Readings for the day: Genesis 8, 9, Psalm 12
How many of us have experienced the death of someone we love? Or the end of a relationship that once held such promise? How many of us have felt the grief and pain that accompanies such a loss? And then, of course, comes the daunting task of starting over. The hard work of rebuilding a life. Piecing back together a broken heart.
The most stunning part of the Noahic story is the insight the Holy Spirit gives us into the very heart of God. In Genesis 6-8, we come face to face with the heartbreak of God. The pain of God. The grief of God. Close readings of these chapters reveal not an angry tyrant who lashes out at His creation but a grieving parent whose heart breaks at the hostility He encounters from the creature He so dearly loves. The Hebrew word for “grieve” in Gen. 6:6 is the exact same word used for the “pain” the woman will suffer as a result of the curse of sin in Gen. 3:16. Eve is clearly not the only one who will experience an intensification of the pains of labor and bear her children in anguish! In choosing to be Immanuel - God with us - God freely enters into the pain of our existence and bears it Himself. The central message of this story is that the heart of humanity which is “only evil continually” (6:5) has not been changed by the devastating judgment of the flood. No, the intentions of the human heart remain forever bent towards evil and hostile towards God. (8:21) So God has a decision to make. Of course, it’s one He’s already made from eternity. “Never again will I curse the ground...Never again will I destroy all living creatures...As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night will never cease.” In other words, God will be faithful!
And so God begins the daunting task of starting over. The hard work of rebuilding life. Piecing back together a broken world. He calls Noah and his family forward. He renews with them the “Great Commission” He once gave Adam and Eve in the Garden. Be fruitful. Multiply. Fill the earth. Have dominion over all I have made. This is territory we’ve already trod. The difference now is the commission is accompanied by a promise. A rainbow set in the clouds so that every time it rains (one can only imagine the PTSD this family experienced every time they saw the clouds come over and the rain begin to fall), Noah and his family will remember they don’t have anything to fear. “The water will never again become a flood to destroy all flesh.” No matter what happens from this point forward. No matter how dark humanity’s sin may get. God will be faithful. He will keep His promise.
And if you read even more carefully, you will note God’s commitment to His promise is immediately put to the test. Noah begins to till the soil. He plants a vineyard and gets drunk off his own harvest. One of his sons, Ham, enters his father’s tent and “sees his father naked.” Many scholars have pointed out the probability of Ham’s sin going far beyond voyeurism. Most likely, “seeing his father’s nakedness” is Hebrew idiom for rape which in the Ancient Near East was an all too common way for younger men to establish their superiority over older men, even among family members. Ham is attempting here to take over the family clan by violently shaming his own father which is why when Noah wakes and learns “what his youngest son had done to him”, he curses Ham’s son Canaan by reducing him the status of a slave. That may sound harsh to our 21st century ears but often our sin has generational consequences and one has only to look at who the Canaanites become to see how the sins of Ham get passed down. And yet, even this horrific act does not annul the promise of God! He still remains faithful and true to His Word!
Do you realize this same promise is true for your life? No matter what you do or where you go or where you’ve been or what you’ve experienced, God is faithful! He will never leave you or forsake you! He will never abandon you to your fate! As long as you draw breath, He remains at work healing your wounds. Binding up your broken heart. Comforting you when you mourn. Giving you peace amidst the storm. Trust Him today with all of your trials! All of your struggles! All of your suffering! All of your pain!