The Story of Noah
9 This is the account of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, the only blameless person living on earth at the time, and he walked in close fellowship with God. 10 Noah was the father of three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.
11 Now God saw that the earth had become corrupt and was filled with violence. 12 God observed all this corruption in the world, for everyone on earth was corrupt. 13 So God said to Noah, “I have decided to destroy all living creatures, for they have filled the earth with violence. Yes, I will wipe them all out along with the earth!
14 “Build a large boat[a] from cypress wood[b] and waterproof it with tar, inside and out. Then construct decks and stalls throughout its interior. 15 Make the boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide, and 45 feet high.[c] 16 Leave an 18-inch opening[d] below the roof all the way around the boat. Put the door on the side, and build three decks inside the boat—lower, middle, and upper.
17 “Look! I am about to cover the earth with a flood that will destroy every living thing that breathes. Everything on earth will die. 18 But I will confirm my covenant with you. So enter the boat—you and your wife and your sons and their wives. 19 Bring a pair of every kind of animal—a male and a female—into the boat with you to keep them alive during the flood. 20 Pairs of every kind of bird, and every kind of animal, and every kind of small animal that scurries along the ground, will come to you to be kept alive. 21 And be sure to take on board enough food for your family and for all the animals.”
22 So Noah did everything exactly as God had commanded him.
Footnotes:
6:14a Traditionally rendered an ark.
6:14b Or gopher wood.
6:15 Hebrew 300 cubits [138 meters] long, 50 cubits [23 meters] wide, and 30 cubits [13.8 meters] high.
6:16 Hebrew an opening of 1 cubit [46 centimeters].
I grew up thinking God was the one who drowned everyone in the Great Flood and Jesus was the one who loved all the children. The stories were everywhere. In the blue book sitting on the end table at my dentist's office. In the children's storybooks. In the songs they sang in Sunday School classrooms. God drowned, Jesus loved. God got tired of sin, Jesus forgives our sin. God found no one who was righteous, Jesus reconciled us all to God.
How do we live with these two juxtaposed? They are both central to our faith as Christians. We cannot toss one or the other to the side.
Years later now, after falling in love with Christ, my Redeemer and Lord, I fully realize that all that I have fallen in love with is a perfect reflection of God, my Creator and Sustainer. God is not the mean one who holds us under water until we take our last breath, suffering as our lungs burn from the salt of the seas. God is pure and holy and full of life. God cannot and will not allow his creation to be rotted to the core with filth and evil and hatred and impurity. I cannot imagine God's tears as he watched his beloved creation struggle under the weight of the water surrounding them. It would not surprise me if God could not watch at all, but instead sunk his head into his hands and simply wept.
And so the rainbow came. The beauty, the color, the hope, the promise. It came. And so when it happened again, and again, and again... God said, "I can't go through this again... I can't watch my beloved children suffer like this again." And so God formed his very self in the flesh. And the babe was born.
God sent his only son and flooded the world with love... and hope... and faith... that we will do it right this time... with a little help from our Creator, right here among us.
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