The Flood: a reminder throughout all generations of the consequences of sin.
“And God
remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him
in the ark:” the rain stops, and the waters begin to recede. The term
“remembered” is covenantal: God remembers his covenant. Even though all around
is wicked, God remembers his love for creation. It’s the love he showed Israel
when they constantly defied him. He didn’t give up on them but came in Christ
to call them.
When Noah came
out of the ark, he offered some of the clean animals and clean birds as burnt
offerings to the Lord. This is the first mention in scripture of animal death
and of offering animal flesh to the Lord. God did not request this from Noah.
It seems to be some human custom Noah was following, as explained in previous
chapters. “The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma…” Does this mean the smell of
death pleased the Lord, and the smell of cooked flesh, the way we enjoy the
smell of cooking? Did God delight in the death of these animals, as though it
appeased his wrath, enabling God to remember his covenant?
There are many
times we as humans do things in good conscience towards the Lord and God
accepts them. Most of the things David did during his tenure as king were
foreign to God, but David’s heart, celebrating God’s love for him, pleased God.
David’s life was markedly different to Christ’s, yet God accepted him. “Whatever
is not of faith is sin.” It’s our acting in good conscience that is pleasing to
God. This is the sweet-smelling aroma. What Noah did, he did in faith. This is
why we shouldn’t be hasty in finding fault with others. We might condemn them,
but God might justify them. God sees the heart. God was pleased with Noah’s
faith and obedience in going through the Flood and renewing the earth.
“Never again will I curse the ground because
of humans, even though a every inclination of the human heart is evil from
childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done.
“As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and
winter, day and night will never cease.”
Some scientists
have asked whether this new world was the beginning of the four seasons we see
today. Some have shown that before the flood there was more vapour in the
atmosphere, with a greenhouse effect and a unified temperature around the
world. If something along these lines was the case, then this above statement
by God could be the introduction of a new kind of climate, after the upset of
the former ecosystem. I don’t know. This is a world in which deforestation,
desertification and droughts are more likely.
This promise
seems to go beyond never again sending a universal flood. It speaks of any
catastrophe that would destroy all life on the planet. This would include a
complete nuclear holocaust great enough to destroy all life, I presume. “As
long as the earth endures…” Does this mean the earth won’t endure forever?
“Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall abide forever.” This is a
Hebrew phrase, a figure of speech, which compared God’s word to that which
seems most enduring to us. God’s word is even more enduring than the universe
and the earth itself. This is all the phrase means. It doesn’t mean the
universe shall end. Similarly, in Revelation, the heavens and the earth
vanished, and a new heaven and new earth appeared. This also is a metaphor for
a new eternal era. The earth being destroyed by fire in 2 Peter refers to Jeruslem and the temple (the old creation/ covenant) being burnt by Rome in AD 70.
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