Implant
So the Lord said, “I will blot out from the earth the humans I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air—for I am sorry that I have made them.” – Genesis 6:7 (NRSVUE)
This explanation for Noah’s flood is confounding, if not exactly surprising. People are jerks, so everything else on the planet has to die? The arrogance! Not everything’s about you, humans.
The fact that so many ancient cultures have similar stories makes it worse: apparently, humans everywhere thought they were the center of the universe. I’d like to read the deer’s account of what happened, please, or the lizard’s. Who or what do they think caused the flood?
I don’t have a particularly mystical view of Scripture, but sometimes I find myself wondering if maybe, just maybe, this story is in the Bible not because it actually held much meaning for people at the time, but because it was planted there for us to find today. I don’t believe in a God that would destroy everything in a fit of pique. But sometimes, when I let my super-rational guard down, I can just about believe in a God who would plant a story like this deep in our collective consciousness so it would be there when we need it.
Humans back then probably couldn’t have messed up everything, everywhere—but humans today can. Humans back then probably couldn’t have created a worldwide environmental catastrophe—but humans today are. Humans back then probably couldn’t have made the whole world bear the consequences of their sins—but just look around.
Imagine with me just for a moment that God planted this story for you, for just such a time as this. What was God hoping you’d realize?
Prayer
More light, more truth, more help, please. Amen.
About the AuthorQuinn G. Caldwell is Chaplain of the Protestant Cooperative Ministry at Cornell University. His most recent book is a series of daily reflections for Advent and Christmas called All I Really Want: Readings for a Modern Christmas. Learn more about it and find him on Facebook at Quinn G. Caldwell.