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God gives a clue about his plans for heaven and earth at the very beginning in the most unsuspected place . . . The story of Noah and the flood.
When we think of Noah, the first things that come to mind are the ark, the animals, the flood, the dove, or the rainbow. The story is iconic. Nearly everyone has heard about it. But few have actually read the story in the Bible and even fewer actually understand its meaning. Right now, I just want to highlight one key part of the story. That key part in these few chapters at the very beginning of the Bible actually help us understand the whole trajectory of the biblical storyline. God’s goal and intent for humanity that comes to the surface in the story of Noah reveals, signifies, points to God’s goal for humanity that he intends to accomplish at the end of human history. Before I touch on the meaning, however, it should be said the author who wrote the story of Noah—and tradition tells us it’s Moses—writes as though he’s talking about a real event. Whether that event was global or local is debated, but the author thinks there was a real man named Noah who built a real ark that stored his family and gender pairs of each animal. There really was water that drowned humanity. Humanity from that point onward descended from Noah’s three sons. But the main point I want you to see, as it relates to this series, is that God did not abandon his plan for it to be done on earth as it is in heaven. God started the earth project and will not forsake it for some other project in some other universe with some other creature while some humans dwell in heaven forever.
People influenced by heaven-aimed Christianity often misunderstand the Noah story because they misunderstand the purpose of the flood. The flood is God’s judgment. It’s not that God warned Noah about a coming flood that God himself foresaw and can’t stop. God caused the flood. God wanted the flood to happen. He did so because the evil done by humanity became more and more prevalent. God created people to be good and do good, to love God and love others. But they despised God. They hated each other. They corrupted themselves. God would not keep silent. So He decided to take a redo with Noah. Noah was righteous and blameless. Not perfect. But he stood out and stood above all the rest. He walked with God. So God chose Noah and his family to start afresh his humanity project.
The flood does not represent that the earth is bad in and of itself. The immorality and evil done by humans did not cause God to hate the earth and reject his plan. When the flood of judgment was done, Noah went back to work on the earth, making a home and restarting civilization on the earth. When I used to read this story through the lenses of heaven-aimed Christianity, I thought the evil that threaded every human heart also threaded the earth. That God didn’t like the earth and that humans lost the right to enjoy the earth forever. But the story itself conveys a different message. That God insists only on the best. God is not content with mediocrity, or with evil, or with ho-hum humanity. He is not a hands-off, out-of-sight, out-of-mind God. The story of Noah teaches that God will have his plan: a civilization of perfect humanity on a newly made earth. Thanks for listening. I’m Aaron Massey.