Noah – Light in a corrupt world
Noah lived in a corrupt world – people turned away from God. But Noah found grace with God. He walked his path with him, listened to him and thus became a light in the society of that time. Through Jesus, we too are called and empowered to live as lights in a corrupt world.
Today we are also taking time to get to know a person from the Bible. I wanted to take a person from the book of Genesis with a short and concise story. I ended up with Noah. When I delved into his biography, however, I soon realised that it is by no means possible to illuminate him in a nutshell. Therefore, today we want to devote ourselves to one main aspect of Noah’s life.
First we zoom out and look at where Noah actually occurs. His story stands at a threshold: it marks the transition between prehistory – creation, Adam and Eve, and their descendants – and the father narratives – Abraham and his (nearer) descendants.
Today’s focus is the text from Genesis 6:5–11:
«5 The Lord saw that the people were full of wickedness. Every hour, every day of their lives, they had only one thing in mind: planning evil, doing evil. 6 The Lord was deeply saddened by this and wished he had never created the people. 7 «I will destroy again the people I have made!» he said. «Yes, not only the people – also the animals on earth, from the largest to the smallest, and likewise the birds in the sky. It would have been better if I had not created them in the first place. 8 Only Noah found favour with the Lord. 9 This is his story: Noah was a righteous man – quite unlike his contemporaries. He went his way with God and listened to him. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth. 11 But the rest of mankind was utterly corrupt, the earth filled with violence.» (Genesis 6:5–11 HFA).
A depraved world
Noah lived in a corrupt world. The question that now arises is: In what way was it corrupt? In the text we only recognise silhouettes of it. In Matthew 24:38 we read an exciting statement about this: It is described that the people of Noah’s time ate, drank and married.
Of course, eating, drinking and marrying are not fundamentally corrupt things. The problem was different and goes back to the Fall: people turned away from God. And by turning away from him, they cut themselves off from the source of life. The consequence of this is obvious – without a source of life, people perish.
I am glad that no too concrete ways of life are mentioned here. It shows us: The problem is a general problem and thus still highly topical today.
Noah lived in the middle of this world. I think you can imagine it like this: When we glide through the night in an aeroplane, it is usually very dark. But suddenly a small light shines on the earth that captivates us – that’s how Noah was.
The big question
Noah found grace with God. In Hebrews 11 we even read that he was justified by faith and found God’s approval. Through him, God gave humanity a new beginning and blessed it.
This is a very stark contrast: on the one hand we see an entire society that turns its back on God and corrupts. On the other hand, we meet Noah who found grace with God and led his life radically differently.
How was that possible? That’s what we want to look into today.
Noah – Light in a corrupt world
As already alluded to, Noah was not a self-righteous man. He found God’s grace through his faith. While everyone turned away from God, Noah turned to God. «[…] He went his way with God and listened to him.» (Genesis 6:9 HFA).
Noah lived in dialogue with God – he draws from this. He looks to God and allows himself to be shaped by him. Although he stood on the same ground as everyone else, he lived in a very different reality that was shaped by God. He was not torn to and fro, but was anchored in God. He also recognised the relations between himself and God: God is the Creator who created everything he knows and much more. Noah was his creature.
This dialogue is still very essential today – if not even more explosive. We are inundated with tons of information and worldviews and it is challenging to get on the right track. As we walk our life’s journey with God and listen to him, he will also shape our realities – how we see, perceive and respond to the world.
When Noah is addressed by God, it is a great gift for him, God’s grace and blessing in one. My Creator speaks to me! He trusted in God. He trusted that a flood would come, that an ark would be needed and that salvation would work through it. The building of the ark was thus more a logical consequence of his walk with God.
In 2 Peter 2 we read that Noah called for a life according to God’s will. Unfortunately, we do not know whether he did this through words or by building the ark. Unfortunately, unlike Jonah, he had little success in doing so. The people continued on their way without God.
How the story continues is well known. The flood comes and Noah, his family and the animals in the ark are spared. Noah and his descendants receive God’s blessing after the flood and God makes a covenant with them. At this point I would like to emphasise two things in particular:
Firstly, God blesses people in spite of all their wrong ways. He reflects after the Flood, concludes that their hearts are evil and blesses Noah and all his descendants anyway. What great grace!
Secondly, God makes a first covenant with human beings. This covenant was one-sided – only God had obligations in it. It is therefore impossible for Noah and also for us to fall out of this covenant.
Both aspects show with what grace and goodness God meets people, even when they turn away from him.
The verses in Philippians 2:14–15 describe Noah very aptly: «In all that you do, beware of grumbling and cantankerousness. For your lives should be bright and spotless. Then you will shine like stars in the night as God’s exemplary children in the midst of this corrupt and dark world.» (Philippians 2:14–15 HFA). Through his walk with God he became a light in a corrupt world.
Transforming our thinking
Noah was a foreshadow of Jesus. Jesus says of himself that he is the light of the world. He was spotless and through him we can experience salvation. Noah built an ark out of wood so that salvation was possible; Jesus, on the other hand, lets himself be hung on wood so that we can be saved. Whoever entrusts his life to Jesus will be saved; whoever follows Jesus will find life. He will not perish.
Through Jesus it is also possible for us to walk with God. He creates the basis for Paul’s call: «Do not conform to the standards of this world, but let yourselves be changed by God so that your whole thinking may be realigned. Only then can you judge what God’s will is, what is good and perfect and what pleases Him.» (Romans 12:2 HFA).
When we are on the way with him, he will transform us – and especially our thinking. God wants to create a new reality in us so that we perceive the world as it really is and as it was created by him. He will also make us realise more and more the relations between us and him, if we let ourselves be transformed by him.
Thus, through Jesus, it becomes possible for us to walk in God’s ways. As described in Philippians 2:14–15, through him we become lights in a corrupt world. And in doing so, we give God the glory – the glory that is due to him. Also, through this, people who do not yet know him can come to know him.
