Think Speak Run

Wrath and response.

God has sent Jesus to redeem us from our sin nature and to bring us back into relationship with Himself, but how does this fit into the narrative of the old testament?

After Abel’s murder, more children are born to Adam and Eve, starting with a son named Seth. There are ten generations between Adam and Noah, about whom you have probably heard. Even if you don’t know who Noah is, you’ve probably seen a rainbow in the sky, with its beautiful colours. Rainbows are a sign of God’s promise, originally made to Noah, that He will never flood the whole earth again. God flooded the entire earth in Noah’s day because He was sorry He had made mankind, seeing the wicked way in which people were living on the earth. God wiped out everything He had created with a flood, apart from eight people (Noah and his family), and a male and female of all the creatures He had made.

After the flood dried up, the creatures and the humans who were safe on the ark were able to go out into the world, and fill it again, bit by bit, as all the males had their seed in them.

So why did God destroy most of what He had made? Didn’t He care about His creation? What does the story of Noah’s ark mean to us today? Is it just a random Bible story?

The significance of Noah’s ark and its connection to our lives today can be seen in the names of the men from Adam up to Noah.

The names and their meanings are as follows:

Adam – Man

Seth – Appointed

Enosh – Mortal

Kenan – Sorrow

Mahalalel – The Blessed God

Jared – He Shall Come Down
Enoch – Teaching

Methuselah – His Death Shall Bring

Lamech – The Despairing
Noah – Comfort.

These names, when read as two sentences, describe the curse of mankind – man appointed mortal sorrow – and the redemption of mankind in the person of Jesus: the blessed God, He shall come down, teaching; His death shall bring the despairing comfort. 

These names accurately describe the biblical narrative of both the old and new testaments, and show us that in the moment of God’s anger and seemingly sudden destruction of His own creation, there was no surprise to Him. Man’s behaviour disappointed and saddened God, but He was not caught unawares. The Bible calls Jesus “the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world” (Revelation 13:8). Jesus is the ultimate sacrifice, and He is God’s eternal plan for the salvation and redemption of mankind.

If you think you are beyond redemption, or feel that God doesn’t care about you, just ask Him for a rainbow. When you see that beautiful arc of seven colours, that is God’s promise to you. He will never flood the whole earth again. Since Jesus’ death on the cross, God will never react out of anger towards mankind again. The rainbow is a physical promise that points to the greater spiritual promise of love, redemption and relationship with God that we have in Jesus.

You can read the full account of the flood in Genesis, chapters 6 and 7.