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| Facing the flood or stemming the tide? An Antony Gormley figure at Margate, Kent |
We can only feel for today’s
victims and lobby governments and commercial interests to take climate change,
construction safety and flood prevention seriously, whatever the financial
cost.
Natural
disasters are nothing new. Several are recorded in the Bible and other ancient
documents. Noah’s flood is one of them. It doesn’t explain why we live in an
unstable and accident-prone world. But it does offer important spiritual food
for thought.
However, get rid of childhood
pictures of boats and animals. Read Genesis 6-9 first. Remember that when
Israelites wanted to teach or explain things, they told stories. (“Story”
doesn’t necessarily mean “fiction”; journalists use the term to mean a news
report, which may or may not be wholly accurate or unbiased.) Remember too that
Genesis 1-10 is a scene-setter or prologue for the whole Bible, and therefore
requires careful interpretation and comparison with other passages.
A flood of facts
There are said to be about 150 different flood stories from
around the world similar to that of Noah. Three of them from the Middle East share
a number of features with Genesis – but also have some important differences.
Genesis is simpler, less elaborate, and above all monotheistic.
Some people conclude that Genesis
is just one of many such stories, and therefore it has no enduring message. Others such as Bible commentator Derek Kidner suggest
that all the stories may have an origin in a real past event. Handed down
orally through the generations and across different cultures some accumulated the
kind of elaboration that occurs in Chinese whispers. If biblical inspiration is
taken seriously, the Genesis account could be thought of as God’s corrective to
the wilder myths.
Kidner
comments, “It is reasonable to think that some memories of Noah’s flood were
carried into distant parts by the expanding circle of his descendants; yet it
must be remembered that floods are not the rarest of disasters, and survivors’
experiences will have much in common.”1
There
is geological evidence of widespread floods in different periods of history and
in different parts of the world. Bronze Age settlements around the Black Sea
(not so far from the Middle East and the setting of Genesis) were inundated
some 7,500 years ago, perhaps a result of the end of the last ice age. (Those
melt waters also turned the British mainland into an island separate from
Europe.)
Floods are a fact of life. It’s
just that the Bible gives this flood story added meaning. But before we
consider that, note what Genesis doesn’t
say.
·
It doesn’t claim that the flood was global.
Ancient authors often thought of “the world” as their part of it. They didn’t
have a map or even a concept of the whole planet and its different lands.
Genesis is focused on one small part of the world and for the author’s purposes
nowhere else exists.
·
Nor does it say that Noah built a boat. The word
“ark” means a chest or shelter and its cube-shaped dimensions and size are
known elsewhere in antiquity. Sensational claims to have found the ark are
unhelpful (and unsubstantiated). The point is that Noah took precautions as a
result of some God-given foresight and/or astute reading of meteorological
signs which he attributed to God.
A tide of judgement
Getting swept away by a torrent of scepticism or on a raft
of possible scenarios misses the point of why the story is there and what it is
meant to teach. It is a carefully constructed story in the form of a
“palistrophe”, a symmetrical structure in which the first and second halves
mirror each other. That in itself suggests that this is a tale with a moral. It
introduces the notion of accountability and responsibility which is developed
and illustrated in later biblical writings.
It tells us that God’s patience
is not as infinite as God’s existence. There comes a time when God says enough
is enough. Enough of this mindless violence. Enough of this greedy
acquisitiveness. Enough of this superficial living for no other purpose than
self-gratification. Enough of the carping criticism as if one race, class,
gender or person was somehow superior to others, when all in fact are flawed.
Enough of this sugary spirituality that attempts to bend the divine will to
fulfil human ambition. Enough!
Or, as
the New Testament makes clear, our attempts to hold back the tide of
accountability are doomed to failure like those of the legendary King Canute. “For
we must all appear before the judgement seat of Christ, so that each of us may
receive what is due to us for the things done while in the body, whether good
or bad” (2 Corinthians 5:10). We may avoid immediate retribution (thank God he
is not impetuous) but we cannot postpone indefinitely the divine assessment
(see Revelation 20:11-15).
It’s
not something we like to think about. For most practical purposes we regard God
as a soft touch who like an indulgent parent overlooks the minor errors of a
spoiled child. We forget his subtle commands (such as to avoid anger and
slander; see Colossians 3:8), when he’s pronounced them in the Scriptures and
promised wisdom to those who ask. We blame our genes (“I couldn’t help it; this
is how I am”) when the God who created them has also given us willpower, choice
and the promise to provide a way out from any temptation (1 Corinthians 10:13).
We confidently plead not guilty
to murder, theft and similar crimes, considering as insignificant the
“idolatry, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition,
dissensions, factions and envy” (Galatians 5:20-21) that flesh is heir to and which
offend God and damage other people. We claim a clear conscience without
recognising that this in-built sin detector can be hacked by our personal
preferences. Paul noted in brutal honesty, “My conscience is clear, but that
does not make me innocent. It is the Lord who judges me” (1 Corinthians 4:4).
His conscience allowed him to torture and kill Christians before it was totally
re-programmed by the Holy Spirit.
The bottom line is that God’s
standard is perfection, therefore “whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles
at one point is guilty of breaking all of it” – because we have ceased to be
perfect (James 2.10; cf. Matthew 5:48). The story of Noah shows that God does
not like what he sees in the behaviours and attitudes of a world that ignores
or pays lip service to him.
It ought not to be such a strange
idea today. Most people in employment are subject to regular assessments.
Promotion or demotion may depend on the results. Misconduct will be met with
some disciplinary measure, fine or even dismissal. Lawbreaking in society –
from traffic offences to serious crimes – are given penalties ranging from a
fine or caution to imprisonment. Not so long ago (and still in parts of the US
and elsewhere) some resulted in execution. Critical judgement is part of human
life in an imperfect world; why should God’s judgement be considered
differently?
A raft of renewal and
stream of hope
But the Noah story also shows us that God always provides a
remedy for human waywardness. He did not wipe out everyone. He preserved Noah,
his family and the physical creation. He gave the human race an opportunity to
make a fresh start. That is the lifeline which links every part of the Old and
New Testaments.
The story of Noah introduces the
great biblical themes of forgiveness, redemption and renewal that culminate in
the coming of Christ who “suffered once for sins, the righteous for the
unrighteous, to bring you to God” (1 Peter 3:18). Remember that, when you see a
rainbow: the bright reminder of God’s multi-coloured all-embracing love
stretching across the world he made (Genesis 9:12-17). It is one of the Old
Testament’s symbolic forerunners of the cross of Christ.
Perhaps because of this story,
and certainly because of their narrow escape from Egypt across the Sea of Reeds
(Exodus 14), the Israelites were always fearful of the sea and despite living
on the coast never became a maritime nation. They also lived in an area where
drought was an ever-present risk. Too much, or too little, water were motifs
that inspired fear. So it’s significant that Jesus used water, the single most
important ingredient for physical life to exist, to describe the spiritual life
bestowed by the Holy Spirit (John 7:37-39). What was once a symbol of judgement
and source of anxiety has become instead a sign of new life and hope.
A deluge of protest
And yet. Why did God go to so much trouble to create a
beautiful, amazing world full of clever, imaginative people formed in his own
image, only to drown them like a litter of unwanted feral kittens when they
don’t measure up to his requirements not so long after he’d created them? And to
do so indiscriminately – were they really all as bad as each other?
And then on top of that to say
sorry, I won’t do it again – even though since then people have invented and
used weapons of mass destruction, selfishly exploited (and hoarded) earth’s
resources and become slave drivers and ethnic cleansers – in short, carried on
being “corrupt and full of violence” on an even greater scale?
Because
drowning is a truly horrible way to die. It isn’t quick or painless. It is
physically and mentally cruel. Drowning is torture, which is why the Americans
employed waterboarding to torture Iraqi prisoners not so long ago, failing in
the process to extract much useful information and succeeding only in
dehumanising themselves and mentally damaging their victims.2
Any
sentient land creature, from small insects to humans to elephants, fights frantically
for life when submerged. We cling to life tenaciously. We do not go gently into
that good night. Imagine the human body fighting for breath as water enters its
lungs, flapping and kicking in an attempt to rise to the surface. Or being
swept away in a torrent, powerless to resist the mighty wall of water that is
strong enough to upturn vehicles and topple buildings, and being dashed against
obstacles along its course. And all the while the mind remains conscious, screaming
noiselessly in its helplessness, fear, dread and anger.
Unlike
Tom the water baby in Charles Kingsley’s story, a person does not sprout “round
the parotid region of his fauces a set of external gills”3 when
plunged into water. Drowning is fearsome. Is God a torturer as well as an executioner?
The rest of the Bible would suggest not. The message of Noah is not about the
form of death. It is reminding readers, as part of the Bible’s prologue, that
life is uncertain and that human beings are answerable to God at any time.
Jesus
took two similar, but smaller, scenarios of mass death to rule out the idea
that somehow the victims “deserved” it. He used their story as a reminder that
we should all be ready to answer to God at any time (see Luke 13:1-5). And the
New Testament is clear that it is after
death that the judgement occurs (Hebrews 9:27). The mode of death itself is not
the judgement. We all die, but in different ways. What form that final
post-demise judgement takes, and what sanctions God may impose, is another
subject entirely.
Think and talk
1. Look up the
references in the text above and think about their message to you today.
2. Why do we so
easily point the finger at others’ wrong-doing and excuse our own? (See Matthew
7:1-5; James 4:11-12).3. “By your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned.” So said Jesus in Matthew 12:37. How seriously do we take that in everyday life, and what should we do about it?
4. Natural disasters (and disasters caused by terrorism, war and persecution) often elicit a generous response from the public (through such agencies as the Disasters Relief Council) and voluntary agencies. Why? And why are governments often reluctant to release their funds and resources in sufficient quantities to make a big difference?
References
1. Derek Kidner, Genesis, Tyndale Old Testament
Commentaries, Tyndale Press 1967, p.96.
2. “Most experts on
torture and police interrogations agree that such physical abuse committed with
humiliating and degrading tactics rarely yields trustworthy evidence. You get
confessions and admissions by building rapport not by bullying, by earning
trust not by fostering hatred.” Philip Zimbardo, The Lucifer Effect, Rider 2009, p. 377.3. Charles Kingsley, The Water Babies, Penguin Popular Classics 1995, p. 57. Originally published in 1863, it assumed a far greater level of language and anatomical knowledge than children’s books do today!
