‹‹  WEEK 11 — DAY 1  ›› 

Morning Nourishment

Gen. 6:7-9 "And Jehovah said, I will blot out the man whom I have created from the surface of the ground...for I repent that I have made them. But Noah found favor in the sight of Jehovah. These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generations; and Noah walked with God."

     The falls portrayed in the book of Genesis are the background of a very positive picture which shows what God has done with the fallen human race. The main purpose of the record of Genesis is not to show the fall, but to show how much God's grace can do for fallen people. The fall is a black background which helps us see a white picture....In Genesis 3 we saw man's first fall and what God did for fallen mankind. In Genesis 4 we saw man's second fall and something further which God did for the fallen people....We shall see what God did as a result of man's third fall. (Life-study of Genesis, p. 373)

     Noah was able to walk with God (Gen. 6:9) in that crooked, perverted, and adulterous generation because he found grace (cf. Heb. 4:16). Grace is God coming to us to be our life supply, our strength, and our everything (see footnote 1 on 1 Cor. 15:10). Such grace enabled Noah to overcome the flesh and to live a righteous life (Ezek. 14:14; cf. Rom. 5:17-21 and footnotes). (Gen. 6:8, footnote 2)

Today's Reading

     When God had His first look at mankind in Genesis 1, He was happy and pleased with man [v. 31]. When God had another look at man in Genesis 6, He saw that man had become wicked and corrupt to the uttermost, and it grieved Him that He had made man. What a change from Genesis 1! Originally, man was on such a high level, but, beginning at chapter 3, he descended lower and lower. What would you have done if you had been God? Perhaps you would have said, “Forget about it.” But what about God's eternal purpose? Is not God the eternal God? Can the eternal God change? God is not a temporary God, but an eternal God. In Him there is no shadow of change (James 1:17). Once He makes a decision, it stands for eternity. If God had forgotten His eternal purpose, His enemy would have laughed at Him,
saying, “You intended to create man to defeat me, but instead of You defeating me, I have defeated You.” Will God be defeated? Never! Then what should God do? The answer, the same in principle throughout the centuries, is found in Genesis 6:8: “But Noah found favor in the sight of Jehovah.”

     This is one of the greatest verses in the book of Genesis. Satan was glad to hear that God was going to destroy man from the face of the earth, but Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That turned the situation and changed the age. Hallelujah, God was not defeated! In the midst of apparent defeat, there was victory through a man who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. That was the turning point. If you read history along with the Bible, you will see that in every generation, when Satan has done his best to damage the situation to the uttermost, there has always been one man or a few people who found grace in the eyes of God and who became the ones who turned the age. Remember the history of Israel. Although they degraded lower and lower until they reached the bottom, there was, much to the surprise of the enemy, a young man named Daniel. Daniel 1:8 says, “But Daniel set his heart not to defile himself with the king's choice provision and with the wine that the king drank.” There in the book of Daniel it says, “But Daniel”; here in Genesis 6:8 it says, “But Noah.” At the bottom of man's fall, there is always a “but.”

     If we look at Noah's life, we shall see that it was not simply a matter of walking with God or of building the ark. The basic and crucial point is that God used Noah to change the age. The enemy had driven the situation to the bottom, and even God repented that He had made man. There seemed to be no hope. But Noah found grace. Noah's life was a life that changed the age. (Life-study of Genesis, pp. 388-389)

Further Reading: Life-study of Genesis, msgs. 28-29