It was such a joy to study the story of Noah this week. I got so many insights from the different podcasts I listen to. (see previous post) I also had a couple of my own. Here are the things that impressed me this week.
The Flood as a reverse Creation:
I while ago, I blogged about a bunch of the symbols in the creation. During the creation God made order out of chaos. In the story of the flood, God reverses that ordering. In the creation, God separated the water beneath from the water above. In this story, he opens the heavens and unplugs the "deep" (exact same word in both the Noah and Creation stories) and lets chaotic waters once again consume the land. In the creation, God separates the water and lets the dry ground appear. Here he gradually lets the waters consume the dry ground until even the hills are covered. If you had a cartoon of the creation story, ran it backwards, and added an ark, you would pretty much have a video of the flood. It even says in Genesis 1 that it was the waters that brought forth the moving creatures and the birds (Gen 1: 29). If you see that in reverse, you see the waters reclaiming living things.
Once everything is "uncreated" by the flood, the waters recede and Noah becomes the new Adam within a new world. Genesis 8:13 states that they emerged from the ark on the 601st year on the first day of the first month. The 600 harkens back to the 6 days of creation. The first day of the first month suggests a new beginning. The Lord told them to "be fruitful and multiply" (Gen 8:17) just as he had commanded Adam and Eve. Noah built an altar, just like Adam did when he left the garden of Eden. The people and animals that were in the ark were those who listened to God's commandments. After having almost all of Adam's posterity go astray, God is trying to establish a new people who will be obedient to him.
Noah as symbol of hope for the house of Israel.
Many scholars think that the Pentateuch was first compiled as a unified document during the Babylonian captivity as a way for the children of Israel to maintain their cultural identity. The people of Mesopotamia where the Jews were held captive had the story of Gilgamesh which contained a flood narrative. Whoever compiled the Pentateuch reshaped that story into a form that validated the identity of the house of Israel as a chosen people and gives them hope for restoration. Even Noah's name mean "comfort" in Hebrew, and the Jews needed comfort. The house of Israel, like Noah, probably felt like they were surrounded by swirling forces of evil. A castastrophic event had taken away from them almost everything they had ever known. Now they only had their families and their religion to cling to. The hope was that Israel would survive the exile and return to Jerusalem to start a new life as a faith community. How would their spiritual life be saved? By an ark. The same word used for the Ark in the story of Noah, is used for the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant contained symbols of God's love and care of the House of Israel; a sample of manna, Aaron's rod that budded, and the clay tablets Moses received from the Lord. Noah's Ark symbolized God's saving power. Both arks were tokens of God's covenant with this people that if they were obedient, he would watch over and care for them. These would have been very important and sustaining messages for the children of Israel as they were captives in Babylon.
Noah as a symbol of hope for all of us
The most powerful realization I had this week (and this not from a podcast) was that the story of Noah reflects what happens sometimes in our own lives. Sometimes something happens that suddenly changes everything about our lives. It might be a death of a family member, or a disabling injury. It might be a sudden loss of a job or the unexpected end to a marriage. Sometimes (though not always) it may be the result of something we have done that is not in accordance with God's will. These catastrophic events can act, like the flood did, as a kind of reboot to our lives. If they come about by our own sin, they can act as a cleansing that breaks the ties between an old life and a new life. Even when the disaster is not caused by our own actions, it can still spiritually refine us. One podcaster I listened to pointed out that there didn't seem to be any way to steer the ark. Noah was left to trust that God would lead the ark where he wanted them to go. When a sudden life changing event happens, the best course is to do exactly as Noah did. He drew his family around himself and held tight, with faith in ark (the covenants) the Lord had directed him to make and with reliance that the trial would take him where the Lord wanted him to go.
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