Favor
In the Holman Christian Standard Bible, Genesis states, “When the LORD saw that man’s wickedness was widespread on the earth and that every scheme his mind thought of was nothing but evil all the time, the LORD regretted that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Then the LORD said, ‘I will wipe off from the face of the earth mankind, whom I created, together with the animals, creatures that crawl, and birds of the sky—for I regret that I made them’” (Gen 6:5-7). Then the account tells us, “Noah, however, found favor in the sight of the LORD” (v. 8).
The translators of the KJV rendered the word translated favor in verse 8 as “grace.” Both of these are accurate translations; the word means exactly these things. “Acceptance” is yet another English word that helps us understand what this Hebrew term means. The word itself, as well as the statement in which it is used, indicate clearly that Noah didn’t earn God’s favor; the Lord chose to bestow it on Noah. At the same time, in the very next verse—verse 9—we learn that “Noah was a righteous man, blameless among his contemporaries; Noah walked with God.” While Noah didn’t deserve God’s favor (none of us does), he nevertheless was responsive to the Lord. We see this not only in Genesis 6:8-9, but also in Noah’s obeying God’s instructions to build the ark.
The word translated favor makes its first appearance in the Old Testament in Genesis 6:8 and occurs an additional 68 times. Here is the breakdown for this according to Bible books, with the number of times the word appears in each book in parentheses: Genesis (14); Exodus (9); Numbers (3); Deuteronomy (1); Judges (1); Ruth (3); 1 Samuel (6); 2 Samuel (3); 1 Kings (1); Esther (6); Psalms (2); Proverbs (13); Ecclesiastes (2); Jeremiah (1); Nahum (1); Zechariah (3). While many uses of this word involve grace or favor extended by persons to other individuals or groups, some uses explicitly refer to God’s extending His favor to human beings. These include Genesis 6:8; 39:21; Exodus 33:12-13,16-17; 34:9; Proverbs 3:4, and Zechariah 12:10, a Messianic prophecy. Anyone who says that the God of the Old Testament is a God of wrath who contrasts sharply to the God of the New Testament hasn’t really read the Old Testament carefully.
