Board index ‹ Noah's Ark & the Flood

[Mueller's Report]

Hi

Could some one please clarify the reason for the global flood in the OT? And the point of saving Noah and his family?

I am under the impression it was too "start again" due to man being corrupt because of sin, but didn't want to assume that

Thanks

[jimwalton]

Glad to talk. Genesis 6.5, 11-12 says, "The Lord saw how great man’s wickedness on the earth had become, and that every inclination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil all the time. ... Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways." It's obviously a hyperbolic statement, but the theology is there: evil had reached an unprecedented and incorrigible level. It was thoroughly pervasive throughout the region. God would have to act to restore order (the main concern of the ancient world).

(Point of Interest: I don't believe the flood was global, but instead massively regional.)

> And the point of saving Noah and his family?

God wished to continue to reveal Himself to humanity, and He had chosen Noah as a wholesome candidate for that function (Gn. 9.9).

God has a plan in history that he is sovereignly executing. The goal of that plan is for him to be in relationship with the people whom he has created. It would be difficult for people to enter into a relationship with a God whom they do not know. If his nature were concealed, obscured, or distorted, an honest relationship would be impossible. In order to clear the way for this relationship, then, God has undertaken as a primary objective a program of self-revelation. He wants people to know him. The mechanism that drives this program is the covenant, and the instrument is Israel. The purpose of the covenant is to reveal God. Noah is an individual who will suffice as an agent of the covenant. Despite his flaws (Gn. 9.20-21), he was a man through whom God could continue His work.

> I am under the impression it was too "start again" due to man being corrupt because of sin, but didn't want to assume that

There is no intent or illusion that the Flood was supposed to stop all sin in its tracks. The sinful inclination of man's heart hasn't changed (Gn. 8.21). A flood can't cure that. The covenant is aimed at curing that, eventuating in the coming of Jesus to forgive sins.

[Mueller's Report]

Thanks for that. Kinda answered a question i'd been pondering on for a while. But it has raised another .

> There is no intent or illusion that the Flood was supposed to stop all sin in its tracks. The sinful inclination of man's heart hasn't changed (Gn. 8.21). A flood can't cure that.

If it's acknowledged that the flood wouldn't stop sin what was the point in it? Was it simply to bring the level of sin down? (As you said to restore order).

[jimwalton]

The concerns of the ancient world were about order, non-order, and disorder. The creation story portrays how God brought order to what was disordered. The flood story is also one of order and disorder. God used the forces of chaos (non-order: the sea) to judge the disorder (evil and violence) people had brought to creation. He also used those same forces to reestablish a modicum of order. In this way the flood is a re-creation (mirroring Genesis 1). This is why the narrator includes the story. He is showing how God had worked to bring about order in the past (creation and flood). This serves as an introduction to YHWH’s strategy to advance order yet again through the covenant (Gn. 12). The covenant is an order-bringing strategy.

The Flood, then, fulfilled two purposes. First, it was an act of judgment carried out by God in response to the moral degradation that had come to characterize humanity.

Second, order and disorder were some of the primary aspects of the ancient world view. God had brought the world to functionality and order in Genesis 1. Sin brought disorder into what God had done. Evil (bringing disorder) had reached an unprecedented level, and God acted to restore order. God uses non-order (the cosmic waters) to obliterate disorder (evil and violence). Though it doesn't eliminate disorder (8.21), it resets the ordering process, and God indicates that the established order will never again be reset by a flood.