Noah's Uniqueness

Noah’s Uniqueness

Genesis 6:5-22

Every person can have assurance in their relationship with God by copying the characteristics of Noah.

Introduction: 

     There are places all around the have been popping up called “Ripley’s Believe It or Not.”  Before that there were books and there were shows the celebrated the oddities in the world.  A few years ago I visited one of the museums.  There we saw how tall the world’s tallest man really was.  We also saw how small the world’s smallest woman was.  There were all sorts of strange things we saw in this museum. 

     So what is it that attracts people to something like this?  It has to be the notion that you might get to see something that has only happened once in the world.  There is only one tallest man and one smallest woman.  People pay money to see these kinds of things because they stand out as different.  There is nothing like them in the world. 

     Noah did some things that caused him to stand out. For one thing he built a big boat, but there were characteristics that Noah had that caused him to stand out also.  Let’s look at the unique characteristics that Noah possessed. 

Characteristic I.  Righteousness

A. So far in the book of Genesis we have seen a beautiful perfect world.  God made the world and everything in it, and we see repeated over and over again, “it was good.”  In every instance God says, “It was good.”  He made a perfect garden and he placed Adam in that garden.  Then as we studied last week, Adam and Eve rebelled against God, and God’s perfect creation was marred.  That rebellion has had a huge impact on our world.  Now we are looking at chapter 6.  We have just barely gotten into the Bible, and we read, “The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain.” (Ge 6:6 NIVUS)  In just 6 short chapters God is displeased what He had created. 

B. In v. 5 God sees man’s wickedness and he sees how evil man is.  It only takes us a few minutes to read these six chapters, but there were probably many years had passed from the time of creation until the time of Noah.  In this amount of time we see a dramatic shift in what is happening.  No longer is it good, but now God is grieved.  This can all be traced back to Adam’s rebellion.  God is so upset with what he sees happening, he decides to destroy the earth and start over again. 

C. In v. 8 there is a contrast introduced.  Among all of the evil in the world there is Noah.  Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.  He was a righteous man.  This made Noah stand out among the people of the earth.  In order for God to do what he did, the wickedness of the people on the earth had to be very great.  I also think that in order for God to choose Noah to maintain the human race, Noah had to stand out.  One of those words used to describe Noah is righteous.  He chooses right living over the wickedness that the rest of the world had chosen. 

D. As we consider those running for political office in the upcoming election we hope to have candidates who are righteous.  We probably want people who have strong convictions on right and wrong, and we want them to live according to those convictions.  They should be people who not only tell us how to live, but they are an example of how to live also.  Noah was this kind of man.  He knew right from wrong and he lived according to those convictions.  As a result we see Noah and his family becoming the remnant to preserve the human race. 

E. Noah was a righteous man and this attribute brought salvation to him and his family.  A part of having a right relationship with God is that righteousness.  A part of that righteousness is the ability to know right from wrong and then making a conscious decision to do what is right.  When you do what is right you honor that Lord.  Even though our righteousness might seem like a small deal it can have huge consequences. 

Characteristic II.  Blameless

A. In vv. 6 & 7 we see God grieving over his creation.  He is grieved over the wickedness and corruption he sees in the world.  It had to be a very sad day for God when he got to the point of being grieved over the sinfulness of his creation.  He was so upset that the only solution he could think of was to destroy it and start over with Noah and his family.  This was going to be a hug hit, because it would destroy everything. 

B. There are only two other places in the Bible where I see that God is grieved.  After Saul was made king of Israel and rebelled against God command.  Samuel the prophet had warned Saul of his sinfulness.  In I Samuel 5:35 we see that, “the LORD was grieved that he had made Saul king over Israel.”  God grieves over the sin of Saul.  The other place is the sin of David.  Toward the end of II Samuel, David chooses to have a census taken.  This census was perhaps an indication of David’s lack of faith at this time in his life.  God brought a plague on David’s kingdom and wiped out many people.  When God’s plague reached Jerusalem it says again that, “the LORD was grieved because of the calamity.”  The phrase is a sad one and it is used infrequently in the Bible. 

C. Once again we see that Noah is different from the rest of the world.  While the word corrupt is used to describe the people of the world, Noah is described as blameless.  This word really has a connotation that something is so perfect and so pure that no blame or fault can be found in this person.  I would imagine that it would have been very easy for Noah to say, there is no one in the world that is doing good these days.  It will not hurt if I indulge in a little mischief.  Since Noah is called blameless, I can’t imagine that Noah did this.  While the rest of the world was corrupt, Noah remained blameless.  He did not lose his integrity just because everyone else was doing it.  Instead Noah stood out.  He was different in his world. 

D. I am wondering if blameless is a word we would include in our vocabulary today.  It is uncommon to find a person you could consider blameless.  It has become such an anomaly that we don’t even attempt to attain that.  Someone has told us that we can’t be perfect and we can’t be blameless so we don’t even try.  If something is impossible, why should we attempt to aspire to that kind of height?  Noah did stand out in the world and he was different from the world, and he was rescued.  We should do the same.  We should strive to be blameless.  As Paul is laying out the qualifications of leadership he often uses the word blameless.  “Since an overseer is entrusted with God’s work, he must be blameless— not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain.” (Tit 1:7 NIVUS)  No matter whether the goal seems attainable or not, we should aspire to all be blameless. 

Characteristic III.  Walked with God

A. While the rest of the world was considered corrupt and violent, Noah stood out among all of these people because he walked with God.  With terms like corrupt and violent being used to describe the rest of the world I think that would indicate they were not walking with God.  Instead they were following each other, or maybe they were following a path that had been laid out by them.  Whatever the reason, God was so mad at these people he decided the solution to the problem was to destroy the entire earth.  He was going to do this with a worldwide flood.  He would save Noah and his family by having them build a humongous boat to live in during the time of this flood. 

B. The children’s storybooks don’t do any justice to Noah’s ark.  If Noah’s ark looked like the pictures in the storybooks there would not be room for Noah to do what God wanted Noah to do.  The description we have in this passage is very important.  The New International Version of the Bible tells us that the Ark was 450 feet long.  That is longer than a football field.  It was to be 75 feet wide.  It was wider than our sanctuary is long, and it was 45 feet tall, which would be about 4 stories.  It was a huge boat.  It had three levels in it, and it had room for every kind of animal.  It was probably bigger than most people think.  We don’t know how far technology had progressed prior to the flood, so it does not work for someone to say that the people of Noah’s day did not have the technical knowhow to accomplish such a mammoth project. 

C. The more important issue is that Noah was a man who walked with God.  He obeyed the commands of God.  While the rest of the world had grown corrupt, Noah had not.  While the rest of the world had grown violent, Noah had not.  All of those things that had caused God to grieve were not found in Noah.  He was a man who walked with God, and he was a man that God protected because of his willingness to walk with God. 

D. We seem to be living in a world where people can very easily justify the wrong that they are doing.  They tell themselves that God is a gracious and forgiving God.  He is ready to forgive whatever sin I commit.  Maybe they tell themselves that God will never know what sin they committed.  Perhaps this is the same violence and corruption that had infected the people of Noah’s day.  We should not try to hide our sin or to justify our sin.  We should confess our sin and then leave it behind.  Don’t ask for forgiveness and then go right back and do it again.  Instead, ask God to forgive and leave it behind. 

Conclusion: 

     Noah was chosen to be a remnant because he stood out from the rest of the world.  In our world it can be tempting to just do what the rest of the world is doing, and it can be tempting to not stand out.  I would challenge you today to stand out.  Don’t be a follower and allow yourself to be drawn into the sin and corruption that might be tempting you, but instead be like Noah and stand out from the rest of the world and be prepared to be a remnant.