We have houses evacuated in our city of Rosenberg and the Brazos River still threatens to endanger lives and property. Whenever the National Weather Service issues a flood watch or a flood warning people are sure to compare it to the situation with Noah. It so easy to compare any inconvenient water to that which killed almost all life on planet Earth. Not only natural disasters trigger that comparison but also the reference to the sin that presumably caused it.
Any natural disaster will have some preacher up in arms proclaiming the end is near because you-know-who did this-or-that. I am writing these reflections in a much calmer situation: The weather forecast looks dry for the next week. The crest of the flood is here and turned out less disastrous than originally expected here in Rosenberg. And most certainly has nobody preached of fire and brimstone denouncing the sin that led to our flood warnings. So in a very stable situation after the flood has passed, the rainbow is out and we are all safe and dry, let us take a sober look at what actually caused the Great Flood for which Noah built the Ark. That story is to be found in Genesis 6:1-8:
When people began to multiply on the face of the ground, and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that they were fair; and they took wives for themselves of all that they chose. Then the Lord said, ‘My spirit shall not abide in mortals for ever, for they are flesh; their days shall be one hundred and twenty years.’ The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterwards—when the sons of God went in to the daughters of humans, who bore children to them. These were the heroes that were of old, warriors of renown. The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. So the Lord said, ‘I will blot out from the earth the human beings I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them.’ But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord.
Yes, you read that right: demigods roaming the Earth, Sons of God having babies with human mothers, just like it was the case with Jesus and Mary. Only in this early incarnation God did not approve and vowed to undo that.
The Flood was not caused by human sin!
The Flood was caused by demigods abusing their power.
Let that sink in for a minute:
God is not in the business of punishing people!
God is in the business of making amends for what his sons messed up!
God is a loving parent cleaning up after his kids!