Genesis 6:5-8
The Lord observed the extent of human wickedness on the earth, and he saw that everything they thought or imagined was consistently and totally evil. So the Lord was sorry he had ever made them and put them on the earth. It broke his heart. And the Lord said, “I will wipe this human race I have created from the face of the earth. Yes, and I will destroy every living thing—all the people, the large animals, the small animals that scurry along the ground, and even the birds of the sky. I am sorry I ever made them.” But Noah found favor with the Lord.
Whenever I hear about
Noah, the talk usually is about the ark, which, by the way, was a little
smaller than the WalMart Supercenter in town, tripple-decker, with stalls and
lots of food to last a year. Or the talk
is about how the animals even fit in that floating WalMart. Or it might start to get theologically antagonistic,
laughing over the idea of a 500 year old man without even a backhoe, or
nail-gun, building a boat bigger than a football field, or complaining that God
is always too harsh with that judgment thing.
It’s odd how we always
want the discussion to either not take place at all, or focus on some
nitpicking details that miss, or blur, the main point altogether. Which begs the question: what’s the main point of Noah’s building project?
That IS the main point –
it wasn’t Noah’s project; it was God’s project, and it came out of a broken heart. There are two main thought threads that wind
through every Bible passage: God’s love,
and humanity’s inability to grasp, or accept God’s love.
From the beginning of
Scripture we see that God created humans, gave them the gifts of a perfect
environment, and the presence of God as friend, the purpose of which was that God’s
love always wants to bless. God’s
greatest desire is fellowship with His creation…us!
When sin entered the
picture God forgave the human children, but we see the hideous side of sin, in
that, a perfect God, loving perfectly, will not un-ring our bell of treachery. When we betray the trust of living God’s way
there are consequences. From this page
of Scripture there’s no mistaking that the consequences begin with God’s broken
heart.
Another question begs
answering:
If God’s heart is broken, why does he default to judgment and
destroying
all the animals and every human, except Noah’s family?
You might as well ask “what
is the meaning of life…in 25 words or less, please”.
The short answer has to
do (as everything else in Scripture) with the love of God. The answer is the same we see in a loving
mother or father wanting to save his child from a mistake that will cripple his
future. When I was a teenage boy I knew
who to ask for permission. Dad was
stern; Mom was soft…I always chose Mom when the activity I wanted was questionable. I knew if I asked long enough, and with
enough whine in my voice, she would ultimately get frustrated and say: do what you want! Mom knew I was
setting myself up for disappointment with my wrong choices, but there is that free will thing. And there
is no teacher like experience.
God’s flood was more
than a display of His sovereign will and power; it was the reaffirmation of the
nature and character of God, Who is holy…way beyond our comprehension. Humankind’s downward spiral, into the kind of
moral pit we see in our day, demanded response.
And, despite the pain of holy God’s broken heart, his judgment
fell. It fell all around that WalMart-sized
boat, but the love of God kept the storm’s fury outside, redeeming the servants of God inside.
For You Today
God always prefers
blessing rather than judgment. But His
gift of free will comes with the reality that choices have consequences. Really bad choices have really bad consequences, even though it
breaks God’s heart.
In just the same, but
opposite way, the really good choice of obeying God has
consequence as well; you participate in the gladdening of Father God’s
heart.
And what true child
doesn’t want that?
