CHRISTIANNEWS.COM.- One of the best-known stories in the entire Bible is the story of Noah and the flood recorded in Genesis 6-8. This is a story of God’s mercy and judgment occurring at the same time.
The instrument of judgment that God used in this story to judge the people of the earth was water. Have you ever stopped to wonder why God flooded the earth? He could have used any means of judgment but for some reason he chose to use water, which makes one wonder if that has any meaning.
While there may not be a definitive answer to that question, I think there are some good speculations and arguments you can make as to why God flooded the earth.
Why was God’s judgment necessary?
As we begin this conversation, I think it’s important to recognize why the trial was necessary in the first place. To put it in the simplest terms, the hearts of men were wicked and wicked.
The Lord saw how great the wickedness of the human race on earth had become, and that every inclination of thought in the human heart was only wickedness all the time. The Lord regretted having created human beings on earth and his heart was deeply troubled. Then the Lord said:
«I will erase from the face of the earth the human race that I have created, and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move on the ground, because I regret having created them». But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord, (Genesis 6: 5-8).
Because of the wickedness in the hearts of men, God brought judgment because he reached a point where he could no longer allow the sinful condition to continue.
The sobering lesson here is that sin will not run rampant forever because there will come a time when God will judge sin just as He did in the days of Noah.
water and judgment
In Noah’s account, we see that water is used as a form of judgment. This not only happened here, but there are other examples in scripture where water was used as a form of judgment.
When the Israelites crossed the Red Sea, God used the waters of the Red Sea to destroy the Egyptian army.
Then the Lord said to Moses, “Stretch out your hand over the sea so that the waters flow over the Egyptians, their chariots, and their horsemen.” Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and at dawn the sea returned to his place. The Egyptians were fleeing towards it, and the Lord threw them into the sea. None of them survived, (Exodus 14: 26-28).
God was not the only one who used water as a form of judgment. Pharaoh did the same with the Israelite children who were born in Egypt. God’s judgment was due to sin, while Pharaoh’s judgment was the result of fear.
Then Pharaoh gave this order to all his people: “Every Hebrew boy that is born you must throw into the Nile, but every girl live” (Exodus 1:22).
While the Nile was used as an instrument of judgment, it is important to recognize that the same water that brought judgment also brought life because Moses was drawn from the same Nile River.
Water and Creation
The water was not only a form of judgment, but it was also part of the creation story. If you go back to the creation account in Genesis, look at the first two verses.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness covered the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved over the waters, (Genesis 1: 1-2).
Water was part of the creation process. God said: “Let there be a vault between the waters to separate the water from the water.” Then God made the vault and separated the water under the vault from the water above it. So it was. God called the vault “heaven.” And the evening and the morning were the second day.
God said: “Let the water under the sky come together in one place, and let the dry land appear.” So it was. God called the dry land “earth” and the gathered waters he called “seas.” And God saw that it was well, (Genesis 1: 6-10).
The reason why God sent a flood to Earth
I’m going to give you two thoughts here about why God flooded the earth. The answers are judgment and creation. God used the water to judge, purify, and cleanse the earth of its sinful condition.
However, water has a double purpose and this is where I relate it to creation. Remember that at creation God parted the waters and called them to create boundaries of dry land. Could it be possible that God was doing the same thing with the flood waters in Noah’s day?
The flooding of the earth was like giving an artist a new canvas to create. Since God was not interested in destroying the earth but in recreating the earth, this could be why God chose to flood the earth.
If God had wanted to destroy the earth completely, he would have used fire and not water. Also remember that God had to preserve the life of Noah, his family, as well as the living creatures that were in the ark.
By flooding the earth, God was able to judge the earth and at the same time preserve life. Because God used a flood, the earth remained intact and when the waters receded, life was allowed to continue as before the flood.
conclusion
I think it’s fair to say that God used the flood as a form of preservation and judgment. The flood was the first to destroy the earth and it will be the last to destroy the earth. God will continue to judge the sinner and preserve the saint just as he did Noah, yet he has chosen never to do so again by means of a flood.
I hope I have provided some credible thoughts on why God used the flood, but even if he did it for a different reason, we won’t have to worry again.
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Written by Clarence L. Haynes Jr., lecturer, Bible teacher, and co-founder of The Bible Study Club. He is the author of The Pursuit of Purpose, which will help you understand how God leads you to his will.
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