A Not-So-Cute Story

            Among the worst things we can do to the Scriptures are 1) to tidy them up and 2) to make them ‘cute.’  And the story of Noah and the great flood has certainly endured that treatment!  Many a child’s nursery is decked out in ‘cute-ified’ images from this story—pastel colors, an ark the size of a pontoon boat, and a giraffe sticking his head out the top.

            In that portrayal, we miss some things.  We miss the horror that human sin was working in this story.  I often hear that ‘things are getting worse all the time.’  I do wonder, though, if things are as bad as they were when God flooded they earth.  “Corrupt” is used three times to describe man’s behavior, and “violence” is used twice.  It makes you wonder how bad things must have been, how out of control human behavior was.

            Second, the flood is no spring shower.  The image of 40 days of rain just doesn’t seem like much.  But the story says the springs of the deep opened and that the flood raged over the earth for 40 days.  The waters didn’t begin receding for six months.  I tend to think that the flood is the result of a geologic catastrophe and that rather than think of 40 days of rain showers, we should think about the surface of the earth being ripped apart by earthquakes and of tidal waves that make the worst hurricanes pale in comparison.

            Third, theologically, we should recognize this as what one of my friends calls “the second-worst outpouring of God’s wrath in human history.”  (The greatest outpouring of that wrath is the punishment that Jesus endured in our place on the cross.)  I mean the whole human race, except for 8 people, and the plants and animals, save a handful, were wiped out.

            Once, we’ve “un-cute-ified” the story, we might very well be horrified to read it, and once we’re there, we’re ready to start asking Gospel questions of story.  The Gospel connection is about God’s forbearance.  Driven as He was to anger, He wasn’t blinded by rage.  He recognized that Noah remained faithful.  He acknowledged His own promise that He would redeem and save the human race, not completely obliterate it.  The flood was a devastating punishment, but not a complete one.  And, looking forward to Jesus, when the time came to fully pour out His wrath, the Lord knew that He could not pour that out on us without completely destroying us so He poured it out on His Son, who stood in our place.  The cross became our ark, allowing us to escape the rising flood of God’s wrath.