Man of God...: Acts for the Righteous

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Acts for the Righteous

"Then the Lord said to Noah, 'Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time.'" -Genesis 7.1

In this verse I find something that I have to wonder about. When I was a freshman in college my Old Testament professor made the comment about how God saved Noah's family for his sake. As a kid I used to get these Hannah-Barbara movies from the library about two archaeologists and their nomad friend who get sucked into a whirling pool of sand and find the door of time (that's pretty much the introduction to each movie) and they find themselves in various Bible stories. In one they stumble upon Noah building the ark. In the movie, Noah's sons are shown to be faithful and righteous people who fear God and seek to obey Him. The issue is, this isn't the idea given in the Biblical text.

Genesis 6.8 says that Noah found favor with God, and here in Genesis 7 it says you alone. Noah's sons may not have been righteous people, but because of their father's righteousness, they were spared from the destruction of the flood, and given a chance following the flood to live righteously. God is just, and He must deal with sin in order to be just. But God is merciful, and patient, and He extends mercy on behalf of the righteous. In Deuteronomy God says, "but showing lovingkindness to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments."

God acts for the righteous. He extends mercy on behalf of the righteous. He does not grant salvation on behalf of the righteous, the sinful, unrepentant, children of godly parents will not enter eternal paradise on their parent's faith. But God's blessing of protection, I believe, is extended to those children on behalf of their righteous parents. God saved Noah's sons from the flood, and from one of them came the line that lead to Christ and the salvation of the world.

TO GOD ALONE BE THE GLORY!

Peace be with you

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