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Fear & The Flood

Fear &The Flood

Fear has been a ruler in most of my life.  I have experienced fear of the water, the deep, sharks or other mysterious and vicious creatures of the sea, and sinking, but my greatest fear has always been the night.  If I’m alone at night, my body trembles at every noise that I hear.  My mind conceives several different scenarios of someone attempting to enter my house.  I try to control the fear by locking the doors and double checking them, or keeping my phone at my fingertips and testing how fast I can dial three numbers.  I build up so much anxiety that I worry about trying to sleep.  The little sleep I do get is the lightest sleep I can manage.

This fear is just like the fear of the water; this fear is all about lack of control and seeking refuge.  I fear my seemingly safe space is not actually all that safe.  And I fear that no matter how hard I try, I cannot control the safety I want it to maintain.

God used that fear – the lack of any refuge – to start the world anew.  He caused the waters to rise, and chaos to ensue.  There was no longer a separation of water with land, and we see the creation story being repeated.  As Justin pointed out, the flood is the undoing of creation.  Human sinfulness unravels creation, and purification can only come from total death and then a restoration.  And this only happens by God’s hand.

Justin discussed the actions of God through this story.  God judged the earth, chose Noah, remembered Noah in the chaos, and made a promise.  This story is not one about man, but about God as the main actor, restoring the earth in the only way possible: through the flood, and then through Jesus.

After 40 days of being shut in the ark, God remembers Noah and his family, and provides refuge through receding waters and the return of land.  We see that Noah, under the protection and favor of God, was surrounded by the chaos of the waters, was only provided a temporary refuge on the ark, and thought of God as silent for those 40 days.  Yet, God remembered him; God had made a promise.  This building anticipation for 40 days reminds us of the coming of Christ, both in the Advent season, and the return of our Savior as we still wait.  And what happens during this time?  It might seem that God is silent, yet He has made a promise, and He is faithful to fulfill it.

And after the water has receded, God makes another promise with the rainbow in the sky.  He marks the sky and promises that He will remember.

Just last year, my husband and I miscarried our first baby at 8 weeks’ gestation.  Immediately following this loss, I had several people tell me that our next pregnancy would be called a “rainbow baby”.  The idea is that after a loss in miscarriage, stillbirth, neonatal death, or infant death, that the next surviving baby is considered the blessing after the storm experienced.  As much as I appreciate the sentiment by these people and this idea to term a baby this way, I think this story of the flood and the mark of the rainbow gives us greater hope than what it looks like to apply the promise to a future child.  The rainbow is not a promise that life will get better after experiencing a storm.  The rainbow is the promise that God will send a rescue, that God will be our refuge.

Justin described this bow in the sky as the Gospel: God proclaims that He will never wipe out man using another flood, or by removing all refuge.  He knows that man is evil, and we will continue to unravel creation with our sinful, and broken nature.  But this promise in the rainbow also means that He will bring salvation through an act of grace, not judgment.  Jesus graciously rescues us from God’s judgment by being judged for us.  “While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.”

And in the end, all of this amounts to our continued anticipation for the return of Christ.  We do not know what waters may rise against us, but we know that God is our refuge.  We know that God is our rescue.  We wait for Him to return for us.  We wait.  We hope.  And we make ourselves ready as we watch for the fulfillment of God’s promise.

~ Emily Spare

 

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