Flash Flood Alert

Chapter 6:4-9:17

One simply must not look at the flood account in little pieces. The grammatical structure of the story does not lend itself to microscope style evaluation. This is not to say that the individual words are unimportant, for they are! But when one zooms in too closely, too quickly they miss the true point of the flood account.

I like to ask people what the point of the flood account really is. The answers are typically the same: God’s judgment, God’s love, God starting over. When one looks at the chiastic structure, however, one notes that in the middle of this story is an interesting phrase. “And God remembered Noah.” Not that He had ever forgotten Noah. But God looked favorably upon Noah. God’s mind was set upon Noah. It’s like when we say that we remembered someone’s birthday. We did not forget their birthday, we recognized and honored their birthday. That’s the point of the flood story. God looked upon one righteous man, and acted in a way that was beneficial to him. That’s good news for us! When we live righteous lives, God remembers us today.

There are some highlights to the flood account:

--The dimensions of the ark make it a vessel that would be very seaworthy in turbulent waters. Modern day tankers follow the same type of design. In many Ancient Near East (ANE) flood narratives, the boat that is described would never float. The one in Genesis would have been very stable.

--The provisions on the ark for the animals would have been to allow the animals to reproduce after the ark, and to allow extra animals for Noah’s time of worship after the exodus from the ark. God takes care of His worship.

--Many beliefs we hold about the flood story simply are not present. We do not see Noah preaching to his neighbors begging them to get on the ark. God had not told Noah to take anyone else aboard, so to imagine him trying to do so would not have made sense. They were to be punished, not spared. Also, there is nothing that says Noah did not employ help to build the ark. We imagine people laughing at him, but the fact is that is not mentioned. They may actually have been employed by him in the huge construction project.

--The language of the leaving the ark is the same language as Genesis 1. We see here in this story a “re-creation” story. This will be helpful to understand the next passage of Scripture.

--The rainbow is for God to see and remember, not us. While we cannot help but think of God’s promise when we see it, the covenant is between God and the land, and so the marker is His. Again, remember as to honor, not as if He forgets.