Noah was 600 years old when the floods came. If you figure the space between each generation is something like twenty to thirty years, then by the time that Noah entered the Ark, there were as many as 30 generations of his descendants living on the earth. He could have had anywhere from a million to a billion living descendants. In other words, it is quite likely that almost everyone alive at the time of the flood was part of his family. And yet, out of all of his sons and daughters and grandchildren and great great great great grandchildren, only his wife, three of his sons, and three of his daughters-in-law joined him on the Ark. For those of us appalled, and rightly so, at the complete destruction of 99.99999% of the human race, we might uncharitably picture a callous and even scornful Noah looking down with contempt on a mob of desperate people banging on the hull of the ark and begging to be let aboard. But when we remember that most of the people who were drowned by the flood were Noah’s actual family, how could we imagine anything else but for a grief-stricken and desperate Noah going from son to granddaughter to nephew to fourteenth cousin and begging them to listen to sense and get on the Ark with him? When the Lord revealed to Abraham that He intended to destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, He promised Abraham that He would not rain down destruction if He could find ten righteous people in all of the land. The same thing happened in the time of Noah. Across not just two cities but the entire face of the earth, there could not be found even ten righteous men and women. The flood may not have come at all if there were even ten righteous. But there were only eight. The Lord saved eight on the Ark because those were the last eight righteous people left. Undoubtedly, Noah had other sons besides just Ham, Shem, and Japheth. Undoubtedly Ham, Shem and Japheth had children of their own that they could not convince to join them on the Ark and be saved from destruction. We might often feel that it matters little in the grand scheme of things if we are valiant in our testimonies and examples of the believers. But just two more righteous people anywhere at all could probably have held back the floods. Choosing the right matters. Obeying the commandments matters. Keeping our covenants matters. Each one of us living a righteous life could tip the balance and literally save the world from destruction.
