Genesis 6:8: “But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.”

The Lord came down and look around a spell,

There he saw Mr. Noah, behaving mighty well

That is the reason the Scriptures record,

Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

– Robert Schmertz –

As a small child I used to listen to Tennessee Ernie Ford sing the song Noah Found Grace in the Eyes of the Lord. My first theology lesson was that you found grace from behaving mighty well. Then one day I learned that grace was unmerited favor. That blew apart my first theology lesson for if grace is unmerited, then you can’t get it by behaving mighty well.

If you can’t find grace by behaving mighty well, then how can you find grace? What did Noah do to get this grace? First, what is grace?  I did a study on that not too long ago and I would just like to revisit my personal understanding of grace as I addressed it in that study.

The word for grace in Hebrew is chen.  Chen is favour, grace, charm, elegance, acceptance. It comes from the root word chanan which in its Semitic root is much more powerful, it is a word used when two people are betrothed but are not allowed to physically consummate their union until the betrothal period ends. During this time they have a longing to be intimate with each which only grows more intense as the days go by. Eventually this longing turns to chanan which is an intense longing to be joined together.  In the midst of this longing one would do anything for his beloved, he would think of nothing but his beloved, he would dream of her, write silly poems to her, you know just be totally love sick. That is really what grace is.  We call grace unmerited favor.  Oh, like come now, yes, yes it is unmerited favor.  But you know a man will show unmerited favor to the woman he loves.  I mean he will bring her flowers even though she did nothing to merit it.  But the husband did it only because he loves her.  Come on you cold, stone hearted preachers, enough of this unmerited favor business.  Tell it like it is, unmerited favor is only the result of grace, not grace.  Take grace, chanan back to its Semitic root

As I said the word grace in the Hebrew is ken.  Actually the word Noah is spelled with a Chet and and not a Hei. Hence his name is Noach. That is important because the word grace is Noach spelled backward.  Coincidence or designed by God?  I let you chew on that one.

The root word for grace is Chet, Nun, Nun.  The Chet represents a new beginning. The double Nun represents productivity and faith.  Noah found a chance for a new beginning in faith and productivity in the eyes of the Lord.  When our desire for God becomes so intense we are like that new bride, ready to give up our former life and build our life around the bridegroom. Noah and his family were so in love with God that they were ready to allow God to destroy all that they knew of their present world and lead them by faith into a new world. Far too often we have it backwards.  We expect the bridegroom to enter the bride’s world and family rather than the bride entering the bridegroom’s world and family.

This raises another issue; Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. What are the eyes of God? God does not have literal physical eyes. Of course this is a metaphoric statement similar to ours in English. If you watch a TV program like Dancing with the Stars, you will see couples get a score from three judges. You may hear the phrase, in the eyes of the judges, the couple gets a total score of 30.  The judges had carefully observed the performance of each couple and gave their opinion as to a proper score based upon their insight and discernment.

The word eyes in the Hebrew is ayin like the Hebrew letter Ayin which means insight and discernment. In the insight and discernment of God, God found Noah to be truly in love with Him such that he was ready for a new beginning.

Finally, my original question, what made Noah worthy of this grace, why did he find grace in the insight and discernment of God?  The word find is masa’ which is spelled Mem, Sade, Aleph.  The Mem represents the revelation of God, the Sade represents humility and the Aleph represents God.  Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord when he humbled himself to the revelation that God gave him. Keep in mind that humility is giving yourself completely to the will and revelation of God. We learn in the book of Genesis of another man named Moses was the most humble man alive because he gave himself totally and completely to the will of God.

In the 17^th Century there was a man named John Newton who was such a sinner that he challenged others to find one sin that he had not committed and he would go out and commit that sin. That included murder for he murdered and tortured many people as a slave trader. One day when he brought a load of slaves on his slave ship to an auction, God opened his eyes to let him see the depth of his sin (Mem). Upon seeing the agony of families being separate, the cries and pleas of the slaves  he saw the depth of his sin and humbled himself completely to God (Sade, Aleph).  In that act he found (masa) the Cheth a new beginning in Nun (faith) and Nun (productivity in God) or as we call Chet, Nun, Nun (Chanan) grace.  He found this grace so amazing that part of his new productivity in God was to write a song he titled: Amazing Grace. He lived his life in amazement that God would take a wretched sinner like him and give him grace a new beginning in faith and productivity for God.

No matter how much we have blown it, or have made a mess of things, if we humble ourselves to God’s revelation to us, He will always give us a new beginning in faith and productivity in Him.  That is amazing, an amazing chanan (grace).