GracePower

      This week's Sabbath reading portion is titled Noach (Noah). This reading portion covers Genesis Chapters 6 through 11. The events described in these chapters will be referred to in scripture again and again. This means that there are foundational principles that will be the basis of God's future interaction with mankind. As I looked at the familiar account of Noah, I learned things that I had not considered before it but led me to a deeper understanding of my own walk with Jesus Christ.

     We can begin by briefly reviewing the conditions on earth before Noah was called by God. Genesis 6 tells us that "sons of God", perhaps referring to angelic beings, coveted (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega)-the-daughters of men and took them as wives. They produced children that were called mighty men, giants, or gibor in Hebrew, meaning "strongest, mightiest, giant, powerful, warrior, tyrant, champion, proud, bold, hunter."  The LORD saw that the wickedness of man "was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their heart was only evil continually. And the LORD was sorry that He had made (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega)-man on the earth, and He was grieved ('asab - grieve, hurt, sorry, put in pain, torture, worry, anger, suffer, to afflict). So the LORD said, 'I will destroy (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega)-man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry (naham - sorry, regret, repent, suffer, grief, lament, groan." Also: "be comforted, be consoled, have compassion, sigh) that I have made them." (Gen. 6:1-7). At the same time that the LORD was "sorry" that He had made men, He also wanted to offer comfort and consolation to both *aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega-man and Himself, according to the Hebrew meaning of naham above. In Isaiah 54, Jeremiah 31 and Zephaniah 3, additional reading portions from this Noach Sabbath, the LORD offers mercy, kindness, restoration, comfort and consolation to His people who had been sorely afflicted or punished. The apostle James wrote that for those who show mercy in the law of liberty, "Mercy triumphs over judgment." (James. 2:12-13). God's mercy exists even within His judgment, as we will see with the account of Noah.

     So now, God will call Noah using a very special and powerful quality: "But Noah found grace (hen/hanan/hana - grace, favor, precious, acceptance, good-will/mercy, gracious/encamp, pitch a tent, dwell, grows to an end) in the eyes of the LORD." (v. 8). "Grace" is very much spoken of in the New Testament. Do we understand it, or what it accomplishes? In the account of Noah, it saved the earth, including a remnant of its inhabitants, from deserved total destruction. 

     At this point, we can find out more about Noah before we go further. Noah's name in Hebrew, Noach, means: "rest, resting place, quiet, have rest from enemies, ceased, set down, lay, remain, give rest to, to leave or depart from, repose, be granted rest, give comfort, resting place, to deposit for safe keeping, to leave remaining, of a person dying." To say that Noah's name just means, "Rest" does not give the complete picture. There is also a hint of death or dying in the meaning. The Hebrew letters of Noah's name, nun + cheth, can mean "the heir to the throne, the descendant + inner room or chamber, to protect, cut off from." 

     After finding grace in the eyes of God, scripture tells us that Noah "walked (halak/yalak - to walk, move, depart, come or go away, manner of life, to die, to enter, pass away, travel/go, walk, depart, away, to die, to live, flow, vanish, pursue, take away) with (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega)-God. Again we see in the Hebrew, the meaning can include death, dying, pass away. There are other examples in scripture of servants of God who either experienced a physical death and restoration, or a kind of spiritual death and restoration. This happened to the prophet Jonah (Jonah 2), the prophet Jeremiah (Lamentations 3) and to King David (Psalm 69, Psalm 22 [as prophecy of Christ's death]). All of them ascribed their restoration to the mercy of God.

     After finding grace in the eyes of God, Noah is described as "a just man, perfect (tamim - without blemish, perfect, upright, without spot, whole, complete, innocent, entirely in accord with truth and fact, undefiled) in his generations." (v. 9). This was Noah's spiritual condition after grace. Noah did not "earn" his relationship or grace with God by his own perfection or righteousness. God sovereignly gifted Noah with His grace and its fruits. It is God who said elsewhere in scripture: "...I will be gracious, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion." (Ex. 33:19, Rom. 9:15-16). Noah's "perfection" was not his own, but the product of God's sovereign grace upon Noah for His own purposes.

     In circumstances of unrestrained and unlimited wickedness and corruption in the earth, so pervasive that even the beasts of the earth and the air were affected, and with the rule of evil in every man's heart, God's grace set Noah apart. Scripture says of grace: "Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound. But where sin abounded, grace abounded much more, so that as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." (Rom. 5:20-21). No matter how pervasive wickedness and evil are, the power of God's grace is able to overcome it. Grace is not a weakness but a reigning power given as a gift by God, just as He gave His Son, Jesus, the Person of Grace, as a gift to mankind if they will believe and accept it.

     Here are some additional facts regarding Noah. Noah, a descendant of Adam's third son, whose (*aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega)-name was Seth, was the ninth after Adam and the tenth of the line of mankind on earth. The significance of being "ninth" is reflected in the Hebrew letter with the value of "9", which is tet. This letter has a "u" shape like a vessel or a womb and "represents something hidden, protected, incubating inside a container, not immediately obvious on the surface." This sounds to me like the Person of Christ hidden within the believer. It also me think of the promised seed of Messiah/Christ, hidden and gestating in the future generations of Noah, and prophetically hidden within Noah as Noah and his family were hidden in the ark. The Hebrew letter tet also represents "the eternal and unchangeable truth." 

     The significance of being the "tenth," as mentioned above regarding Noah, is reflected in the Hebrew letter yod. The letter yod has the value of ten, reflecting "a single point of flame, the hand of God, indivisible divine power, spiritual continuity, a gathered community, a unity of multiple parts, a whole body, a complete community wherein God's presence dwells." This makes me think of the unified Body of Christ, both Jew and Gentile, composed of many parts making up a whole, within which dwells the Holy Spirit of God.

(Note: The above interpretations of the numbers 9 and 10 are found in rabbinical writings and traditional Jewish understanding.)

     We saw above a reference to death or dying in the Hebrew meaning of the name "Noah." I don't think that this means that Noah had been physically dead. However, we know from the New Testament writings that those who are called to Messiah/Christ, the embodiment of grace and truth, are called to a kind of spiritual death and resurrection with Messiah/Christ, as well as our later physical death and resurrection. Jesus, who was grace in the flesh, said: "Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My word and believes in Him who sent Me has everlasting life, and shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death unto life." (Jn. 5:24). The believer while still living has already passed from death to life (eternal). Paul wrote: "...you were raised with Christ...Set your mind on the things above, not on things on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden (see the meaning of "9" above) with Christ in God." (Col. 3:1-3). He also wrote: "I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me...I do not set aside the grace of God." (Gal. 2:20-21, excerpt). Paul directly connects the power of grace to the raising of us up together with Christ: "But God, who is rich in mercy (eleos - mercy, kindness, compassion, clemency, good-will, kindness), because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk (Noah walked with *aleph-tav/Alpha and Omega-God) in them." (Eph. 2:4-10). We do not have to physically die first before being raised up with Christ. The work of grace ends our present life and raises us up in new life with Christ.

     By finding grace in the eyes of God, Noah was also being enabled and empowered for the "good work" that the LORD had prepared for him to do. Paul wrote that he could minister only by grace: "For I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me was not in vain; but I am labored more abundantly than they all, yet not I, but the grace of God which was with me. Therefore, whether it was I of they (the other apostles), so we preach and so you believed." (1 Cor. 15:9-11). We often associate the grace of God only with our salvation, but the work of grace continues throughout our works in the name of the Lord. We may often credit our "gifts" in ministering, but we are lax if we do not understand that we minister, however God has purposed us to minister His name, by the power of His grace even more so.

     The grace of God is not an excuse to knowingly continue to sin without repentance as some may wrongfully believe. Scripture tells us that the ongoing work of grace makes us to have died to sin and continues to teach us to turn away from sin in our lives (Rom. 6:1-2, Titus 2:11-14). The power of grace, by remaining in it, removes us from the dominion of the sin under the law (Rom. 6:14), and is an ongoing presence in the life of a believer. Grace is absolutely necessary in our on-going spiritual walk with God and in our purpose, as it was in Noah's.

    Please join my prayer for the grace of God if you would like to: "Dear Father, Your great grace through Your Son, Jesus, saved my life. Your grace has been shown to me so many times, and I have seen its operation throughout my life in so many ways. I depend upon and lean upon Your grace with thanksgiving every moment of my life, and I ask that Your grace works through me to others. I praise You, Lord, because even in the darkest evil of the times, Your Word says that Your grace is even more abounding. Let my eyes not be fixed on the darkness but upon the grace. I call upon Your eternal grace, Lord, not only for Your people, but for those who have been captured in the darkness. I pray the Name of Your Grace, Jesus, upon the earth and all of its inhabitants. I ask these things in Jesus' name. AMEN."

*NOTE: aleph-tav written in Hebrew as אֶת, are the first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The meaning of the two pictographic Hebrew letters can also be interpreted "Adonai (Lord) of the Cross/Covenant". In the New Testament, these letters are translated as Alpha and Omega written as ΑΩ, the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet. These letters are those by which Jesus Christ identifies Himself in the Book of Revelation: see Rev. 1:8, Rev. 21:6, Rev. 22:13.