But He giveth more grace. Wherefore, He saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. James 4:6
What is the first mention of grace in the Bible? That’s right, it was Noah, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord. According to today’s text, Noah had to be a humble man. He received from the Lord something that thousands, perhaps millions, in his day did not receive: shelter from the flood’s judgment on this earth. The world that still today accords victory and the highest place to the bold, the forward, and the pushy could certainly not understand how a humble, God-fearing man could possibly rise to the top of anything. And yet, God resisted their proud ways, and gave grace in abundance to Noah.
What did Noah rise above and be delivered from because of God’s grace? Noah lived in a day that was frighteningly like ours. His age was one in which the earth was filled with violence, in which immorality was almost unbridled, and in which false religion and and scoffers were predominant. Violence also washes our planet today. Our society that considers it too cruel and inhumane to execute the murderers on one hand turns its other hand savagely against the unborn, gleefully butchering the helpless to dispose of the inconvenient outcome of their sin. Violence also is daily leveled at those who name the name of Christ in many places, as our age produces more martyrs than at any other period of history. The immorality of our age is shocking as we wonder how much longer God will allow the sins of Sodom to be displayed and promoted and praised. As for false religions and scoffers, we see these everywhere, as the truth of the Bible is suppressed in favour of the evolutionary lies of the devil, as the peddlers of damnable heresies promote their evil wares everywhere around us, and as those who mock God’s existence and criticize His judgments win international acclaim.
In such a godless word, God gives grace to the humble. Just as grace enabled Noah to buck the violence, immorality, and idolatry of his age, God will also enable us to withstand these things in our day. Like Noah, we are in the minority. But like Noah, we will rise above the evil and its judgment. Like Noah, we must obey God, and act for Him. -Jim MacIntosh