I have a young friend named Noah. Whenever I see him this verse comes to mind. Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. As we read these stories again this year, the names and genealogies may lull us to sleep. People were born, had kids, made mistakes and died. A few like Seth, Enoch, and Noah set themselves apart. After Seth was born people began to call upon the name of the Lord. Enoch walked with the Lord and God took him away. Noah found favor and obeyed God, until he didn’t.
We know the narrative, but is there a metanarrative? Is there a larger story which makes all the smaller stories cohere? Alistair Begg summarizes the story of the scriptures in four movements: the good, the bad, the new and the perfect. God created the world and it was good. Then he created humankind and called his creation very good. After day one of our readings, things looked pretty good. Psalm 1 told us how we could live a good life, too. But Adam and Eve’s sin introduces the bad. How bad will it get? The stories of the flood and the tower of Babel underscore the devolution of life from good to really bad.
New beginnings like our new year can take a similar turn. Things start out well. We make lots of commitments and resolutions. This year will be different. But sin remains within. Like the heroes of the narrative, just when we are doing our best, we fall into a mess. Our story so far reminds me of the children’s Sunday School class waiting for their tardy teacher to arrive. The kids began to run amok. Finally, one of the children went outside to seek help, saying, “We are being bad and we don’t know how to stop.” Paul capsulizes our plight in Romans 7, “What I want to do, I do not do but what I hate, I do.” Who will interrupt the spiritual entropy? Who will deliver us from death? Jesus already has!
How do we live a different lives in a new year? Thankfully, after the good and the bad, God includes the “new” in his larger story. He has not finished writing. After Seth, Enoch and Noah, we come to the story of Abraham and his family. When Terah and his kids moved out of Ur, God was starting something new. Today is a new day. Decisions we make have consequences. God’s promise is true, “If anyone is in Christ, there is a new creation. The old has gone. The new is here.” In Christ, you have found favor in the eyes of the Lord. Grace wins in the end.
