Genesis 6: Favor in the Eyes of The Lord

 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the LORD.
This is the account of Noah. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. .So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth. So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; ......I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. - Gen. 6:8-18 NIV

Reading the story of Noah, one sees how, in the midst of a violent and corrupt society, we can obtain God's favor.  It's not the approach most of us are inclined to take in this current climate of godlessness.  Most of us want to rail against the system.  We try to defend God's honor when all we need to do is live a blameless life, continue to be righteous, and let God deal with the wickedness.  Most of all, like Noah, we need to walk with God.  I'm not sure I grasp completely what that means, but I know I fall far short of the mark.  Even when God gave Noah an outrageous task that was in direct conflict with the current knowledge of the time, Noah did not refuse.  He carried our God's instructions in spite of the ridicule of his neighbors.  I have a feeling that one of the meanings of walking with God is undertaking the outlandish in his name, going against conventional wisdom, being at crosshairs with the current culture.  It is when we disabuse ourselves of the notion of ever gaining the world's favor that we finally find favor in God's eyes.