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Last time, we continued in Hebrews 11 with the story of Enoch. We looked at Enoch’s history, and the speculation that Enoch and Elijah might be the two witnesses of Revelation 11. Finally, we looked at the amazing promise at the end of Hebrews 11:6 that if we seek God with all our hearts, we will find Him.
Hebrews 11:7 – The Great Hall of Faith – Part 3
The writer continues now in his exposition of the history of faith in Israel with the story of Noah. As we examine this passage, let us keep in mind the overarching theme of Hebrews 11 – Righteousness through faith.
7By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Hebrews 11:7 – NKJV
Believers and unbelievers alike are familiar with the story of Noah (although it has been largely perverted – particularly by Hollywood in their various re-tellings over the years) The church doesn’t do our children any favors either with the smiling Sunday school cartoon Noah holding the dove with the olive branch in its beak in front of the ark with the giraffes poking their necks out the ark’s windows.
We don’t have time to recount the entire history of Noah (Genesis 5:29 – 9:29) so we will just take a look at some of the highlights.
28Lamech lived one hundred and eighty-two years, and had a son. 29And he called his name Noah, saying, “This one will comfort us concerning our work and the toil of our hands, because of the ground which the LORD has cursed.”
Genesis 5:28-29 – NKJV
Noah’s name in Hebrew – נֹחַ Noach – means “rest.” Noah’s father – Lamech – explains the reason he gave his son this name in Genesis 5:29. God’s cursing of the ground to which Lamech refers here happened in the Garden of Eden immediately after Adam and Eve tasted of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil which God had forbidden them to eat.
Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’:
Genesis 3:17 – NKJV
“Cursed is the ground for your sake;
In toil you shall eat of it
All the days of your life.
Genesis 5:29 brings up an interesting topic – the difference between translation and transliteration. Translation is the attempt – always imperfect, and often completely off target – to take an idea expressed in one language, and express the same idea in another language. Perfectly true translation is an impossibility, since each language brings to the effort its own cultural nuances which aren’t the same as the cultural nuances in the target language. Furthermore, the translators also bring their own cultural norms and personal preconceptions into the task. In the extreme case, some translators have deliberately distorted the meaning of the original text to promote their own agendas. For example, the creators – I don’t call them translators since they have deliberately shirked the job of faithful translation – of the Queen James Version of the Bible set out to minimize, distort, or simply discard altogether any passages that disparage homosexual practice. Similarly, the Jehovah’s Witnesses – in creating their New World “Translation” – deliberately removed or distorteded any passages that provide Biblical support for the doctrine of the deity of Jesus.
By contrast, transliteration makes no attempt to export meaning from the source language to the target. Transliteration is the conversion of the sound of a word or phrase in a source language into the same sound rendered by the letters of the target language. Transliteration is also not a perfect process. Some languages have sounds that others do not. For example German has no sounds associated with the English diphthong th. When German students learn English, they must make a special effort to learn to say both the soft th sound as in the English word “thought” and the hard th sound as in the English word “that.” Nevertheless, transliteration is usually easier than translation.
Most of the proper names of places and people that we find in our native language translations of the Word of God are transliterations. One notable exception is God Himself. For the most part, the Hebrew word for God אֵיל el and it’s multiple form אֱלֹהִים ‘elohiym are not transliterated except when compounded into place names such as Bethel, and names of people like Methuselah. These Hebrew words and their Greek counterpart – θεός theos – are merely translated into the English word God, or the German word Gott, etc. rather than transliterated. In itself, this demonstrates the imperfection of the translation process, since we find the Hebrew אֱלֹהִים ‘elohiym (which implies more than two) translated into the singular English God in Genesis 1:1. So right from the very start our English Bibles fail to capture this magnificent, subtle reference to the Trinity in the original language. But apart from God, most of the proper names we find in the Bible are transliterations. Often, the first mention of a proper name in the Word of God is made along with an explanation of what the name means or why a person or place was given that name. For example, when Jacob saw his vision of angels ascending and descending upon a stairway between Heaven and Earth, he called that place in Hebrew בֵּית־אֵל Beyth-‘El – meaning “house of God.”
16Then Jacob awoke from his sleep and said, “Surely the LORD is in this place, and I did not know it.” 17And he was afraid and said, “How awesome is this place! This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven!”
Genesis 28:16-19 – NKJV
18Then Jacob rose early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put at his head, set it up as a pillar, and poured oil on top of it. 19And he called the name of that place Bethel; but the name of that city had been Luz previously.
Unfortunately transliteration of proper names usually masks the original meanings of the names in their native language, often depriving us of some wonderful insights given to us in God’s word.
Aside – Although transliteration is usually easier than translation, in one notable case it is not. God’s personal Name in Hebrew is יְהֹוָה It is often transliterated in English as Yĕhovah, and in printed English Bibles it is rendered as LORD in all capital letters. However, ancient Hebrew texts did not include the vowels, and this Name of God was considered so sacred in ancient Hebrew culture that it was forbidden to utter the Name aloud. Thus the original pronunciation in Hebrew has been lost, making accurate transliteration virtually impossible. The common transliterations Yahweh and Jehovah are really just educated guesses about the original pronunciation of the Hebrew Name.
5-32And Noah was five hundred years old, and Noah begot Shem, Ham, and Japheth. 6-1Now it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth, and daughters were born to them, 2that the sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were beautiful; and they took wives for themselves of all whom they chose.
Genesis 5:32-6:14 – NKJV
3And the LORD said, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.” 4There were giants on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
5Then the LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. 6And the LORD was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. 7So the LORD said, “I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth, both man and beast, creeping thing and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.” 8But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.
9This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. 10And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.
13And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. 14Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch.
17And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. 18But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.
Genesis 6:17-18 – NKJV
It is difficult in studying the story of Noah and the flood to ignore the statement in Genesis 6:4 – “the sons of God came in to the daughters of men and they bore children to them.“ No doubt millions of words have been written about נְפִילִים nĕphiylim, and about God’s motivation for destroying all life from the face of the Earth by a flood. So naturally, we will add to that vast heap with a few salient (i.e. long-winded) points.
- The interbreeding of angels and humans mentioned in Genesis 6:1-4 was apparently a factor in God’s plan, but exactly how remains subject to debate. The Hebrew word in Genesis 6:4 that is translated here as “giants” is נְפִילִים nĕphiylim. It is found only one other place in God’s Word. When the twelve spies that Moses sent into the land of Canaan from Sinai returned with their report (Numbers 13:33), they spoke of נְפִילִים nĕphiylim. The report in that same verse contains a parenthetical note that Anak and his descendants also came from these נְפִילִים nĕphiylim. Of course one of the most debated questions relating to the story is exactly who these “sons of God“ were. An important clue is found in the derivation of the Hebrew word נְפִילִים nĕphiylim. It comes from the Hebrew root נָפַל naphal meaning to fall, lie, be cast down, fail. Perhaps the most well-known instance of this Hebrew root in all of God’s Word is found in Isaiah…
“How you are fallen [נָפַל naphal] from heaven,
O Lucifer, son of the morning!
How you are cut down to the ground,
You who weakened the nations! [Isaiah 14:12 – NKJV]It would seem, then that the “sons of God“ may have been fallen angels (demons) who were cast out of Heaven with Satan at the time of the rebellion in Heaven spoken of in Revelation 12:7. Jude tells us about God’s judgement of these fallen angels.
And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode, He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day; [Jude 1:6 – NKJV]
- It has been conjectured that Goliath – the giant Philistine man of Gath whom David killed was also descended from Anak and the נְפִילִים nĕphiylim. The Biblical story of Goliath contains no reference to his being descended from Anak, and makes no mention of the נְפִילִים nĕphiylim. However since we know that Goliath was a man of Gath, it is a reasonable assumption that he and other Philistines (and the modern Palestinians descended from them – the real Palestinians, not the immigrants from the surrounding Arab nations) were indeed descendants of Anak (and originally from the נְפִילִים nĕphiylim) due to a passage we find in Joshua.
21And at that time Joshua came and cut off the Anakim from the mountains: from Hebron, from Debir, from Anab, from all the mountains of Judah, and from all the mountains of Israel; Joshua utterly destroyed them with their cities. 22None of the Anakim were left in the land of the children of Israel; they remained only in Gaza, in Gath, and in Ashdod. 23So Joshua took the whole land, according to all that the LORD had said to Moses; and Joshua gave it as an inheritance to Israel according to their divisions by their tribes. Then the land rested from war. [Joshua 11:21-22 – NKJV] - It has been conjectured that perhaps Noah’s wife or his sons’ wives brought in this angel “DNA” from before the flood. Note that since Noah himself is said to have been “perfect in his generations” (Genesis 6:9), God chose him to be the progenitor of post-flood humanity, and that therefore the “giant blood” found in Anak and his descendants must have come from one or more of these ladies. A simpler explanation, I think is that angels simply continued to procreate with human women for some period after the flood. But here again, this is all pure conjecture.
- It is abundantly clear from Genesis 6:5, that the primary motivation for God’s flood of destruction wasn’t the corruption of human blood with angel blood, but rather it was the wickedness of mankind, and the continually evil intent of the hearts of mankind. It is also clear that since Noah is said to have been a “just man” (Genesis 6:9) he and his family were spared from the flood. The Hebrew word translated “just” in Genesis 6:9 is צַדִּיק tsaddiyq – a word we have studied before in this series, which may also be translated as “righteous.” This is significant to our purposes here. Recall that the theme of Hebrews 11 is righteousness imputed to people by faith. The obvious question we must ask ourselves as we look around our world is not why God destroyed all flesh with the flood, but rather why God continues to forebear in His ultimate judgement given that after the flood, the wickedness of mankind and the evil intentions of our hearts continued to wax unabated. Recall that the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah came hundreds of years after the flood.
- Genesis 6:6 tells us that God was sorry that He had created man, implying that God had somehow changed His mind about His creation once He saw the wickedness of His children. At first blush, this passage seems to contradict the idea that God is omniscient – always having known all things past, present, and future. Furthermore, the passage seems to imply that the eternal, immutable God is somehow able to change His mind, and thus that His eternal plan of creation (and salvation) is fluid, rather than having been established in eternity past. But we need not fret ourselves over these things. Genesis 6:6 is simply an example of anthropopathism – the attribution of human characteristics and emotions to God. It is an attempt to explain in human terms, aspects of the unsearchable divine mind.
- Genesis 6:3 has been taken to mean that from the time God “decided” to destroy all flesh with a flood and directed Noah to build the ark, until the beginning of the flood was 120 years. But this can’t be. We know from Genesis 5:32 that Noah was at least 500 years old when he received God’s call to construct the ark, because his three sons had already been born when construction began. Since (as we shall see in Genesis 7:11) the flood began in Noah’s 600th year, the ark’s construction couldn’t possibly have taken more than 100 years. Furthermore, we know from Genesis 6:18 that these three sons were already old enough to have married by the time God called Noah to build the ark. Thus the construction time often cited – 120 years – is certainly incorrect.The exact amount of time the ark’s construction took is difficult to determine Biblically. However, we do know that Noah’s son Shem had already been married when God gave Noah the command to build the ark (Genesis 6:18), and that Shem’s first son – Arphaxad – was born two years after the flood when Shem was 100 years old (Genesis 11:10). Thus the maximum amount of time the ark’s construction might have taken is 98 years. Furthermore, we know that Noah’s sons were all married at the time the command to build the ark was given. Assuming that they married in their mid to late teens, we can deduce that the construction must have taken not more than about 80 years, possibly much less. Rather than being a countdown to the flood, it is more likely that in Genesis 6:3 God is alluding to the fact that the lifespans of human beings would be greatly shortened from several hundred years (nearly a millennium in Methuselah’s case) before the flood to only 120 years afterward.
6-22Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.
Genesis 6:22-7:16 – NKJV
7-1Then the LORD said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation. 2You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; 3also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. 4For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” 5And Noah did according to all that the LORD commanded him. 6Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth.
7So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. 8Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, 9two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. 10And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. 11In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. 12And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.
13On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark— 14they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. 15And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. 16So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the LORD shut him in.
So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.
Genesis 7:23 – NKJV
Most of us are well familiar with the story of the flood. Virtually every culture on earth has an oral tradition later set down in writing of an ancient, disastrous flood. Scientists have proposed various explanations, one of which is that the flood was confined to the Black Sea when a land barrier between the lower Black Sea basin and the Mediterranean basin overflowed and carved the channel of the Bosporus and Dardanelles between Europe and Asia Minor (modern Turkey). The conjecture is that although this was a local event, the story was carried around the world as mankind spread out of Africa to populate the globe.
The Word of God paints an entirely different picture of the flood, as we see here, that the floodwaters in Noah’s time covered the entire surface of the Earth for nearly a year covering even the tops of the highest mountains, and that our modern human population traces its ancestry to only eight people – Noah, his wife, his sons, and their wives. We will not debate these two opposing views here. For our purposes – the exposition of the righteousness imputed by God to Noah through his faith – the key point of the story of the flood is found in Genesis 6:4 & 11-12. Recall that Hebrews 11:7 writer tells us that Noah’s faith was manifested in the fact that Noah believed God when he was “…divinely warned of things not yet seen.” Of course, the writer is referring to rain which had never occurred before Noah’s time. In fact, this passage in Genesis is the first mention of rain in God’s Word apart from an explanatory note about the lack of rain in Genesis 2…
4This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens, 5before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the LORD God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; 6but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.
Genesis 2:4-6 -NKJV
We should, of course, remember that the absence of proof does not constitute proof of absence. It is perfectly possible that rain did fall on the Earth after the creation of man (which took place in the Genesis narrative immediately after the passage above in Genesis 2), and from that time forward. If so, the Bible is simply silent about the fact until the time of Noah. Nevertheless, a deluge of water that covered the entire Earth had certainly never been seen before the time of Noah, and it is this fact to which the writer refers in Hebrews 11:7. The key for us to remember is that Noah believed God’s warning that He would destroy all earthly life with a flood, was moved with godly fear, and obeyed God’s command to build the ark precisely as God instructed him so that he and his family would survive. Therefore, God credited this faith to Noah as righteousness.
13And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. 14And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.
15Then God spoke to Noah, saying, 16“Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you.
…
8:20Then Noah built an altar to the LORD, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.
Genesis 8:13-16 & 20 – NKJV
The story makes plain that Noah and his family remained aboard the ark for one year and ten days. In addition to the pairs of every sort of animal brought aboard the ark for the animals’ survival, they also brought stores of food for themselves and for the animals, and seven of each clean animal lawful to eat in accordance with God’s instruction (Genesis 7:2). Surely these clean animals must have reproduced during the journey (although the people had no offspring), and the fowl likely also laid eggs for the people to eat. Fishing would have been impossible since the LORD had sealed them into the ark when the flood began. Nevertheless, after a year’s time, the food stores must have been running quite low. This is what makes Noah’s sacrifice immediately after debarking remarkable. Recall from our first study in Hebrews 11 that Abel’s offering of the firstfruits of his flocks was accepted by the LORD because Able made it in faith, trusting in God’s provision, not knowing whether his flocks would continue to produce offspring. We find a similar situation here with Noah. The Earth had dried following the flood, but there had been no time for planting or for gathering a harvest. The family had no way of knowing whether the newly washed Earth would provide them sustenance. Yet Noah took one of each remaining clean animal and bird, and offered them to the LORD rather than holding them back for “a rainy day.” This act of faith is the crux of the story, and the reason that the Hebrews writer included Noah in the “Great Hall of Faith” – Hebrews 11.
Aside – It is intriguing that God directed Noah to bring extras of the clean animals and birds for the people to eat, and Noah clearly understood exactly which animals and birds God intended. But God did not hand down the written Law of Moses that strictly defines which animals and birds may be eaten until thousands of years after Noah’s death. Clearly there must have been some sort of dietary tradition handed down orally since the fall of mankind in Genesis 3, when mankind and the carnivorous animals first began to eat meat. For reasons unknown, God found it necessary to codify these dietary traditions into written law during the time of Moses.
21And the LORD smelled a soothing aroma. Then the LORD said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.
22“While the earth remains,
Seedtime and harvest,
Cold and heat,
Winter and summer,
And day and night
Shall not cease.”9:1So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.
…
8Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: 9“And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants after you, 10and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. 11Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”
Genesis 8:21 – 9:1 & 9:8-17 – NKJV
12And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: 13I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. 14It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; 15and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. 16The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” 17And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”
Here in this passage we are given the second of the great covenants between God and man – the so-called Noahic covenant. Unlike the first – Adamic – covenant we find in Genesis 1 and 2 which God gave on condition that man not eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, this covenant made by God with Noah was without any conditions. In fact, God made this promise despite His recognition that the imagination of man’s heart continued to be evil even after the flood, and in fact is increasingly so even up to the present day. The blessing granted to Noah, and rainbow God gave as a sign of His promise to never again destroy all life by a flood is wonderful indeed. Here in this beautiful passage, we see the fulfillment of Lamech’s prophecy when he named his son נֹחַ Noach – “rest” – as God proclaims in Genesis 8:21 – “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake…”
But lest we become complacent, let us remember that God’s ultimate judgement of the Earth will surely come after all when He pours out the fullness of His wrath. The Noaic covenant, the Abrahamic covenant we will examine next time, God willing, and the Mosaic covenant established by the written Law of God set down in the Torah were not God’s “final answer,” but were only intended to point the way to God’s ultimate covenant with mankind established by the pouring out of Jesus’ blood upon the cross.
One of the wonderful things about the Word of God is that it doesn’t gloss over the faults of its great heroes. Indeed, this is a strong indication that the Bible is indeed the living Word of God, not a collection of ancient epic tales composed and embellished by men. Noah was certainly a faithful and obedient man of God. Yet he too fell into unholiness just as all people do.
20And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. 21Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. 22And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. 23But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces wereturned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.
Genesis 9:20-23 – NKJV
One important aspect of the flood is that apparently it greatly influenced the lifespan of man. The longest lived man – Noah’s grandfather, Methuselah – died the year of the flood at 969 years of age. Here we see that Noah lived for 950 years. But after the flood, life expectancy gradually decreased until we find that Moses died at 120 years of age. Of course, this may be mere coincidence, and we know that coincidence alone does not imply causality. Nevertheless, it is good cause for reflection when we remember Genesis 6: 3 – “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh; yet his days shall be one hundred and twenty years.”
28And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. 29So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.
Genesis 9:28-29 – NKJV
So what lessons can we take from the story of Noah, apart from his example of righteousness imputed to him by God by his faith and obedience? Perhaps the most important is Jesus’ call to be always ready for His imminent return as He taught in His familiar Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24 using the example of those who died in the flood.
35Heaven and earth will pass away, but My words will by no means pass away.
Matthew 24:35-39 – NKJV
36“But of that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, but My Father only. 37But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. 38For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark, 39and did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
But in addition to being a cautionary tale, the story of Noah is also one of great promise of God’s infinite mercy.
4For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment; 5and did not spare the ancient world, but saved Noah, one of eight people, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood on the world of the ungodly;
…
9then the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust under punishment for the day of judgment,
2 Peter 2:4-5 & 9 – NKJV
9“For this [God’s mercy] is like the waters of Noah to Me;
Isaiah 54:9-10 – NKJV
For as I have sworn
That the waters of Noah would no longer cover the earth,
So have I sworn
That I would not be angry with you, nor rebuke you.
10For the mountains shall depart
And the hills be removed,
But My kindness shall not depart from you,
Nor shall My covenant of peace be removed,”
Says the LORD, who has mercy on you.
Looking Ahead
Next time we will continue our examination of the “Great Hall of Faith” in Hebrews 11 with the story of Abraham, whose faith was credited to him for righteousness.