Genesis · chapter 6 of 50
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Genesis 6 tells how human wickedness grows until God is grieved that he made humanity and decides to bring a flood. Only Noah, a righteous man who walks with God, finds favor. God tells him to build an ark with precise measurements, promises a covenant with him and his family and tells him to bring a pair of every animal. Noah does everything as God commanded.
Genesis 6 opens the story of the flood. After the genealogies of Cain and Seth, the text shows the world at its worst: violence and corruption everywhere. Against that dark background, God's grace shines on Noah, and the word covenant appears for the first time, a word that will organize much of the Bible.
When human beings begin to multiply on the earth, the text says that the sons of God see that the daughters of men are beautiful and take as wives any they choose. The Nephilim are then born, famous men of old. The passage is brief and its interpretation is debated, but the account moves on to what matters: the Lord sees that the wickedness of man is great and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart is only evil continually.
The Lord is grieved that he made man and decides to wipe from the earth humanity and the animals. But Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation, and he walked with God; he had three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. The earth was corrupt and filled with violence, and God decides to put an end to all flesh.
God tells Noah to build an ark of gopher wood, with rooms, sealed with pitch inside and out, 300 cubits long, 50 wide and 30 high, with a window, a door in the side and three decks. God announces the flood and establishes his covenant with Noah: he, his wife, his sons and their wives will enter the ark, along with a pair of every living creature, with food provided. Noah did all that God commanded him.
References follow ESV book names and verse numbers. Read each verse in your Bible before the explanation.
The Lord sees that the wickedness of man is great and that every inclination of his heart is only evil all the time. The diagnosis reaches the center of the person, which is why God's solution will have to go beyond a simple outward correction.
Noah finds favor in the eyes of the Lord. Grace is not earned: it comes before Noah's obedience and makes it possible, a pattern that will appear again and again in the Bible.
Noah is a righteous man, blameless in his generation, who walks with God. In a corrupt world, the faithfulness of one person can be the way God preserves the rest of his plan.
God establishes his covenant with Noah and tells him to enter the ark with his family. It is the first appearance of the word covenant, a solemn promise of God that will shape all the biblical story that follows.
6 questions with answers and references, ready for Sunday school, small group or a Bible quiz night.
Answer: Every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. — Genesis 6:5
Answer: He regretted that he had made man, and his heart was grieved. — Genesis 6:6
Answer: Noah found favor. — Genesis 6:8
Answer: As a righteous man, blameless in his generation, who walked with God. — Genesis 6:9
Answer: Three hundred cubits long, fifty wide and thirty high. — Genesis 6:15
Answer: That he would establish his covenant with him, and that Noah would enter the ark with his wife, his sons and their wives. — Genesis 6:18
Genesis 6 forces us to take sin seriously: it is not a mere mistake but a condition of the heart that grieves God. Yet it does not end in despair. Noah finds favor, and his obedience, building an ark for years in a world that did not understand, shows that faith is lived out in concrete, steady acts.
In a group you can ask where God is asking us to obey even when it looks strange to others, and how to stay faithful when the surrounding culture drifts from God. Noah was not alone: he had his family, and God gave him clear instructions.
Genesis 6 ends with Noah obeying every command of God while the world goes on its way. In Genesis 7 the ark is filled, the waters of the deep break open and the flood begins.
It is a debated passage. Some understand the sons of God as angelic beings; others, as descendants of Seth's line who mixed with Cain's line; others, as human rulers or leaders. The text is brief and does not settle the question, so it is best to present the options with humility.
The text uses human language to express God's real grief over sin, not a miscalculation. God does not change his character or his plan; he responds with sorrow and with justice to what people do, which is why the passage speaks of a grieved heart.
It is the same expression used of Enoch in Genesis 5:24. It describes a life of steady closeness and obedience, not perfection. Noah was not free from sin, but he lived in trust and faithfulness to God, and that is why he is called righteous.