The Righteousness of Noah

Genesis 6: 5-10

5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time. 

6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 

7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.” 

8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.

9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 

10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Noah is one of the most iconic characters in the Bible. He is most widely associated with the ark (ship) full of animals, a jolly zookeeper of sorts. However few people went beyond that to consider Noah's character. For God to choose one man out of the entire population, it must be either God's grace, or there is really something special about this guy.

At first glance, Noah may be chosen because of his lineage- being the great grandson of Enosh, the one whom God took away (Enosh was not reported to went through death. More likely, he ascended just like Elijah). However this is not really a valid reasoning, since there are many others who are also direct descendants of the lineage.

In a generation filled with violence and evil, Noah stood out as "righteous", "blameless" and most importantly, he "walked faithfully with God".

The Bible did not explain why and how Noah attained such a character. Perhaps his father Lamech instructed him well, but it is begets the question why his brothers and sisters failed to follow suit. There was no clear social pressure to "be good" (unlike our  Christian community) since mankind was utterly corrupted at that time. Noah was probably not well-regarded by his contemporaries because he did not adhere the social mores of his days.

What made Noah so firm in his commitment to God? If you had been through a situation where compromise seems to provide the biggest payout, there is a great temptation to take the most advantageous (but morally or ethically questionable) step. Imagine Noah facing such compromise as a way of life in his society!

Choosing such a wildly different lifestyle from his peers must have came at great personal costs to Noah in terms of finance, reputation and relationships. Why did only Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives enter the ark (since technically those who are related to Noah are saved)? One plausible reason was that his siblings had been estranged from him.

Based on the passage above, there are three distinct features in Noah's character:

1) Noah was a righteous man.
2) Noah was blameless among the people of his time.
3) Noah walked faithfully with God.

Clearly in this case, the righteousness of Noah was not ascribed by any human being (for they were all corrupted). This recognition of righteousness was dispensed by the Lord Himself. From this case, we learnt that there is a divine standard of right and wrong - although the line is not for us to draw but for God to judge. The righteousness of a believer therefore is ultimately ascribed by God Himself.

This does not mean that we cease to strive towards what is right and act in however way we please - for the act of turning towards righteousness is prerequisite to being deemed as righteous. However the Bible wisely puts it in various passages:


Romans 14:1-9

Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 

2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 

3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 

4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.

5 One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 

6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 

7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 

8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 

9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living.


1 Corinthians 1:1-5

This, then, is how you ought to regard us: as servants of Christ and as those entrusted with the mysteries God has revealed. 

2 Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful. 

3 I care very little if I am judged by you or by any human court; indeed, I do not even judge myself. 

4 My conscience is clear, but that does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me. 

5 Therefore judge nothing before the appointed time; wait until the Lord comes. He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of the heart. At that time each will receive their praise from God.

Primarily, our understanding of righteousness affects largely our heart posture towards the ways of God. If our primary motivation for pursuing righteousness is a result of social enabling, esteem and acceptance, personal fulfillment or any other reason other than a devoted sense of accountability unto God, we will not last in our journey.

The remarkable thing about Noah was that there was no perfectly human and reasonable explanation as to why he pursued/stuck to the path till God commended his righteousness. Noah's pursuit was otherworldly - the result of him taking a different path from everybody else. He walked faithfully with God, cultivated a blameless life and received the ultimate commendation of righteousness from the Lord Himself.

However this was not the icing on the cake. By living a righteous life unto God, Noah's righteousness gave life (in this case, directly) to those in his immediate circle - his wife, his sons and their wives. Righteousness does have a relational ripple effect that is often neglected.

When a person lives a righteous life, it is not merely a personal thing - the consequences of one's life (negative or positive) has a strong and direct impact on those who are tied to him/her. It is not a stretch to claim that your parents, children, siblings, relatives, colleagues, superiors, partners and clients are affected, indirectly or directly, by the way you live your life. Therefore this awareness should jolt us to humble ourselves and reflect upon our ways, keeping in mind that it is our walk with the Lord, not by social pressures or our own definition, that makes us righteous.