Noach (Noah)
Genesis 6:9-11:32
Isaiah 54:1–55:5
"Walking
by Faith"
POSTED 12 OCTOBER, 2007
by Mark Huey
mhuey@outreachisrael.net
“These are the records of
the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous
man, blameless in his time; Noah walked with
God” (Genesis 6:9).
It is interesting to note that the first two
Torah portions, that initiate the annual Torah cycle, each
condense thousands of years of human history into six
chapters of Scripture. In Bereisheet, the creation of
Adam and Eve concludes with the life of Noah. Noach
focuses intently on the life of Noah and his immediate
descendants, concluding with the introduction of Abram.
As I read and meditated upon the story of
Noah and his walk of faith, it became apparent to me that
Noah and his example of faith is recorded as an
encouragement to each of us as we deal with our own personal
walks of faith. The author of Hebrews writes that we are
required to exercise faith, as Noah did, in order to receive
the righteousness that will reward our pursuit of God:
“And without faith it is impossible to please
Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is
and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him. By
faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet
seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his
household, by which he condemned the world, and became an
heir of the righteousness which is according to faith”
(Hebrews 11:6-7).
This Torah portion, devoted to the life of
Noah, has been used throughout the ages as a prime example
of how we, as inheritors of the “promise,” should behave in
the wicked and perverse generations into which we have been
born. In other words, no matter where we are on our personal
journeys, we should seek to emulate the walk of faith
described in this reading, if we want to know Him who is
life eternal.
“God Said”
When you read this portion, you will discover
that the Holy One looks upon Noah as a righteous man who was
blameless or perfect in his time:
“These are the records of the
generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in
his time; Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9).
The Hebrew text records that Noah was an
ish tzadiq (qyDc
vya).
Two important Hebrew words are introduced to the Biblical
text in the opening verse of this portion, that became
critical components of the faith system developed in the
balance of the Hebrew Scriptures. The beforementioned
tzadiq
(qyDc),
often meaning “righteous” or “just,” or various other
derivatives, and tamim (~ymT),
often meaning “blameless,” are two very important terms. As
you search for these terms in the Scriptures, you will
discover that “righteous” and “blameless” are used liberally
throughout the Tanakh to further describe the requirements
for communion with the Holy One of Israel. A holy and
righteous God uses these attributes in the people whom He
uses:
“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).
As you can read, Noah is apparently the only
human in his generation who the Lord considered righteous
before Him. What is it about Noah that made him righteous?
Is it possible that when he heard the voice of God telling
him to construct the ark, that his response of faithful
obedience to the command resulted in righteousness?
“Then God said to Noah, ‘The end of all flesh
has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence
because of them; and behold, I am about to destroy them with
the earth’…Thus Noah did; according to all that God had
commanded him, so he did” (Genesis 6:13, 22).
According to the closing verses of the Torah
portion Bereisheet, as God observed the perversity
and wretchedness of Noah’s generation, His survey of
humanity allowed Him to determine that only one man and his
family were worthy to be spared:
“Then the
Lord saw that
the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every
intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. The Lord
was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was
grieved in His heart. The
Lord said, ‘I
will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the
land, from man to animals to creeping things and to birds of
the sky; for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah
found favor in the eyes of the
Lord” (Genesis
6:5-8).
Apparently, Noah found favor in the eyes of
the Lord. He was considered righteous and blameless because
he “walked” with Him. We were introduced to the concept of
“walking with God” last week in Bereisheet when we
read about God taking Enoch:
“Then Enoch walked with God three hundred
years after he became the father of Methuselah, and he had
other sons and daughters. So all the days of Enoch
were three hundred and sixty-five years. Enoch walked with
God; and he was not, for God took him” (Genesis 5:22-24).
The author of Hebrews gives us more insight
into why God “took up” Enoch, when Enoch is also included in
the chapter often called “the Hall of Fame of faith”:
“By faith Enoch was taken up so that he would
not see death; and he
was not found because god took him up; for he
obtained the witness that before his being taken up he was
pleasing to God” (Hebrews 11:5).
As we contemplate the life of Noah, we are
being constantly reminded of the interconnectivity of
walking by faith in a righteous and blameless manner. We see
numerous examples in the Apostolic Scriptures (New
Testament) that walking by faith is definitely something
that pleases our Heavenly Father and Creator. As stated
earlier, “without faith it is impossible to please God”
(Hebrews 11:6, NIV).
Pleasing Him
While digging into the subjects of walking by
faith, and being righteous and blameless before the Holy
One, images of different saints of old come to mind. I am
reminded of Joseph, Daniel, Job, and countless others who
have been listed as faithful in their respective walks of
faith. There is a specific incident in the Gospels where the
Lord used some people, who are described like Noah, for His
redemptive purposes. Apparently throughout the ages there
have been others who have exhibited the walk of faith, and
have been righteous and blameless, similar to Noah. One such
couple is Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the
Immerser (or Baptist):
“In the days of Herod, king of Judea, there
was a priest named Zacharias, of the division of Abijah; and
he had a wife from the daughters of Aaron, and her name was
Elizabeth. They were both righteous in the sight of God,
walking blamelessly in all the commandments and requirements
of the Lord” (Luke 1:5-6).
Zacharias and Elizabeth were a God-fearing
couple who “were upright in the sight of God, observing all
the Lord's commandments and regulations blamelessly” (NIV).
As a result of their Torah obedient walk, the Lord chose
them to conceive and bear a child who became the forerunner
to the birth of the Messiah.
This account of the birth of John the
Baptist, and the subsequent description of the announcement
of Yeshua’s birth to Joseph and Mary, have become a critical
part of our faith. After all, the progressive revelation
that has come forth since the days of Noah has further
defined the requirements for communion with the Creator God.
Believing in the atoning work of Yeshua at Golgotha
(Calvary) is now a necessary belief in the post-Resurrection
walk of faith.
Walk by Faith
In spite of the fact that we did not live
centuries ago, one thing is certain: the necessity to
walk by faith, with the revelation that you have received,
has never changed. Enoch walked in the knowledge that he
had, and it pleased the Holy One. In a like manner, Noah
walked in righteousness blamelessly, and because of his
obedience to God, he and his immediate family were preserved
from the judgment of the Flood. Millennia later, Zacharias
and Elizabeth walked by faith in obedience to the Torah, and
consequently they were used to produce the one who would
eventually point to the Messiah:
“And you, child, will be called the prophet
of the Most High; for you will go on
before the Lord to
prepare His ways; to give to His people the
knowledge of salvation by the forgiveness of their sins,
because of the tender mercy of our God, with which the
Sunrise from on high will visit us,
to shine upon those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death,
to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79).
Zacharias and Elizabeth both knew by
revelation, that Yeshua, the son of Joseph and Mary, was the
Lord in the flesh, and would have the Divine power to
forgive sins.
In the post-Resurrection era, further
revelation has come forth from the Apostolic Writings that
continue to proclaim the need to walk by faith. The Apostle
Paul wrote the Corinthians so that they would more fully
understand the meaning of “walking by faith”:
“Now He who prepared us for this very purpose
is God, who gave to us the Spirit as a pledge. Therefore,
being always of good courage, and knowing that while we are
at home in the body we are absent from the Lord—for we walk
by faith, not by sight—we are of good courage, I say, and
prefer rather to be absent from the body and to be at home
with the Lord. Therefore we also have as our ambition,
whether at home or absent, to be pleasing to Him. For we
must all appear before the judgment seat of Messiah, so that
each one may be recompensed for his deeds in the body,
according to what he has done, whether good or bad.
Therefore, knowing the fear of the Lord, we persuade men,
but we are made manifest to God; and I hope that we are made
manifest also in your consciences. We are not again
commending ourselves to you but are giving you an
occasion to be proud of us, so that you will have an
answer for those who take pride in appearance and not in
heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God; if we
are of sound mind, it is for you. For the love of Messiah
controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all,
therefore all died; and He died for all, so that they who
live might no longer live for themselves, but for Him who
died and rose again on their behalf” (2 Corinthians 5:5-15).
Here, Paul clarifies the admonition to “walk
by faith, not by sight” to the Corinthians. While describing
this condition in the Spirit, Paul tells them that our
ambition, whether in the body or absent, is to be “pleasing
to Him.” This is beginning to sound like what Enoch achieved
in his Earthly sojourn. But the big difference that
post-Resurrection saints must believe, and walk out by
faith, is the fact that Yeshua died for all. We should no
longer live for ourselves, but for Him who died and rose
again on our behalf. The additional requirement to avoid the
future judgment by fire is absolutely critical for the Body
of Messiah. As the Apostle Peter puts it, faith in the
finished work of the Messiah is without substitute. In fact,
it was the good news to which angels long to look:
“In this you greatly rejoice, even though now
for a little while, if necessary, you have been distressed
by various trials, so that the proof of your faith, being
more precious than gold which is perishable, even though
tested by fire, may be found to result in praise and glory
and honor at the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah; and
though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you
do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice
with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining as the
outcome of your faith the salvation of your souls. As to
this salvation, the prophets who prophesied of the grace
that would come to you made careful searches and
inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of
Messiah within them was indicating as He predicted the
sufferings of Messiah and the glories to follow. It was
revealed to them that they were not serving themselves, but
you, in these things which now have been announced to you
through those who preached the gospel to you by the Holy
Spirit sent from heaven—things into which angels long to
look” (1 Peter 1:6-12).
Relevant Faith
Today, the
true faith is under considerable attack from the mockers who
have been predicted since the days of Peter. Some in the
Messianic community are challenging the veracity of the
Apostolic Scriptures because they were written in Greek, and
not Hebrew.[1]
In doing so, there has been a subtle tendency to deny or
pervert the revelation that has come forth from these
documents. As a sad consequence, in recent years, a few who
had claimed to know the Messiah of Israel have lost their
sure moorings in the Rock of Salvation. Instead, they have
been cleverly convinced that a form of “works righteousness”
as is only the way to walk, as found in their own human
method of “Torah observance.” This kind of life diminishes
or discounts the atoning work of our Messiah Yeshua.
As each one of us seeks to “walk by faith,”
let us all remember that in order to please our Heavenly
Father we must recognize and believe in the work His Son
performed for us at Golgotha (Calvary), and not be tempted
by the mockers, who mock even the declaration of the final
judgment required of human beings. Peter states our
predicament most clearly:
“Know this first of all, that in the last
days mockers will come with their mocking, following
after their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of
His coming? For ever since the fathers fell asleep,
all continues just as it was from the beginning of
creation.’ For when they maintain this, it escapes their
notice that by the word of God the heavens existed
long ago and the earth was formed out of water and by
water, through which the world at that time was destroyed,
being flooded with water. But by His word the present
heavens and earth are being reserved for fire, kept for the
day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter
3:3-7).
Today, each one of us must “walk by faith” in
the righteousness and blamelessness that has been provided
for us in the work of the Messiah. May that truth keep us
all from the fiery judgment to come!
Mark Huey (B.A., Vanderbilt
University in History and Graduate Studies at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University) is the
Director of Outreach Israel Ministries (www.outreachisrael.net).
He is the author of several books, including:
TorahScope, Volumes I & II, and Counting
the Omer: A Daily Devotional Toward Shavuot.
He is also co-author of
Hebraic Roots: An Introductory
Study.
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