Noah Found Favor

Good Morning,

Genesis 6:8-9 (NIV)
But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
This is the account of Noah.
Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God.
Genesis 6:8-9 (MSG)
But Noah was different. God liked what he saw in Noah.
This is the story of Noah: Noah was a good man, a man of integrity in his community. Noah walked with God.

Oh, but if these words...or at least words of this kind...could be said of me after I'm gone. I can think of no better epitaph than the words we read today. I can think of nothing better to be said of ANY person as they go about their everyday activities and live out lives that would be pleasing in the sight of God.

I wish that I could claim these words for my live, don't you? But, I must admit that I am much like many of my fellow believers in Christ in that I fall far short of what Noah did...consistently walking with God. Would only that God might find favor in me as He did Noah, but, of course, my actions and words don't qualify for that distinction.

There are only three attributes given to Noah in these short verses. Noah was righteous. Noah was blameless in his own community. (I would take that to mean that he did no wrong or harm toward anyone.) Noah walked with God.

I mean, come on, what more could anyone possibly strive for? How much more of a life could one have than being and having and doing what Noah is described as here?

Let us ask ourselves some questions. How many of us could claim to be "a righteous man" or, as The Message says, "a good man"...? (Person, of course, should be used here, I suppose to be more politically correct.) I would think that the number of us who could lay claim to this attribute would close to zero...at least not very many.

How many of us could claim to be "blameless" in our community, or, again as The Message translates, "a man of integrity"...? Now, there may be some who do, truly, live their lives with 100% integrity, but, again, that number would be pretty low, don't you think? I wouldn't hesitate to venture a guess that there aren't many of us who haven't done some harm or wrong toward someone in our communities at some point in time. I belive we can agree on that.

How many of us could be said to truly "walk with God" on a regular, daily basis? Now, this number might be a bit higher than the others as when we accepted Jesus, there are some of us who do attempt to walk with God as we should. But, well, I would also think that there are many, many of us who fail...at least somewhat...in our walk with Jesus.

Will all...even many...of us gain the right, through the way we live our lives now, to have these things said about us when we're gone? Maybe not up to this point, I would say. But that doesn't mean that we can't make some changes and begin to do more that would mean a legacy more in keeping with what the Bible says about Noah.

Each of us can be better, a bit more righteous, in our daily lives. We can strive to be better (even good? or righteous?) people. Each of us can, from today, live our lives with true integrity and simply refuse to cause harm or do wrong to our fellow human beings. Each of us can choose to do what we need to do in order to walk closer with God.

Easy? No, not at all. Possible? Perhaps...perhaps not. But, can we make the effort? Of course we can. And, it is in those efforts to be more righteous, to be more blameless, and to walk closer to God, that we will be remembered and that God will recognize and honor.

Love, peace, and blessings,

David