Noah: A Righteous and Blameless Man Who Walked with God

(This article is my reflection on weekly Torah reading. The original article is written in Chinese (中文). The English version is translated by Philip Liu and edited by Teresa Chen.)

Genesis 6:9 starts with: “These are the generations of Noah...” (Genesis 6:9a). Obviously, if the Bible is discussing Noah’s genealogy, it will then go on to list his sons: “And Noah had three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth” (Genesis 6:10); based on how the genealogy starts, it should also be quite similar to all the others in Genesis: “Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran…” (Genesis 11:27a).

However, one thing stands out in this particular genealogy as the verse goes on to say, “Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9b). In other words, this means that the Bible is specifically highlighting Noah as “a righteous man, blameless in his generation” and that he “walked with God.”

So, Noah was “a righteous man.” Nevertheless, this was in comparison to all of those in his evil generation, which is proven in God’s command to him: “Go into the ark, you and all your household, for I have seen that you are righteous before me in this generation” (Genesis 7:1b). While “the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11), Noah alone was separated from everyone else, the only “righteous man.” Of course, his righteousness came nowhere near God’s holy standard as it is written, “None is righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10) and also “We have all become like one who is unclean, and all our righteous deeds are like a polluted garment. We all fade like a leaf, and our iniquities, like the wind, take us away” (Isaiah 64:6).

The second phrase used to describe Noah is similar to the first: Noah is described as “blameless in his generation.” Some Jewish rabbis like to compare Noah with Abraham and hold that “for his time, Noah was a blameless man.” However, the rabbis say, if the two had been born during a similar time period, Noah’s righteousness would have come nowhere near that of Abraham’s. This, they say, is because his main objective in building his ark was to save his life and the life of his family whereas Abraham pleaded on behalf of, not only his adopted son Lot, but also the entire cities Sodom and Gomorrah (Babylonian Talmud Sanhedrin 108a). In addition, we see that this “blameless man” seems not so perfect when we read about how he got drunk and cursed Canaan later in Genesis.

Because of these, can we deduce that Noah’s “righteousness” and “blamelessness” aren’t truly that significant in God’s eyes? On the contrary, we actually see that God greatly values Noah’s “righteousness” and “blamelessness;” maybe, it even surpasses that of Abraham, (though I don’t see any real worth in such a comparison). After all, no matter how “righteous” or “blameless” we are, none of us can come anywhere close to God’s standards. Thus, I would like to suggest, God does not look at how much “righteousness” and “blamelessness” we achieve, but He looks at how much effort we put in to achieve this “righteousness” and “blamelessness.” This is similar to the Biblical story where Messiah Yeshua saw that the poor widow’s two coins were worth much more than that of the whole crowd.

It is a given fact that a person’s family, spouse, friends, and environment all have a huge impact on that person’s thoughts and actions. In a godly and pious society and generation, it is not all that hard to be righteous. Conversely, in a sinful and iniquitous generation, it is exceedingly difficult to be righteous. The pursuit of righteousness in such a society comes at a great price. In the book of Hebrews, Christians are encouraged to be holy and resist sin: “In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood” (Hebrews 12:4). However, in Noah’s time, “the earth was corrupt in God's sight, and the earth was filled with violence” (Genesis 6:11). To continue being a righteous person in such a wicked generation, Noah must pay a huge price, and his “blood” must have been “shed” for this purpose.

Just like Noah, who was “righteous” and “blameless” in his generation, God want his sons and daughters today to be “righteous” and “blameless” in this generation. However, how can this “righteousness” and “blamelessness” be achieved? As Noah “walked with God,” today, all of us need to “walk with God.” If Noah could “walk with God” in a time period when “the earth was filled violence,” don’t we, with the power of the Holy Spirit, have all the more reason and ability to do so? Therefore, let us all learn to follow the guidance of the Holy Spirit and to obey His word, in order to be “righteous” and “blameless” in our own generation.