Genesis 6 - How To Please God

The sad story of man in sin reaches a climax and a crescendo in chapters 6 and 7 of Genesis. There we have a record of how God's judgement was poured out on the human race in a universal flood which swept away all mankind except one family who remained loyal to God. The story reminds us of the personal nature of the God of the Bible - moved by the sin of man and able to judge mankind for their waywardness and their rebellion.

God Grieved

The biblical record tells us that God was sorry he had ever created man! "The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth and he was grieved in his heart" (Genesis 6:6). This is a stark fact of biblical revelation - that God can be sorry for what he has done, not in the sense that what he did was wrong and regrettable, but in the sense that what he did - in the creation of man - did not honour or serve him aright.

What was it that grieved God? It was that the sin of mankind knew no restraint or bounds. The sons of God married the daughters of men (6:4), and the holy seed of God intermingled with the sinful race of those who rebelled against the God of the covenant. There was no clear witness to the truth, with the result that there was no restraining influence any more.

What happens when the witness of the church is compromised in our day and generation? When God's people and Satan's people - Christ's church and the world - mingle and mix without any discernible or identifiable distinction between them? The result is chaos. The light of truth is dimmed. The ethics of God's word are not displayed. The truth of the covenant is hidden from the eyes of men. There is no witness any more.

And the result is chaos - the loosening of the influences of grace and the sweeping over humankind of a torrent of wickedness. Conscience is stifled. Sin is rampant. There is no fear of God before the eyes of men.

There is need for the church to maintain its witness in purity, truthfulness and love. There can be no gospel for men if the lifestyle of the church does not correspond to her profession. To be sure, we are called to live among sinners, as Christ did. To be interested in them to the point of sharing our world with them. Yet all the time we are reminded in God's word that the nature of grace is such that it works to weed out all worldliness and all ungodliness out of the thinking of men. The moment we live and think according to the principles of an unbelieving world is the moment we have sold our soul. God was displeased with a world in the grip of sin with no clear witness of grace.

God Pleased

Yet a light shone in the midst of all this darkness. Noah pleased God. He found grace (6:8). God was good to him, and Noah found mercy and favour with God. It is not that Noah was sinless - subsequent events were to show that there was sin in Noah just as there was sin in the rest of the world. But God looked on Noah in favour, mercy and love.

Salvation, Paul tells us, is all of grace. There is a grace that brings salvation, and it is effective in the lives of men and women. It does what it sets out to do. God saves and God redeems and God shows mercy. Thank God He does! The only hope for a world in the grip of sin is the all-powerful and all-conquering grace of Christ in the Gospel. It was that grace that saved Noah, as it was that grace that saved the church in every age and generation.

And Noah walked with God (6:9). He enjoyed the fellowship that is the fruit of grace, the communion that is grounded on a sure and certain atonement. We have peace with God, says Paul, because of the Lord Jesus Christ. We can walk with God in the midst of a crooked and sinful generation because God is gracious to us in Jesus Christ.

What Noah enjoyed he enjoyed not because of his own worthiness or merit, but because of the love of God for him enjoyed in fellowship and communion .The Gospel offers us nothing less than an opportunity to enjoy God in the midst of a world gripped by self-interest and godlessness.

Mercy and Judgement

God acted to judge the world. He would send a flood; no-one would escape. His judgement would be universal, and the world would know that He is indeed God. But in the proclamation of His judgement the voice of mercy is heard, and the God who sends the flood also prepares to provide a way of escape and a door of salvation for Noah and his family.

The ark was detailed - God told Noah how to build it, where, why and when. And, as Hebrews tells us, Noah, by faith, built an ark for the salvation of his house (Hebrews 11:5). There is for us also one ark of salvation - in Christ, through the mercy of God. Judgement will come on sin. But God graciously provides an answer to man's deepest needs, longings, and sins - He gives us Jesus, in all the glory of His power to save. May we be among those who are safe in the ark of His salvation!