Genesis 6: Reasons For The Flood

As we awaited the birth of our oldest child, Daniel, my wife and I prepared a nursery in our first parsonage.  We diligently scraped off the wallpaper and painted the walls yellow.  We brought in new baby furniture and cleaned the carpet.  And we chose to decorate the room with the theme of Noah's Ark.  The colorful border featured a mighty wooden boat, cute animals walking two by two, and majestic rainbows arcing through fluffy white clouds. 

Yet the idea that "Noah's Ark" would be used to beautify a baby's room is rather bizarre.  This dark story includes a torrential rainstorm that lasted 40 days and 40 nights and flooded the whole world.  Everything that was not safely on board the Ark perished.  In what was surely the greatest catastrophe people have ever witnessed, almost all of humanity died in miserable drownings.  Not a very happy picture for a nursery, is it?

In fact, some critics of God use examples like the Flood to castigate our Creator.  The events are so grim that they argue against mercy and grace.  "Where is your compassionate God now?" they sneer.  "How could a loving God kill that many innocent people?"

Such attacks fail to take into account the whole story.  Verses 5-6 and 11-12 are key in understanding the reasons for the Flood:

"The Lord saw that the wickedness of humankind was great in the earth, and that every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart."

"Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight, and the earth was filled with violence.  And God saw that the earth was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted its ways upon the earth."

Can you imagine just how bad the situation was that the best solution was to wipe everything out and start anew?  "EVERY INCLINATION of the thoughts of their hearts was ONLY evil CONTINUALLY."  This grieved God deeply, to the point that He was sorry about He had even made human beings.  And what kind of evil was it that they had sprung upon the earth?  Violence.  The world was filled with violence and corruption.

Yet in spite of all of this, God stayed His hand from condemning the righteous along with the wicked.  God undertook heroic measures to save the innocent man Noah and his family.  The emphasis in this account is not the flood of destruction but the ark of safety.  That's why, in the end, this story is indeed one of grace and deliverance, and that's why it is appropriate to serve as an inspiration for children of God of any age.