redeem sinful man. Noah believed this despite the wicked state of the world around him and the growing belief that God was not good.
Noah was a man who believed God when almost everyone else didn't and God counted Noah's faith as sufficient. God graciously forgave Noah's sin, covered him with His righteousness, and put his sins on Christ who in the mind of God, of course, was the Lamb slain from before the foundation of the world.
Noah's faith led to the second description of him, "He was perfect in his generations." Of all the people on the earth at that time, Noah was the only man of biblical faith. His perfection in the eyes of God was granted to him by God because of his faith in God. It is only by our applied faith in the God of the Bible that brings us into a personal relationship with God wherein we learn that salvation is a total gift from Him. And our faith in the veracity of the God of the Bible is an act of our free will. Noah possessed this kind of faith and this is why Noah walked with God.
In v.10 of today's passage we read, "And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth."
All three sons of Noah were believers in the God of the Bible along with their wives and their mother. Shem's descendants were the Hebrews, they settled in the lands around the near east. Ham's descendants were the Canaanites that inhabited the land of Israel before Israel got there. They settled in Egypt and Africa. Ham was the son who saw his father drunk and naked after the flood. Due to that embarrassing moment, Noah cursed Canaan, the son of Ham and made the Canaanites the servants of the Shemites. Japheth's descendants settled in Persia, Germany, Russia, Greece, and in Europe.
In v.11-12 of today's passage we read, "11 The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth."
In contrast to Noah, the corrupt state of the rest of the world was evident. The people of earth were corrupt before God, and their corruption was acted on outwardly in violence. They behaved in this way because they no longer "called on the name of the Lord." Instead, they worshiped the creation or false gods, rather than the Creator. And their actions spilled out into contempt of the God of the Bible. They openly and actively and openly defied God to His face.
Humanity is wicked to the core and our wickedness has continued to manifest itself in continually degrading ways. Therefore, God had to punish man's sin. His holy nature required it, but He has always been known to warn man of his degradation first. God has always extended His patience toward wicked man, but when man continues in his rejection of God, God has no other choice than to deal severely with unrepentant man.
According to 2 Peter 2:5, "Noah was a preacher of righteousness." This means he preached that God would grant anyone His own righteousness to anyone willing enough to place their faith in Him. I find it very sad to say, Noah couldn’t convince anybody but his wife and family to board the ark. Noah and his family were the only ones who were justified by God.
The Flood is really history’s most powerful evidence of the final destruction of this earth that is yet to come. The Flood happened due to man's preoccupation with his physical appetites, materialistic attitudes and interests, devotion to pleasure, rebellion against God and unbelief, corruption and violence.
The Ark had only one door through which Noah had to enter in order to be saved from the Flood. Likewise, salvation in the Lord Jesus Christ has only one door. We enter it by faith in His once-and-for-all-time sacrificial death on the Cross and His bodily resurrection three days later. After Noah entered the Ark, God Himself closed the door. Those people outside who chose not to enter the Ark’s only door were left to face the destructive force of the Flood. Today, we have only this one life to enter Christ’s door of salvation.
According to Matthew 24:37, the coming of the Son of man will be just like the days of Noah. All of the people were living their lives as usual, that was until the day that Noah entered the ark. Soon the oddity of the first raindrops ever led to the Flood and they all were drowned except Noah and his family. The Flood provides for us historic testimony to the second coming judgment. It happened once in the days of Noah and it will happen again at the second coming of the Lord Jesus.
Finally, also in Matthew 24 we read, "For the Son of man is coming at an hour when you do not think He will." Noah and his family were saved from the flood waters by getting on the ark which they had built for 120 years. And, here at the end of all times, man has a very similar decision. The decision is simple: To believe that the Lord Jesus Christ is the ark. And, all who place their faith in the Lord Jesus will avoid God's final judgment because the Lord Jesus bore it on the cross for us.
