Noah: A Rose Among the Thorns

January 27th, 2026
by Lance Waldie

Genesis 6:8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of Yahweh (Legacy Standard Bible).

The man Noah was a righteous man, born 1056 years after his ancestor Adam who was born on the sixth day of God’s creation (1:26-31). People clearly lived much longer on the pre-Flood earth than they do today, perhaps because the environment allowed for such. Noah himself lived for 950 years (9:29), a typical lifespan in that day (cf. Gen. 5). But it was during Noah’s lifetime, some 1500 years after God declared His creation “very good” (1:31), that man’s morality had drastically deteriorated: “the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence” (6:11). When Noah was 480 years old (1536 years after creation), God told him, “My Spirit shall not strive with man forever… his days shall be 120 years” (6:3). God was going to judge in 120 years, flooding the earth, eradicating everyone except Noah and his family (6:13).

What did Noah do for those 120 years? Per God’s command, he built an ark to save both himself and his family along with every animal that God sent to him to enter the ark (6:14—7:5). His three sons were born to him in his 500th year (Gen. 5:32), so one surmises that he did not build the ark alone but utilized his sons over the course of a century. According to 2 Peter 2:5, Noah was also a “preacher of righteousness.” This means that in addition to building an ark, he was preaching righteousness, upright behavior to a depraved generation. Sadly, as Noah’s account unfolds, it appears no one listened to his call to repent, for at the end of 120 years of preaching righteousness, only Noah and his family entered the ark, saved from God’s wrath.

How depraved was Noah’s generation? Genesis 6:5 says, “Yahweh saw that the evil of man was great on the earth… every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (LSB). Moses, the compiler of Genesis, records that during Noah’s day when mankind was multiplying greatly upon the earth that the “sons of God” noticed the great beauty of the “daughters of men”—taking them for their wives “whomever they chose” (6:2). Notably, in the OT, the “sons of God” is a reference to angelic beings (cf. Job 1:6; 2:1; 38:7). Was Moses saying that angelic beings saw from the heavens the human daughters of men and took them as wives? The NT comments on this, saying, “Angels who did not keep their own domain, but abandoned their proper abode, [God] has kept in eternal bonds under darkness for the judgment of the great day… These indulged in gross immorality and went after strange flesh” (Jude 6-7). Likewise, Peter writes, “For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment… and did not spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, with seven others, when He brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly…” (2 Pet. 2:4-5). So, it appears that angels are in view.

But in light of the fact that Jesus Himself claimed that angels do not procreate (Matt. 22:30), it cannot be that angels had intercourse with humans and produced offspring, for they cannot procreate. Albeit, rebellious angels can indwell humans who are willing to host them. So, what Moses was likely saying is that “the mighty men of old, men of renown” (6:4) were the hosts for these wicked angelic beings, and their offspring was a particular form of wicked men. The Hebrew text calls them Gibborim, or “mighty men,” of which Nimrod was a member (10:8). Nimrod “was a mighty hunter,” either of large animals or of men, perhaps a famous murderer.

Moses also reveals that during the wicked days of Noah, along with the Gibborim, “the Nephilim were on the earth” (6:4)—“giants” (KJV). Were they the offspring of the union of the daughters of men and the sons of God? Were they a group of giants warring against the Gibborim who were the offspring of that forbidden union? The text never gives these answers; it only paints a picture of a chaotic, violent, out-of-control society. But what the text does reveal is that Noah was in the midst of it all. A righteous man among wicked men (Gen. 6:8).

Food For Thought
Noah stood out as a godly man should in an evil world. Even Ezekiel would list Noah as one of the three most righteous men who ever lived (Ezek. 14:14, 20). The same is true today, for truly righteous men stand out from the wicked—from the way they talk to the way they dress to the way they spend their money to the way they live day to day. Men of peace like Noah find grace in God’s eyes, and the wrath of God that will be meted out on all the ungodly in the end will not touch them. As Noah was saved from God’s wrath, so too are all who trust in Jesus Christ. He paid the death penalty for our sins. But it’s only for those who trust in Him.