Noach
Noah
“Walking by Faith”
Genesis 6:9-11:32
Isaiah 54:1-55:5 (A); 54:1-10 (S)
excerpted from Torah In the Balance, Volume I
The second Torah portion begins with the words, “This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9, WMB). The first two Torah portions, which initiate the annual Torah cycle, each condense thousands of years of human history into six chapters of Scripture. In Bereisheet, the creation of Adam and Eve concludes with the introduction of Noah. Noach focuses intently on the life of Noah and his immediate descendants, concluding with the introduction of Abram.
As I read and meditated upon the story of Noah, his life experiences, and his interactions with the Creator God, it became apparent to me that Noah and his example of faith are recorded as an encouragement to each of us, as we deal with our own personal walks and interactions with God. The author of Hebrews wrote that followers of Yeshua are required to exercise faith, as Noah did, in order to receive the righteousness which will reward their pursuit of God:
“Without faith it is impossible to be well pleasing to him, for he who comes to God must believe that he exists, and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. By faith Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith” (Hebrews 11:6-7, WMB).
This Torah portion, devoted to the life of Noah, has been used throughout the ages as a prime example of how people of faith should behave in the wicked and perverse generations into which they have been born. No matter where we each are on our personal journeys, we should each seek to emulate the walk of faith described in this reading, if we want to know how to please God.
“God Said”
When you read this portion, you will discover that the Lord looked upon Noah as a righteous man who was blameless or perfect in his time. Our parashah begins with the words, “This is the history of the generations of Noah: Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time. Noah walked with God” (Genesis 6:9, WMB).
The Hebrew text states that Noah was an ish tzadiq. Two important Hebrew words are introduced into the Biblical text in the opening verse of Noach, which become critical components of the faith system developed in the balance of the Hebrew Scriptures. The before mentioned tzadiq, often meaning “righteous” or “just,” or various other derivatives,[1] and tamim, often meaning “blameless,”[2] are two very important terms. As you encounter these terms in the Scriptures, you find that “righteous(ness)” and “blameless(ness)” are used liberally throughout the Tanakh, often to describe the requirements for proper communion with the Creator. A holy and righteous God imputes these attributes to the people whom He uses to accomplish His purpose:
“The LORD said to Noah, ‘Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness [tzadiq] before me in this generation’” (Genesis 7:1, WMB).
As you can read, Noah was apparently the only human in his generation who the Lord considered righteous before Him. What was it about Noah which made him righteous? Is it possible that when he heard the voice of God telling him to construct the Ark, that his response of faithful obedience to the command resulted in righteousness? The account records how God commanded Noah, and he simply did what he was supposed to:
“God said to Noah, ‘I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth…Thus Noah did. He did all that God commanded him” (Genesis 6:13, 22, WMB).
According to the closing verses of the Torah portion Bereisheet, as God observed the perversity and wretchedness of Noah’s generation, His survey of humanity allowed Him to determine that only one man and his family were worthy to be spared:
“The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of man’s heart was continually only evil. The LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him in his heart. The LORD said, ‘I will destroy man whom I have created from the surface of the ground—man, along with animals, creeping things, and birds of the sky—for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the LORD’s eyes” (Genesis 6:5-8, WMB).
Apparently, Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. He was considered righteous and blameless because he “walked” with Him. We were introduced to the concept of “walking with God” last week in Bereisheet when we read about God taking Enoch:
“After Methuselah’s birth, Enoch walked with God for three hundred years, and became the father of more sons and daughters. All the days of Enoch were three hundred sixty-five years. Enoch walked with God, and he was not found, for God took him” (Genesis 5:22-24, WMB).
The author of Hebrews provides more insight into why God “took” Enoch, as Enoch was also included in the chapter often called “the Hall of Faith”:
“By faith Enoch was taken away, so that he wouldn’t see death, and he was not found, because God translated him [Genesis 5:24]. For he has had testimony given to him that before his translation he had been well pleasing to God” (Hebrews 11:5, WMB).
While this statement asks more questions than it answers, suffice it to say it was only because Enoch was living properly—that he was taken up by God. But as we are contemplating the life of Noah this week, we are reminded of the interconnectivity of walking by faith and living in a righteous and blameless manner. We see numerous examples in the Apostolic Scriptures (New Testament) that walking by faith is definitely something which pleases our Heavenly Father. As stated earlier, “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6, NIV).
Pleasing Him
While digging into the subjects of walking by faith, and being righteous and blameless before the Holy One, images of different holy ones or saints of old, come to mind. I am reminded of Joseph, Daniel, Job, and countless others who have been listed as faithful in their respective walks of faith—many of whom are listed in Hebrews 11, but others who are seen throughout the whole of the Biblical narrative. Throughout the ages there have been others who have exhibited a steadfast walk of faith, and have been righteous and blameless, similar to Noah. There is a specific scene I think of in the Gospels, where the Lord used some people who were described just like Noah, for His redemptive purposes. One such couple was Zacharias and Elizabeth, the parents of John the Immerser:
“There was in the days of Herod, the king of Judea, a certain priest named Zechariah, of the priestly division of Abijah. He had a wife of the daughters of Aaron, and her name was Elisheva. They were both righteous before God, walking blamelessly in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord” (Luke 1:5-6, WMB).
Zacharias and Elizabeth were a couple who feared the Lord and “were upright in the sight of God, observing all the Lord’s commandments and regulations blamelessly” (NIV). As a result of their Torah obedient walk, the Lord chose them to conceive and bear a child whose unique prophetic ministry would immediately precede the ministry of the Messiah.
The birth of John the Baptist, and the subsequent description of the announcement of Yeshua’s birth to Joseph and Mary, have become a critical part of our faith. After all, the progressive revelation which has come forth since the days of Noah has further specified the requirements for communion with the Creator God. Believing in the atoning work of Yeshua at Golgotha (Calvary) is now decisively necessary in the post-resurrection era in which we live. Yeshua Himself said, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me” (John 14:6, WMB).
Walk by Faith
In spite of the fact that we did not live multiple millennia ago during the time of Noah, one thing is certain: the necessity to walk by faith, with the revelation you have received, has never changed. Enoch walked in the knowledge he had, and it pleased the Creator. In a like manner, Noah walked in righteousness blamelessly, and because of his obedience to God, he and his immediate family were preserved from the judgment of the Flood. Millennia later, Zacharias and Elizabeth walked by faith in obedience to God’s Torah, and they were used to produce the one who would be used to point others to the Messiah. Zecharias, moved by the Holy Spirit, declared at John the Immerser’s circumcision,
“And you, child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways [Malachi 3:1], to give knowledge of salvation to his people by the remission of their sins, because of the tender mercy of our God, by which the dawn from on high will visit us, to shine on those who sit in darkness and the shadow of death; to guide our feet into the way of peace” (Luke 1:76-79, WMB).
Zacharias and Elizabeth both knew by revelation, that the coming Child, Yeshua—the yet to be born Son of Joseph and Mary—was going to be a special gift. He would have the power to bring salvation and forgiveness to those who walked in darkness.
In the post-resurrection era, further teaching has come forth from the Apostolic Writings which continue to proclaim the need to walk by faith. The Apostle Paul wrote the Corinthians the following admonition, so that they would more fully understand the meaning of “walking by faith”:
“Now he who made us for this very thing is God, who also gave to us the down payment of the Spirit. Therefore we are always confident and know that while we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord; for we walk by faith, not by sight. We are courageous, I say, and are willing rather to be absent from the body and to be at home with the Lord. Therefore also we make it our aim, whether at home or absent, to be well pleasing to him. For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Messiah that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has done, whether good or bad. Knowing therefore the fear of the Lord, we persuade men, but we are revealed to God, and I hope that we are revealed also in your consciences. For we are not commending ourselves to you again, but speak as giving you occasion of boasting on our behalf, that you may have something to answer those who boast in appearance and not in heart. For if we are beside ourselves, it is for God. Or if we are of sober mind, it is for you. For the love of Messiah compels us; because we judge thus: that one died for all, therefore all died. He died for all, that those who live should no longer live to themselves, but to him who for their sakes died and rose again” (2 Corinthians 5:5-15, WMB).
Here, Paul clarified the admonition to “walk by faith, not by sight,” to the Corinthians. Paul told them that his ambition, whether in the body or absent from the Lord, was to be “well pleasing to him.” It was perhaps not too dissimilar from what Enoch experienced. But the big difference which makes us as post-resurrection holy ones or saints, different from those who preceded the arrival of the Messiah—is the fact that we now have the specific knowledge of how Yeshua died for all. If we believe this, we can be sure to have redemption.
Possessing faith also requires that we recognize how those who do not believe will experience punishment. The additional requirement to avoid the future judgment is absolutely critical for the Body of Messiah. As the Apostle Peter put it, faith in the finished work of the Messiah is without substitute. In fact, he said that it was the good news to which angels long to look, only intensifying its significance:
“In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while, if need be, you have been grieved in various trials, that the proof of your faith, which is more precious than gold that perishes, even though it is tested by fire, may be found to result in praise, glory, and honor at the revelation of Yeshua the Messiah—whom, not having known, you love. In him, though now you don’t see him, yet believing, you rejoice greatly with joy that is unspeakable and full of glory, receiving the result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Concerning this salvation, the prophets sought and searched diligently. They prophesied of the grace that would come to you, searching for who or what kind of time the Spirit of Messiah which was in them pointed to when he predicted the sufferings of Messiah and the glories that would follow them. To them it was revealed that they served not themselves, but you, in these things, which now have been announced to you through those who preached the Good News to you by the Holy Spirit sent out from heaven; which things angels desire to look into” (1 Peter 1:6-12, WMB).
Relevant Faith
Today, the true faith is under considerable attack from mockers who have been predicted since the days of Peter. Some in the Messianic community challenge the veracity of the Apostolic Scriptures because they were written in Greek, and not Hebrew.[3] In doing so, there has been a subtle tendency to deny or pervert the Spirit-inspired revelation which has come forth from these documents. As a sad consequence, in recent years, various people who had claimed to know the Messiah of Israel, have lost their sure moorings in the Rock of Salvation. They have been cleverly convinced that a form of “works righteousness” is the only way they can walk, as found in their own human method of “Torah observance.” This kind of life diminishes or discounts the atoning work of our Messiah Yeshua, as opposed to a proper obedience coming forth as we learn to walk by faith and emulate Him.
As each one of us seeks to “walk by faith,” let us all remember that in order to please our Heavenly Father, we must recognize and believe in the work His Son performed for us at Golgotha (Calvary). We must not allow ourselves to be tempted by mockers, who will scorn and ridicule not only the life-changing message of the gospel—but most especially the declaration of the final judgment required of human beings. Peter stated this predicament most clearly, relying upon the account of the Flood:
“knowing this first, that in the last days mockers will come, walking after their own lusts and saying, ‘Where is the promise of his coming? For, from the day that the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.’ For they willfully forget that there were heavens from of old, and an earth formed out of water and amid water by the word of God, by which means the world that existed then, being overflowed with water, perished. But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men” (2 Peter 3:3-7, WMB).
Today, each one of us must “walk by faith” in the righteousness and blamelessness, which has been provided for us in the work of the Messiah. May this profound truth keep us all from the definite judgment to come! May all come to repentance, so that no one need experience such punishment!
NOTES
[1] Cf. Harold G. Stigers, “tzadeiq,” in R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer, Jr., and Bruce K. Waltke, eds., Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, 2 vols. (Chicago: Moody Press, 1980), 2:725-755.
[2] Cf. William L. Holladay, ed., A Concise Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament (Leiden, the Netherlands: Brill, 1988), 391.
[3] Consult the article “The Hebrew New Testament Misunderstanding” by J.K. McKee (appearing in Confronting Critical Issues).
