Finding Grace

Genesis 6:5-9
(5) The LORD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.
(6) And the LORD was sorry that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart.
(7) So the LORD said, "I will blot out man whom I have created from the face of the land, man and animals and creeping things and birds of the heavens, for I am sorry that I have made them."
(8) But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
(9) These are the generations of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation. Noah walked with God.

The typical Sunday School curriculum inverts verses 8 and 9. The general idea is that Noah was an exception to all the wickedness in the world and, therefore, he found favor in the eyes of the Lord. However, I don't think that is what the text says. It looks to me like for some reason Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord and then he was a righteous man. We learn later that Noah liked to hit the bottle from time to time. That hardly sounds like he was perfect and that is why he found favor, does it?

In other words, everything starts with God's grace. The word translated "favor" could also mean "grace." It started with God choosing Noah and then Noah became righteous.

We need to be careful about inverting this order. Otherwise we might begin to think that God is really lucky to have us on His team when we forget that He is the one who chose us for the team in the first place.