Genesis 6:1-7:24: the ark of grace in the flood of judgment

Noah and the ark is perhaps one of the most well-known stories from the Bible.  If you also take into consideration that many other Ancient Near-Eastern cultures had stories about great floods, it becomes obvious that something happened, with the shared experience of that event being recorded in various ways, by various peoples.  So what does the Bible tell us about the flood, Noah, and the ark?

The flood was not so much an act of destruction by God, as it was an act of self-destruction by humanity.  While it’s true that it was God’s might that drove the flood waters, it was man’s wickedness that made the flood a reality.  Who were the sons that so offended God?  The possibilities include descendants of Seth, angels, or a dynasty of tyrants who succeeded Lamech.  Whatever the answer, the result was the same.  Their actions followed in the footsteps of Adam and Eve’s original sin.  Our Bibles say that they saw something beautiful, and they sought to make it their own.  If you read the passage in the original Hebrew, the phrasing is literally what we find in Genesis 3:6 when Adam and Eve’s sin is described: they “saw” what was “good”, and they “took” it.  This selfish behavior passed down through the generations, has caused God to look down and see not the goodness and beauty that was present in creation, but the wickedness that is the result of human sinfulness and rebellion.  Man’s wickedness has spread from being reactionary, to being of the proactive sort.  The heart, the locus of thought, feeling, volition, and morality has turned to planning methods of carrying out the wickedness found in its inner depths.  After seeing this disastrous turn of events, God responds.  The Spirit of God hovered over the waters during creation, now that same Spirit is about to be withdrawn.  Why doesn’t God act immediately?  Why does God delay 120 years?   The truth is that even when God is prepared to react to human disobedience with vengeance, He withholds His wrath long enough for Noah to build the ark.  The word used to describe God’s intention, “destroy”, is the same word used to describe human actions in Genesis 6:12, though it is often translated “corrupt” instead of “destroy”.  The use of the word “corrupt” or “corrupted” makes plain that what God intends to destroy has actually been self-destroyed already.  Nahum Sarna would say, “The idea is that humankind cannot undermine the moral basis of society without endangering the very existence of its civilization.  In fact, through its corruption, society sets in motion the process of inevitable self-destruction.”

In the midst of all the wickedness and God’s plan to destroy the earth, we find obedient faith in the person of Noah.  God has delayed His plan to wipe out mankind because in Noah He sees a glimmer of hope.  Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and through him we found grace as well.  It isn’t that Noah is perfect, but he is obedient. When God speaks, Noah listens.  The delayed entrance of Noah in the story opens up a new possibility, that of obedience and faith.   With Noah’s appearance on the stage, the words “righteous” and “blameless” are used for the first time in the Bible.  Righteousness is a combination of piety and ethics, while blamelessness denotes an abstention from sin, even if one is not entirely without fault.  Noah is described as one who “walked with God”, which links him with Enoch.  While Enoch is saved from death, Noah is saved from the flood.  If Noah isn’t perfect, he is a man of action.  He is not a man who professes something, but then fails to validate that profession with his actions.  The simple statement that “Noah did” underscores his living by faith.  It also puts the emphasis on God’s actions, rather than Noah’s, because Noah simply does what God tells him.  Today’s Christian should note that Noah’s fulfillment of God’s plans would have been a life-long endeavor, not one emotion-filled response.  Noah didn’t agree to build the ark after his heart-strings had been plucked by a well-orchestrated combination of emotional appeal and mood-lit praise music.  Noah’s “yes” to God is one that will cost him dearly.  One-hundred and twenty years Noah labored to build the ark.  How much did he have to pay for materials?  Did he have to go chop down every tree with the help of his sons.  What did it cost him in terms of his social standing?  How did people refer to this crazy man whose faith led him to build a huge boat?  A better question is ‘What if we were more like Noah, caring more about God’s plans for our world rather than our popularity with the world?’    

God sees Noah’s faithfulness, and responds in-kind.  No matter how faithful Noah was, that faith could never save him without God’s intervention.  In Noah’s case, God intervenes in three major ways.  First of all, God designs.  Noah receives from God plans for a boat 450 feet long, 75 feet wide and 45 feet high.  In the Babylonian flood epic, the boat used by the hero is a 180 foot cube, hardly a vessel likely to be seaworthy.  Here however, we find a boat that is large, and yet proportioned to sail.  Its plans make it bigger than the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria, and yet with a 20 foot draft it is shallow enough to not ground on the mountains.  Noah’s obedience brings God’s expert design to fruition.  After God designs, God guides.  There are no navigational aids, so that once in the ark the humans are totally reliant on God.  While there is relative safety inside the ark, there is also a degree of helplessness, as Noah and his family rely on God to deliver them safely through the flood.  Even the animals seem to be guided to Noah.  Just as God brought the animals to Noah’s ancestor Adam to be named, so He brings them now to Noah to be saved.  After God designs and guides, we see that God saves.  God shuts them in the ark, showing the grace and salvation of the ark to be a result of divine action rather than Noah’s.  The ark serves not just an immediate purpose, but also a more enduring one as it serves as a prefigure of the salvation that God will deliver to humankind through Jesus Christ.  While in Noah’s day God blots out humanity, when Jesus Christ comes, God blots out our sins.  It’s the same exact verb used in both instances!  The ark, in many ways, foreshadows our own salvation.  God opens the door to the ark and offers to bear us safely through the waters of sin and death, which threaten destruction just as surely as those torrents did so many millennia ago.  Will you, like Noah, have the faith to step inside?

Ephesians 2:1-10: the biggest "but" in history...

Scandalous title huh?  Hopefully you noticed that there is only one "t" in the but. 
There are two things that I think are very relevant for contemporary Christians in the first part of Ephesians 2.  The first, is the honesty with which Paul addresses the Ephesians.  There is no sugar-coating the past of the Ephesians on Paul's part. 
He gives it to them straight: "And YOU were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience-" (Ephesians 2:1-2)  I doubt any of the Christians in Ephesus cared to be reminded of their sordid past, and yet, Paul underlines their sinful past so that his teaching on grace to really sink in.  It would be hard for any of them to stake a claim as being righteousness of their own accord after Paul's dredging up of their not-so-righteous past.  Sadly, too many of us stop there in forming our own approach towards others, particularly others with checkered pasts.  We use Paul as our blueprint in forming our attitudes, without taking the time to read all of what Paul has to say.  All we need to do is read the very next verse and we will see that Paul's attitude is actually one of empathy, rather than judgment.  "Among whom WE ALL once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind."  (Ephesians 2:3)  As I was driving back from visiting someone in the hospital in Pineville today-shocking, but the metropolis of Glenmora doesn't have a hospital- I was flipping through the radio stations looking for something to listen to on the way home.  I came across what sounded like a sermon, so I stopped.  Normally I flip right on through anything that sounds like a radio sermon, because so many of them sound angry and belligerent.  However, for some reason this time I stopped to listen for a minute, and I am glad I did.  The preacher (not sure who he was) was talking about what it means for Christians to be meek, and he said something I thought was really insightful.  He said, "evangelism is not about someone who knows a lot teaching someone who knows little or nothing at all, rather it's one beggar telling another where he can find bread."  What a great way of describing our calling as Christians.  We are all beggars in this world when it comes to our need for grace.  When we remember that, when we recall the hunger pains we once felt deep in our soul when we walked according to "the course of this world", how can we not but share with others where the bread of life can be found?

Now to that huge "but" I referred to earlier, which is the second thing that is extremely cogent for contemporary Christians.  Paul spends the first three verses of Ephesians 2 painting a crystal clear picture as to our own righteousness.  It doesn't exist, at least not when we are left to our own devices.  Here is where that "but" comes in, and it's a huge one.  You see, normally we associate the word "but" with bad news.  Sometimes it comes in the context of a relationship; "I have a great time when I am with you, but I think we should just be friends."  (Not that I have ever heard that one before)  Sometimes we hear it in the workplace; "we appreciate the work you've done for us, but the company is going through a tough time economically, and we are going to have to let some people go..."  Or perhaps the scariest of all scenarios; "we ran all the tests and everything looked good, but then we found a spot..."  When we get to verse four of Ephesians 2, Paul gives us the good news we have been waiting for using a word that we have become accustomed to associating with bad news: "BUT God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ- by grace you have been saved- and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus." (Ephesians 2:4-6)  I think that's just the way it should be written, an appropriate way of relating in writing what God does in our world.  He takes things, including people, that we have become accustomed to viewing in a negative way and injects them with new life, and a new image.  As Paul goes on to say, it's all because we are now "alive together with Christ."  Through God's grace our fates have been tied together with that of Christ, and that can only mean one thing, resurrection.  The Son of God was once dead, as were we all; but now he lives, and because of that we have life through Him. 
It's amazing how big one little "but" can be...