Advent Journey: December 8th
© Michael Livesay-Wright
Questions and Reflections
QUESTION: Did you know God never stops loving you, no matter what you do?
Yes, we have already discussed this question, but it's worth repeating. Nothing separates us from the love of God. Romans 8:38-39 (one of my favorite verses) state, "For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord" (ESV). And though we haven't yet begun to speak of the sacrifice of Christ, Romans 5:8 says, "God shows his love for us in that, while we were still sinners, Christ died for us" (ESV). While we were still sinners. So even when we are in our sin, when we are so far removed from what we ought to be, God's love towards us and His actions towards us do not change.
QUESTION: Why did God send a flood?
The answer to this is important and difficult. God who had made this grand and beautiful earth and these human beings to be his image on this earth looked around and "saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that ever intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually" (Genesis 6:5, ESV). "And it grieved Him to His heart," the Genesis account goes on to say (Genesis 6:6, ESV). I think it is difficult for us to imagine this kind of grief. God isn't surprised by the actions of man. But imagine creating the most beautiful work of art anyone has ever seen... and then imagine someone slashing that piece of art to bits. God has made the greatest work of art anyone has ever seen and the most painful part is that the art itself is destroying itself. So He has to stop it. The story of Noah isn't an easy happy story. It's a story of death and salvation. The only way to stop the destruction is to cleans the whole earth with a flood. It is a kind of re-creation. If you remember back to day 1 of our reading, God hovered over waters. Now he will hover over waters again and He will remake the earth again, not because He messed up, but because sin was ravaging the planet. It is a gruesome image but it brings to mind a doctor having to amputate a limb that could potentially poison the body. The flood is tragic in that it is what is needed, and hopeful in that God isn't done with His creation.
QUESTION: Why did God preserve Noah?
Genesis says that Noah was a righteous man and it can be easy to focus on those words and imagine that Noah had his act together and that's why God saved him. But I love the words "Noah walked with God" (Genesis 6:9, ESV). I think therein is the key to his righteousness. Noah too likely had the same sinful impulses of everyone else around him. But Noah walked with God. He didn't hide from God, defy God, or run from God. He listened to God. It was a little reflection of what Adam and Eve used to do in the garden. And so God makes his first covenant. He says to Noah that, even though everything on the earth is going to die, I will establish my covenant with you, and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you" (Genesis 6:18, ESV). And God is also going to preserve the creatures of the earth He has made. Some find the story of the animals marching two by two to be outlandish. I happen to find outlandish things to be terribly believable. Regardless of whether you read this part of the story to be literal, the covenant with Noah and the preservation of a remnant of living creatures is meant to be for us a picture of grace. Due to the sheer violence and evil destroying the face of the earth, the people of earth don't deserve to live. But God loves them. He still does. And so He's going to make a way and He is going to commit to a promise that will echo throughout the Old Testament - to preserve a remnant, to save His creation from themselves and from destroying the entire earth. And Noah is the bearer of that covenant.
QUESTION: Are there wrongs in your life or wrongs that you observe that you wish God would make right?
We shouldn't be scared to talk about this. Someone once told me that no amount of pounding on heavens proverbial gates will cause any amount of damage. So tell him the things you wish He would change. Tell Him the things that upset you and hurt your heart. I often observe things I wish God would change - sickness in a dear friend, hurt or pain in someone I love, my own disappointment. I want to say (and I often do), "God, fix this!" Sometimes He does. But often He doesn't. There's no simple answer to why this is. Not everyone was saved from the flood. Not every wrong is righted now. Sometimes it's confusing and may even make you angry. Often the current wrongs we experience are the result of sin (our own or far off distant sin or long-term pervasive sin we didn't cause). But other times it seems senseless. If this is you today, I am sorry. And I believe that God grieves for the pain you have to feel in this fallen world. But, though it may seem trite, I also believe that in the larger, truer, deeper story (yes, even deeper than floods and death and disappointment) there is a relentless narrative of redemption. GOD IS COMING. And one day every wrong will be right and we will see with joy and gratitude that every promise was true, we just couldn't see it.