The first eleven chapters of Genesis contain a great deal of stories that predated history. In other words they describe events from so long ago that it is difficult for us to “prove” that what they talked about really happened. Among these stories are creation, Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, the Flood, and the Tower of Babel. At least one Biblical scholar has suggested that these stories function as a means of communicating to the Hebrews a fundamental truth. This God, Yahweh, whom we worship and brought us out of Egypt is the same God that created the universe, chastened the first people, and their murderous sons, judged humanity in the flood, etc. To put it another way, this God is the One God, not limited to people or region but is the ultimate One.
Over the past couple of weeks we have looked at Creation and the Garden of Eden. In those two weeks we pointed out that creation is a story about limits being placed on Chaos and order being brought to the world. It is also a story of how God created everything and that the God that we worship in Christ is this same mighty, transcendent God. When we worship this Lord and ask of this God in prayer we should do so with humility.
So now, the Flood. Here are a couple of observations on this narrative. Again, like the story of the Garden and the story of the Creation, the Flood contains elements that we cannot verify scientifically and are somewhat fantastic. A story like the Flood reminds us to take the story as we have it. What I mean is we should read these stories with less of a mind to prove whether or not what happened really happened (or happened just as described in the story) but read them with a mind ready to hear the truth the story is trying to tell us.
God saw that the wickedness of humanity was great on the earth and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.” We have already seen sins of rebellion and disobedience in the Garden and the first murder in Cain and Abel. If we think about these moments being repeated over and over among several hundreds of thousands of people we can begin to see how it is that God would make such a terrifying summation of who we are. Think about the evening news. After just a week of watching the news every night you too might consider that every intent of our hearts was only evil continually.
As I said last night, the most fascinating thing about the Flood narrative to me is that toward the end of the story (8:21) the LORD says “I will never again curse the ground on account of people, for the intent of the human heart is evil from its youth; and I will never again destroy every living thing, as I have done.” Nothing about who we are has changed in this story. God, who has the authority to undo creation, passes judgment on people but ultimately doesn’t change who we are. To put it another way, instead of humanity 2.0, God decides to live with the system as it is.
I think there are two truths (at least) the Flood story is trying to tell us.
1) God is wholly other and God alone has the right to judge us for our misdeeds and indiscretions large and small. Meaning that as much as we wish to be a law unto ourselves, God is Holy and Sovereign and has every right to judge our hearts and deliver justice towards us (individually and collectively) for the many ways that our thoughts, words, and deeds fail to meet His standards. As Christians, we talk a lot about God’s mercy (for good reason) and ignore God’s justice. We paint a picture of a judgmental God who is mean-spirited or haphazard in how justice is done. When we act as though God should judge us or judges us imperfectly we sin. We have put ourselves in God’s place again judging between good and evil
“All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God,” Paul writes. This includes me and you.
God is just in all ways and we are guilty of sin.
2. Because we haven’t been updated then free will must really matter to God. Free will is a theological term for our ability to choose. In English class you may have talked about “agency” or how much control a character has over the events that unfold in the story. Free will is similar to agency. While Theologians (remmeber theologians are people who talk about God) disagree about the amount of free-will we have with regards to our salvation, no serious theologian questions whether we have free-will as people. We have been created to live in freedom. What we do not expect and is hard to imagine is that we best experience freedom when we surrender some of it to God. Much of the sinfulness in the world is a misuse of the freedom we have been given.
Like I said, God has the chance to “start over” he doesn’t make humanity 2.0 with improved righteousness. Instead God casts his lot with the same old version of humanity. God places a rainbow in the sky as an ongoing symbol of the covenant that is made with Noah and his family, where they represent us, to work through people rather than against people for the culmination of his redemptive purposes. What I mean is that God will see the world back to the way he intended it when it was first created, but God has decided to get there through the thoughts, words, and deeds of sinful people like you and I. He must be God, who else would have the patience for that?
God doesn’t want us to be robots mindlessly following him. He wants us to live in freedom loving God and our neighbors well.
Finally, the story of Noah and the Flood and God’s decision to “stick it out” with us I think points us toward the Risen Lord Jesus Christ. There we see the culmination of God’s redemptive action. A moment in time wherein the mercy of God and the justice of God collide for our benefit. We cannot live sinless lives, but we can rely upon the mercy of God mediated to us in the person of Jesus Christ, “the judge who is judged in our place.”
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