Noah, A Preacher Of Righteousness

2 Peter 2:5
and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;

Noah was a preacher of righteousness, probably the first evangelist in the whole history of mankind!

Who was Noah? Why did he preach righteousness to the ungodly people before the Flood?

Genesis 6:5-8
5. Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
6 And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
7 So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.”
8 But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.

In the midst of a wicked and evil generation, Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. He was a righteous and blameless man in the sight of God! Noah also witnessed what God saw. The wickedness of man and their evil intentions to do evil. People were doing wickedness and evil continually as if God did not exist!

According to Josephus, a first century Jewish historian, some Hebrew literature had records about Noah's ministry to the sinful and ungodly generation before the Flood: "But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and, being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and acts for the better; but, seeing that they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him."

Genesis 5:32
And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

Genesis 6:3
And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”

Genesis 7:6
Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.

God declared the countdown to the Flood to be 120 years! Noah probably started to preach to the people when he was 480 years old. About 20 years before he became a father.

As Noah was building the Ark, he was also preaching faithfully to that wicked generation, warning them of the coming catastrophe. He was beseeching them to repent and turn back to God! But they did not listen and heed to his continual messages and warnings! They did not repent. They even mocked at Noah as he was building the Ark. They even threatened to kill Noah. They didn't enter into the Ark until it was too late! Besides the animals and birds, Noah only had his family with him inside the Ark. The Flood occurred when he was 600 years old!

What is righteousness in the sight of God?

Deuteronomy 6:24-25
24 And the LORD commanded us to observe all these statutes, to fear the LORD our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive, as it is this day.
25 Then it will be righteousness for us, if we are careful to observe all these commandments before the LORD our God, as He has commanded us.’

When God gave His laws to His people, the commandments were for their good, and to preserve them alive. By obeying His commandments would be righteousness for them! The laws helped them to be a lawful and orderly people. Without the laws of God, they would degenerate to become disorderly and lawless!

The laws of God liberated them to live a life freely in the Promised Land. Beyond all the dos and don'ts, God was looking at the hearts of men! Whether we will do His will or our own will. Whether we will do what is right in the eyes of the LORD our God or what is right in our own eyes.

Deuteronomy 13:18
because you have listened to the voice of the LORD your God, to keep all His commandments which I command you today, to do what is right in the eyes of the LORD your God.

Judges 17:6
In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes.

Imagine that we were Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Would we obey God and not eat the forbidden fruit or would we disobey God and eat the forbidden fruit? It is a matter of our will. A free choice given by God for us to choose rightly or not.

Beyond all the dos and don'ts of all the commandments, will we or will we not obey the Lord? Will we do His will or will we do our own will? Will we be faithful or will we become unfaithful? Will we be obedient or will we become wilful? Being wilful is having or showing a stubborn and determined intention to do as one wants, regardless of the consequences. We are wilful if we determine to do exactly what we want, even if we know it is wrong.

In the Bible, God's love for His people was like a husband loving his wife, but His people were unfaithful to Him by committing spiritual adulteries in worshipping idols and other gods.

Isaiah 54:5
For your Maker is your husband,
The LORD of hosts is His name;
And your Redeemer is the Holy One of Israel;
He is called the God of the whole earth.

Hosea 2:1-3
1 Say to your brethren, ‘My people,’
And to your sisters, ‘Mercy is shown.’
2 “Bring charges against your mother, bring charges;
For she is not My wife, nor am I her Husband!
Let her put away her harlotries from her sight,
And her adulteries from between her breasts;
3 Lest I strip her naked
And expose her, as in the day she was born,
And make her like a wilderness,
And set her like a dry land,
And slay her with thirst.

Today, we are in a very similar situation facing a wicked generation as in the days of Noah.

Matthew 24:37-39
37 But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
38 For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark,
39 and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

Most people today, including many Christians, do not believe in the Second Coming of Jesus. We are busy pursuing and enjoying the pleasures of life, partying and feasting, and laying up for ourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal.

Micah 6:8
He has shown you, O man, what is good;
And what does the LORD require of you
But to do justly,
To love mercy,
And to walk humbly with your God?

Instead of doing what the LORD requires of us to be fair, righteous, merciful, and to walk humbly with Him, we have chosen to do otherwise. We have become unfair, unrighteous, unloving and proud! We are doing what we will to do. Doing what is right in our own eyes.

Isaiah 59:16
He saw that there was no man,
And wondered that there was no intercessor;
Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him;
And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.

Isaiah 64:6-7
6 But we are all like an unclean thing,
And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags;
We all fade as a leaf,
And our iniquities, like the wind,
Have taken us away.
7 And there is no one who calls on Your name,
Who stirs himself up to take hold of You;
For You have hidden Your face from us,
And have consumed us because of our iniquities.

There is no righteous man in our midst! There is no one who calls upon the name of the Lord, and seeks His face! All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Ephesians 2:8-9
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God,
9 not of works, lest anyone should boast.

But thanks be to God, that we are saved by grace through faith! Yes, like Noah, we can find grace in the eyes of the Lord through faith in Him!

What is faith? It is believing in what the Lord says in His Word, and be faithful to do His will. It is believing in a God Whom we cannot see, trusting and obeying Him every moment of our life. It is neither by sight nor by what we can see.

Romans 3:9-31
9 What then? Are we better than they? Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin.
10 As it is written:
“There is none righteous, no, not one;
11 There is none who understands;
There is none who seeks after God.
12 They have all turned aside;
They have together become unprofitable;
There is none who does good, no, not one.”
13 “Their throat is an open tomb;
With their tongues they have practiced deceit”;
“The poison of asps is under their lips”;
14 “Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness.”
15 “Their feet are swift to shed blood;
16 Destruction and misery are in their ways;
17 And the way of peace they have not known.”
18 “There is no fear of God before their eyes.”
19 Now we know that whatever the law says, it says to those who are under the law, that every mouth may be stopped, and all the world may become guilty before God.
20 Therefore by the deeds of the law no flesh will be justified in His sight, for by the law is the knowledge of sin.
21 But now the righteousness of God apart from the law is revealed, being witnessed by the Law and the Prophets,
22 even the righteousness of God, through faith in Jesus Christ, to all and on all who believe. For there is no difference;
23 for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,
24 being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus,
25 whom God set forth as a propitiation by His blood, through faith, to demonstrate His righteousness, because in His forbearance God had passed over the sins that were previously committed,
26 to demonstrate at the present time His righteousness, that He might be just and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
27 Where is boasting then? It is excluded. By what law? Of works? No, but by the law of faith.
28 Therefore we conclude that a man is justified by faith apart from the deeds of the law.
29 Or is He the God of the Jews only? Is He not also the God of the Gentiles? Yes, of the Gentiles also,
30 since there is one God who will justify the circumcised by faith and the uncircumcised through faith.
31 Do we then make void the law through faith? Certainly not! On the contrary, we establish the law.

We are not saved by the law! We are justified by faith! However, we cannot make void the law through faith. On the contrary, we are told to establish the law.

The laws of God were given after the Passover! God gave His laws to His people on Pentecost. The Blood of the Lamb bought salvation for them. The laws of the Lord did not save them. However, the laws of the Lord were given to sanctify them. God gave them His laws for their sanctification, which was after their salvation! So that they would know Him and His ways, and walk righteously before Him. So that He will be their God, and they shall be His people! That's what the New Covenant is all about!

Jeremiah 31:31-34
31 “Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah— 
32 not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the LORD. 
33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put My law in their minds, and write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 
34 No more shall every man teach his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they all shall know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, says the LORD. For I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

To be saved is one thing but to remain in His fold is another. That is why we must seek His kingdom and His righteousness. To enter into His gates first and then to remain in His holy city.

Psalm 1:5-6
5 Therefore the ungodly shall not stand in the judgment,
Nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous.
6 For the LORD knows the way of the righteous,
But the way of the ungodly shall perish.

Revelation 22:14
Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city.

May we be like Noah, first find grace in the eyes of the Lord, and then be faithful to do what He requires us to do. To do His will and not ours! Even though it may mean preaching righteousness to a wicked generation for 120 years! Faithfully doing His will even with no good responses and results in sight. Living by faith in God, and not by what others think of us. And the righteous shall live by faith, and not by sight!

Written on: 30 June 2019