Genesis 7:17-24

2006.Sep.29 19:17

Destruction

Read Genesis 7

For forty days the rain poured down without stopping. And the water became deeper and deeper, until the boat started floating high above the ground. Finally, the mighty flood was so deep that even the highest mountain peaks were almost twenty-five feet below the surface of the water. Not a bird, animal, reptile, or human was left alive anywhere on earth. The LORD destroyed everything that breathed. Nothing was left alive except Noah and the others in the boat. A hundred fifty days later, the water started going down. (Genesis 7:17-24, Contemporary English Version)

I thought I’d branch out a little on my version quoting. I’ve never read the CEV (that I remember) but I do enjoy when a translation doesn’t bother trying to fit everything exactly into verses. The verse numbers such as “19-20” are refreshing. Of course, I know nothing of the quality of this translation.

This is a plain and direct story of a creator destroying the vast majority of his creation. If I felt the need to destroy this much of say, a website I was working on, I’d probably just dump the whole thing and start from scratch. But I’ve already written about God’s decision to save some.

So, instead, let’s take this at the surface. Jehovah is a sustainer, but he’s also a destroyer when called for, and this is one of his most powerful acts of destruction. This is just a taste of God’s raw power and it is awe-inspiring. Awe-inspiring in the sense that it’s none of my family or friends being wiped out in this flood.

We Christians tend to distance ourself from Jehovah’s “destructive” works. We’re convinced that he at least allows bad things to happen, but they tend to happen to others, and when they happen to us, we grab hold of truisms–at lest that’s my impression. I don’t have a deep point or a lesson here, but I don’t want to detach myself from the times when God obliterates something. First, because I want to be his friend, and destroying something you’ve created is a good time to have friends. Second, because, well, that’s part of this life, and I don’t want to turn a blind eye to it. What does that mean for me? I don’t really know. But I think I need to care.

Genesis 8:15-22

2006.Nov.09 09:16

Give it another try

Read Genesis 8

God said to Noah, “You, your wife, your sons, and your daughters-in-law may now leave the boat. Let out the birds, animals, and reptiles, so they can mate and live all over the earth.” (15-17, CEV)

The smell of the burning offering pleased God, and he said: Never again will I punish the earth for the sinful things its people do. All of them have evil thoughts from the time they are young, but I will never destroy everything that breathes, as I did this time. As long as the earth remains,there will be planting and harvest, cold and heat; winter and summer, day and night. (21-22, CEV)

The flood is over. It’s probably messed with the climate a bit and left an absurd number of dead things lying around, not to mention destroyed all remnants of ‘civilization’ for the time being, but it’s over. And God says, “Get off the boat…and let the animals mate!” It’s a tacit admission that God really does want humanity to give it another try.

After Noah builds an alter and sacrifices, Jehovah makes this desire explicit. He acknowledges first that humans will sin from our youth, flood or no flood. But he states that he will not again destroy “everything that breathes” (Maybe that’s why Revelations takes so many scrolls). It’s like God’s saying, “You people f—ed up, you’re going to keep f—ing up and it really p—es me off, but I am not going to give up on you. I’m going to get friends out of you even if I have to cause you great pain.”

And that’s what strikes me, that Jehovah (it seems to me) establishes a policy from this point forward with regards to humanity that we would rather cause us–as a species and as individuals–exquisite pain than destroy us. And maybe we have Noah to thank for that, although I’d guess it was always God’s intent. After all, it might make the opportunity a good deal more desirable when we’ve seen his williness to destroy.

Why do bad things happen to good people? It’s sort of irrelevant since the only good human has been Jesus. But, it makes sense to me to suggest that they happen because God prefers us to suffer a little while that we might lay down our claims to godhood and humble ourselves before him. Because if we don’t, patient as he may be, he would eventually have to exile us. And considering that God is the provider of all good things…

I’ll take the pain.

Genesis 19:23-25

2007.Aug.23 03:03

The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah

Read Genesis 19:23-25 Full Chapter

Before I jump into this week’s passage, I was reading in 2 Peter last week and came across a passage about Lot that may be a bit more positive about him than I have been. I’ll examine that more in a couple of weeks when I return my focus to Lot. Also, I’d like to note that I feel…erm…iffy about this particular article/study/whatever. I’m just not sure where to go with it or if have any useful comments. But, then, it is a study after all.

The sun had risen on the earth when Lot came to Zoar. Then the LORD rained on Sodom and Gomorrah sulfur and fire from the LORD out of heaven. And he overthrew those cities, and all the valley, and all the inhabitants of the cities, and what grew on the ground. (Genesis 19:23-25, ESV)

According to an unsophisticated search on BibleGateway, Sodom is mentioned 28 times outside of Genesis in the Contemporary English Version. My impression, after a quick survey is that these references generally refer to pending destruction and/or comparisons. Here’s a few samplings:

Unless the LORD of hosts
Had left us a few survivors,
We would be like Sodom,
We would be like Gomorrah. (Isaiah 1:9, NASB)

You and the people of Jerusalem are evil like Sodom and Gomorrah. (Jeremiah 23:14, CEV)

You people of Jerusalem have sinned twice as much as the people of Samaria. In fact, your evil ways have made both Sodom and Samaria look innocent. (Ezekiel 16:51, CEV)

So I tell you that on the day of judgment the people of Sodom will get off easier than you. (Matthew 11:24, CEV)

We should also be warned by what happened to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah and the nearby towns. Their people became immoral and did all sorts of sexual sins. Then God made an example of them and punished them with eternal fire. (Jude 1:7, CEV)

One thing I notice is that Jehovah exercises his judgment on Sodom and the other cities of the plain, while retaining it in other cases for a later day of judgment. Groups who are deep in communal sin are compared to Sodom, and in several Biblical cases, judged to be worse. Perhaps then Sodom is an example of when a community has taken sin too far. As in, if your town is worse than Sodom, you need to change completely, and you need to change yesterday. If that is the case, perhaps God destroyed Sodom to make clear to future generations that such sin is unacceptable, even in the context of a fallen earth; this then is the line at which a community can no longer survive.

Or maybe not.

There is also the question of Jehovah’s justice. God’s sense of justice and fairness is not the same as my natural sense of these things. I can often come to an understanding of his actions, but sometimes my immediate take on his justice is that it is not intuitive. Why judge Sodom so harshly? Why give mercy to so many others? Of course, I have a hard time questioning God’s giving mercy to anyone, since I am so grateful he has given mercy to me. And yet…and yet…and yet.

Is it worth thinking about such things? Yes, it is. But let me not forget, in such thoughts, God’s holiness, nor his mighty hand. I may not understand the details of his decision, but I rejoice both in his grace and his righteousness. And I also must be humbled by these things. When I find myself proud, I want to remember how easily God overthrew these proud cities.