Noah and the Flood

We are in the season of Ordinary Time! Having walked through the story of Jesus—his incarnation, birth, life and ministry, death, resurrection, ascension, and descent of his Spirit, we move into the time of year where we gather up that story and walk the path of faith.

This week we'll continue our walk through the highlights of the Old Testament.

Now, last week we began to look at the descent of humanity after the Fall via the murder of Abel at the hand of his brother Cain.

Through that story the trajectory of the first nine chapters of the Bible becomes clear: it is a descent into madness and brutality. Once sin enters the picture, it spreads and dis-integrates everything: God and humanity, humanity and the earth, men and women, brothers, and so on. 

This is the context into which the story of Noah and his ark arrives.

In Genesis 6-9 we read the story of the near-total corruption of humanity and what God decides to do about it. “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created…for I regret that I have made them. All that is, except for Noah, his family, and two of “all living creatures, male and female.”

This is a famous story. And in the last hundred years or so there has been a lot of debate about how to interpret this story (Was it a truly global flood? Was it regional? Where did all that water go? How did all those animals make it to Noah? Etc.) and how important one’s answers to those questions are. 

At minimum two things are not debatable.

One is the demonstrated capacity for wickedness and violence within humanity under the conditions of sin, and how much God detests it.

The other is that in this event God binds himself to his promise to preserve the world hereafter, no matter what occurs. God puts himself on the hook for his own guarantee that this sort of thing would never happen again.  

The story of Noah and his ark is one of tragedy and of hope. It is intended to be read as a new creation story: life emerging again from the waters as they recede. But it is a new beginning with a more sure guarantee that no matter how bad it might get, this way of dealing with it is over.

Scripture to consider:

• Gen. 6-9

  
  

Question for your kids

• I wonder: what would it be like to be cooped up with all those animals?

• I wonder: have you ever seen a rainbow? What does it make you think of? Why did God give it to us?

Peace,

Danny+