When the rain is falling, and the water is rising, it’s easy to imagine that God has forgotten me.  I’m sure that Noah felt that, too.  In between feeding the animals, cleaning up after the animals and pacing the decks of his new little world, I like to imagine Noah staring out the window.  I know I heard the LORD.  He told me to build this thing.  He said that He would use it to protect us.  But now everything that I’ve ever known, except my family, is gone.  I look out these windows, and I see nothing.  But water.  Lots and lots of water.  At least the fish are happy…

And there was probably a little part of him that wanted to be gone as well.  Weeks of wrestling with doubt started to take its toll.  Every day, Noah would have had to look into his family’s eyes, wondering what they thought of him.  Obviously, they trusted him.  He was the father of the family, who acted as a high priest for them, interceding before the Most High God.  But Noah could start to see the questions in their eyes: Will this stop?  And when?

God was merciful, and provided signs that He was going to keep His promise.  He knew that Noah and his family were merely human, and would need reminders.  Noah first sent out a raven (which God would declare in Leviticus to be an unclean bird), and the wretched creature left.  Noah then sent out a dove, which returned.  In a way, that was God’s message: I’m still with you.  A week later, the dove was sent out on another reconnaissance mission, and brought back an olive leaf.  Olive trees don’t grow at high elevations, so the waters had receded below the tops of the mountains.  The olive branch has since been a sign of peace, and in a way, this was God’s method of telling Noah and his family My wrath has been satisfied; I’m at peace with creation.  This gave mankind hope and secure knowledge that God had a future for them.  He has given us a sign of His deep desire for peace with man, in the form of Jesus.

As a quick aside, olive trees, and the oil produced from them figure prominently in Hebrew culture.  It was a staple of their food, and as such, God used it to speak His messages to Israel time and time again:

• They burned olive oil in their lamps (light)
• It was used for anointing (blessing)
• In Zechariah 4:3, God provides Zechariah with a vision of two olive trees, representing the priestly and royal offices.  Christ is our priest and king, and we are declared priests and kings
• In Romans 11, we are described as a wild olive shoot, grafted onto the olive tree that is the Hebrew people
• Jesus ascended from the Mount of Olives (Luke 24:50), and will return there as well (Zechariah 14:3-4)

The third time the dove was sent out, it didn’t return.  God still hadn’t abandoned them, but instead was saying that it would soon be time to leave the ark, and He was preparing their place.  While Noah’s family would have to stay in it a little longer, the ark was not their permanent home.  Thousands of years later, Jesus would leave this world, and go to prepare a place for us.  We have His promise that this world, in its fallen state, is not our permanent home.

By the way…you know that schedule I put up about a week and a half ago? The one that stated I would be in Job by now? Yeah, well, forget the timetable. I will still be following the scripture order, but I’m not going to be able to keep up that pace. Anyway…on with the insightful commentary.

I’m finding that it would be way too easy to breeze through stories like this, assuming that since I’ve heard it since childhood, that there would be nothing new to learn. I’m glad that, instead, I’m taking my time. I’ve got a nice, new Bible that is getting marked up with new notes, pointing out things that the Holy Spirit is showing me. Unless I’m mistaken, I believe that Jewish scholars called these things “loose threads”. They are phrases or passages that, when you read them, something tells you “dig here.”

If you look in verses 6-7, it says:

The LORD was grieved that he had made man on the earth, and his heart was filled with pain. So the LORD said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth–men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air–for I am grieved that I have made them.”

These are not the emotions and words of a holy and righteous deity that is upset that mankind started a party and won’t call it quits. This is not a God who is offended. Rather, this is a creator who loves his creation, and is heartbroken that they have chosen to reject Him, and as a result they are suffering.  In previous posts, I’ve mentioned the choice that God continually and repeatedly gives mankind: Choose Him and life, or reject Him, and at the same time, choose death. If you picture that choice as a fork in a road, then mankind is now several miles down the road with no signs of turning around. At this point, God destroying the world is a mercy. If he allowed mankind to further descend into its own sinfullness, and further corrupt creation, a truly unmerciful God would leave them (us) to their (our) own devices; or, to put it another way, He would let us lie in the bed that we had made. At some point in the life of a person who has repeated rejected God, repentance is no longer an option. The same sun that softens one heart only hardens another.

However, in His wisdom and in another facet of His grace, God selects Noah and Noah’s family to live. The Bible states that Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked with God. This does not mean that Noah is sinless, obviously. However, it does mean that Noah wanted to follow God, and had allowed his heart to bow to God’s will. And, as the patriarch and high priest for his family, Noah had taught his wife, children and daughters-in-law to obey God. Noah didn’t content for the rest of humanity, like Abraham does in Genesis 18. (Anybody have any thoughts on why?). Instead, Noah obeyed and built the ark as God had instructed.

As Noah and his family entered the ark, they chose life and bore witness to the rest of humanity of their dedication to the LORD. Unfortunately for the rest of the population, it was the last witness they would see. God protected his servants by shutting up the ark. Was it shut from the inside, the outside, or both?

Picture this: tectonic plates moved in a way that had not happened before or since. Out of the ground came not the gentle irrigation described in the garden of Eden (see Gen. 2:6), but gigantic torrents of water. Following that, the first rains ever recorded fell on the earth. I’m sure that, for at least a little while, Noah’s neighbors pounded on the ark, alternately demanding and pleading to be allowed in. Based on the description of the populace, I’m also sure that there were those who wanted nothing more than to kill Noah and his family out of spite and a feeling of vengence. God’s purpose in saving humanity would not be thwarted, and the door stayed shut.

Also, the people pounding on the door were Noah’s friends and family. These were people with whom they had lived and traded. Listening to the screaming, there must have been someone on the ark who thought about opening the door, just to let one or two more inside. Once again, God had made his decision, and it would stand. The door would not open.

I’ve heard it explained that repentence is a gift. We are not guaranteed an opportunity to contemplate whether to ask for forgiveness for our sins. God, in His grace, has given us to this point to choose Him and the wonderful life He offers. I need to remember that in light of how I tend my own heart. Choosing death is just as often a sin of neglect, rather than an intentional act.