Before the flood - 23 August 2026

Noah was only 10 generations from Adam, but God saw how wicked humans had become, not only occasionally but with every thought, all the time. Also, divine beings were said to be breaching the boundary between heaven and earth and so it appeared that the whole cosmos was unwinding. People were treating “fallen ones” as mighty leaders, a situation with which we are familiar today.   How did God respond to this? Well, some have interpreted the Hebrew word ‘nacham’ as regret, but it would seem better translated as sorrow. God was grieving over his creation, and God’s heart was filled with pain. The flood is God’s response to a broken heart, not a result of anger. God’s nature as described in Exodus 34:6 remains constant: compassionate, gracious, slow to anger and abounding in love and faithfulness. God was patient, between planning the flood and initiating it. It would have taken decades to build the ark and even when it was loaded, there was another 7 days before the rain began. God also wanted to preserve his creation by taking Noah and his wife and his 3 sons and their wives in addition to a breeding pair of every bird and animal so that God’s judgement and punishment and the rebuilding commenced on the same day.   Noah was given a name meaning comfort or rest in the hope that he could counter the corruption of humanity and he was righteous compared to his generation and did good works because he trusted God. God made a covenant with Noah that all would be destroyed, but those in the ark would be spared.   The ark itself was a big wooden floating box with no ablity for Noah to steer it. In the Hebrew it translates as a sacred container for preserving life; a sarcophagus. It was a mini-Eden in the middle of the chaos that would destroy the rest of the world. However, God would never cause such a flood again.   In the New Testament Jesus came into the world which had degenerated into the evil excesses of the Roman Empire, to save humanity again. In the New Testament in Matthew and Peter we are advised to watch for the return of the Lord if the world is in the midst of corruption, rebellion and violence. The story of Noah and the flood is meant to communicate many spiritual truths about God and God’s faithfulness to creation. Even if the details are a parable, this does not change these truths.   Today the church is the ark of salvation in the world. The faith of Christians makes us righteous and able to do good work. We in the church have a tremendous responsibility to bring the world around to God, but what a privilege.   Ian Olver