The Faith of Noah

March 23rd, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Hebrews 11:7 By faith Noah, being warned by God about things not yet seen, in reverence prepared an ark for the salvation of his household, by which he condemned the world, and became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Genesis 6:9 describes Noah as a man who was “righteous… blameless” and as one who “walked with God.” Now since no man is righteous (Rom. 3:10; cf. Ps. 14:1-3) in and of himself, having been born sinful (Rom. 5:12-14), Noah had been made righteous by God—elected and called according to God’s purposes. His faith was credited to him as righteousness (Rom. 4:5) just as Abraham’s later was (Gen. 15:6). Second, being “blameless,” Noah was not sinless, for no man, aside from Jesus, is without sin (Eccl. 7:20). Noah was thus “blameless” in the sense that he was “complete,” or “without hypocrisy.” His moral uprightness was revealed in his behavior, for he stood out among the wickedness of his day like a light shining in the dark. Third, Genesis 6:9 says that Noah “walked with God.” This reminds one of Enoch (Gen. 5:22, 24), pointing to the fact that Noah and Enoch were from the righteous seed of the woman (Gen. 3:15). Only these two patriarchs are said to have “walked with God” (cf. Micah 6:8), although similar language is used of Abraham and Isaac who walked “before” God (17:1; 24:40; 48:15).

Noah was a walking rebuke to all those with whom he encountered, for his life would have stood so contrary to theirs that they could not help but either notice his behavior or hear his exhortation to repent (2 Peter 2:5). While all of his contemporaries followed the crowd, Noah marched to the beat of a different drum, being obedient to God. Though there was no written law in his day, as there would be in Moses’ day, Noah followed God’s righteous law written on his heart, a law that all mankind knows without being taught (Rom. 2:14-15). Later in Israel, those who were faithful to God’s law did not suffer as those who were unfaithful (Exod. 23:7). Hence, Noah’s works reflected his faith and separated him from his evil generation.

Hebrews 11:7 speaks of Noah’s faith. In the midst of great wickedness, Noah set out to work on building an enormous ark. According to Genesis 6:15-16, it was the length of one and a half football fields (450 x 75 x 45). That took faith! But since God had warned him that He was going to flood the entire planet, the ark he would build would be his only means of salvation for he and his household. In 2 Peter 2:5 it is noted that Noah was a preacher of righteousness, meaning that during the 100-year construction of the ark (cp. Gen. 5:32 & 7:6), Noah was also preaching repentance to his wicked generation. By building an ark, Noah “condemned the world,” telling them they needed to repent. Later, when the Flood overtook the earth, salvation is exactly what Noah experienced. He thus “became an heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.”

Though nothing in Scripture denotes how Noah was received by his generation, some ancient writings depict his onlookers as sneering at him and accusing him of being insane. Josephus claims that Noah fled the country for fear of his life. Martin Luther surmised, “More than one miracle was necessary to prevent the ungodly from surrounding and killing [Noah].” As a preacher of righteousness, Noah condemned the world by his obedience to God (Heb. 11:7). It is therefore certain that he was persecuted. Yet Jewish literature celebrated his place in history as the model of righteousness (e.g., Sir 44:17; Jub. 5:19; Wis 10:4; 1 Enoch 67:1).

Food For Thought
Noah reminds us that faithful believers stand out in a wicked generation. Though his preaching would have earned him persecution, the author of Hebrews tells us that it was simply his faith that “condemned the world” (Heb. 11:7). So whether we talk about God or just walk with Him, let it be our prayer that the world around us would take note and see Christ in us.