Yesterday, I taught a class on the Great Flood (Genesis 6-9). As has been the theme of this New Converts/Fundamentals Class, I ran out of time and only barely scratched the surface of the subject matter. In the case of the Flood, there are simply too many notes and not enough time to get to it all. Anticipating this, I wrote a daily bread article a few weeks ago about Methuselah, and whether he died in the year of the flood or in the flood itself. Check it out here…
Another note that I didn’t get to cover has to do with something said in in the aftermath of the cataclysmic event, and how describes the thought process of God in bringing the flood in the first place…
And the LORD smelled a sweet savour; and the LORD said in his heart, I will not again curse the ground any more for man’s sake; for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; neither will I again smite any more every thing living, as I have done.
(Genesis 8:21)
What does this verse mean?
First, I would remind the reader that the flood is not just about the sinful world of Noah’s day. It’s not just about judgment against sinners and saving Noah and God regretting that He made man, etc. That’s all true and that’s all in the text, but there’s a whole second layer that Moses doesn’t write about in detail in Genesis. Why not? Because, as we read in 1 Peter 1:10-11, the Old Testament writers often wrote things by inspiration that alluded to salvation to come, even if they didn’t fully understand that Messianic layer they were writing. So when I say Moses didn’t write about it I mean he didn’t elaborate on it or flat out say “this is also about the Messiah.” Nevertheless, it is. The flood is, partially, about the Messiah.
The flood account isn’t just history for us, it’s allegory. It’s a type/antitype. The flood is a picture of salvation, specifically salvation via baptism (1 Peter 3:19-21 establishes this).
After the flood, God declares that He’s not going to do this again. He’s not going to wipe out the world every time it gets overcrowded with sinners. Now that raises a question: Why not? After all, God is, if nothing else, a remarkably consistent Being. If He is justified in doing something on Monday, then He’s just as justified to do it on Thursday. Right? So there must be something that God has in mind that not only necessitated the flood but made it a thing He would only ever do the one time.
Think of it like this: God is a very cause-and-effect kind of Being. If you do x you get y. Ezekiel 18:20 spells this out (“the soul that sins dies; the righteous soul lives”). So if God’s solution in Genesis 6 is to flood the earth and kill sinners why doesn’t he do that in Genesis 19? Sodom wasn’t the only city full of wicked people, after all. Why didn’t he flood Eden when Adam and Eve sinned? The answer is: Because Jesus. God doesn’t want to kill sinners. God wants to save sinners. Is God justified in killing sinners? You bet, but His desire is for all to come to a knowledge of the truth, etc.
So if God wants to save sinners, why do the flood at all?
There are two reasons behind the flood: First is the reason Moses understood and wrote about: God is a god of justice and vengeance and that is depicted in the flood killing sinners. The other reason, which Peter describes, is that God is also a god of mercy and love. The flood killed sinners and saved Noah, just as baptism kills sin and saves the obedient (1 Peter 3:20-21). So, to answer the question “What is Genesis 8:21 talking about”: God declared that the flood was a one time deal, while also acknowledging that man is going to continue sinning. And, despite that, He’s not going to flood the world again. He’s not going to respond to man’s sin with global punishment, but instead with global salvation. Now, Moses doesn’t say global salvation, but that’s the implication we can draw from the text when we read it through the prism of the New Testament. so, because I understand that God sent not His son to condemn the world but save it (John 3:17), and because I understand the flood is a picture of salvation (1 Peter 3:20-21), I therefore understand that God only flooded the world once, to illustrate His desire to destroy sin and save the obedient, a desire which is perfected in the form of Jesus’ salvation.
The flood IS still a picture of judgment, as much as it is salvation, and the same Peter that uses the flood to describe your salvation (1 Peter 3) uses it also to describe judgment day (2 Peter 2).
~ Matthew