THE PEOPLE IN THE BEGINNING: NOAH

Men were evil. Crime was rampant. Wickedness was widespread. Lawlessness multiplied. God was ignored or openly defied. (That sounds like America today!)

“When the Lord saw that human wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every inclination of the human mind was nothing but evil all the time, the Lord regretted that he had made man on the earth, and he was deeply grieved”(Genesis 6:5-6).

The always-holy and just Creator had to respond. “I will wipe mankind, whom I created, off the face of the earth … for I regret that I made them” (Genesis 6:7).

On that dark and dreadful day, there was a tiny glimmer of hope. “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8, NKJV). This is the first Biblical reference to “grace.”

Like John Newton, the slave-trader-turned-hymn-writer, Noah came to know God’s SAVING GRACE. “Amazing grace (how sweet the sound) that saved a wretch like me! I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see.” Noah didn’t deserve God’s grace any more than John Newton… nor me or you. “There is no one righteous, not even one”(Romans 3:10).

Again, like John Newton, Noah lived to tell of God’s SUSTAINING GRACE. “Through many dangers, toils and snares I have already come: ‘tis grace has brought me safe thus far, and grace will lead me home.” Surely Noah could tell stories of “dangers, toils, and snares” in an ark filled with wild and dangerous animals.

And today, Noah knows God’s CEASELESS GRACE… everlasting and eternal. “The earth shall soon dissolve like snow, the sun forbear to shine; But God, Who called me here below, will be forever mine. When we’ve been there ten thousand years, bright shining as the sun, we’ve no less days to sing God’s praise than when we’d first begun.”

Indeed, God’s saving grace, sustaining grace, and ceaseless grace is amazing!

“… think on these things” (Philippians 4:8, KJV).