The Lord Said To Noah

Who was Noah in the Bible?

The biblical figure of Noah and the business relationship of the flood is known to adults and children worldwide. But what does the Bible actually tell united states about this man?

Noah is introduced to us in Genesis 5:28–29 in a listing of Adam'southward descendants through Seth: "When Lamech had lived 182 years, he fathered a son and called his name Noah, saying, 'Out of the ground that the Lord has cursed, this ane shall bring u.s.a. relief from our piece of work and from the painful toil of our easily.'" The pregnant of Noah's proper name gives us a hint as to the account that will come.

In Genesis 5 nosotros also learn that Noah was built-in well-nigh 1,200 years after the creation of Adam. Additionally, we discover that Noah fathered three sons—Shem, Ham, and Japheth—subsequently he was 500 years erstwhile. Genesis 6—9 gives usa the residuum of the account of Noah'southward life, and we proceed to hear about him even into the New Testament.

Genesis 6:v says, "The LORD saw that the wickedness of homo was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." God was grieved and said He would blot out man and animals from the earth. "But Noah institute favor in the optics of the LORD" (Genesis 6:8). In the midst of a lodge so evil God chose to destroy it entirely, Noah stood out. He "was a righteous human being, clean-living in his generation. Noah walked with God" (Genesis vi:9). Noah was not sinless (Romans 3:23), but he knew God and walked with Him. God preserved Noah and used him and his family to repopulate the earth.

God told Noah His plan to destroy the earth and its inhabitants with a alluvion. God instructed Noah to build an ark of gopher wood, providing him with the measurements and specifications. He explained, "Everything that is on the earth shall dice. Only I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your married woman, and your sons' wives with you lot" (Genesis 6:17–18). Noah was also to take seven male and female pairs of each type of clean creature on the ark with him, one male and female pair of each blazon of unclean creature, and food. "Noah did all that the LORD had commanded him" (Genesis 7:5). The inundation began when Noah was 600 years old. He and his family disembarked about a yr afterwards (Genesis 7:11; viii:13).

Noah built an alter to the Lord on which he offered sacrifices. "And when the LORD smelled the pleasing aroma, the LORD said in his heart, 'I will never again expletive the ground because of man, for the intention of man'southward heart is evil from his youth. Neither will I ever again strike down every living animate being as I accept washed. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and oestrus, summertime and wintertime, mean solar day and dark, shall not cease" (Genesis 8:21–22). As God had promised to Noah when He allowable the ark be built, God established His covenant with Noah and his family. "God blest Noah and his sons and said to them, 'Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth'" (Genesis 9:i). He spoke of the dread that animals would have for humans and gave the animals equally nutrient for humans. God instituted the death penalty for murder. He also said, "Behold, I institute my covenant with you and your offspring after you, and with every living brute that is with you, the birds, the livestock, and every beast of the earth with yous, as many every bit came out of the ark; information technology is for every beast of the world. I establish my covenant with you, that never once more shall all flesh be cut off past the waters of the alluvion, and never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth" (Genesis 9:9–11). God gave the rainbow as a sign of this covenant.

Lest we think Noah was perfect or somehow free of sin, the next thing nosotros acquire about Noah is that he "began to exist a man of the soil, and he planted a vineyard. He drank of the wine and became drunkard and lay uncovered in his tent" (Genesis ix:20–21). One of Noah'southward sons, Ham, saw his father'southward nakedness and told his brothers. His brothers, however, covered their begetter'southward nakedness. Noah cursed Canaan, Ham's son, considering of Ham'south (or mayhap Canaan'due south) shameful deportment. In role, this explains the relationship between the Israelites, who were descendants of Shem, and the Canaanites at the time of the Exodus, when it seems Moses would take written Genesis. Noah lived for 350 years after the flood. "All the days of Noah were 950 years, and he died" (Genesis ix:29).

The person of Noah and the business relationship of God'southward judgment through the inundation are referred to several times throughout the residual of Scripture. Isaiah 54:9–ten records this prophecy: "'This is like the days of Noah to me: every bit I swore that the waters of Noah should no more than go over the earth, so I have sworn that I will not be aroused with you, and will not rebuke you. For the mountains may depart and the hills exist removed, but my steadfast dearest shall non depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,' says the LORD, who has pity on you lot." God has been faithful not to destroy the globe through a flood, and He volition be true-blue to fulfill this promise to Israel equally well.

We as well see Noah used as an example in rebuke. Ezekiel fourteen:12–14 says, "And the word of the LORD came to me: 'Son of human, when a land sins confronting me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and ship famine upon it, and cutting off from it human and creature, even if these iii men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would evangelize simply their own lives past their righteousness, declares the LORD God'" (come across as well Ezekiel 14:20).

In talking nearly His return, Jesus said, "Simply concerning that 24-hour interval and hour no ane knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Male parent simply. For every bit were the days of Noah, so volition be the coming of the Son of Human. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in union, until the mean solar day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will exist the coming of the Son of Man" (Matthew 24:36–39; see likewise Luke 17:22–30). Only equally God was patient in the time of Noah (one Peter 3:20), He is patient with the globe at present, not wanting any to perish merely all to come to repentance (2 Peter 3:nine). But, just equally in the time of Noah, judgment volition come (2 Peter 3:ten).

Hebrews 11:6 tells the states "without organized religion it is impossible to please [God], for whoever would describe nearly to God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him." The chapter includes Noah as an example of such faith: "By faith Noah, being warned by God concerning events as still unseen, in reverent fear constructed an ark for the saving of his household. By this he condemned the earth and became an heir of the righteousness that comes by religion" (Hebrews eleven:7). Second Peter 2 explains, "if [God] did not spare the aboriginal world, just preserved Noah, a herald of righteousness, with seven others, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly … and then the Lord knows how to rescue the godly from trials, and to proceed the unrighteous nether punishment until the twenty-four hours of judgment" (2 Peter 2:five, 9).

We, of form, want to be like Noah in putting our faith in God, even if we practice not fully understand all the details. We also desire to be like Noah in walking with God and being a herald of His righteousness, through both discussion and action. Nosotros want to be considered righteous before God—something that only comes past God's grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

Noah, similar all of us, was in demand of a Savior. His story is a foreshadowing of the salvific work of Jesus Christ. First Peter 3:18–22 explains, "For Christ as well suffered once for sins, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, existence put to death in the flesh just made alive in the spirit, in which he went and proclaimed to the spirits in prison, because they formerly did not obey, when God'due south patience waited in the days of Noah, while the ark was being prepared, in which a few, that is, 8 persons, were brought safely through water. Baptism, which corresponds to this, now saves you lot, not as a removal of dirt from the body but as an appeal to God for a skilful conscience, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who has gone into heaven and is at the correct mitt of God, with angels, authorities, and powers having been subjected to him." Every bit Noah was rescued from the flood through the ark and brought into a new life, we, too, are rescued from God's judgment of our sins and brought into newness of life through Jesus Christ (John 3:sixteen–18; Ephesians 2:1–10).

Related Truth:

What is the biblical business relationship of Shem, Ham, and Japheth?

What was the reason for the flood in the time of Noah?

Was the Noahic inundation global?

The Noahic Covenant – What is it?

What does it mean that God is non willing for any to perish simply that all would come up to repentance (2 Peter 3:9)?

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