Finding Grace in the Eyes of the Lord

   Last week we looked at Enoch and we saw revealed in the life of Enoch a very important concept or principle of the covenant of grace.  The covenant is a gracious relationship that God establishes with us in our Lord Jesus Christ.  It is a walk with God as friends.

        This week we turn to the next chapter in Genesis, chapter 6. We read in verse 8:  “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”  You will notice that verse 8 begins with that word “but.”  That means that there is a sharp contrast in our passage.  It is a contrast between Noah and the people of his day.  We read in verses 5-7, “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 that I have made them.”  “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

        As there is a sharp contrast between Noah and the people of his day, there was also a sharp contrast between God’s attitude toward Noah and God’s attitude toward the wicked people of his day.  What caused this difference between Noah and the other people?  The word is grace.  God’s grace makes all the difference.  God’s grace is not to all, but it is a particular grace, grace to those whom He has chosen in His sovereign purpose in eternity.

        What a beautiful phrase then is in verse 8:  “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”  That text is probably one of the first verses that our little children learn in Sunday School or catechism.  There is no more blessed or significant statement to be made.  It is not only the personal history of Noah, but it takes place in history as a whole:  “Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”