The Jesse Tree: Day 3
THE FLOOD
The story of the flood opens with God’s sadness and grief over the flourishing of wickedness and sin in the earth. The thoughts of all humanity were only evil all the time. So God sent an act of judgment upon the world, in order to bring cleansing, to remove the filth and mire of sin. Because of our wickedness, God sent the flood.
"But Noah found favor in the eyes of the Lord.”
Genesis 6:8
Genesis 6:8
In all the world, there was one righteous person: Noah. God chose to preserve him and his family, and to make a fresh start with them, the righteous. So God commanded Noah to build an ark, a gigantic boat, to survive the storm. And then, he sent the flood.
For 40 days and nights, rain fell in torrents from the skies. Oceans swelled and rose, ignoring the boundaries of the tides, creeping up hills and mountains, swallowing everything, until every single peak and precipice on earth was covered. After several months, all that remained of humanity was Noah and his family. Which meant that sin, that infection that had spread through the hearts of all humanity, seemed to have been successfully scrubbed off and rinsed down the drain. It was gone.
Or so it seemed.
Noah’s family soon learned that this wasn’t true. Sin also survived the flood, in that it too had climbed aboard the ark, a passenger in their own hearts. The ark had preserved them through the flood, the storm of God’s judgment. But neither the flood nor the ark could heal their hearts. So, sin spread and multiplied just as it had before, with wickedness living on in the heart of every man and woman alive, every boy and girl born. And God’s heart remained grieved.
He promised to never again flood the earth, but his sense of justice wasn’t altered. His holiness didn’t go away. Somehow, sin still required dealing with. Cleansing was still necessary.
But how?
Many years later, God sent an ark again. A new and better ark. He sent his son, Jesus, the ark who preserved us from the fullness of God’s judgment by taking our sin upon himself. He received the punishment for the sin we boarded in our hearts. The full weight of the flood waters of judgment came crashing down on him. And because he is our ark, we find safety and security in him, knowing he has us. Believing he can keep us through the storm.
And one day, when he returns, he’ll wash our hearts free of sin once and for all. And truly, we’ll be clean, forever.
For 40 days and nights, rain fell in torrents from the skies. Oceans swelled and rose, ignoring the boundaries of the tides, creeping up hills and mountains, swallowing everything, until every single peak and precipice on earth was covered. After several months, all that remained of humanity was Noah and his family. Which meant that sin, that infection that had spread through the hearts of all humanity, seemed to have been successfully scrubbed off and rinsed down the drain. It was gone.
Or so it seemed.
Noah’s family soon learned that this wasn’t true. Sin also survived the flood, in that it too had climbed aboard the ark, a passenger in their own hearts. The ark had preserved them through the flood, the storm of God’s judgment. But neither the flood nor the ark could heal their hearts. So, sin spread and multiplied just as it had before, with wickedness living on in the heart of every man and woman alive, every boy and girl born. And God’s heart remained grieved.
He promised to never again flood the earth, but his sense of justice wasn’t altered. His holiness didn’t go away. Somehow, sin still required dealing with. Cleansing was still necessary.
But how?
Many years later, God sent an ark again. A new and better ark. He sent his son, Jesus, the ark who preserved us from the fullness of God’s judgment by taking our sin upon himself. He received the punishment for the sin we boarded in our hearts. The full weight of the flood waters of judgment came crashing down on him. And because he is our ark, we find safety and security in him, knowing he has us. Believing he can keep us through the storm.
And one day, when he returns, he’ll wash our hearts free of sin once and for all. And truly, we’ll be clean, forever.
Pause to reflect
Jesus is our ark in that he is our safe passage through the judgment of God, but he also protects us through the storms of life. Think of a storm you’ve been through, metaphorically speaking—maybe even this past year. How was Jesus there for you in that season?
The story of the flood depicts how terrifying God’s wrath and judgment actually is. But thanks to Jesus, we don’t have to be afraid. How does the image of Jesus as our ark, the one who protects us from the storm of judgment, help you to rest?
The story of the flood depicts how terrifying God’s wrath and judgment actually is. But thanks to Jesus, we don’t have to be afraid. How does the image of Jesus as our ark, the one who protects us from the storm of judgment, help you to rest?
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