From Genesis Chapter 6
5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of mankind was great on the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually. 6 So the Lord was sorry that He had made mankind on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart.
11 Now the earth was corrupt in the sight of God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12 And God looked on the earth, and behold, it was corrupt; for humanity had corrupted its way upon the earth.
13 Then God said to Noah, “The end of humanity has come before Me; for the earth is filled with violence because of people; and behold, I am about to destroy them with the earth.
I think the traditional way that most of us have grown up reading about the Flood, is with the understanding that God was pissed at man because man didn’t obey him. We were having fun, getting drunk, dancing, stealing, greed, murdering, sex with whoever we wanted and we were ignoring God so God wiped us out because he had enough.
Then after wiping us out he realized that maybe he overreacted and made a promise to never do that again. So he said, “Hey, I’m not really going to apologize because you guys were being jerks and you deserved it, but here’s a rainbow.” And we said, “Wow! That rainbow is nice. Is there gold at the end of it?” God said, “No there is no gold!” And we said, Oh, can we have a coffee maker instead? The rainbow is nice though.” God said, when you discover fire then I’ll teach you how to make coffee, but until then, I’m giving you a rainbow which is really a promise.” We said, “Oh, a promise that you’ll give us a coffee maker and gold?” So God said well, let’s just start with a promise to not destroy you again. And so we were motivated that one day, if we’re good, God will give us a coffee maker and put gold at the end of the rainbow. And that is why coffee is a universal drink for all of us to start our day with. We are drinking in the promises of God.
I do think that there is another way to look at the event of the flood. I think that it starts way back in the garden and it may be best to look at the trajectory of mankind, rather than looking at just the behavior of mankind. Looking at the timeline that we are given, it starts with Adam and Eve deciding, although they were deceived, but they did prefer that they could decide for themselves what is good and what is evil. They chose not to trust God to handle that. They get kicked out of the garden and then their son Cain, kills his brother Abel. Then Cain is exiled because he is afraid of being killed for killing his brother. So Cain moves away and rather than trusting God who promises to protect him, he builds a city with a wall. In other words, he chooses not to trust God and trusts in himself. From Cain comes Lamech who is 7 generations removed from Cain and he is 77 times the rebel and murderer that Cain was.
23 Lamech said to his wives,
“Adah and Zillah,
Listen to my voice,
You wives of Lamech,
Pay attention to my words,
For I have killed a man for wounding me;
And a boy for striking me!
24 If Cain is avenged seven times,
Then Lamech seventy-seven times!”
Lamech was a reall asshole! He took whatever women he wanted and told them, “Don’t even think about going against me. I’ll kill you. I don’t care if it’s a grown man who wants to fight me or a boy who accidentally bumps into me, I’ll kill them just because that’s what I do. God is on my side!” Mankind progresses to even worse rebellion and evil. All while believing and proclaiming that God is on their side! The Nephilim (not going to open that can of worms at this point) were having sex with whoever they wanted. And took whatever they wanted simply because they could. And decalring that they were gods on earth! Again claiming an exclusive line to God.
4 The Nephilim were on the earth in those days, and also afterward, when the sons of God came in to the daughters of mankind, and they bore children to them. Those were the mighty men who were of old, men of renown.
What my mind presents me with to ponder is that the line of Seth, the third son that Adam and Eve bore, was not part of the chaos and evil that was going on through the line of Cain. And God saw that the line of Cain was evil and vicious and the terror and horror that they were bringing upon the earth was too much to bear. Mankind was only going to eventually destroy itself and it was horrific to watch. It broke God’s heart. The Nephilim were raping the women of Seth’s line and bearing children that were warriors. God’s plan for mankind to love and care for one another and love and care for the earth was so far removed! The earth was soaked in the shed blood of man and no one cared for each other. It was kill or be killed. Rape and violence and murder became the God they believed in.
To stop man from experiencing the terror of just being alive and only living in survival mode, God stepped in to put an end to it. Life had literally become hell on earth so God, in the way that is common to the nature of God, gave us over to our sinful appetites. Rather than choosing a world of love and caring for one another and a right and wrong as defined by God, mankind chose a world of chaos and so God sped up the process of returning the world to chaos. In the beginning, God found the world in a state of chaos and brought order to it. The flood represents Him removing his love and power and goodness from creation and allowing creation to return to chaos once more. And that was the merciful thing to do rather than mankind wiping itself out through violence, murder, rape and destruction.
I can only guess that God just doesn’t have it in Him to give up on us. He chose to save a remnant of the life he created and replant mankind on earth and have another go at it. Unfortunately it didn’t take long before Noah’s son thought that the old man was getting to old and he pulled an Alpha Male move and slept with his Noah’s wife. And off we go again. But God made a promise!
We tend to read that promise as a promise that He will never again destroy life on earth. But if we can imagine that God did not destroy life on earth, he just removed his grace and love which sustains life in all creatures and let chaos ensue. In other words God is always actively sustaining life and sustaining order and not allowing chaos to overtake the earth again. So we have the chance to understand that promise to be that He will always be present among us and never allow us to destroy ourselves and fully indulge our world in violence and evil and chaos.