Scriptures of the day: Genesis 6:11-20, Genesis 7:6-16, Psalm 5
Opening Intro:
First of all, as we focus on Genesis, I have already received questions about the hows of things that went on there at the beginning of time. I want to remind all of you of something we discussed last week about Scripture. While science focuses on “how,” the Bible focuses on “why.” I am in the Bible business, not the Science business.
That being said, I love the many things in Science that reinforce the truth behind some of the historical nature of Scripture. I love studying them and reading about them.
It is just that Scripture is intended to tell the story of how God interacts with people. And because it focuses God’s story of Why, it doesn’t give all of the details about the how of things.
So, no, Scripture doesn’t tell who the children of Adam and Eve married, nor does describe how Noah kept the lions from eating the bunny rabbits, or who cleaned up after all of those animals on the Ark. For that, you are left without answers, or whatever answers you want to use.
We were created for a purpose:
We began last week with creation. And we can’t tell the story of the Flood without beginning with the creation. As we discussed, we were created for a purpose. And that purpose was to be in fellowship with God. God created us in God’s own image so that we could accomplish our purpose. And all that God created was GOOD.
The Fall.
There in the Garden you see the very first implications of what was to come. They were created good. But they were also created free. And freedom meant they could choose freely to participate in the relationship with God. As you know, they made the wrong choice. This is a choice that permeated all of the generations to follow.
And we arrive at Genesis 5:5-6. Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually. The Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.”
We have gone from all that is good to all that is evil. And God is not angered but sorrowed. Humankind, intended to be in fellowship has turned their backs. His creation experiment has failed. He is ready to destroy everything and begin again.
But God’s grace exceeds our sin:
Those of you who know your scripture will remember another time when God was unhappy. It was the days of Abraham, and God realizes that the cities where Lot and his family live are also filled with evil and violence. He has determined to destroy them. Abraham, thinking he is more compassionate than God begins to negotiate.
Genesis 18, starting with verse 24 tells the story: Abraham stepped forward and said, “Will you really sweep away the righteous with the wicked? 24 What if there are fifty righteous people in the city? Will you really sweep it away instead of sparing the place for the sake of the fifty righteous people who are in it? You could not possibly do such a thing: to kill the righteous with the wicked, treating the righteous and the wicked alike. You could not possibly do that! Won’t the Judge of the whole earth do what is just?” The Lord said, “If I find fifty righteous people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake.”
And Abraham keeps going back, asking God if he will save the city for fewer and fewer people, finally ending with ten people to save the entire city.
Looking at the passage, it sounds as if Abraham has convinced God to be merciful. But if you look carefully, you discover that God merely answers Abraham, he is not negotiating. He has already made up his own mind to be merciful.
But there were not ten. And the angels took the hands of Lot’s family, the only righteous ones and saved them out of all the people.
The same thing happens here. God has decided to destroy the earth, but as God looks over humankind, he discovers a single righteous person. Or if Noah wasn’t righteous, at least Noah was willing to listen to God.
And so God puts a plan of redemption in place. The world will not be wiped clean, a remnant will remain. Just as the angels took Lot and his family out of the destruction, Noah and his family will be saved, along with all of the animals. God will save the world, not because of ten righteous people, but because of one. God has proven himself more merciful than Abraham might think.
In the battle between Sin and Grace, Grace will always win.
Redemptive analogy of the Ark:
But the story has a deeper meaning that you might consider.
I want to start with the very word Ark. It is used nowhere in Scripture to describe a boat. Rather the word is actually used to describe a square box. The most common square box discussed in scripture using a similar word is that of a coffin. When you look at the dimensions of the Ark, you realize that it resembles a coffin much more than a boat. There are no sails, no means of control. Simply a very large box, about the size of 1 ½ football fields, in which all were to enter.
Just as the world is to be washed clean, Noah and his family and the animals are to die to the past in order to live into the future.
This “coffin” will be redeemed through the waters that will wash away the past and the evil that goes with it.
This is one of the earliest redemptive analogies that we find in Scripture. It points to the grace of God that saves in the midst of destruction. It points to the death of Jesus on the cross and the resurrection that comes out of it. It points towards the baptism that washes us clean of the past and renews us.
Redemption for the future:
As Noah and his family leave the Ark, God renews his covenant with them. But there are differences that I want to point out.
The first one is God gives them the earth once again as stewards. But this time, God adds animals to the list of what humankind may use as food. They are no longer limited to the fruit of the land, but are given animals to eat.
The second difference is that God gives them a commandment to not kill one another. It was not needed in the garden. But humankind has changed. They no longer carry the innocence of the first creation.
As they leave the Ark, and as Noah makes a sacrifice to God, God makes this promise:
Genesis 8:21 “I will never again curse the ground because of human beings, even though the inclination of the human heart is evil from youth onward. And I will never again strike down every living thing as I have done.”
Noah and his children would understand the promise in the negative sense. God would never again allow the earth and humankind to be destroyed.
But God, in making the promise first to Godself, knew that there was something deeper to be understood. If humankind was to be redeemed again, it could not be by starting over. In making this promise that no matter how evil humankind was, that God would pay the price.
Here we see God’s deepest love personified. The next redemption of people would happen when God took upon himself human form. The next redemption of humankind would happen on the cross, when God died that they might live.
The rainbow was a sign of the commitment God made to us. A deep and personal commitment that love would always triumph. Even at the cost of God’s own blood.
