Noah

Retelling of, ‘The Flood Narrative’ (Gen.6:9-9:29)

God looked upon the earth.  He looked upon humankind and saw that it was evil.  This offended God, his heart was broken (Gibson, 1981, 187).  The abominable behaviour of humankind then, was such that God would be entirely justified in destroying the earth (Speiser, 1964, 46) and this is what God set out to do to deal with the growing problem of human sin.  God decided to destroy the earth with a flood.  Noah however, found favour in the sight of the Lord, for God would use Noah to pave the way for the future salvation of his creation (Von Rad, 1972, 118).  Thus God instructed Noah to build an ark into which he would bring the creatures of the earth, and Noah responded in faith and in obedience to the Lord’s commands (Von Rad, 1972, 120).  Thus God’s plan was executed and the flood filled the earth.  But Noah was not forgotten, God ‘remembered’ Noah (Gibson, 1981, 170).  God did not forget his creation and was faithful to the promise he had made with Noah, for he loved his creation dearly and the flood subsided.  The living creatures, which were so corrupt, were justly destroyed, but by God’s grace the earth was renewed (Gibson, 1981, 170).  Noah was wise and sent out birds in search of dry land, which was common practice among mariners. The findings of the dove confirmed God’s faithfulness and the ark landed upon a mountain.  Noah left the ark with his family and built an alter straight away in thanks to God, signifying a new relationship between God and humanity (Von Rad, 1972, 122).  In response to Noah’s sacrifice God made a promise to himself that he would never again destroy the earth, and he also affirmed that the natural order would be sustained.  Nevertheless, humanity was still the same, it was still evil from its youth and God would still be justified in again destroying the earth, but by his grace he does not.  Following God’s promise to himself, God tells Noah that he is allowed to eat animals but not eat their blood, this lays the ground for a further understanding of what the blood means in this context.  Blood means life, and God points out that it is only in himself that the chain of human blood shedding can be put to an end, or can ever be justified (Coats, 1983, 78).  God continued in blessing humanity through his covenant with Noah (Coats, 1983, 78-79), which was in fact a covenant with all creation and all of humankind as Noah is here seen to be the ancestor of all humans following the flood event (Gibson, 1981, 169).  As a sign of his faithfulness and grace and as confirmation of his covenant with humankind and the rest of creation, God gave the rainbow, symbolising the eternal significance of his promises.  But Noah was still imperfect, he went on to farm and produce vineyards and became drunk on wine and was naked.  One of his sons, Ham, saw his nakedness and Noah cursed him.  Ham was the father of Canaan and thus the abominable practices that Canaan performed throughout its history were condemned (Von Rad, 1972, 137). The flood narrative ends then, in affirming the power of God, his eternal justice, love, grace and faithfulness in stark contrast to the sinfulness of humankind.

Word Count: 528

Bibliography

Coats, G.W. (1983). Genesis volume 1: The forms of the Old Testament literature. Grand Rapids: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.

Gibson, J.C.L. (1981). Genesis: Volume 1. Edinburgh: The Saint Andrew Press.

Speiser, E.A. (1964). The Anchor Bible: Genesis. New York: Doubleday & Company, Inc.

Von Rad, G. (1972) Genesis, a commentary. (Revised ed.). London: SCM Press Ltd.