Wednesday
Wednesday
Noah and the Flood
I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy all life under the heavens.
Genesis 6:17
Noah stood out of the general depravity like a fragrant flower on a manure heap. He had “found favor in the eyes of the LORD” (v. 8). He also “walked with God” like Enoch (v. 9), practicing the presence of God in the midst of prevailing godlessness.
When God warned Noah of the coming deluge and told him to build an ark, he believed and obeyed God, following his instructions regarding materials, measurements, and construction. His contemporaries must have thought it a huge joke that Noah should have spent many months assembling such an enormous ocean-going barge inland under a clear blue sky. “By faith Noah, when warned about things not yet seen, in holy fear built an ark to save his family” (Heb. 11:7).
But was the flood historical and universal? Historical, yes, for Jesus himself spoke of it, and moreover, flood stories feature among the sagas of many ancient peoples. But universal? Some Christians argue that the whole earth of both hemispheres was inundated. Not only is this inherently improbable, but the biblical narrative does not require us to believe it. True, the narrator says that “all the high mountains under the entire heavens were covered” (Gen. 7:19). But Scripture often uses universal language (e.g., “all” and “every”) not in an absolute sense but relative to the horizons and perspective of the writers. Thus we read that “all the countries came to Egypt to buy grain from Joseph, because the famine was severe in all the world” (41:57). But “all the world” clearly means the countries around Egypt. Thus the flood was surely universal from the viewpoint of the writer and covered much of the Middle East, though not the whole world.
More important than the extent of the deluge, however, is the lesson that Jesus bids us learn from it: namely, “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man” (Matt. 24:37). His judgment will find the world largely unprepared.
For further reading: Matthew 24:37–39