Introduction
The story of Noah and the
universal flood is perhaps second only to the story of creation in terms of
being questioned as to details and validity. People who accept that there is a
God acknowledge that He must have had some role in creation. However, the many
findings of science over the last 150 years and more have led most to doubt the
validity of the details of what is referred to as a six-day creation. Likewise,
the idea that there was a flood that totally covered the earth and that all the
human race and animals could be saved in a large boat to re-populate the earth,
has seemed to scientifically preposterous for many to believe.
However, we must remember that
many other cultures, particularly those that surrounded Israel in those days,
also have similar flood narratives. Even our First Nations peoples have such
stories. The fact that those stories have been deemed important enough to be
transmitted down through thousands of years by different cultures, should tell
us that something of significance like this really happened.
One can discuss how important it
is to believe what the Scriptures say in terms of all the details or whether it
is more important to see the overarching themes and theological
interpretations. This last approach is certainly what most people take
nowadays. Given that, let us look at the story of Noah and the Great Flood to
see what we can learn from it.
Outline and commentary
Genesis
5:28-32 Noah first appears in
"the list of the descendants of Adam", the ninth generation, the son
of Lamech.
As we have said before, the Hebrews
who wrote these passages, ascribed a certain amount of value to a genealogical
list, but when there is a comment attached to a name, we need to take more
note. In this case, the comment is in 5:29: "Out of the ground that the
Lord has cursed this one shall bring us relief from our work and from the toil
of our hands," which was something his father Lamech stated at age 182
when Noah was born. The name Noah is evidently related to the Hebrew word nahim, comfort.
Again, we often have a somewhat
negative attitude to genealogies, seeing them just as lists of names and
forgetting their significance. We can say several important things about the
genealogy here though: i. The first is that it simply connects what happens
here with what happened at the beginning, which is significant, showing the
continuity of life and history.
ii. The second is that there is
also an element again here of divine redemption. God's original plan for
humanity to populate the earth has not been totally derailed by the wrong
choices people made. As we saw with the story of Eve giving birth, we can
rejoice that life went on, giving evidence of God's purposes being fulfilled
regardless.
iii. Thirdly, and as we have said
before, we always have to pay attention to the details that are inserted into
what would otherwise be simply a dry list of names, it is reiterated in 5:1
that "God created humankind, he made them in the likeness of God." We
are reminded that in spite of the entry of sin into the world, humans continue
to be born in the image of God. There is still goodness of there. We are not
born depraved as some have said. This is further underscored in 5:3 where it
refers to Adam's having Seth to replace Abel, also being "in his likeness,
according to his image."
iv. The fourth point, referring
to 5:2, reiterates God creating humanity as male and female, and blessing them,
bringing to mind again God's original command to humanity to replenish and fill
the earth, i.e. to reproduce and grow as a people.
6:1-8 A description of the evil
developing in the growing human population and God's reaction to it. He
regretted what he had created and purposed to destroy it because of its
wickedness. Again, in the last verse of this section, 8, there is a specific
comment about Noah: "(He) found favor in the sight of the Lord." We
can make three comments here:
i. The first is that this passage
has often been interpreted as God being angry and wanting to punish. Really,
the word used here is grieve; God was deeply pained and saddened by what had
happened to his beautiful creation and did not want to see the disorder and
disruption continue. That is why he chose to intervene. Again, this is just one
of many biblical examples of where God intervenes toward the positive when
humanity has made a negative choice. God is ever the Redeemer because of his
love for us in spite of our undeserving choices and behavior.
ii. The second is just to say
that, although we have some description of Noah's standing before God and others,
we are not really told what he did to deserve this. Again, that is significant;
we simply do not deserve the grace that God extends to us. We should remember a
gain to that using the word "righteous" to describe Noah is not, as
we have often come to understand it, a measure of moral or ethical and
behavioral rightness. The biblical Hebrew understanding of it is a reference to
the quality of relationship with God.
iii. The third has to do again
with disrupted relationships. We have seen a disrupted relationship between God
and humanity and between husband-and-wife in Genesis 3. We had seen disrupted
sibling relationship in Genesis 4. Here we see a further disruption of
divine-human relationship. We have never fully understood what is being
described in terms of "the sons of God" finding women attractive and
having relationships with them and bearing children, some of whom became
giants. However, God's response to this also suggest that there was a negative
element here. There was a crossing, a blurring of boundaries between divine and
human that did not fit with his plan for creation. That was another thing that
upset him and brought about the flood as a way to end all of that.
iv. We have seen some
unbelievably long ages for the people listed in these genealogies, almost
nearing 1000 years. Again, if we read genealogies from other traditions of this
time, the ages of people in them are sometimes recorded into the thousands of
years. Now again, looking at 6:3, we see God accomplishing two things. On the
one hand, he is still following through with his concern that humans would eat
of the tree of life and live forever, which would possibly give rise even more
to the temptation to consider themselves divine are capable of approaching that
degree of immortality. We might see that as a more restrictive and negative
response. However, again, we can see a positive response here in that this
world which was described as filled with so much disorder and chaos is not
something God wants to sentence any of his creatures to have to endure for
hundreds of years. Therefore, he states that "My spirit shall not abide in
mortals forever, for their flesh; their days shall be 120 years." Now,
again, one cannot be sure about taking that number two literally because, if we
look simply at the ages given for the descendants of Noah in Chapter 11, they
still far exceed 120 years. However, we certainly do not appear to have any
records of people living longer than that in what we otherwise view as recorded
history. It makes one wonder whether modern man's attempts to lengthen life
will be limited to 120 years as well. Even looking at the risks of old age for
many in terms of physical deterioration that causes pain, the increased risk of
cancer with old age, let alone the unfortunate impact of dementia - why would
anyone want to live that long?
6:9-7:4 God's instructions to
Noah
6:9-10
The descendants of Noah.
6:11-13
A reiteration of God's displeasure with the violence and corruption in the
earth and his determination to "make an end of all flesh."
6:14-16
God's instructions for making the ark.
6:17-21
God's explanation of the purpose of the ark - he is going to send a flood over
the earth to destroy everything on it, but establish a covenant with Noah and his family who are to come into the ark with
two of every kind of living thing to keep them alive, as well as food for all
of them. In another place, we read that he commanded that seven pairs of every
clean animal be brought into the ark. This suggests again that, like appears to
be the case in many biblical passages, what we have in our Bible today is the
result of the combination of many different retellings of the story over time.
Our understanding of the following books of the Old Testament is that the clean
and unclean distinction did not come about till the so-called laws of Moses
given in the desert after Israel left Egypt. However, for some reason,
subsequent writers, perhaps wanting to add weight to the importance of the laws
of Moses, transplanted this animal distinction back into Genesis.
Also, we see here that in spite
of God's unhappiness with the world and his resolve to intervene in a very
dramatic and overwhelming way, that he goes to great lengths to do what he can
to preserve his creation. Detailed instructions are given about building this
boat, who all is able to board it and that they need to take supplies along to
sustain them while they are basically imprisoned in it during the flood.
Obviously, sea creatures do not need to enter the ark as there'll be plenty of
water for them to remain alive in! Plants likewise will survive and grow again
when the earth dries up and remaining seeds and other forms of plant
reproduction will follow their natural course.
6:22 Noah obeys.
7:1-24. The Great Flood
7:1-4
God reiterates the instructions of going into the ark because of the flood that
is going to come.
7:5-16
Noah and his family obey, entering the ark with all the animals and birds.
7:17-24
Description of the flood and its devastating effect.
8:1-3 The Flood subsides.
8:1-5
The waters recede and the ark comes “to rest on the mountains of Ararat."
Chapter 8:1 is described by some as a key watershed division in this story. We
have had their fearful story of of the flood occurred and what it did. Noah and
the ark with all its inhabitants are adrift on the global sea. But, "God
remembered Noah", but not only Noah and other humans, "all the wild
animals and all the domestic animals that were with him in the ark." This
should remind us when we think of our relationship to the world, to the
environment, that God cares about more than just humans. After all, he created
all of the rest of it before us. He said at the time that it was all good. That
has not changed.
8:6-14
Noah assesses the drying up of the earth and when it is time to leave the ark.
Apparently it was common practice for mariners in those days before compasses,
sextants and satellite directed communication to have birds on their boats and
to send them out to see if they were nearing land.
8:15-19 The ark is emptied of its
occupants
8:15-17A
God's instructions for all to leave the ark.
8:17B
The command of Genesis 2:28 "to abound on the earth, and be fruitful and
multiply on the earth" is repeated. What God decreed at the beginning and
was reiterated at the beginning of chapter 5 is again repeated, further
importantly underscoring the continuity of life going on in spite of the
negative things that have happened. What God wills is not totally ended by our
choices, only by his change of heart and mind.
8:18-19
Noah and all in the ark obey and leave it.
8:20-22 God's promise to Noah
8:20-21
A God is pleased when Noah built an altar and makes sacrifices of animals. This
is only the second reference in the Bible so far to animal sacrifice, the first
being Abel's. Indeed, after the story of Cain and Abel, until the story of
Noah, there is only one reference to the people turning towards God, but no
details are given as to what kind of worship was entailed. The Bible really
tells us nothing of how this sacrifice of animals for worship came about. In
the so-called laws of Moses, the sacrifice of animals took on many forms and
had many meanings in terms of forgiveness and atonement etc. However, here it
seems to be more an expression of Thanksgiving. Again, one has to wonder if
this is something of an insertion of the understood form of worship at the time
when these stories were more finally written down, as opposed to something that
may actually have happened originally.
8:20
1B-22 God promises never again to "curse the ground" or "destroy
every living creature." We cannot underestimate the importance of this
promise. We do well to remember it when we hear of the fears many in our world
have of our capability of destroying it with nuclear weapons, or when we hear
of other dire predictions of environmental disaster because of global warming
etc. God created this, he is still in control, and nothing will happen unless
he wills or allows it.
9:1-7 God's new commands
9:1
The command of Genesis 2:28 " be fruitful and multiply and fill the
earth" is repeated again. That primordial order carries on.
9:2-3
Humankind is now given permission to eat animals with the corollary being that
"The fear and dread of you shall rest on every animal of the earth, and
and on every bird of the air, on everything that creeps on the ground, and on
all the fish of the sea; into your hand of the are delivered." This is
just another example of the disruption between different components of creation
that occurred because of sin. There is disruption in every direction of
relationship, but by the same token, we need to understand that God's
redemptive work applies to all directions a relationship. As our brother Dann
Pantoja so aptly describes, the relationships we talk about are the relationship
we have with God, with ourselves internally, with the rest of humanity, and
with the rest of nature.
9:4-6
There is one proviso in the above command: they are not to eat meat with blood
in it, as that is life. Indeed, perhaps because the Jewish Christians
recognized the importance of this even preceding the handing down of the laws
of Moses, when the early church decided that Christians did not need to follow
all the laws of Moses, this was one stipulation they still held up for Gentile
Christians to follow. Then God adds to that from those who take the life of
another, whether animal or human, the consequence will be that their own blood
will be shed. The explanation according to 6B appears to be that we are made in
God's image, meaning we are to live, not be killed, so there has to be a
consequence when our lives are taken from us. I believe this passage further
underscores a truth that, being made in God's image also means that only God
can determine when the life that he gives can come to an end.
It is from the story of Genesis
chapter 4 and this passage that the beginnings of the Judeo-Christian belief in
the sanctity of life in its entirety
begins. Unfortunately, we have seen that there was murder and destruction of
life from the first family onwards. These first few chapters of the Bible
seemed to set the tone that this would be a given for the human race, but at
the same time, it is no longer something to despair about. God is always there
to offer redemption. In our modern society, we see that this sanctity of life
has repeatedly been denied those that were deemed less worthy by others, e.g.
in the Holocaust, and perhaps even in our modern societal acceptance of
abortion and now euthanasia. If we believe in the sacredness of life, we really
cannot support such activities.
Another change here is that
whereas when Cain killed Abel, he was not killed for his crime, but now we read
of a life for a life, which was also the basis of the law of Moses when it came
to murder. When we see what Jesus and his followers taught in the New Testament
about life as it is really meant to be respected, we can see that this was a
temporary measure, as were many of the measures of the Old Testament law, to
combat and limit the wickedness of man prior to Christ's coming and making
possible a renewal and rebirth as children of the new Kingdom of Heaven. Some
interpreters, including the writer of our own Anabaptist commentary on Genesis,
Eugene Roop, do not actually even understand this passage as giving support to capital punishment. If you read verse
five carefully, it states that only God can decide the consequence for taking
of life; it is not clearly given into human hands. Following through with that,
all that verse six is saying that, consistent with the ongoing evil in humanity,
if someone does kill, don't be surprised if they are killed. Humans want to
take revenge, even though we are reminded elsewhere in Scripture that vengeance
is God's.
9:7
The command of Genesis 2:28 " be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth"
is repeated, yet again providing continuity with the order that God established
when he created the earth. In spite of the disorder brought about by humanity
and the disruption of the flood, God's original design for order and filling
the earth continues.
9:8-17 God makes a new covenant
with mankind.
9:8-11
God says to Noah and his sons that he is "establishing my covenant with
you and your descendants after you, and with every living creature… that never again
shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood, and never again shall
there be a flood to destroy the earth."
9:12-17
God explains that the sign of this covenant will be the rainbow and that
whenever clouds come and it rains again, showing up the rainbow, he will be
reminded of his (everlasting - 9:16) covenant "between me and you and
every living creature… and the waters shall never again become a flood to
destroy all flesh."
One can see from parallels
between this story and Genesis 1-two that this is creation all over again:
1.
In the 1st Pl., God wants to reestablish a
barrier between himself and heavenly beings and humans as explained in 6:1-4.
2.
Then, as in Genesis 1:6-7, the opening of the
fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven opening up creates again the
watery chaos like the one before God separated the waters. You might be
interested in some scientific hypothesis here. If you go back to Genesis 2:5-6,
it says that God had not yet caused it to rain but that the earth was watered
by a mist that went up from the rivers and the bodies of water that he created
separately from the waters above the sky or firmament. Some Christian
scientists, so-called “creation scientists,” because they believe they find
more and more evidence to support the creation story and even stories like
Noah's flood, believe that this reference to the mist, putting it together with
the verses in Genesis chapter 1 where, at the beginning of creation, God
separated the waters above the firmament, i.e. the sky, from the waters below,
i.e. the oceans etc., literally means it did not rain during this early period
of the earth. They hypothesize that there was a layer of water vapor around the
world in space and that this helped keep the whole earth warm, and humid enough
for things to grow. We do know from what scientists have discovered with
fossils, that tropical plants, suggesting a warm earth, are found at all
latitudes, even under the icebergs of the north and south poles. That might be
evidence to support the theory of the scientists.
Now, when it rained, possibly for the first time, they
surmise that this vapor canopy around the world was allowed to collapse on the
world as rain such as the world had never seen and will never see again.
Indeed, in Genesis 7:11-12, it talks about "the windows of the heavens"
being opened, resulting in 40 days of rain. There must have been a lot of water
vapor in the atmosphere to rain for 40 days. It has never done that since, at
least not in that quantity. So, again, the scientists read these verses as
supporting their theory.
Now you have all heard about ice ages too. This also
fits into the creation scientists' theory. When the whole earth was flooded,
the tropical warmth of that vapor canopy gave way to a different temperature
distribution and ultimately the waters at the north and south poles froze and
created the first Ice Age.
Again, remember how we talk above about the long ages
of mankind these first chapters of Genesis? Mankind was first created good.
This would mean that our genes were perfect and there were no problems in them
that would lead to disease. That alone could allow people to live a long time.
Then, once sin came into the world and things got spoiled, over time the gene
pool began to hold more and more damage and mutations. This leads to the
diseases we have today. You can see how that could also lead to shortened life
span.
There are a couple of other theories about these long
ages. One relates to the theory about water and the vapor canopy around the
earth, that this might have protected inhabitants from the damaging effects of
the various rays coming from space on our cells. Again, in a similar way, over
time, as the human race was subjected cumulatively to these potentially
damaging rays, more and more genes suffered more and more damage, resulting again
in more illness and earlier death.
3.
Then, just as there is a reference in Genesis
1:2 to the wind of God moving over the face of the earth at the beginning of
creation, the beginning of establishing order out of chaos, in 8:1 there is a
reference to God making a wind blow over the earth, beginning the reversal of
the flood and the water subsiding and drying up, reestablishing the previously
created order.
4.
Finally, the severally repeated commands to be
fruitful and multiply and abound in the earth, replenishing it, our repetitions
of the command of Genesis 2:27 for mankind and all other living creatures. The
history of life begins again.
5.
That the waters are described as drying up on
the first day of the first month (8:13) suggests further the beginning of a new
era, corresponding to the first day of creation.
Ultimately, this story tells us
that God is still about creation and not destruction. He is still a God of
love, grace and redemption, which gives us hope. As the author of the Genesis
commentary I have referred to says so beautifully, in spite of the fact about
what we know about rainbows and how they are formed based on our scientific
understanding, that ancient description of what they really mean still causes
us to run with childish excitement towards the window to see the hopeful sign of God's
covenant once again.
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