The Flood

Genesis 7

The rain started falling. A few drops at first, then over the next several hours increased in intensity until the sound of the rain falling drowned out the sounds of the bleating lambs and the chirping birds…

Before the rain there had been other deafening sounds in the realm of the spirit. As the human population increased so also did self-indulgent behavior. Once, the sound of footfalls could be heard as God walked through the garden with Adam in the cool of the day. Then, away from the garden, the sounds of debauchery could be heard.

God’s ears filled with the sickening sound of people giving themselves over to perverse pleasure. But, in the midst of it, God could still make out the sounds coming from a single righteous man. Noah didn’t sound like a man trying to intensify pleasure. He was a man who worshipped God.

It only takes a few days of steady hard rain to create a flood. A small creek only a few feet wide and a couple inches deep ran behind my West Virginia home. When the remnant of a hurricane passed through, it caused that little creek to jump out of the tall banks that contained it. The creek became a river over six feet deep and several yards wide. That creek emptied into a larger creek that had become a mighty river. That river emptied into the Kanawha River which also jumped its banks. A few days of rain fell and the city of Parkersburg was under water.

The rain fell on Noah’s world for a few weeks. I imagine that the human race was gone after only a couple weeks, though. Once the ground saturated, the floods come quickly and without warning. People were in their houses wondering when the rain would stop. The rain was loud enough to drown out even their thoughts. Then, the water coursed through the street. It flowed under their doors and through their windows. The debauchery stopped as the participants jumped on chairs and tables to avoid the quickly rising water.

The sounds of carousing that had filled God’s ears for so many years stopped. For what could have been only a few minutes, those sounds were replaced by the screams and then the moans of the dying. The thundering rains kept Noah from hearing what God heard. But, God can hear the prayers of one righteous man through the deafening sounds of partying. He also hears the moaning of the dying through the murderous storm.

God feels their pain. The death of thousands of people make permanent the eternal loss of their souls. This wasn’t God’s plan. It was their choice. God’s love and his grace allowed them to make the choice to reject him.

The dying sounds of the condemned stopped and the rain kept falling. Then, the only thing God heard was rain and Noah. When the rain stopped, the spiritual storm stopped, too. There was peace.

It took a cleansing flood to restore peace to the earth. In a sense, it still does.