November 12, 2025

GOD’S WORD FOR TODAY:

“The Lord regretted that He had made human beings on the earth. His heart was deeply troubled. So the Lord said, ‘I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground—for I regret that I have made them.’ But Noah….“

(Genesis 6.6-8a)

TODAY’S REFLECTION ON GOD’S WORD:

I am reflecting on this passage of God’s word today because in my preparation for the day, I came across a reading commenting on it which said, “Noah converted his family.” That observation struck me odd. Did the writer mean to say that Noah’s family was unrighteous where he was deemed righteous by God and got them to believe in God? If that was true, were they just not as bad as the rest of the world and so “could be saved”? Or was the writer using a poor translation of the word and spoke in terms of saving his family from the deluge by being obedient to God and building the ark? Regardless, it caused me to go back and reread the story of Noah and the Ark. How many times have we heard a Bible story and not really listened to it? Or, how many times did we tell a story and not include certain details just because we we didn’t think the details were important? If I asked you to tell me the story of Noah and the Ark, would you have included the biblically rendered fact that even the animals were corrupted as were the people of the world? For me, after all this time, I just had not listened to that assertion. A part of me wants to cry out, “Unfair!” Think about it for a second with me. Because of the “fallen ones” who took the daughters of humankind to be their wives and thus sow the seeds of contention against God and propogate the rebellion begun in Heaven so that it spread on earth, all life suffered. Well, nearly all life, right?

Consider the “survivors.” There was Noah and his wife. There were their three sons and their wives. There were the animals either two by two or seven by seven. There were some plants, especially the root of the grapevine from which Noah had cultivated grapes and made wine in his time. All of those were kept safe in the Ark as God had purposed. Apart from the Ark what survived? Since God made provision for birds of the air, we would have to think that the forty day deluge was so severe that even birds could not survive because they would not be able to sustain themselves in flight? And we only hear of one lone olive tree from which a leaf was plucked by a dove sent out to search for any sign of life after the rain ceased and the Ark ran aground. We don’t hear of any provision for the fish of the sea but it would be safe to assume God knew they would survive in the water as there was no plan for aquariums in the Ark. Everything else died in the Flood because of the wickedness brought on by the Fallen and unrighteous human community. Imagine the influence sin has on the entire globe and the world of humankind.

God’s judgment fell on the righteous and the unrighteous. Do we chalk up such mass destruction as collateral damage inflicted on the world and the earth because of sin? How did God choose the animals to be aboard the Ark as worthy of salvation, even Noah himself who was not perfect? How can we say an animal is righteous? Or any animal? Or any plant? If God regretted that He had ever made humankind (Genesis 6.6), then why did He decide to “start again” using a flawed resource- Noah. Yes, Noah was attributed with righteousness. It could be in comparison to the gross unrighteousness which had sin-fected the world. In other words, Noah was bad just not as bad as the rest. I say this only because of that scripture which Paul wrote “For all men have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3.23). We know of the story of Enoch who walked so close to God that God took him to be with God. The meaning is that Enoch did not die but simply taken up. Was this going to be true of Noah? Well, if Noah was flawed with sin, as are we all, but God saved Him from the judgment of the Flood, then it stands to reason He is doing the same for us. In our baptism as believers in Christ, we are “flooded over” and saved to continue to live on earth to do God’s will. “Behold, the old has passed and the new has come.” (2 Corinthians 5.17) Is it the same for the rest of creation (animals and plants)? The planting of that “seed” into the ground of our being brings about the fruitfulness of the earth again and we are stewards of it. Everything was taken, “…but Noah.

Back to the writer of the devotion I read this morning who said Noah converted his family and thus they were saved from the flood. It would seem that such “conversion” was more of a repentance effort to turn them away from the world and more to the Kingdom of God which was yet to come. We have other such stories of repentance, redemption and restoration. We have just reflected on one of them in the study of Jeremiah 29 and 30 with the Jerusalem exiles. We know it for ourselves as believers in Jesus as the Christ are called together into a new community of faith called “The Church,” as the body of Christ. Yet, are we? Is the Church becoming more like the world and less like the Kingdom of God? Is it facing the same trials and challenges as did the Temple and the leadership of old? Where are we as members of the Church, the royal priesthood of all believers, as we stand for God and against the world? Have we mistaken the true calling of God’s love to include “conversion” and “salvation”? Mighty ones of God, it would do us well to consider these questions and call one another into “the calling by which we all have been called.” That calling is Jesus Christ.

TODAY’S PRAYER IN RESPONSE TO GOD’S WORD:

Father, in these days we are finding the need to believe even more than ever before. We all have known trouble, some in greater ways than others, but You are offering us the assurance that we will not be consumed by it forever. Regardless of the “time” we are in and the “time” we have been given, we ask for Your Holy Spirit which Jesus asked You to share with us, to lead and guide and direct us in the paths we should go. Teach us what we still need to learn. Empower us to put that learning into action. Bless our actions not as a works righteousness but as righteous works of faith, hope and love in Jesus’ name. AMEN.