A recent Gallup poll revealed that the percentage of Americans who believe in God is the lowest since the question was first asked. In 1944, 96% of people believed. In 2017, 87% were believers. And in 2022, only 81% professed belief in God. Then the trend continued to quickly decline in 2023 with 74% of Americans claiming to believe in God. While 87% of Americans aged 65 or older said they believe in God, only 68% of young adults ages 18-29 profess the same.
The violence that began as sibling rivalry between Cain and Abel increased to the extent that God could no longer bear the sight of it. He had examined the character of each person in the world and pronounced it universally corrupt. The wickedness of humanity had become so great that Divine justice demanded punishment. In his anguish, God decided to destroy all he created and prepared for the flood.
It might seem as if God considered the whole of his creation a mistake, however he smiled upon one good man. An offering of hope came through Noah. Grateful in the sight of the Lord, Noah obtained God’s mercy and favor. So, God made a covenant with Noah to preserve a future for humankind. By giving Noah precise instructions for building the ark and preparing for life upon it, God planned to save a family. God’s purpose was not to exterminate humankind, but to regenerate it. A higher and better order of things would begin anew.
People hated and persecuted Noah. They derided him for his prediction of the coming flood and making an ark to save himself and his family from it. Noah did not find favor in the eyes of the world because his way of life and his preaching condemned it. He did find favor in the eyes of our God, making him much more honorable than the men of renown in his day.
God’s grace, or favor, is mentioned in the Bible here for the first time. By repentance and the renewing of his mind in the Spirit, Noah was able to live his faith and was found to be a righteous man who possessed a remnant of goodness. It was a terrible state of affairs when only one man or one family lived virtuously even among the Sethites, those who professed to be sons of God. With God’s favor came his mercy to pardon and preserve Noah from the common corruption of human nature. So, the God of all grace found Noah acceptable. Grace clearly signifies the gratuitous favor of God to sinful mankind. With grace, salvation had begun and will be completed.
Noah’s faith was devout. His constant care was to do the will of God. It took strength and resolution to swim against the tide and show up for God when no one else would. Are we willing to go against the prevailing cultural opinion by choosing a more difficult course of action over a simpler or safer alternative? We would do well to make this our chief desire, to live in a way that we might be found acceptable to our Lord.
Becoming Biblical 