terms of grace finding Noah.22 This understanding gains support from the way reference to Noah’s uprightness follows on reference to God’s grace rather than preceding it (Gen 6:9). It was God’s reaching out to Noah that turned him into an upright man. Either way, the aftermath of the flood does affirm that God carries the world’s waywardness and does operate on the basis of grace. When God accepts a thanksgiving sacrifice from Noah, he declares that he will never again curse the earth, “because the
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