3. God Gave Noah Favor
“Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God.” Genesis 6:9 NLT
Even amidst a world running rampant in rebellion and corruption, God found favor on Noah for his righteousness. “Finding favor means gaining approval, acceptance, or special benefits or blessings,” Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology explains, “The favor that human beings receive from God depends on his good pleasure and is often extended in response to prayer or righteous living.”
God is merciful, compassionate, forgiving, and just. He is the very root of love. The joy we have in Christ is the favor of the Lord! We are favored, chosen, and loved. Genesis 8:1 says, “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and the livestock that were with him in the ark, and he sent a wind over the earth, and the waters receded.” (Genesis 8:1 NLT) God remembered Noah, and He remembers us.
4. Noah Was 600 Years Old at the Time of the Flood
“Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters came on the earth.” Genesis 7:6 NLT
Noah was 500 years old when he became a father, and 600 years old when the flood wiped out the earth. “In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, on the seventeenth day of the second month- on that day all the springs of the great deep burst forth, and the floodgates of the heavens were opened. And the rain fell on the earth forty days and forty nights.” Genesis 7:11-12 NLT After the flood, Noah lived another 350 years! He died when He was 950 years old. Centuries of life lived on earth, yet one year was of particular importance. One year, out of 950, remains Biblical legend, God’s covenant promise marked in the sky by rainbows from then until now.
“By the first day of the first month of Noah’s six hundred and first year, the water had dried up from the earth. Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry.” Genesis 8:13 NLT
Life is short, no matter how long we live on this earth. Time is fleeting, and the days of our lives are numbered and known by the Lord, alone. His purposes are good, and in a fraction of the entirety of our lives on this earth, He can move through us with the power of a flood.
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