Week 4: Genesis 7:1-8:1a

Week 4: Genesis 7:1-8:1a

At A Glance:

Author: Moses or A mix of J & P

Form: Ancient Flood Story

Themes: The destruction of all living things on the earth.  Noah’s continued fidelity to God.  God’s presence in the midst of chaos.  New Creation.  Summary:  This section of the Great Deluge takes us from the second Divine command “Enter” Through the center point of the flood narrative “God Remembered Noah” (8:1).  God commands Noah to take himself, his family, and several animals into the ark.  God seals the ark and the flood waters come destroying the earth.  At the height of the destruction God remembers Noah indicating that God is about to perform some divine action on behalf of Noah.

Commentary:

7:1-5 – This is the second Divine Address to Noah in the Great Flood narrative.  Once more we hear of Noah’s righteousness above all other men.  God commands that seven pairs of clean animals/birds be taken into the Ark and just a pair of unclean animals.  Some imagine that God is commanding Noah to take a total of 14 of each of the clean animals/birds.  Origen, citing Jesus command for the disciples to go out “two by two” (Mk 6:7), meant that there were only seven of the clean animals: two for breading, two for food, and an odd female for the sacrifice after the flood (Gn 8:20).  After all Jesus did not intend the disciples to travel in groups of four.  There is significant symbolism in the numbering of seven days before the flood rains would destroy the earth.  In the first creation account God created the earth and rested on the seventh day, now after great corruption upon the earth God is going to destroy it after waiting seven days.  It is an inverse of the creation story in Gn 1.  The phrase “and Noah did all that the Lord had commanded him” is used to mark the end of the second Divine Address. 

7:11-13 – The mentioning of Noah’s age and the precise date at this point is often used to measure how long Noah spent preaching about the coming flood (2 Pt 2:5) through his word and his deed of building the ark.  Some say that it was 120 years that Noah spent building and preaching based on God’s words in Gn 6:3 saying that man’s days shall be limited to 120 years.  Rather than interpreting this as God’s lowering the life span of humanity it is interpreted as God’s promise to end humanity after 120 years.  Taken this way God gave an already impenitent humanity an extra 120 years of mercy to repent before he brought about the flood.  This section is also used to make the argument for two different flood accounts.  In verse 11 God opens up the firmament of heavens protecting the earth from the waters that we above the earth (mentioned Gn 1:6-7), verse 12 on the other hand says that God use 40 days and 40 nights of rain.  Also Noah, his family and the animals entered the ark in verse 7 to wait the seven days for the flood whereas verse 13 indicates that Noah and company entered the ark the day the rains came.  One solution is that there are two different sources of the story being redacted by a master editor.

7:16 – One of my favorite lines in all of Genesis is found here “the Lord shut him in”.  This verse begins a pattern of salvation history of how God choses to save his people.  Noah had to trust God to shut them.  Gn 6:14 Noah had to cover the ark in pitch so that water would not seep in and sink the ark, but with only one entry way how was Noah supposed to seal the door with pitch once he was inside?  Noah did all this work but without God’s intervention there was no way for him to survive the flood.  It is God alone who is capable of bringing us into salvation, and as God he can choose to do that in any way he desired.  Why didn’t God simply allow Noah and his family to drown in the flood then raise them afterwards or take them up into heaven (like Enoch and Elijah) and then bing them back down after the water subsides?  Through all of salvation history God invites humanity to cooperate with salvation.  Noah had to preach and build an ark, but ultimately he had to trust God for his salvation. 

7:20-23 – The death of all creation is a sad story on the surface but what if we took a little longer to think about it? We presume too much if we think we can judge that all the wicked that were drowned were damned to hell.  How are we to know whether at the moment the flood waters came there were not some who finally heeded the words of Noah and repented of their ways?  1 Pt 3:18-20 says “For Christ also died for sins once for all, the righteous for the unrighteous, that he might bring us to God, being put to death in the flesh but made alive in the spirit; in which he went and preached to the spirits in prison, who formerly did not obey, when God’s patience waited in the days of Noah, during the building of the ark, in which a few, that is, eight persons, were saved through water.”  This may indicate that God showed his mercy to those who perished in the flood and allowed them to hear the preaching of Christ during his decent into death.  God’s justice is great, but his mercy is all the greater.

7:24-8:1a – At the peak of the flood the waters raised high above the mountains and all creatures have been destroyed.  In the midst of this great destruction and death God is still present.  He has not abandoned his creation, but rather is mindful of them.  The center of the whole Narrative is “God remembered Noah” (8:1a) this remembrance is not as if God forgot Noah was there, but rather a indication that God is about to do something great on Noah’s behalf.

Final Thoughts:

            The story of Noah’s ark serves as an apologetic reminder to us when others challenge our understanding of salvation as a union of faith and works.  Had Noah not build the ark he would not have been saved from the flood, but his simply building the ark would not have saved him either.  How could he seal the door from the outside if he was to be saved on the inside? 

Salvation is a cooperation with God’s grace.  God freely gives us his saving grace in Baptism, but we are still free to accept that divine life or reject it though our words and deeds.  This shows what great reverence God has for our freewill.  It is our freewill that allows us to give ourselves totally, freely, faithfully to God which produces the fruit of complete lasting joy in this life and ultimately eternal life with him after death.  Without our cooperation with God’s grace we cannot completely love God.  Do not misunderstand me.  This does not mean that God does 50% of the work of salvation and we do the rest.  Rather God does 100% of salvation (he gave his complete self on the cross), we must receive that gift with 100% of ourselves.

Often we choose to only receive a small percentage of God’s gift.  We imagine “I’ll take the forgiveness of sins that Jesus offers, but I don’t want to forgive others has he commands” or “I’ll take the love that Jesus offers me, but I wont obey the laws of that love.”  This is only partial acceptance of God’s gift.  Would it be just for God to save those who only accept 50% of his offering?  What about 20%? Or even 2%?  Is it even possible to receive 100% of God’s offering with 100% of ourselves?  The saints do it in this life, is it only they who are saved?  Revelation 21:27 reminds us that only the perfectly pure can enter heaven.  Who of us can say that we full receive 100% of all that Christ taught us without hesitation?  This may be our desire but is it our practice?  Do we have doubts in the Eucharist?  Do we struggle with his teaching on Marriage and sexuality?  Do we struggle with the authority he gave to his Church? “I believe Lord, help my unbelief!” (Mk 9:24) this is the cry of every believer who struggles with Christ’s gift.

Thankfully God’s mercy is greater than his justice.  After all only a complete reception of God’s grace should merit salvation.  Like those who repented as they perished in the great flood God gives us a place of penance where we can be purged of all impurities enabling us to receive 100% of that gift with 100% of ourselves and be taken into heaven.  Who knew purgatory was foreshadowed so early in the Bible?

Please share your thoughts and insights as well….