There are many questions people ask about the Genesis flood. Was it universal or local? Where did the water go after the flood? How could all the animals fit on the ark along with all the food they would need? How did Noah get panda bears from China and giraffes from Africa? Why didn’t the lions eat the other animals? These and many other questions like them are fodder for Bible naysayers. But are they even the right questions to ask? They all arise from a modern scientific mindset. But the Bible is not a science book and therefore offers no answers to those questions. The Bible is a theology book, a book that explains how to live in the right relationship with God and that is what the original audience, the people to whom God actually spoke, would have cared about. The people of the Ancient Near East, including the Jews, had concerns about life that were vastly different from those of the modern West. I believe the primary things they would have been concerned about regarding the flood account was what the people did that caused God to send the flood, as well as what God meant to accomplish by sending it. Those are the questions which the flood account addresses.
What the people did to cause God to send the flood is rather obvious. Genesis 6:5 says that every thought was only evil continually. They never got anything right when it came to ensuring a just and equitable society. Everything they did, without exception, caused further damage to God’s perfect creation. Ignoring God’s wisdom, they were hell bent on determining for themselves what was good and what was evil, what was functional and what was dysfunctional. God could have let things continue as they were, but that would mean injustice, greed, violence, sexual perversions, and other such unsavory things would not only continue, but grow at an ever increasing rate. Life would be lost forever and death would reign in its stead. Such a state of affairs would have made it quite impossible for God to fulfill the promise He made in Genesis 3:15 to send a redeemer, of rescuing the people from the disaster they themselves created.
Given the hand that was dealt to Him (He doesn’t always get a royal flush), the only thing He could do was to start all over from scratch. In order to rescue mankind from the ravages of sin and death He had to destroy the original creation, now ruined by the actions of people, and replace it with a brand new one. Such an extreme measure was certainly not His desire, let alone His delight. Ezekiel 18:23 says that God has no pleasure in seeing even the wicked die. Verse 32 in that same chapter says the same thing (on a side note; what is between repeated phrases is usually significant). When God says something twice it means that it is established, leaving no doubt whatsoever that God wants all men and women to choose good over evil so that they may live and not die. But He wouldn’t have forced them to turn from their evil ways. They had free will, they could make their own choices. God had nothing to do with the people burning their hands when they themselves stuck them in the fire. While true that God made the fire, He intended it to be used for cooking food, not their hands! To put it in simple terms, the people brought the flood on themselves.
That brings us to the second question the original reader of the flood account would have asked, namely, what did God intend to accomplish by sending the flood? I believe that they would have gleaned from the account that He meant to renew the now ruined land He originally created in Genesis. He wanted to make it a land where people could once again live in perfect fellowship with Him. I believe those who knew the Torah would have seen the unmistakable commonalities between God’s original creation activities and those seen in the aftermath of the flood. I believe they would have understood that despite man’s depravity, God still wanted to live with them in a veritable paradise, and that He would do whatever necessary to bring it about.
In the aftermath of the flood, the first thing God did was to restrain the waters (Gen 1:7 & 8:2) after which He caused dry land to appear (Gen 1:9 & 8:5). Next we see the dove returning with an olive branch, the reappearance of vegetation (Gen 1:12 & 8:11). God then told Noah and his family to go into the land and to release the animals into the land so they can be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:20-26 & 8:16-17), after which God told Noah and his sons to multiply and fill the land (Gen 1:27-28 & 9:1). Finally, God provided food for them (Gen 1:29 & 9:3).
However, God didn’t just renew the land and call it quits. That just wasn’t good enough for Him. No siree! That’s just not how He rolls. He also felt compelled to make a promise that would reverberate through the ages, namely, that He would never again destroy the land by water. But, as if that weren’t good enough, it gets even better: Genesis 8:21 says that God made that promise to a people that He knew would be more or less just like the ones that caused the flood in the first place, to a people whose hearts imagined evil from youth.
Gen 8:21,
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
But that wouldn’t deter God from continuing with His plan of redeeming those people. He just loved people that much and that was that. Case closed!
The renewal of the land after the Genesis flood was not God’s end game. It was just the beginning of God showing His relentless generosity and loyalty which was motivated solely by His deep personal care for people. Time and time again, for some 4,000 years, He persisted in demonstrating that care despite the never ending insults He got in return. God experienced disappointment after disappointment because of the actions of those whom He so dearly loved and cared for. He relentlessly pleaded with them over and over to choose life but each time they chose death instead. Nonetheless, He wouldn’t give up on His plan of a new Eden, a garden of delight where He could dwell with the people He so loved. That was His desire from the day He created Adam, it’s never changed, and it never will change. Yahweh is the gold standard when it comes to determination.
The love story reached its zenith when He sent His only begotten son to die on the cross in order to save us. He no more wanted to see His son suffer such a horrible death than he wanted to send the flood in Genesis. But He knew that it was the only way to redeem us from the power of darkness. Just like the corrupted land of Genesis had to be destroyed to make room for a new land, so does our flesh have to first die in order to be raised in glory.
John 12:24,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
1 Cor 15:36,
[Thou] fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
If we are asleep when trumpet sounds and Jesus makes his second advent in glory, God will surely raise us up from the grave with a new body, a body fashioned like unto that of the resurrected Christ Jesus. Unfortunately, as both Jesus and Paul said, we have to die in order to get resurrected. He’d rather we didn’t die in the first place, but since Adam brought death to all, God had to make lemonade out of lemons, something at which He excels beyond imagination. Never overstepping man’s free will, including that of Jesus, God, through His infinite resourcefulness, was able to convince enough people through the millennia to do what was required to accomplish His goal of a renewed Eden in which a new tree of life would provide healing for those whom He so dearly loved.
Rev 22:2,
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.
Whereas death still reigned after the flood, the sting of death will be destroyed and life will reign into the ages. Moreover, whereas the renewed land after the flood was still filled with people whose hearts imagined evil from their youth, the future earth will be filled with people whose hearts overflow with the love of God. I can’t think of a better closing than Paul’s homage to God in Romans:
Rom 11:33,
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
What the people did to cause God to send the flood is rather obvious. Genesis 6:5 says that every thought was only evil continually. They never got anything right when it came to ensuring a just and equitable society. Everything they did, without exception, caused further damage to God’s perfect creation. Ignoring God’s wisdom, they were hell bent on determining for themselves what was good and what was evil, what was functional and what was dysfunctional. God could have let things continue as they were, but that would mean injustice, greed, violence, sexual perversions, and other such unsavory things would not only continue, but grow at an ever increasing rate. Life would be lost forever and death would reign in its stead. Such a state of affairs would have made it quite impossible for God to fulfill the promise He made in Genesis 3:15 to send a redeemer, of rescuing the people from the disaster they themselves created.
Given the hand that was dealt to Him (He doesn’t always get a royal flush), the only thing He could do was to start all over from scratch. In order to rescue mankind from the ravages of sin and death He had to destroy the original creation, now ruined by the actions of people, and replace it with a brand new one. Such an extreme measure was certainly not His desire, let alone His delight. Ezekiel 18:23 says that God has no pleasure in seeing even the wicked die. Verse 32 in that same chapter says the same thing (on a side note; what is between repeated phrases is usually significant). When God says something twice it means that it is established, leaving no doubt whatsoever that God wants all men and women to choose good over evil so that they may live and not die. But He wouldn’t have forced them to turn from their evil ways. They had free will, they could make their own choices. God had nothing to do with the people burning their hands when they themselves stuck them in the fire. While true that God made the fire, He intended it to be used for cooking food, not their hands! To put it in simple terms, the people brought the flood on themselves.
That brings us to the second question the original reader of the flood account would have asked, namely, what did God intend to accomplish by sending the flood? I believe that they would have gleaned from the account that He meant to renew the now ruined land He originally created in Genesis. He wanted to make it a land where people could once again live in perfect fellowship with Him. I believe those who knew the Torah would have seen the unmistakable commonalities between God’s original creation activities and those seen in the aftermath of the flood. I believe they would have understood that despite man’s depravity, God still wanted to live with them in a veritable paradise, and that He would do whatever necessary to bring it about.
In the aftermath of the flood, the first thing God did was to restrain the waters (Gen 1:7 & 8:2) after which He caused dry land to appear (Gen 1:9 & 8:5). Next we see the dove returning with an olive branch, the reappearance of vegetation (Gen 1:12 & 8:11). God then told Noah and his family to go into the land and to release the animals into the land so they can be fruitful and multiply (Gen 1:20-26 & 8:16-17), after which God told Noah and his sons to multiply and fill the land (Gen 1:27-28 & 9:1). Finally, God provided food for them (Gen 1:29 & 9:3).
However, God didn’t just renew the land and call it quits. That just wasn’t good enough for Him. No siree! That’s just not how He rolls. He also felt compelled to make a promise that would reverberate through the ages, namely, that He would never again destroy the land by water. But, as if that weren’t good enough, it gets even better: Genesis 8:21 says that God made that promise to a people that He knew would be more or less just like the ones that caused the flood in the first place, to a people whose hearts imagined evil from youth.
Gen 8:21,
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man's sake; for the imagination of man's heart [is] evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
But that wouldn’t deter God from continuing with His plan of redeeming those people. He just loved people that much and that was that. Case closed!
The renewal of the land after the Genesis flood was not God’s end game. It was just the beginning of God showing His relentless generosity and loyalty which was motivated solely by His deep personal care for people. Time and time again, for some 4,000 years, He persisted in demonstrating that care despite the never ending insults He got in return. God experienced disappointment after disappointment because of the actions of those whom He so dearly loved and cared for. He relentlessly pleaded with them over and over to choose life but each time they chose death instead. Nonetheless, He wouldn’t give up on His plan of a new Eden, a garden of delight where He could dwell with the people He so loved. That was His desire from the day He created Adam, it’s never changed, and it never will change. Yahweh is the gold standard when it comes to determination.
The love story reached its zenith when He sent His only begotten son to die on the cross in order to save us. He no more wanted to see His son suffer such a horrible death than he wanted to send the flood in Genesis. But He knew that it was the only way to redeem us from the power of darkness. Just like the corrupted land of Genesis had to be destroyed to make room for a new land, so does our flesh have to first die in order to be raised in glory.
John 12:24,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abideth alone: but if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit.
1 Cor 15:36,
[Thou] fool, that which thou sowest is not quickened, except it die:
If we are asleep when trumpet sounds and Jesus makes his second advent in glory, God will surely raise us up from the grave with a new body, a body fashioned like unto that of the resurrected Christ Jesus. Unfortunately, as both Jesus and Paul said, we have to die in order to get resurrected. He’d rather we didn’t die in the first place, but since Adam brought death to all, God had to make lemonade out of lemons, something at which He excels beyond imagination. Never overstepping man’s free will, including that of Jesus, God, through His infinite resourcefulness, was able to convince enough people through the millennia to do what was required to accomplish His goal of a renewed Eden in which a new tree of life would provide healing for those whom He so dearly loved.
Rev 22:2,
In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, [was there] the tree of life, which bare twelve [manner of] fruits, [and] yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree [were] for the healing of the nations.
Whereas death still reigned after the flood, the sting of death will be destroyed and life will reign into the ages. Moreover, whereas the renewed land after the flood was still filled with people whose hearts imagined evil from their youth, the future earth will be filled with people whose hearts overflow with the love of God. I can’t think of a better closing than Paul’s homage to God in Romans:
Rom 11:33,
O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! how unsearchable [are] his judgments, and his ways past finding out!
