Noah is renowned for building the ark and surviving the Great Flood that covered the earth. He is less well known for what occurred when he and his family came out of the ark and reestablished the human race on planet earth. We shall explore Noah’s legacy for humanity, and especially discuss both the judgment of God and the kindness of God.

The Great Flood was told in different but similar versions in many ancient cultures. From early Mesopotamian times, we have the epic of Gilgamesh, the king of Uruk in southern Mesopotamia who found the patriarch, Utnapishtim, a figure similar to Noah as survivor of a destructive flood. This tale and other adventures of Gilgamesh were found on a series of clay tablets and fragments written in the Akkadian language. Cultures in Africa and the Americas also have their own versions of a Great Flood that inundated the earth. Genesis says that the Flood covered the mountaintops and implies that it was worldwide, not a localized flood. The history in Genesis says that God was grieved that He had made mankind, because the mind of humanity was turned toward evil all the time (Genesis 6:5). Human violence filled the earth. God saw that only Noah was righteous; in fact, Noah walked with God. Therefore, God decided to destroy the earth but save Noah and his family, his sons, and their wives.

God told Noah to make an ark of gopher wood (Genesis 6:14). Gopher is the pronunciation of a Hebrew word of uncertain meaning, but it is often interpreted as the type of wood, such as cypress. Others think gopher referred to the type of cut used in construction. Noah at least knew exactly what God meant and obeyed God’s instructions, building his ark to the prescribed dimensions estimated to be at least 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet from top to bottom. God stated that a flood would come, and it appears the intended destruction would occur in 120 years (Genesis 6:3). Every creature with the breath of life in its nostrils but not aboard the ark would be destroyed in the Flood, including humans. At the appropriate time God would bring pairs of animals, male and female, to Noah for gathering into the ark’s three stories. Animals were subdivided into clean animals and unclean animals (Jewish kosher and non-kosher). Leviticus 11 gives the details for discerning between clean and unclean animals. For example, a dove was clean, while a raven was unclean; a cow was clean, and a horse unclean. The clean animals were taken in seven pairs of male and female, while the unclean animals were taken in single pairs of male and female. Clean animals could be used on the newly-dried earth after the Flood for two purposes: food and sacrifices to God.

Now righteous Noah obeyed God in completing all the instructions. It is commonly believed by the faithful that Noah preached the repentance of righteousness (2 Peter 2:5) during the long building of the ark, but nobody listened! Only Noah and his family were saved. The animals came into the ark along with Noah and family, and God closed up and sealed the door of the ark. Some believe this shows the cooperation between God’s planning and provision and man’s responsibility. The rains came as the earth’s underground reserves welled up, and the rain lasted 40 days and 40 nights as the ark rose on the surface above the destruction. After the rain stopped the surge lasted for 150 days. Eventually, the ark came to rest on a mountain of Ararat. The family and the animals had stores of food in the ark and survived. Noah sent out a raven and then a dove. The dove came back with an olive leaf, and on the third release of the dove it did not return. God finally told Noah to come out of the ark onto dry land.

Noah immediately built an altar and offered a burnt animal sacrifice to God. Then God established His covenant with Noah, commonly called the Rainbow Covenant. The Rainbow Covenant consists of God’s unilateral promises, along with instructions (commands) that mankind may or may not choose to obey! No matter what, God promised never again to destroy the earth and its inhabitants by a worldwide flood. This promise was sealed by God’s setting His rainbow in the sky when it rains. His other promises included the seasons and the movements of the earth, sun, and stars to mark the calendar, as well as days and nights, seedtime and harvest. The earth would always be well regulated, and humans could mark time and calendars by the reliable movements of nature. God also promised to remove the curse on the ground that had plagued mankind since Adam and Eve left the garden of Eden. The ground would now more easily produce crops and vegetation for the growing of food. Also with regard to food, animals could be eaten as food, and no longer just vegetation, but with the stipulation that humans abstain from the eating of blood.

Some instructions or commands to mankind included not only abstention from blood, but capital punishment for murder.

“Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man shall his blood be shed; for in the image of God has God made man.” – Genesis 9:6

God renewed His blessing on humanity to be fruitful and multiply and subdue the earth and all creatures; the fear and dread of humanity would come over all creatures.

Now we come to the role of Noah as the new patriarch over humanity, which we could judge to be a checkered history. Noah had three sons who had been in the ark, along with their wives. The sons were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. Noah became a man of the soil and cultivated a vineyard. Thus begins a sad story of Noah’s debasement in the eyes of his sons. Noah, the hero of righteousness to his sons, basically got drunk and fell into a stupor, naked. We may recall that with Adam and Eve, their nakedness became the first thing for which they felt shame after they sinned and disobeyed God. Nakedness is almost synonymous with shame when seen in the context of vulnerability to sin. In fact, in Hebrew the word for naked sounds very similar to the word used to describe the serpent (Satan) in the garden of Eden. The adjective for the serpent (Satan) was crafty. Crafty Satan knew this, so what crafty device led Noah to his drunken condition when he was discovered by his son, Ham? We do not know whether he became innocently drunk, although this seems unlikely, or whether he was tempted to drown his sorrows in alcohol. As obedient to God as Noah had been to date, he alone had survived with his family, of all the human race. Had he succumbed to survivor’s guilt or survivor’s syndrome? Genesis is tacit on this topic of motive or emotional response by Noah.

One thing we do know from the account of Noah: his words are not recorded throughout the anti-deluvian period and during the Flood. Repeatedly the scripture says he obeyed God just as he had been instructed, yet no words are recorded. Now we know in the case of several biblical men and women of God that they contended with God. Abraham reasoned with God in Genesis 18 and said, “Far be it from you…to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike,” and “Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?” And he pleaded with God, if only ten are righteous in the city, will you spare it? In Genesis 14 he fought a righteous battle, apparently without direct instructions from God, to save his nephew, Lot. There seemed to be an initiative toward righteousness in Abraham’s heart that did not wait for instructions or ask permission. One theory proposes that the scripture makes a subtle difference in Noah’s relationship with God and Abraham’s that seems to support Noah’s passivity and Abraham’s proactive righteousness. “Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9), but speaking to Abraham, God said, “Because you are wholehearted, walk before Me” (Genesis 17:1). In the Midrash on Genesis, the Bereshit Rabbah 30:10, Rabbi Yehudah gives an analogy of this distinction with a parable of a king with two sons, one fully grown, and the other still a boy. The grown son would walk before the king, while the boy son would be taken by the hand and walk with the king. I do not know whether this should be so interpreted in gauging the spiritual maturity of Noah (the “boy son”) and Abraham (the “grown son”), but perhaps we can understand Noah’s vulnerability.

We do, at least, know that blind obedience to God may be acceptable — after all, Abraham tried to sacrifice his son, Isaac, under God’s orders, yet against Abraham’s whole being. (God’s angel stopped Abraham from going through with sacrificing Isaac.) Nevertheless, God did not intend for us to be robots of righteousness; otherwise, there would be no choice of righteousness rather than wickedness in the first place. We know furthermore that Noah reacted with his first and only speech in the scriptures (Genesis 9:25-27). The speech was not pretty and spewed out curses on Ham’s son, Canaan, but with blessings for Japheth and Shem. We know from biblical history that the curse and the blessings of Noah came to pass. Ham’s son, Canaan, established the tribes and nations of the land of Canaan, which became an ungodly place judged by God and conquered by the descendants of Shem, the Israelites. The Israelites became especially favored as the people of God’s covenant promises, including the Messiah, the anointed one: that is, Jesus. The Japhethites became many successful nations that allied with the descendants of Shem. The fateful pronouncements of Noah in Genesis 9 could suggest prophecy given to him by God, although spoken in anger in the case of Ham’s son, Canaan. The other possibility is that Noah’s forecast issued from his own heart but came to pass anyway, whether by God’s will or (very unlikely) coincidence. We are not certain.

Noah’s legacy appears to be that of the flawed hero of faith. We cannot read of any concern for the future of his descendants, for the account in Genesis does not suggest Noah’s concern, nor his prayers, nor any pleadings for his descendants’ walk with God. Without such a record and, in fact, no mention of it, we do not know what went on in Noah’s heart. As we are reading the inspired Scripture, I think not knowing in this case is best for us; we know enough. We do see later in the biblical history how heroes of faith such as Abraham and Jacob and Joseph, Gideon and Elijah and Jeremiah would contend with God — question Him, reason with Him, wrestle with Him, but also obey Him.

This brings us to the account of God’s words in the narrative of Noah. God was the only recorded speaker until Noah gave his curses and blessings on his descendants; God had much to say! God’s first speech in the account of Noah appears in Genesis 6:3. He said, “My spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal — his days will be 120 years.” Two phrases in this sentence have obscure meaning from the ancient Hebrew: “My spirit will not contend” and “he is mortal.” Since humans continued to have lifespans over 200 years for several generations after Noah, rather than lifespan, scholars mostly believe that God was referring to the time remaining between God’s pronouncement of judgment and when judgment came by the Great Flood. The 120 years would give Noah time to build the ark, as well as time for people to repent. This interpretation is consistent with God’s kindness and patience, as we see from 2 Peter 3:9:

The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance.

The Torah also refers to the patience of the Lord God in Exodus 34:6. When Moses asked to see God’s glory, the Lord God said He was “the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, and abounding in love and faithfulness.” Apparently, in regard to Noah’s generation, even given 120 years, no repentance occurred, for only Noah and his family and his sons’ wives entered the ark. From the brief sentence by God in Genesis 6:3, “My spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal — his days will be 120 years,” we may surmise that Noah set the example for humanity, and even preached repentance, as mentioned by the Apostle Peter in 1 Peter 3:19-20 and 2 Peter 2:5.

God was upset with the continual evil of humans, as shown by Genesis 6:4. The Nephilim, interpreted as either giants or fallen ones, were the offspring of the union of “the sons of God” with the “daughters of men.” This is a controversial verse that raises the theory of fallen angels (demons) mating with humans. However, the created order states each type or species of creature mated after its kind (Genesis chapter one), while angels are spirits and not human. Although some biblical passages refer to angels as sons of God, other passages refer to humans as sons or children of God. Calling humans “sons of God,” interchangeable with “children of God” in both Greek and Hebrew, applies to the righteous in passages such as Deuteronomy 14:1; 32:5; Psalm 73:15; Isaiah 43:6; 1 John 3:1-2, 10; etc. Another interpretation says that descendants of Cain (daughters) mated with descendants of Seth (sons of God), so that the daughters of Cain’s wicked legacy married the sons of Seth’s righteous legacy. Yet another theory refers to Bible passages (and Near Eastern literature) naming kings and powerful men as “sons of God.” In such a context, Lamech, the descendant of Cain, was a powerful, evil influence, yet a kingly “son” of God, broadcasting his boast to his two wives about killing men, in a poetical verse (Genesis 4:23). Regardless of any theory’s accuracy about sons of God and Nephilim, the point being made was that all humanity, even the descendants of Seth, had become corrupted by evil.

In the context of the Nephilim, probably the best interpretation of Nephilim would be demonized humans. The Tony Evans Bible Commentary (Nashville: Holman, 2019) agrees with this interpretation. At a minimum, humans were influenced by evil powers and were themselves evil. In keeping with their glorification of violence (Genesis 6:13), the Nephilim were mighty men (even giants), admired by men in spite of their wickedness, but fallen in God’s eyes. They were human, as seen from the context of Genesis 6:1-7, and God regretted having created them, and therefore decided to destroy them. We see that God decided to exercise His judgment on humanity for the continual propagation of evil. The mind of man had turned toward only evil all the time (Genesis 6:5), and only Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord (Genesis 6:8).

God’s next speech included instructions to Noah to build the ark and prepare for housing and feeding the animals, and He began by saying that the earth was filled with violence because of all people (Genesis 6:13). As much wickedness as we find on earth today, we cannot say that the earth is filled with violence 100%, because of all people, 100%. But such was the case before the Flood, with the exception of Noah! To Noah God said to take seven pairs of every clean animal, male and female, and one pair of every unclean animal, male and female, and in seven days He would bring rain upon the earth for 40 days and 40 nights, “and I will wipe from the face of the earth every living creature that I have made” (Genesis 7:4). The animals came to Noah, obviously by God’s direction, and entered the ark (Genesis 7:8-9). The flood waters came and wiped out all breathing animals (Genesis 7:22), yet the ark floated.

Chapter 8 begins, “But God remembered Noah and all the wild animals and livestock” aboard the ark. The phrase “God remembered” repeats through the Scriptures when God honored His promise or covenant with humans. God does not forget and is always faithful. The hymn, “Great Is Thy Faithfulness,” quotes Lamentations 3:22-23, which is assumed written by the prophet Jeremiah in one of the darkest times in Jewish history, the fall of Jerusalem to Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C. and the exile of the people of Judah. Even when things appear to be worst of all, God remembers His promises and His covenants with His people! So God “remembered” Noah and even the animals and began the retreat of the waters. The ark came to rest on the mountain of Ararat. When Noah and his family and the animals emerged, God made His covenant with Noah and spoke to Noah and his three sons. As mentioned, God said the calendar of the earth and the heavens would be reliable as long as the earth endured, and of course, no flood would ever again destroy all of humanity. Greater than this promise, God allowed for a rebirth of humanity’s right standing by giving us a second chance on earth. Humanity has failed again and again, and we still live on a fallen planet and are still subject to the wages of sin, our eventual death (Romans 6:23). Even so, we can turn to God and are given new opportunities, first through the covenants with Abraham and Moses and the children of Israel, and ultimately through the New Covenant in which God’s law is written on our hearts (Ezekiel 11:19; Romans 2:15) — the new covenant through the blood of Jesus Christ (Jeremiah 31:31; Luke 22:20).

God chose a flood to destroy humanity and every creature that had the breath of life in its nostrils. You may ask, why all the animals? Reading the creation history in Genesis chapter one, we see that God created the earth first, and then the universe around it. This contradicts the suppositions of modern science, but the creation history emphasizes that our planet was made to house God’s major creature in all creation, humans, who were made in God’s image. Animals support humanity for food, clothing, companionship in some cases, labor, and for centuries, transportation. They even provided the sin offering by their innocent blood sacrificed for the forgiveness of sins. Thus the sins of mankind brought destruction and suffering on nature, too. However, the symbol and the substance of a new beginning, the ark and its creatures aboard, ushered in a brand new start. The saved ones came forth from the watery grave of all humanity, a figurative baptism as described by the Apostle Peter (1 Peter 3:20-21). They emerged from the ark to a new life, a new beginning in which, for a while, God would be honored. Later, God’s redemptive plan through Christ, not for a while but for all time, would be eventually fulfilled, and is fulfilled in the lives of believing Christians. I close this article with a quotation of the Apostle Paul, writing of the symbolic baptism into the death of Christ:

6 For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin— 7 because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. 8 Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. 9 For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. 10 The death he died, he died to sin once for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. 11 In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus. -Romans 6:6-11