Genesis 7:1 “Then the LORD said to Noah, “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation”
If you were to look up into the stands at a major sporting event, would you be able to tell who is righteous among the crowd?
During the days of Noah we hear the judgment of God upon his generation.
Genesis 6:5 “The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.”
The survey that God did was quite sad, across the face of the Earth every intention and thought was continually evil. Among Noah’s generation, it was only Noah who found favor before God and was counted righteous. We don’t hear the Lord make the same evaluation about Noah’s sons or their wives. In Genesis 7:1 the Lord reiterated, “for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation.”
The family of Noah was blessed because their father and husband had been found pure before God, the same wasn’t said about his family. Maybe that is why Ham later defiled his father and lost out on the blessing, his descendent Canaan was likewise cursed, and we witness the rise of gross idolatry in the land of Ham (Egypt) years later.
Japheth bore many sons to the north and Shem to the east. We can’t say how long it took for people and nations to corrupt themselves, it just did and the legacy of sin lives on today.
I don’t want to shout where the Bible only whispers but I find it interesting how quickly many of the nations that formed from Noah’s offspring eventually turned against the Lord.
Flash forward a couple thousand years and Jesus the Messiah appears in human history. As Jesus was warning His disciples of what was to come, He compared the generation of the last days to the generation of Moses.
Matthew 24:37 “For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man.”
This Generation
I’m not sure how the flood was such a surprise to the generation of Noah’s time, he must have warned them countless times as they mocked him for his boat. As the boat neared completion, the time for judgement couldn’t be far behind.
So many people today mock any mention of Jesus as the Son of God. They blaspheme His holy name, they twist peoples understanding of what is good, and right, and just. But the Lord is not slow in keeping His promises, nor does He lack knowledge of the righteous or the unrighteousness.
As God judged the “thoughts and intentions” of the hearts of Noah’s generation, so He continues to judge the hearts of our generation today.
Psalm 1:6 “for the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish”
The people of Noah’s day demonstrated a knowledge of God’s laws, even though they hadn’t formally been given. The Lord had passed down knowledge of His will, and yet the people chose to go their own way.
Today, we have only one way to be found righteous before God and that is by accepting the sacrifice Jesus made upon the cross.
Across our generation, the Lord knows who are righteous and who are not. He is coming very, very, soon for His own. As the signs of Noah’s day indicated impending judgement, so the signs are prevalent today of Christ’s return.
Jesus will not return as a Lamb, but as the Lion of Judah.
Today, prepare your heart, let it be found tender and willing to bend to God’s will. Trust in the Lord and He will renew a right spirit within you.
Then when the day arrives, you will be prepared for what is to come upon the world.
U.T. 