Noah's Household

Portraits Of The Christian Faith

Then the LORD said to Noah, “Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you alone I have seen to be righteous before Me in this time." (Genesis 7:1)

Noah's Household

One of the most pivotal chapters in the scriptures is the eleventh chapter of Genesis. In Genesis One, we learn of the most basic of all God's building blocks: the nuclear family. "God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it." Genesis 1:27-28. The family is God's method of building unity and community in His image.

Unfortunately, in chapter two, Adam and Eve chose to believe the devil disguised as a serpent that had not yet been cursed to live on its belly. The Hebrew word "nachash" can also carry connotations of enchanting or divination due to its root verb. Adam was tasked with naming all the animals in chapter two and may have found the serpent at first to be enchanting. Nevertheless, the serpent was a mere covering for the unseen and spiritual being known in the Bible as Satan.

In a continuing context of God making man in His image, both male and female, and creating a family consisting of Cain, Abel, Seth, and many others who are not named, Noah is God's institution of the family. Concerning Noah's family, Moses, under the inspiration of God, said, "Then the LORD said to Noah, "Enter the ark, you and all your household, for you [alone] I have seen [to be] righteous before Me in this time" Genesis 7:1. We are told nothing further concerning men who called upon the name of the Lord, what we know is that God had grace and mercy for Noah and his Household. This term has much significance throughout the scriptures.

Noah's Household Was Told To Multiply

In chapter nine of Genesis and verse one, Noah received the command from God as did Adam and Eve, "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth" Genesis 9:1. There was also an upset in the animal kingdom as they went from being vegetarian to being divided between vegetarian and others meat eaters. The curse upon the earth continued to be fulfilled; men would not live as long, and fear came upon the animals, "The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth..." (9:2). Many other changes took place upon the earth, but the most severe is found in chapter 11.

Noah's Household Told the Tale

"Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father..." (Genesis 9:22). Because of this indecency in Ham, Noah's second son, Noah cursed him. A father's blessing and curse would become very important in the coming days. The following ancestry list from chapter ten, from Ham, led to what the Bible calls the Canaanites, which Joshua replaced with God's righteous kingdom. Ham's descendants included Nimrod: "The beginning of his kingdom was Babel..." Furthermore, "From that land, he went forth into Assyria and built Nineveh..." one of the most violent people groups in the ancient world to which Jonah was sent to preach. From verses 15 to 20, the people groups that came to be known as the Canaanites are named.

The last two verses of chapter 9 tell us, "Noah lived three hundred and fifty years after the flood. So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years, and he died." Noah had three hundred and fifty years to spread the message of the world he knew before The Great Deluge that destroyed that beautiful, inviting, plentiful world and how humanity, by their violence, brought God's destructive wrath upon it.

Noah's Household Propagated Sinners And A Message

Chapter 10 is the migration of nations following the first part of Chapter 11, where the sin at Babel is recorded. The sin is stated rather clearly in verse 4, "They said, "Come, let us build for ourselves a city, and a tower whose top [will reach] into heaven, and let us make for ourselves a name; otherwise we will be scattered abroad over the face of the whole earth."

Noah's first descendants undoubtedly heard the story; he told the ancient and violent world as recorded in Hebrews 11, and we can be sure he proclaimed the God of his salvation to his heirs and descendants. However, he could not guarantee their response. They responded to the God of Noah's righteousness with hatred by trying to build their way to heaven, pride by making for themselves a name, and rebellion by not wanting to fill the earth.

If there is one thing we can be sure of, all people come into the world as sinners; Romans 5:12 says, "Therefore, just as through one man sin entered into the world, and death through sin, and so death spread to all men, because all sinned--" And needing repentance and faith in the One and only Savior. It behooves parents to prioritize their children's schooling, beginning with daily prayer time, learning the word of God together, and being transparent about our struggles.

Noah's Household knew two worlds: The first was under a curse that was not fully realized during the first 1,556 years. The second began to experience the full effect of what the curse would incur, which included the division and wars of nations, separated by different languages, and an ongoing destructive force unseen by the sinner who refuses to see the deficiency of their own sinful heart.

Chapter eleven reveals that Noah's line through Shem produced the next person God blessed. In Abram, God brought the Household to an entirely different level.