What were the names of Noah’s sons?
Listen: 60 Question 3
The time of Noah’s life was a very sad time. Let’s read Genesis 6:5-8, “And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD.” It certainly grieved the Lord that man was so evil. Of course, the heart of man is no better today than it was in Noah’s time. As we just read about man, “every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” Our God is a righteous God, who “seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.” as we read in 1 Samuel 16:7. The Lord is the perfect judge of the heart because He is the only one that is able to look into the heart and determine every motive, every thought, and every desire we have ever had.
What do you think that Noah did that caused him to find grace in the eyes of the Lord? Do you think his heart was different from others? If we consider the meaning of the word grace, I think we can see if Noah was different from all the other people. The definition of the word grace is “undeserved favor.” From the very definition, we can safely say that Noah did not deserve God’s grace any more than anyone else did. We cannot earn grace. Nothing we do will ever cause us to deserve God’s grace. Grace is undeserved. God, in His holy sovereignty chose to show grace to Noah and his family. How thankful we should all be for portions like Ephesians 2:4-7 which tell us, “But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;) And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus: That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.” To those who are believers on the Lord Jesus Christ, we know God’s mercy and we know God’s grace. What’s the difference between God’s mercy and His grace? Mercy is when the Lord does not give us what we deserve, which is judgment. Grace is when the Lord gives us what we don’t deserve, which is life eternal through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. How precious is the thought that throughout eternity, we will ever be learning about the riches of God’s grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.
So, what were the names of Noah’s children? We know that Noah had a wife and three sons. Noah’s wife’s name is not revealed in the scriptures, but his sons’ names are. Genesis 6:10 tells us that, “…Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.” In Genesis, chapters 6-8, we have the account of the Lord commanding Noah to build an ark before the Lord sent a great flood to destroy all mankind because of their great sinfulness before Him. In light of Genesis 7:7, we know that Noah’s sons were married. That says, “And Noah went in, and his sons, and his wife, and his sons’ wives with him, into the ark, because of the waters of the flood.” The names of the wives of Ham, Shem, and Japheth are not given to us. These eight people went into the ark as a very small minority of all the people on the earth. They came out as the majority, as they were the only eight people that were protected from this great flood the Lord sent on this sinful place.
Let’s read Genesis 9:1, “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” These are the words of the Lord to Noah and his sons after they came out of the ark. Let’s compare that verse with Genesis 9:18-19 which says, “And the sons of Noah, that went forth of the ark, were Shem, and Ham, and Japheth: and Ham is the father of Canaan. These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.” From this we understand that the replenishing of the earth was done by Noah’s three sons, so we can conclude that these three were the only sons that Noah had.