Flood - The Path From Ruin to Renewal Pt. 2

Monday, November 2

We just got done celebrating the first World Series victory for the Milwaukee Brewers. I understand that you may or may not be a baseball fan and that is okay. But I do want to share with you, that if it isn’t baseball, it may be something else. That there are some that fall into the category of superstitious. That if you do “something” it may influence the “baseball gods” or good-luck or maybe even foster bad-luck.

When it comes ancient understanding of the “gods” it wasn’t all that different. The origin of superstitious means "prophetic" or "full of dread of the supernatural," derived from the noun superstitio ("excessive fear of the gods").

Which means the ancients would do rituals or sacrifices to get the attention of the “gods”, to influence the “gods” in some form or fashion, or to be accepted by the “gods.”

Which means, my “superstition” of wearing an unwashed shirt for every game we won and when I didn’t wear it, we lost, meant that action was getting the “attention” of the baseball gods to influence the Brewers in our favor.

I get it, when said out loud it is ridiculous, but I wonder if we have a similar “superstition” when it comes to our relationship with God. If I do this or that I will get his attention or his approval or I can influence him in such a way to get the favor within life.

What if, what if, that understanding isn’t only false, but that as we look at the flood narrative, as well as the entire narrative of Scripture, God is getting our attention with something so much greater?

Notice this significant dynamic shift of how God gets our attention with the last few verses of Genesis 8:20-22- 20 Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. 21 The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of humans, even though every inclination of the human heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done. 22 “As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.”

Before we get to the sacrifice, I want you to pay attention to the language that is describing God and his experience. Notice the words that God “smelled” and “said in his heart”. That language is what we call anthropomorphic language. Where you give human descriptors to non-humans things, and in this case God. Did God actually smell, did he actually say in his heart? Or is the author giving us a perspective that that God is very personal, close, intimate?

We saw a bit of this back in Genesis 6, when “God’s heart was grieved”, but then he said, “in his heart he would never do this again” and makes a promise. Going from cosmic
collapse to cosmic order. Which means God is personal, he is intimate, he is close and desires to create order.

I believe the author of Genesis is establishing God’s presence with humanity. We see that with Adam and Eve, that God walked in garden in the cool of the day. Now here, we see a personal God, “smelling” and “saying in his heart”, establishing a personal presence of God, which will differ from the other, little “g”, gods.

What does God’s presence with humanity mean to you or look like to you? Do you feel as though you must “do” certain things to get God’s attention, approval, or influence God in a certain way? What would it mean to you for that to be different?

Take a moment with this song and reflect on His presence with you. Nothing Else