Flood - Erosion of Humanity and the Heart of God

Monday, September 28

We are continuing our journey through Genesis where we come to the Flood Narrative. Theologian John Walton says, “(this is) some of the thorniest passages in Old Testament to interpret.”

Noah, the Ark, the flood, and what was God doing? I wonder, how much of your belief of the Noah, the Ark, and the flood is based up actual scripture versus a mixture of fiction and scripture. Or maybe it isn’t even that, as much as it is, wrestling with what appears to be a very angry, wrathful God and how do you reconcile that with love. Which means we sit with either minimizing the story of Noah, or we try and fill in the gaps with our own understanding because we want to make sense out of something that seems senseless.
What if I told you the story of Noah, the Ark and the Flood may not be everything you learned in Sunday school and that we can see the mystery of God interacting with humanity and yet, not understand it all.

That’s what I want us to do for the next handful of weeks. Yes, I know, it sounds strange to take 3-4 weeks and talk about the flood. I just think there is so much that gets lost in this narrative because we have boiled the Flood story to, people are bad, God is angry he made them, he wants to start over, so let’s wipe everyone out.

Let’s get to some of the thorniest passages in all of OT interpretation.

Today, I want you to read the passage, take your time. I probably over say it. But I want you to take your time with the passage. What gets your attention? What should get your attention? Underline, highlight, write question marks in the margin. What words are repetitive? If you have a study bible, what do the notes say? Just you and the first part of Genesis 6.

Genesis 6:1-13- When human beings began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, 2 the sons of God saw that the daughters of humans were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose. 3Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years.” 4The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward —when the sons of God went to the daughters of humans and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown. 5The 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. 6The 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.” 8 But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord. 9This 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. 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.