Today we continue our series entitled, The ABC’s of faith. The larger idea is based on the idea that we learn over time through an exploration process of success and failure. Everything we come to know and understand is built over time on the foundation of trial and error.
We learned last week, the wooden blocks we have all played with were an idea in 1594, a practical concept 100 years after that, and only then it would take another 175 years to be mass practice and produced as the blocks we know and love from Brooklyn, New York.
Last week,we talked about corruption of humanity and this week we continue with our “C” alliteration by building on the ideas creation and corruption by talking about the idea of catastrophe as part of our Christian witness. These are the building blocks (or the major aspects) of Christian identity that help us to withstand the storms of life. So after hearing today’s scripture, did you ask yourself”
Why flood the earth? Wasn’t there another way?
Or did you immediately recall the famous statement written by Richard Dawkins about God in his book the God Delusion in which he said,
“The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.”
Or said by a friend who read the whole bible for the first time, “What’s the deal with the God of the Old Testament? It seems like he’s a grumpy old man just watching 3 year olds misbehave and all he has is a stick to whack them to behave.”
I understand what he was saying. The Old Testament can make new Christians uncomfortable because it's not the loving Jesus we sing about. But when we take in the whole story we see a God of love whose nature reflects the fruit of His Holy Spirit - Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-control. Or as the psalmist wrote: "The Lord is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love. (Psalm 103:8)"
The story of the flood is more than a story of God’s action on a faithless society. Let’s take a look at the scripture texts we heard this morning and unpack the truth underneath. Genesis 6: 5.
5 The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race had become on the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of the human heart was only evil all the time.
Do you remember watching the planes hit the twin towers? Do you remember your anger? Do you remember how every time they replayed it your anger increased? Do you remember watching President Bush telling us we were going to respond and pundits saying we should drop a nuclear bomb and make glass of all the desert sand? Or more recently, watching the Palestinian video footage of the massacre at the music festival? Or the deaths of innocents in Gaza?
Now, compound that feeling by 750 million because outside of the eight righteous the bible tells us that is how many were behaving badly. How upset would you be? Would you wait to act for generations?
6 The Lord regretted that he had made human beings on the earth, and his heart was deeply troubled. 7 So the Lord said, “I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created—and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.”
The words “The Lord regretted” cut to the core of my human heart. The Hebrew word used here is yin'na'hem, from the root word ‘nacham.’ The word is exclusively about emotions: a feeling of pain, sadness, or unhappiness. The word does not imply that God feels He has made a mistake, or that He wishes to have done differently. It is possible to experience grief and "regret," is used here, without implying an error. Any parent who has held a crying, upset child as they receive a vaccination has experienced exactly this emotional regret. Such a parent is "grieved" over the pain, but has no illusions that this was the wrong decision. However, this verse demonstrates the low point in the history of humanity. God is troubled. He is "grieved," or "pained," by the outcome of those created in His image. The men and women did not grieve their own sin. They would not repent. God could see humanity would eventually infect even Noah’s grandkids if he didn’t act.
8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. 10 Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.
As author, preacher, theologian Warren Weirsbe said, “Human history was now at a place where only Noah and his family believed God, and obeyed his Word. God’s Spirit was wrestling with lost people, but they resisted His call; and God was grieved at what man was doing.” As Paul said in Romans 1:17, it was so bad that every imagination and thought was evil all the time.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways. 13 So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy both them and the earth.
Verse 13 is so enlightening and often overlooked. The original scripture offers an impression not well translated. It offers the impression of a loving owner who sees terminal illness in a pet and offers it mercy. The flood was not only a punishment but an act of mercy. Imagine a world where injustice, violence and pain were the standard.
Imagine being perfectly fair and loving. Now imagine witnessing humanity continuing to increase in wickedness and injustice until every thought was evil. How much pain would it cause you as the creator? How long would you allow it to go on? How many murders? How many rapes? How many crimes against humanity?
Sin needed to be judged so God sent a worldwide flood as a punishment for their intense wickedness. Only righteous Noah and his family were saved. The flood showed both the seriousness of sin and the mercy of the Creator who will save those who obey Him. The flood was a foreshadowing of a judgment and the mercy of the salvation to come.
As Hebrews 11:7 states, “By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with Godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household.” True faith involves the whole inner person: the mind understands the warning, the heart fears what is coming and the will acts accordingly. To understand God’s truth but not act upon it is not faith; its intellectual assent to religious truth. To be saved from sin, one must accept God’s grace offered through faith in God’s action in coming to earth as Jesus.
As Paul wrote to the church in Rome, “5:17 For if, by the trespass of the one man, death reigned through that one man, how much more will those who receive God’s abundant provision of grace and of the gift of righteousness reign in life through the one man, Jesus Christ!
The creation of humanity took us to the corruption of humanity which led to the catastrophe of humanity to set the stage for the confusion of humanity’s understanding of God's will.
Creative: Blocks on Stage, Reading of Scripture prior to preaching, Public reading Genesis 6:5-13, 9:12-17, Handouts, video for lent
References: Warren Wiersbe Commentary Genesis, p42-45,
https://creationmuseum.org/gospel/
https://answersingenesis.org/noahs-ark/pre-flood-population/
https://www.bibleref.com/Genesis/6/Genesis-6-6.html
