A Walk with God

DEVOTION

GENESIS

A WALK WITH GOD

Gen 6:9-10

9 This is the account of Noah.

Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

NIV

What a statement about this man Noah. He was righteous, blameless and he walked with God. He was righteous or just as the Hebrew word is used. According to our language of being righteous or just is acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good. When we compare what God said about all of mankind having the inclinations of their heart toward evil all the time, Noah was someone very special. Is it any wonder he found favor in the eyes of the Lord? But that is not all, God says that he was blameless among the people of his time. Does that mean he would not be blameless among the people of our time? We need to see the Hebrew here to fully appreciate what God was seeing in Noah. He was complete, sound, wholesome, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity. Was this before God or before the people of his generation? This is unclear even in the Hebrew text. But what we can gather is it would be both as he was the one man who found favor in the eyes of the Lord. The key to what is said about him is in the fact that he walked with God. Does God look upon us in the same manner? Does he say the same thing about us as he did about Noah? Although Noah did not have Christ, he still walked with God. We have Christ, which God sees us through and thus we are righteous because Jesus is our righteousness. But that should not excuse us from living in a manner that would please God. Surely the greatest pleasure we give him is accepting Jesus as our Savior. But can God say about us what he said about Noah? Certainly the reason Noah was righteous and blameless among his generation is that he walked with God. When we walk with God it puts all else in the proper perspective. When we walk with God we are his ambassadors to others, to the generation we live in. Although the whole of the generation in which Noah lived had their hearts bent toward evil all the time, they had to have known Noah was different than they were. Do the people of our generation know we are different then they are? If all we do is hang around other believers then the rest of the world cannot see us walking with God. Noah certainly did not have a church family to hang out with, to separate himself from the rest of society. Yet he walked with God, and he was blameless among his generation. Either God could find no fault with him or his generation could not find fault with him or as we already said, both. The point is if we are walking with God, he will know, and so will the rest of our generation. We cannot separate ourselves from them as we have been told to go into all the world to tell them about Jesus. This does not mean we pay some evangelist to travel to foreign lands, but it means that we go into the world, into our generation, walking with God, living a life that is complete, sound, wholesome, unimpaired, innocent, having integrity. It does not mean casting shame and blame on those who have not accepted Jesus yet. It does not mean telling them a list of the do’s and don’ts we live by and that they should also if they want to please God. It does not mean we should withdraw from social settings that do not agree with our life. It means we walk with God in front of our generation. Let them see Jesus in us and through us and our life among them. The people of his generations were walking with themselves, but he walked with God. Adam walked with God, Noah walked with God. It seems today many are walking alone, with themselves, but as far as we are concerned, we must walk with God.