humanity. It was within this sinful humanity that ‘grace found Noah’. The Lord decrees that the waters of judgment will wipe out humankind from the earth, and yet he shuts his man and his family up in an ark. The water which is the means of judgment for the world is at the same time the means of salvation for God’s family. In this one action, there is judgment and there is mercy. And throughout, God’s relationship to Noah is one of intimate protecting grace. I have