Clergy and Educators

Innocence Lost: Reflections on God and the Flood

by Rosann Catalano

Recollections from childhood: the animals, perfectly behaved, marching two by two in double straight rows, up the plank, and into the Ark; the Ark, big and sturdy, a safe haven in any storm; Noah, white-bearded, benevolent and wise, orchestrating the event, clearly in charge; Mrs. Noah at his side, confident and serene; a white dove, olive branch lodged securely in its beak; a Rainbow; me, a young grade-schooler, praying desperately to be chosen to be a penguin, or perhaps, a sheep, in the Sunday school pageant; and, if you're a Bill Cosby fan, the question: "What's a cubit?" All in all, a happy, fun story.

But what do adult eyes read in Genesis 6-9? My contention is that a careful and close reading of the Flood narrative bears little resemblance to the happy story lodged in childhood memories. Instead, the adult reader is confronted with a sobering and deeply disturbing story, one that confounds and challenges every "settled" theology secure in its knowledge that "God is in Heaven and all's right with the world." To the attentive reader, this story raises unsettling, even frightening questions both about the One we praise as Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all that is, and about the behavior of human beings when confronted with untenable choices. In this article I will direct my attention to the first of these questions: What picture of God emerges from Genesis 6-9, and how are we to understand it?

Of the many questions this narrative raises about God, two are especially haunting: (1) What motivates God to destroy all living things; and (2) Why does God save a remnant from the deluge. Before addressing these questions, however, I want to take note of the narrative "fact" upon which these questions are predicated, a "fact" all too often expunged from the reader's consciousness and edited out of Sunday school stories and pageants. As shocking for its implications as it is for its straightforward style, the narrative presents this "fact" in startlingly unambiguous terms: it is God who decides to destroy all living creatures; it is God who brings on the Flood. So as not to lose sight of what is at stake in our questions, I quote from the description that follows the swelling of the waters above the highest mountains.

Gen 7:21 And all flesh died that moved on the earth, birds, domestic animals, wild animals, all swarming creatures that swarm on the earth, and all human beings; ²²everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died. ²³He blotted out every living thing that was on the face of the ground, human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those that were with him in the ark.

What could have possibly motivated God to destroy every living thing upon the face of the earth?

Gen 6:5 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. ⁶And the Lord was sorry that he had made humankind on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart. ⁷So the Lord said, "I will blot out from the earth the human beings that I have created–people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them."

Humankind, we read, had not only become exceedingly wicked, but "...every inclination of the thoughts of their hearts was only evil continually." Seeing this, "the Lord was sorry that he had made them" (a phrase that appears twice in these three verses). Neither anger, rage, nor fury describes God's response to humankind's wickedness. What motivates God to destroy every living creature on the face of the earth are grief and sorrow at the way in which human beings had "turned out." God regrets having created them and decides to destroy them. Sorrow, grief, regret...powerful and poignant emotions which can, at least on some occasions, lead to destructive consequences.

Gen 6:5-7 offers a second insight into the character of God. Not only can regret and sorrow grieve God's heart so profoundly that destructive impulses are ignited, but they can overpower and blur the soul's vision and judgment, as well. In verse 7 we read that God is also going to blot out "animals and creeping things and birds of the air." Did they too disappoint God? Do they share culpability for the "wickedness of humankind?" Why, exactly, are they being destroyed? Are we to understand that God's grief and sorrow are so overwhelming that God looses sight of the innocent?

There are some, no doubt, who will argue that while the picture of the deity that emerges in these opening verses is a troubling and, perhaps, even a disturbing one; that while God's judgment may seem severe, and the decision, shocking; nevertheless, the Lord's ways are beyond human comprehension. It is the creator's prerogative to do with creation as he wills. If the Lord chooses to destroy her creation, it is God's to destroy! But I would ask: does the work of the creator "belong" to the creator in such a manner that the creator can do with it as the creator wants? And lastly, and independent of whether the Lord has the right to destroy all living creatures, the question lingers: what does the decision to do so imply about God? Surely there are those among us who have been bitterly disappointed by the work of their hand, who have known a heart heavy with grief, who have tasted the bitterness of regret and the anguish of a sorrow beyond tears. It is one thing to want to destroy the object of our heartache, and quite another to act on that desire!

Thus, the opening verses of the Flood narrative present a troubling portrait of God and of the sometimes powerfully destructive and pervasive nature of regret. And yet, however theologically troubling the answer to the first question, the text itself places this challenge directly before the reader. When we turn, however, to the question of why God decides to save a remnant of creation from the deluge, nothing is self-evident or straightforward!

Gen 5:8 But Noah found favor in the sight of the Lord. ⁹...Noah was a righteous man, blameless in his generation; Noah walked with God. ¹³And God said to Noah, "I have determined to make an end to all flesh...¹⁴Make yourself an ark of cypress wood...¹⁷...I am going to bring a flood of waters on the earth...everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸But I will establish my covenant with you; and you shall come into the ark, you, your sons, your wife, and your sons' wives with you. ¹⁹And of every living thing, of all flesh, you shall bring two of every kind into the ark, to keep them alive with you...

Having made the decision to destroy every living thing from the face of the earth, why, beginning with verse 13, does God command Noah to build an ark and gather into it his family along with two of every living thing? Why does God establish a covenant with Noah? Since the text is silent on this matter, it is our responsibility to fill in the gaps. So here goes...

I would argue that the Flood narrative both records an extraordinary moment in the relationship of God and humankind, and offers a glimpse into the heart of God at a moment when nothing less than the entire creation and God's relationship to it are at stake. Perhaps for the first time since the beginning of time, God experiences the profound conflict of a heart divided. All that God was about to destroy was what God had looked upon in Genesis 1 and saw to be very good. Indeed, part of this creation on the brink of destruction God had made in God's own image, only to be disappointed that humankind had not exercised its freedom in ways that mirrored the creator. Filled with sorrow, grief, and regret, God decides to "...blot out from the earth the human beings that I have created—people together with animals and creeping things and birds of the air, for I am sorry that I have made them" (Gen 6:7). But just six verses later God is giving Noah the dimensions of a vessel, big and sturdy, that will save a small remnant of creation. How are we to account for this change of heart and mind on God's part? Let me suggest the following: that between verses 7 and 8 God remembers Noah—that he walks with Noah, that Noah is upright and righteous in his generation. Does God decide to save a remnant of creation from the cataclysm that is to follow because of Noah's righteousness? I think not. Instead, I think that God, having made the decision to destroy all creatures from the face of the earth, then sees Noah, a creature made in God's own image. And seeing Noah, God is reminded of the beginning of creation, and of the desire lodged deep in the heart of God from which human beings were created! Seeing Noah triggers a rush of memories about the beginning and about God's great hope for creation...And remembering, God cannot bring himself to destroy every living creature. Perhaps for the first time since the beginning of time, God knows the pain of a heart divided by hope and despair. And so God commands Noah to build an ark...

One final thought: coming to the end of verse 19 is an especially poignant moment for the reader, because at this juncture in the story, the reader knows what God has yet to learn: that the pain of a divided heart will be God's permanent condition until the end of time.

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