We often read the Bible and do not give ourselves the time to find out what it really says. I just want to mention that when the flood took all living souls away, all the descendants of Cain were among those that God destroyed; but in Noah was preserved the lineage of Jesus Christ the promised deliverer! I cannot go into details concerning that situation but it is written: ‘The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. The Lord was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So, the Lord said: I will wipe mankind, whom I have created from the face of the earth – men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air – for I am grieved that I have made them.’ (Genesis 6:5-8)

It is impossible for men to imagine how God felt, but such a statement opens our eyes and we learn something of the character of our Maker, ‘God was grieved', it means that He was profoundly sad! It says, for instance, that Jesus ‘wept’ at the grave of Lazarus, He was grieved also because of the misery sin had inflicted on humanity, thus the destruction that sin brings about, goes right to the heart of God. He does not delight, as some people think, to punish those who are hell bent on sinning, and disregard His right to do all he can to legislate rules so as to protect mankind from Satan, the destroyer. The whole message of the Bible brings into the light the constant conflict between God and Satan, right and wrong, light and darkness, and how eventually God will wipe out all his enemies; men, Satan and His legions of demons, will be cast in the lake of fire, ‘the lake of fire is the second death’. (Revelation 20: 7-15) 

The earth is a field of great conflicts; it is a dangerous place; but God to keep the Christians safe has sent angels. They are ministering spirits, great in numbers mighty in strength, I think, after many experiences, and as I read the Word of God, I learned that they are sent to keep the elects long before they ever are converted, this is why Jesus prayed for them all before He went to the cross; It is written: ‘My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am with you.’ (John 17:20) Now in heaven, He still intercedes for them, He will carry on till all His sheep are safely home!

Therefore, in that general mass of corruption, one man stood out as righteous, it is written: ‘But Noah found favour(grace) in the eyes of the Lord.’ (Genesis 6:8) In the midst of all that regret and pain, the Lord did not overlook one man; one man in all that ungodly crowd, bent on violence and unrighteousness, one man, but the Lord would not, and could not, ignore Him, and Noah found favour in the eyes of the Lord. (Genesis 6: 8) In the King James version of the Bible, it says that Noah found ‘grace’, the grace of God is not a favour, I wonder why men do that, the NIV, which is a modern version of the Bible, has a lot of these errors, a certain ‘nuance’, that gives the wrong interpretation,  God says: ‘For by grace are you saved, through faith, -- and that not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not of works, so that no-one can boast’ (Ephesians 2: 8) Noah was a good man but he was saved without merit, by grace, so, however good Noah may have been, he was saved by grace through faith, that is why he did not perish with the rest of mankind! Noah may have deserved a favour, but grace is given to undeserving sinners!

Men favour men, but only God gives them grace; one can merit a favour, but the Lord applies grace to men without merits, and by grace He takes men out of time into eternity, but He does not give it freely! It is written: ‘Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God’. But Noah’s faith was born by his obedience to God, when he started to build an ark, the faith God gave him, by his obedience to build this ark which God commanded him to build, that he figures in the epistle to the Hebrews chapter 11, with Abel and Enoch, as a man of faith, all had the same faith in God, and were justified by it! Grace is God’s love in action! God’s blessings are favours that He gives, they can be rewards for obedience, but by His grace He saves men that do not deserve it! The eleventh chapter of Hebrews is like a gallery, in it we find the names of men that by faith, have triumphed over sin and Satan, and, starting with Abel, have been justified by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, they live forever, and when He comes for his Church, they shall rise from their graves to life eternal!