“By faith Noah, being warned of God of things not seen as yet, moved with fear, prepared an ark to the saving of his house; by the which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is by faith.” Hebrews 11:7 (Read Genesis 6-9)

When the number of people grew upon the earth, so also did the wickedness and rebellion against the LORD God. The believers (sons of God) intermarried with unbelievers (daughters of men) and the result was more and more people who did not walk in the ways of the LORD but followed after the imaginations of their own hearts – after their own evil thoughts and desires.

Genesis 6 says, “And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that He had made man on the earth, and it grieved Him at His heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth Me than I have made them” (v. 5ff.).

The account continues, “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD … Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God” (v. 8ff.).

God told Noah, in days when the earth was yet watered by a mist (Gen. 2:6), that He would send rains and a flood upon the earth to destroy man and beast. And God commanded Noah to build an ark to save himself, his family and two of every kind of animal from the coming flood (Gen. 6:14ff.).

Even though a flood like that of which God warned was unheard of in Noah’s day, Noah believed the LORD and prepared an ark, warning others around him to repent of their wickedness and turn back to the LORD. By so doing, Noah forsook the present world and became an heir of the righteousness of God which is by faith.

Similarly, God calls upon all mankind today to repent and return to Him, warning that “the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men” (2 Pet. 3:7). God will once again judge this world and all mankind. As He was, at the time of the flood, forced to destroy those who would not repent and turn to Him for mercy, so He will soon condemn all who reject Him and the salvation He offers in the cross of Jesus. This present world and all of man’s evil works will be burned up on that day when Jesus Christ returns.

Those who heed God’s warning and repent, trusting in Christ Jesus and His shed blood for forgiveness and life, forsake this present world and look forward to another in which there will be everlasting righteousness, innocence and blessedness. They are forgiven and accounted righteous by faith in Jesus and walk in fellowship with the Almighty God by that faith and confidence in Jesus and His sacrifice for the sins of the world.

God’s judgment is coming. He is being patient with us, not desiring that any perish, “but that all should come to repentance” (2 Pet. 3:9). He calls us to turn from our evil ways, trusting that in Jesus we have forgiveness and in Jesus we have life everlasting.

O dearest Jesus, Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, have mercy on us, forgive us and grant us a place in your everlasting kingdom. Amen.

[Scripture quotations are from the King James Version of the Bible.]