Genesis 6:8. But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.
“I think therefore I am.”
With these famous words the French Renaissance thinker, Rene Descartes, launched modern philosophy. And with these same words he launched modern man into one of the most dangerous ways of thinking that is still very much prevalent today – I am valuable because of my individual, rational, thinking. Or we might say, I am valuable because of my own knowledge of good and evil. My own ability to be self-aware and self-determine is what makes me who I am.
Hopefully you can see the problem with this. Descartes’ maxim leaves us at the center of existence, not God. And definitely not God’s love and grace. The result is a disastrous lack of intimacy with God and others. O no, this problem did not begin with Descartes. It began with Adam and was passed on to Cain and all humanity. Everyone doing what was right in their own eyes, guided by an imagination that was totally depraved (Day 30) and a heart bent on violence toward neighbor.
Do you remember the tale of the Velveteen Rabbit (if you’ve never read it, do it now). The Velveteen Rabbit became real not because he thought himself into reality, but because he was loved into reality. How will humanity be made real again in a world where everyone is completely wicked and corrupt right down to the heart level?
Well, one answer might be judgment. Destroy everyone and start over. And this is how some interpret the flood story. God kills everyone and starts over. Problem solved.
But we know that God’s judgment, what Martin Luther called his “right handed power,” did not solve the problem. Just pages after the flood ends, the Bible records mankind’s attempts to overthrow God and oppress each other again.
Is there another answer besides judgment? Yes. Grace. Favor. God’s “left handed power.” To truly save the world, God will need someone who will recognize and receive his grace and allow themselves to be used by God to save the world.
Enter Noah.
As we’ve said, the name Noah means rest. His father, Lamech, named him Noah because he believed that his son would break the curse of Genesis 3. He did not. But he was used by God to bring about a reset. A “do-over” for creation. A new Adam and Eve in a garden boat with their three named sons. A new dawn of creation in the post-diluvian world.
Why Noah? How did he earn this appointment as savior? He didn’t. He found favor. He found grace. Unearned, unmerited, unwarranted grace.
And so have we. In Christ, we are the most favored anyone has ever been. We have not only been invited into the ark of God’s love, where we are safe from the flood waters of his justice and wrath, but we have also been asked to build an ark of love, the church, where we can invite others to come in and find safety and rest. May we, like Noah, respond to God’s favor in faithful obedience, doing “all that the Lord commands of us” (6:22), making disciples who want to float above the flood and take shelter from the storm in the salvation of Jesus.
Questions: Do you see yourself as having found favor with God or as still trying to obtain God’s favor? In what way is your church an ark of rest and safety for those who enter? Are you contributing to this ark or are you building your own dingy on the side?
Check out our “Noah” playlist:
To Live is Christ 