Judging and saving a corrupted creation (Genesis 6:9-22)

Here’s the start of a new family story:

Genesis 6:9-10 (NIV)
⁹ This is the account [tôlēḏôṯ] of Noah and his family. Noah was a righteous man, blameless among the people of his time, and he walked faithfully with God. ¹⁰ Noah had three sons: Shem, Ham and Japheth.

Christian readers have problems here. How can Noah be a righteous man? We know the verses that say no one is righteous (Psalm 143:2), and all our righteousness is as filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6). How can Noah be a righteous man? Was Noah blameless (without fault)?

More problematically, what kind of God kills all those people? If we think this is a children’s story, we haven’t understood the horror. This should be R-rated.

When the Assad government fell in Syrai, evidence of mass graves emerged. Tens of thousands of people had gone missing. Now their bodies were turning up. But what Bashar al-Assad did to his enemies is nothing compared to what God did in Noah’s time. Why the flood? And what does this say about God?

Actually, God is repulsed by the violence:

Genesis 6:11 (NIV)
Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence.

Violence comes from people forcing their will on others. It comes from rejecting God’s authority to define good and evil (Genesis 3). When I define good to mean “what’s good for me,” I can take whatever I like from you — even your life (Genesis 4). And when the godly community rejects God’s values, it’s indistinguishable from the rest of humanity (6:1), worshipping warriors, human legends (6:4). Human wickedness then spreads over the earth because all we think about all the time is evil — how to force our will on others (6:5).

And when there’s no community left to represent God’s authority on earth (because we’re enforcing our own), there is no hope for the world. Even God loses hope. God is deeply grieved, regretting his decision to entrust his world to humans (6:6-7).

The world God created was corrupted (šā·ḥǎṯ). To šā·ḥǎṯ something is to ruin or destroy it. Violence has ruined/destroyed God’s world.

In the beginning God spoke order into a world that was formless and void (1:2). He did this by separating things such as light and darkness (1:4, 14, 18). God separated the waters above from the waters below (1:6-7). God said, “Let the water under the sky be gathered to one place, and let dry ground appear.” And it was so (1:9).

But it’s no longer so. By rejecting God’s decree, humans introduced conflict and death into what had been good (Genesis 3). That led to a world ruled by violence (Genesis 4). In their suffering, the godly sons called on the name of the Lord (4:26) as they waited for God to comfort them in their misery (5:29). But when they lost their values (6:2), all hope was gone. God set a deadline (6:3) but evil had taken over. The whole world was šā·ḥǎṯ. The story cannot continue.

The heavenly sovereign accepts responsibility for the failure of his earthly realm. God announces he will šā·ḥǎṯ, (ruin, wreck, destroy) the world that is already šā·ḥǎṯ (ruined, wrecked, destroyed) because of the violence of his servants:

Genesis 6:11-13, 17 (NIV)
¹¹ Now the earth was corrupt (šā·ḥǎṯ) in God’s sight and was full of violence. ¹² God saw how corrupt (šā·ḥǎṯ) the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted (šā·ḥǎṯ) their ways. ¹³ So God said to Noah, “I am going to put an end to all people, for the earth is filled with violence because of them. I am surely going to destroy (šā·ḥǎṯ) both them and the earth. … ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy (šā·ḥǎṯ) all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish.”

What are your thoughts about God šā·ḥǎṯ-ing what is already šā·ḥǎṯ? Does God have responsibility for what he has made? Should he wash away the wreckage of what is already wrecked? Is God doing right by putting a failed creation out of its misery?

However else you understand this event, the flood is not a paradigm for how God manages the world. It was a unique situation, requiring a unique response. God assures us repeatedly that this is something he will never do again (8:21-22; 9:11, 15).

God does judge evil in other ways, and God also saves. As the Old Testament prophets keep reminding us, God’s management of the world involves both judgement and salvation.

The rescue

In a world beyond rescue, God finds a way to rescue the world:

Genesis 6:14-22 (NIV)
¹⁴ So make yourself an ark of cypress wood; make rooms in it and coat it with pitch inside and out. ¹⁵ This is how you are to build it: The ark is to be three hundred cubits long, fifty cubits wide and thirty cubits high. ¹⁶ Make a roof for it, leaving below the roof an opening one cubit high all around. Put a door in the side of the ark and make lower, middle and upper decks. ¹⁷ I am going to bring floodwaters on the earth to destroy (šā·ḥǎṯ) all life under the heavens, every creature that has the breath of life in it. Everything on earth will perish. ¹⁸ But I will establish my covenant with you, and you will enter the ark—you and your sons and your wife and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁹ You are to bring into the ark two of all living creatures, male and female, to keep them alive with you. ²⁰ Two of every kind of bird, of every kind of animal and of every kind of creature that moves along the ground will come to you to be kept alive. ²¹ You are to take every kind of food that is to be eaten and store it away as food for you and for them.”
²² Noah did everything just as God commanded him.

God’s problem is that he has chosen to partner with humanity. All it takes to save the world is one person in partnership with God. That’s the point of verse 22.

The kingdom of God established in Genesis 1 involves God as the sovereign over all creation, with humans exercising his authority over the animals. If that partnership is to continue then God must save the humans, and the humans under his authority must save the animals.

That’s why Noah must build such a large box (ark) — around 135 metres x 23 metres x 14 metres. With no way to power or steer it, it’s more of a preservation box than a ship.

The details of the ark prepare us for the divine rescue mission God brings to the world through Israel. The ark and the Tabernacle are the only buildings the Torah describes. The ark has the same dimensions as the Tabernacle, but is three times the size. The ark had three stories, just like the temple (1 Kings 6:6).

The parallel between the ark and the tabernacle has a profound meaning. The people of Israel which alone has in its midst the place where God reveals his glory is part of the human race which exists now because it has been preserved by this same God.
— Claus Westermann, A Continental Commentary: Genesis 1–11 (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress, 1994), 421.

In the end, the corrupted creation is saved through one person who follows God’s decrees. One obedient son of God was all it took to establish a new creation after God dealt with the corrupted world.

For thought and discussion

1. How do you understand the character of the God who destroyed the destroyed world? Meditate on how the Bible narrative describes the way God handles his responsibly to judge and save.
2. What does Genesis 5–6 teach about the mission of the church? What’s our role in a world corrupted by violence? How do we ensure we’re not seduced by the values of a world that worships superheroes? How do we represent God instead?

Related posts

• Righteous people? (Mt 10:40-42)
• Is there any justice? (Gen 6:5-22)
• God’s kingdom and salvation
• The faith of Noah (Heb 11:7)