Genesis 6:8 - Meaning and Application

Here we see Noah set apart from the rest of the world, with a special mark of honor on him.

When God was angry with the rest of the world, he showed favor to Noah: “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord” (Genesis 6:8). This shows that God was right in judging the world. It also shows that he had carefully examined everyone before he declared the whole world corrupt, because he found one good man and smiled on him. It also greatly honors God’s grace toward Noah, because Noah became a vessel of God’s mercy while all mankind had become the generation of his wrath. Special favors bring special obligations.

Noah may not have found favor with people. They likely hated and persecuted him, because both his life and his preaching condemned the world. But he found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and that was honor and comfort enough. God valued Noah more than all the world besides, and that made him greater and more truly honorable than all the giants of those days, who became mighty men and men of renown. Let this be the highest goal of our ambition, to find grace in the eyes of the Lord. Let us work so that, whether present or absent, we may be accepted by him (2 Corinthians 5:9). Those are truly favored whom God favors.

When the rest of the world was corrupt and wicked, Noah kept his integrity. “These are the generations of Noah,” meaning, this is the account we have to give of him. “Noah was a just man” (Genesis 6:9). This description of Noah may be given as the reason for God’s favor toward him. His unusual godliness fitted him for unusual signs of God’s love. Those who want to find grace in the eyes of the Lord must be like Noah and do what Noah did. God loves those who love him.

Or this description may be the result of God’s favor toward him. It was God’s good will toward him that produced this good work in him. Noah was a very good man, but he was only what God’s grace made him (1 Corinthians 15:10). He was a just man, meaning he was counted right before God by faith in the promised offspring. He was an heir of the righteousness that comes by faith (Hebrews 11:7). He was also made holy, with right principles and desires placed in him. And he was righteous in how he lived, careful to give everyone what was due, to God and to other people.

Only an honest person can find favor with God. The way of life that pleases God must be ruled by plainness and godly sincerity, not by worldly cleverness (2 Corinthians 1:12). God has sometimes chosen the foolish things of the world, but he has never chosen the dishonest things of it. Noah was perfect, not in the sense of being sinless, but in the sense of being sincere. It is good for us that, through the covenant of grace, which is God’s saving promise, sincerity is accepted as our gospel perfection, because Christ’s righteousness covers us.

He walked with God, as Enoch had done before him. He was not only honest, but also devout. To walk with God means to live as one who is always under his eye. Noah lived in close fellowship with God. He constantly tried to shape his life to God’s will, please him, and approve himself to him. God looks with favor on those who sincerely look up to him in faith.

But what crowns Noah’s character is that he was this kind of man, and lived this way, in his own generation, in that corrupt and godless age where he lived. It is easy to be religious when religion is popular. But it shows strong faith and courage to go against the crowd on the way to heaven, and to stand for God when no one else does. Noah did this, and it is recorded for his lasting honor.