the flood Archives - Redeeming God

Yesterday I presented a way of reading about the flood that was different than the traditional way the flood account is usually read.

Certainly, the way I have proposed is challenging, but let us think momentarily about what the traditional reading says. To reject the view I have presented in previous posts, you either have to go with the traditional reading which says God sent the flood and killed all humanity except for eight people, or you have to categorize the flood account as a historical or literary myth.

Frankly, if the choice is between a God who drowns millions of people and understanding the flood account as a myth, the second option is better by far. The traditional reading of this account says that because God saw how great the violence was upon the earth, He decided to bring even greater violence. The traditional reading argues that because the sin of violence had spread throughout the earth, God was going to trump all their violence with the greatest violence of all.

Can this be true of God?

Does God defeat violence with greater violence?

Can it be right that God’s response to violence is only greater violence?

Does it not seem strange that when God sees violence come upon the earth, His response is an act of supreme violence?

It is extremely strange that the primary sin mentioned in Genesis 6:13 is violence (cf. Genesis 6:11), and the most common way of reading Genesis 6 says that God responded to the sin of violence with greater violence.

How can this way of reading Genesis 6 be correct?

If God is actually trying to show the world a better way—a more loving way, a less violent way—the flood does not seem to be the best course of action. All it really shows is what the human race already believes: that might makes right.

The Flood Failed at Wiping Out Evil

Furthermore, aside from annihilating every living thing on earth except for the humans and creatures in the ark, the violent response of God toward evil didn’t really accomplish anything. Some seem to think that God intended to wipe out evil with the flood, but He knows that this is impossible, as He Himself states in Genesis 8:21.

The condition of humanity as having every inclination and imagination of their hearts only evil all the time didn’t change one bit as a result of the flood. It was this way before the flood, and it was this way afterwards as well (cf. Genesis 6:5 with Genesis 8:21). If God’s goal in the flood was to teach people not to be so evil, He failed miserably, and got a lot of human blood on His hands in the process (Fretheim, God and World, 81). This not only seems overly violent, but incredibly foolish of God.

If God knew beforehand that the flood wouldn’t “work,” why send it?

The Traditional Way of Understanding the Flood is Incorrect

This is why the text seems to hint that God didn’t send the flood.

It appears, based on several clues within the text itself, that the traditional way of reading the text is not correct.

Though the traditional reading is what the text seems to say on the surface, the revelation we have received in Jesus Christ challenges us to look beneath the surface of these deep and troubled waters to discern something else going on in the flood event than a violent God foolishly seeking the near-extermination of everything that breathes on earth.

The alternative perspective helps us understand that when worldwide destruction was coming up on the earth as a result of mankind becoming extremely evil and violent, God stepped in to save and rescue those who would follow Him. This truth is not only hinted at in Genesis 6–8 itself, but also in the parallel accounts in Job, Isaiah, Matthew, and 2 Peter, all of which we have looked at earlier (See the link list on this post: When God Pled Guilty)

Genesis 6-8 Summarized

When God saw that this destruction was inevitable, He set in motion a series of events to rescue and deliver as many people as He could from this great evil. He called out Noah to build the ark and proclaim deliverance from the destruction that was coming. When that destruction came, it was not by the hand of God, but He nevertheless took the blame for it by inspiring the biblical author of Genesis 6–8 to record that He was sending the flood.

In reality, far from sending the flood, God did all He could to rescue people from it. In the end, only eight people were delivered when the flood waters came upon the earth.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

These are the sorts of questions we discuss and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no charge. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how we can help you better understand God and learn to live like Him in this world!

God Takes Responsibility for the Flood

By Jeremy Myers

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When bad things happen in this world, God often takes the responsibility for them because He is the one who created a universe where such evil things are possible.

When God created the world, He did not plan for sin to enter the world and for things to get so bad that eventually He would have to send a flood to wipe out every living thing on earth. No, what happened to creation was due to human activity; not divine.

Nevertheless, “God bears some responsibility for setting up the creation in such a way that it could go wrong and have such devastating effects” (Fretheim, God and World, 82).

The Flood Happened on God’s Watch

When the flood came, it is not something that God sent, but is something that happened under His rule, or “on His watch.”

When the flood came, the text only has the waters as the subject of the verbs; not God. It says the “waters of the flood came upon the earth” (Genesis 7:10, NAS) and “the fountains of the great deep burst open” (Genesis 7:11, NAS). The only verbs ascribed to God in the actual flood event are when He moves to restore, save, and deliver. It is God who shut Noah and his family into the ark (Genesis 7:16), and sent the wind over the earth (Genesis 8:1). “The flood is described in natural terms as the effects of sins (of violence in particular) with no divine act of intervention; only with the subsiding of the waters is God’s activity stated explicitly” (Fretheim, God and World, 80).

Why then did God state that He would send the flood?

God said He would send the flood because He was taking the blame for the way the world had gone.

God inspired the Biblical author to record that He sent the flood, not because He did send it, but because it was such a terrible thing that happened in His creation and as a good God who watches over His creation, He takes responsibility for things that happen in His world, even though He Himself did not “do” it.

Over and over in Genesis 7, the account says that the “water” killed every living thing (Genesis 7:17, 18, 19, 20, 24). The author of Genesis 7 is using the cosmic warfare motif to show that the waters are responsible for the death of everything that breaths; not God.

But what about Genesis 7:23?

Here is one place where alternative translations from the Hebrew are justified, as found in various English translations. Most English translations provide the word “He” (some even blatantly put in “God”) as the subject of the opening statement in Genesis 7:23. The New King James Version is one example (cf. also ESV, NAS, NET, NLT, RSV):

So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive.

But the Hebrew is vague about God’s involvement in sending the flood and destroying everything on earth that breathes. The King James Version shows the lack of clarity in the verse (cf. also NIV, NJB):

And every living substance was destroyed which was upon the face of the ground, both man, and cattle, and the creeping things, and the fowl of the heaven; and they were destroyed from the earth: and Noah only remained alive, and they that were with him in the ark.

This translation more closely resembles the surrounding context. The agent of the destruction is left unclear, though the immediately surrounding context indicates that the waters of the flood were responsible for taking the breath from every living thing.

In the end, the Genesis flood paints the portrait both ways. In some instances, God takes the blame for the death and destruction of all that breathes upon the earth, but in other verses, the guilty party is not so clear. It is my belief that the vagueness of the text is intentional. It is to show the reader—especially those who are aware of the cosmic warfare elements of this passage—that something might be going on behind the scenes which a quick surface-level reading of the text does not initially reveal.

Reading about the Flood through Christological Eyes

We now know, however, as we read about the flood through the lens of Jesus Christ, that God did not send the flood. The flood came as a result of humanity’s great evil upon the earth.

When we consider the various elements of the Chaos Theory, it seems that this particular event may have been a mixture of nature being out of control and the destroyer seeking to destroy God’s good creation. God, of course, since He has a policy of non-intervention, let nature run its course but used His wisdom and mercy to raise up Noah to build an ark and proclaim the coming flood to any and all who would listen, repent, and be saved. In the end, however, only eight were rescued through the flood. All the rest of mankind kept themselves cut off and separated from the protective hand of God.

This way of reading the text allows God to look more like Jesus Christ and less like the gods of ancient Egypt and Mesopotamia (and even most gods of our own day) who hurl fire, lighting, drought, and flood upon those who displease them. Jesus is not like that.

He blesses His enemies and forgives those who persecute Him. He represents a God who is love, who sends rain the righteous and the unrighteous, and the sun on the evil and the good. God did not send the flood. It came as a natural consequence of the great evil that was upon the earth, and specifically in response to the evil of the sons of God having children with the daughters of men. Since there is a bond between mankind and creation, when humanity falls into evil, creation falls into chaos along with it.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

The Flood According to 2 Peter 2:5-7

By Jeremy Myers

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When seeking answers on how to understand the flood in light of Jesus Christ, we must also consider what Peter writes in 2 Peter 2. His statements are critically important, for Peter lived and walked with Jesus, and would likely have heard how Jesus explained the flood. Furthermore, since Peter was one of the apostles, his explanation of the flood event in 2 Peter 2 provides an authoritative, biblical explanation for how to understand this difficult passage.

Translating 2 Peter 2:5-7

Note first that, as with the Hebrew text in Genesis 6–7, the temptation exists to retranslate the Greek text in 2 Peter 2:5 so that it shows something different from what is usually found in most English translations.

And in fact, this would be somewhat easy to do, since these first several verses of 2 Peter 2 are full of Greek participles, which are notoriously difficult to translate and understand in context. With Greek participles, there are always a host of questions about how the participle is functioning in context.

So just as with the Genesis text, I initially thought of basing my understanding of this passage on a different translation of 2 Peter 2:5.

But in the end, I decided against this option for two reasons.

First, the average English translation of this text is fine, and second, I do not want readers of the English Bible to think that the only way they can see Jesus in the violent passages of Scripture is through creative translations from the Greek and Hebrew.

The Context of 2 Peter 2:5

The key to 2 Peter 2:5—as with any text in the Bible—is context. Peter begins this section of his letter by warning about false teachers and how they bring swift destruction upon themselves.

This initial verse is critical for understanding the rest of this section in 2 Peter 2. After talking about how the false teachers are bringing destruction upon themselves, Peter is going to give several examples from biblical history about other groups of people who were destroyed.

In the following verses, God is often implied to be the agent of destruction—as the one who brought the destruction, as the one who carried it out. But as 2 Peter 2:1 indicates, the reason for the destruction is quite clear: the false teachers bring this destruction upon themselves. They are the ones who brought it. They are ones to blame (2 Peter 2:1-3).

Furthermore, in the verses that follow, the primary action of God is not death and destruction, but deliverance and rescue of people from destruction. The repeated emphasis in 2 Peter 2:4-9 is not on how God destroys people but on how God saves and rescues people.

Peter gives three examples. First, he writes about the angels who sinned, and so were not spared (2 Peter 2:4). Peter then sets these angels in contrast to Noah whom God did rescue when the flood came upon the earth (2 Peter 2:5). Finally, Peter mentions Lot, who was rescued from Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Peter 2:6-8). In 2 Peter 2:9, Peter summarizes his point by saying that the Lord knows how to rescue godly men from trials while allowing the unrighteous to continue toward their punishment.

Following these three examples, Peter goes on to emphasize once again that these false teachers have every opportunity to escape destruction, but they continue moving deeper into sin, wickedness, and corruption until they too are destroyed (2 Peter 2:10-22). Just as Peter wrote in 2 Peter 2:1, the actions of the false teachers are bringing this destruction upon themselves.

God is not sending the destruction, but rather, is seeking to deliver and rescue people from the destruction. Yet when destruction comes upon these false teachers, it is the natural consequence of their life and behavior. The only way that God is “responsible” for their destruction is that He set up the rules by which people could either seek life or seek destruction. When people seek destruction, destruction will come!

2 Peter 2 and the Flood

So it was in the case of the flood. When Peter writes in 2 Peter 2:5 that the flood was brought upon the people at the time of Noah, Peter uses the exact same word he uses in 2:1 to write about how the false teachers brought destruction upon themselves (Gk., epagō, “to bring upon”). The flood was brought upon the people in the days of Noah in the same way that destruction is brought upon false teachers, and chains of darkness were brought upon angels who sinned, and fire and brimstone was brought upon Sodom and Gomorrah.

The great sin of the people who lived at the time of the flood invited in the destruction that took their lives.

Even in 2 Peter 2:4, Peter says that the angels were handed over, or delivered up, to their judgment. This again is the common terminology used throughout Scripture to describe the process by which God gives His creatures the freedom to go their own way, even when it is in rebellion to Him. He hands them over to their sin. He gives them up to it. God’s creation lived in sin and rebellion and as a natural consequence of their wickedness, death and destruction came upon them.

In 2 Peter 2, Peter is clearly revealing the idea that sin cannibalizes itself and when sin takes root and leads us further away from God, there comes a point when we depart from God’s protective hand, and invite ruin and destruction upon ourselves.

When this happens, however, all is not lost. God is faithful to rescue, redeem, and deliver a righteous remnant for Himself out of the death and destruction that comes upon the wicked.

The Consequences of Sin in 2 Peter 3

This is exactly the point that Peter makes in 2 Peter 3. In 2 Peter 3:3-7, he returns to the topic of the flood to make his point once again about how God will deal with people who follow their own evil desires in the last days. Peter writes in 2 Peter 3:6 that the world perished when it was flooded with water. God’s creative work is described in 2 Peter 3:5 as causing the heavens and the earth to be formed out of water and by water, but when people sinned, they brought the waters back in upon themselves, to their own destruction (2 Peter 3:6). Notice the imagery Peter uses of God pushing back the waters to create and bring form to the world, and how the waters bring the flood and destroy the world that God created. The cosmic warfare motif we saw in Genesis 1–8 is evident here in Peter’s writings as well.

Peter is clearly painting this contrast that we have already seen between the creative work of God in bringing order to the chaos in Genesis 1, and the exact opposite of this, when the waters came back upon the face of the earth and destroyed all that God had created. Through this contrasting imagery, Peter is showing that he understands the imagery and symbolism of the flood event, and that God was not causing or sending the flood, but was doing everything He could to rescue and deliver people from it. The flood came as a result of sin and rebellion, of nature out of control, or the destroyer seeking to destroy, of sin cannibalizing itself, and of people separating themselves from the protective hand of God.

Peter’s ultimate point is made in 2 Peter 3:9: God does not want anyone to perish, but wants everyone to come to repentance. God does everything possible to withhold the flood waters, to stop the destruction, and to restrict calamity. God takes no pleasure in the death of anyone, not even the death of the wicked. He does not want the wicked to die, but wants them to repent and so He does everything He can to give people ample opportunity to repent.

But there comes a day when their sin is so great and their rebellion has gone on for so long, that the cannibalistic nature of their sin and the destroying power their rebellion carries them out of the protective hand of God, and He has no choice but to let destruction come. He gives them over to their sin.

Notice one last thing about the 2 Peter 2 passage. Peter ends his letter by talking about the second “flood” that will come upon the earth, but this time it will not be a flood of water, but a flood of fire (2 Peter 3:10, 12). The imagery of the world being consumed with fire is identical to the image used by Jesus in Matthew 24 which we considered in a previous post, and so nothing else needs to be said about it here.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

The Flood According to Jesus (Matthew 24)

By Jeremy Myers

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In Matthew 24:36-44, Jesus provides insight into the causes and events of the flood.

Matthew 24:36-44 is not about the Rapture

This is a popular proof text for teaching on the rapture of the church. Note, however, that if this passage is about the rapture of the church, the previous context indicates that it is “after the tribulation of those days” (Matthew 24:29) that Jesus “will gather together His elect” (Matthew 24:31). So this would seem to argue against the “pre-Tribulation” view of the rapture.

Furthermore, in the specific context of Matthew 24:36-44, Jesus equates those who are “taken” in this future event with the people who were taken away by the waters of the flood (Matthew 24:39). If this passage is truly about the rapture of the church, it seems strange for Jesus to equate the rescue of the church with the destruction of the people at the time of the flood.

So it seems more likely that Jesus is not describing the rapture at all, but some other future event. What future event?

Matthew 24:36-44 and Revelation 19–20.

The imagery Jesus uses in Matthew 24:36-44 fits best with similar imagery used by the Apostle John in Revelation 19–20. In these chapters, John describes a Satanically-inspired rebellion which results in fire destroying those who side with Satan (Rev 20:9). Both Jesus and John describe the Son of Man coming from heaven on the clouds to conquer (Matthew 24:30; Rev 19:11-16), carrion birds gathering to feast on the carcasses (Matt 24:28; Rev 19:17-18), and the passing away of heaven and earth (Matthew 24:35; Rev 21:1).

We will look at much of this imagery in a later post when we consider the violence in the book of Revelation, but the imagery is only brought up here to show that when Jesus talks about the flood in Matthew 24, He likens it to a similar form of world-wide judgment that falls upon the earth at the end of days.

The Attitude of People at the time of the Flood

Why does this second judgment come? Curiously, here in Matthew 24, Jesus does not mention any sort of sinfulness. Jesus says that at the time of the flood, “they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage” (Matthew 24:38).

There is nothing wrong with these things, as Jesus Himself ate and drank during His ministry. At one point, He was even accused of being a glutton and a drunkard (Matthew 11:19). And while He did not get married, He attended weddings (cf. John 2:1-12) and did not forbid His followers from getting married.

So Jesus is not describing sin in Matthew 24:38, but is rather revealing an attitude or behavior that characterized the people at the time of the flood and which will also characterize the people He is describing in Matthew 24:36-44.

What is this attitude? What is the failure? It is living life as if nothing else matters beyond this life. It is when people fill their lives with some of the blessings of life—such as eating, drinking, and marrying—so that they ignore the signs of the times in which they live and the testimony from God about what is coming unless they all heeded the warnings and followed the ways of God (Matthew 24:32-33).

At the time of the flood, Noah served as “a preacher of righteousness” (2 Pet 2:5) who proclaimed and warned the people of the flood that was coming. But they were too busy with eating, drinking, and getting married to pay any attention or to make any changes in their lives. As a result, they were caught unprepared when the flood waters came and took them all away. So shall it be at the end of days when the Son of Man comes.

The Flood of Fire

In Matthew 24, Jesus does not describe exactly how the people will be taken away, but the parallel passage in Revelation 20:9 indicates that fire will come down from God out of heaven (cf. also 2 Pet 3:7).

Here again, however, we must be careful not to read something into the text that is not there. The imagery of “fire” in the Bible is widely misunderstood by most Christians.

It is commonly thought that whenever the Bible mentions “fire” it refers to the “hellfire” or the fire of wrath and judgment. Yet how can it be that the God revealed in Jesus Christ, who refused to rain down fire on the Samaritans and condemned such an idea when it was suggested (cf. Luke 9:54-56), would then turn around and rain down fire on those who reject Him at His second coming? It seems highly unlikely.

I will suggest another way of reading Revelation in a later post which allows Revelation to highlight and emphasize the love and grace of Jesus Christ, rather than portraying Him as a vengeful deity who comes to earth to bathe in the blood of His enemies, but suffice it to say for now that the fire which comes down out of heaven in Revelation 20:9 is related to the image of the flames of fire that burn within the eyes of Jesus (Rev 19:12), and the sharp sword which comes out of His mouth with which He strikes the nations (Rev 19:15; cf. Rev 1:14, 16).

The sword that comes out of the mouth of Jesus and His eyes of flame are not instruments of death. God is not in the business of incinerating His foes.

Instead, the sword that proceeds from the mouth of Jesus most naturally represents the Word of God, by which He creates, restores, and redeems the world. The eyes of flame represent the glory and purity of God, whose eyes burn with love and passion for all people. Though the Lord is a consuming fire, it is not that He burns with rage toward sinners, but that, as discussed above, the all-consuming love and holiness of God burns away anything that draws near which is not filled with the righteousness of God.

Scripture is clear that the fire which brings healing and restoration to the righteous people of God is the same fire that brings destruction and devastation to those who have set their ways against God (cf. Isa 33:10-16; Mal 3:2-3; 4:1-2; 1 Cor 3:12-15).

The fire of God is like the fire of the sun. Just as all the oceans of the world would do no more to quench the fires of the sun any more than would a single drop of water, so also, all the sins of all the people of all the world can do no more to quench the inferno of God’s holiness than would a single unkind thought from one person. Sin cannot taint God, for all sin is incinerated by the fire of God’s love, holiness, righteousness, and glory.

When God comes to finally and ultimately bring healing and restoration to the earth, everything that is in opposition to God is consumed by His purifying fire. The refining fire brings out the gold, jewels, and precious stones so that the wood, hay, and stubble are no more. What this means for the people who are in stubborn rebellion against God will be considered in later posts as well when we look at the topic of hell.

Jesus Brings Redemption and Renewal

The point here is that when Jesus returns to set right all wrongs, to heal all hurts, and to restore all that is crooked, He comes with healing, love, and righteousness, calling all people to Himself to be redeemed and renewed.

This call for deliverance is exactly what God did for the people who lived in the days of Noah. But they would not heed the warnings, and when the flood came they were carried away by the waters.

So also, when the Son of Man comes, if people will not heed the warnings, rather than being rescued by God’s purifying fire, they too will be carried away.

In Matthew 24, Jesus is not saying that when He comes again, He will be coming to obliterate and incinerate people. Just as God wanted to rescue as many as possible from the waters of the flood, so also, God wants to rescue as many as possible from the fire that will come upon the earth.

This is one reason He is delaying His coming and why He asks preachers of righteousness like Noah to go out and spread the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all who will hear and believe.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

The Flood According to Isaiah 54:7-9

By Jeremy Myers

5 Comments

One Old Testament passages which sheds light on what happened at the flood is Isaiah 54:7-9. Though not much is said in this text to explain the cause or reasons for the flood, the text does reveal God’s activity during the flood.

Lots of people believe that God was the one who sent the flood to kill all the people on earth, but Isaiah 54 suggests otherwise.

Isaiah 54 and the Flood

In Isaiah 54, Israel is feeling as if they have been abandoned and scorned by God. God likens them to a woman who has borne no children, and is facing the shame and disgrace of being barren (Isaiah 54:1, 4).

God tells them to sing for joy, to forget their shame, and to remember their reproach no more (Isaiah 54:4). Why? Because God Himself is Israel’s husband (Isaiah 54:5). And since He is God the whole world, He will give more children to Israel than she ever could have had in any other way (Isaiah 54:1-3).

God does admit that his wrath came upon Israel for a while, and that for a mere moment He turned away from Israel (Isaiah 54:6-7). But God then promises that with great mercy and everlasting kindness, He will gather them, protect them, provide for them, love them, and take care of them (Isaiah 54:7-8, 11-15).

God’s wrath is not God’s anger at sin, but is rather the natural consequence of using God’s good gifts in a wrong way. God gave us the ability to love and make free choices, but when we abuse love, and use our freedom to make bad choices, we experience the natural consequences of these decisions. Future posts on the wrath of God explains this concept in more detail and looks at several key biblical texts.

Why the Flood Came Upon the Earth (Isaiah 54:16)

For now, notice something quite surprising in this text. In Isaiah 54:16, God explains why the flood came upon the earth. Using the imagery of “the blacksmith who blows the coals in the fire” God says, “I have created the spoiler to destroy” (Isaiah 54:16).

The Hebrew word translated as “spoiler” is the Hiphil participle from shachat. It could also be translated as “the destroyer” (cf. NAS, NIV, NET). More interestingly still, the Hiphil participle of shachat is also used in Genesis 6:13 and 17 in reference to the destruction that came upon the earth. By using such imagery, God explains why the flood came upon the earth: it came because the destroyer destroys. This is the fourth principle of the Chaos Theory.

But what does it mean when the text say that God created the destroyer to destroy? Is not the destroyer opposed to all that is good and Godly? Yes! God is not a destroyer, but a Creator. Nor does God “send” the destroyer to destroy. The destroyer destroys because he is a destroyer. And since everything that exists has it origin in God, it can be said that God created the destroyer. This idea is troubling to some, but note carefully how God explains this.

How the Destroyer Came to Be

Before God mentions that He created the destroyer, God says that He created the blacksmith (Isaiah 54:16a). The blacksmith blows on the coals and brings forth the instruments for his work. Though God created the blacksmith, it is the blacksmith who does his work and brings forth the tools and instruments from his forge.

While many tools that come off a blacksmith forge are used for good purposes, some blacksmiths create tools and instruments that can be used for evil. Sometimes, an instrument or tool which the blacksmith created for good could be used to cause great harm to others. Take a knife, for instance. If a blacksmith makes a knife to cut vegetables, but someone else uses it to kill humans, it is not the knife’s fault, the blacksmith’s fault for making the knife, or even God’s fault for making the blacksmith.

This is how to understand the statement by God in Isaiah 54:16b that He created the destroyer. It is not that God was out for bloody revenge, or because God wanted someone else to do His dirty work for Him. The destroyer is not God’s super-secret hit man who does what needs to be done so God can keep His hands clean.

No, Scripture is clear. When God creates, He only creates good things for good purposes. There is no evil intent in the heart of God. The destroyer was not created to be evil, or to do bad things. In fact, it might be best to realize that the destroyer was never created at all as “the destroyer.” Just as God did not create humanity sinful, but we became sinful through our rebellion, so also the destroyer became destructive, also as a result of rebellion.

Death, decay, and destruction are the natural consequence of disobeying God and going against His will. The only way that God can be said to have created the destroyer is by saying that He created a being with genuine free will, and in so doing, restricted Himself from intervening when that free being chose to depart from God’s perfect will.

God did not make or create death and destruction, but did allow for their possibility when He created life and gave freedom to His creation.

It is the same with human beings. When God created humanity with the freedom to go against His will, this freedom necessitated the possibility that history would go bad if we went against His will, which is exactly what happened in Genesis 3, and the negative consequences of this decision are felt in Genesis 4 when Cain murders his brother, in Genesis 5, where the phrase “and he died” is repeated over and over and over, and then in Genesis 6 when people become so evil that the destruction of all mankind becomes inevitable and God steps in to save and rescue Noah and his family.

This brings us back to what God says about the flood in Isaiah 54. Just as when Israel became evil and departed from God, He sought to gather them to Himself and show mercy to them (Isaiah 54:7-8), so also this is what God says He did in the flood. The flood came upon the earth, but God worked to rescue people from it, and when it was over, He promised that such a thing would never happened again (Isaiah 54:9).

In the end, Isaiah 54 shows us once again that behind the terrible death and destruction of the flood, there is a beautiful theme of God’s love, grace, and mercy as He seeks to rescue and deliver people from the storms of life. God promises that even if the mountains crumble and the hills disappear, God will lever depart, and His covenant of peace will never be removed (Isaiah 54:10).

God Does Not Forsake His People

Isaiah 54:9-10 is similar to what God said elsewhere: “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5). Though Israel may leave and reject God, God will not leave or reject them. In fact, though it appears from various events in her history that He has abandoned them, it is they who abandoned Him, and though He walked with them, calling them back, pleading with them to return to His righteous ways, they walked straight into the maws of destruction.

In those catastrophic events brought upon them by the destroyer when they left the protective hand of God, it seemed to them that God was angry with them, that God had left them. But quite to the contrary, God was there all along, suffering alongside them, helping them bear up under the crushing burden of pain and loss, and waiting with them until the heavy cost of justice had been poured out by the destroyer. Then God led them forth, back into righteousness and life, restoring unto them light, liberty, freedom, and joy.

The promise of God in Isaiah 54 is that even if Israel abandons Him, He will not abandon her. Even if destruction comes, He will try to rescue as many people as He can from this destruction, and bring them back from it as quickly as possible, just as He did in the days of Noah. According to what God says in Isaiah 54 about the flood, He did not bring the waters of destruction; the destroyer brought them. Instead of bringing death and destruction upon the world in the flood, God was involved in three other activities.

God Rescues, Redeems, and Delivers

The first thing God did in the flood was call people back to Himself so that they might be delivered. He did this through the preaching of Noah.

The second thing God did was that when the flood waters came upon the earth, He sought to rescue, redeem, and deliver as many people from the flood as He would come. In the end, only eight were saved.

Finally, when the destruction was over, He sought to bring light, hope, healing, and restoration back to the earth as quickly as possible. He did this by sending the wind to push back the waters, and then by blessing Noah and his family in their efforts to be fruitful and multiply upon the face of the earth.

What then does God say about the flood through the prophet Isaiah? That although He created the mechanism by which the flood came (Isaiah 54:16b), His commitment before, during, and after the flood was to never depart from His children, even though they may try to depart from Him (Isaiah 54:8-10).

When the text says that God had forsaken his people, and hid His face from them (Isaiah 54:7-8), this does not mean that He had abandoned them, but that the people had strayed so far from God that when destruction came at the hand of the destroyer and as a consequence for their sin, it seemed to the people that God was absent, that He was punishing them, or that He was no longer involved in their lives.

If there is one thing we learn from Isaiah 54 about the flood, it is that although it appears as if God sent the flood as punishment, it actually came as a result of humanities departure from the protective hand of God, and because the destroyer had set out to bring destruction upon the people of the earth as the just consequence for their great sin.

How can a God who says "Love your enemies" (Matthew 5:44) be the same God who instructs His people in the Old Testament to kill their enemies?

Why the Traditional Understanding of the Flood is Wrong

Does God defeat violence with greater violence?

The Flood Failed at Wiping Out Evil

The Traditional Way of Understanding the Flood is Incorrect

Genesis 6-8 Summarized

God Takes Responsibility for the Flood

The Flood Happened on God’s Watch

Why then did God state that He would send the flood?

But what about Genesis 7:23?

Reading about the Flood through Christological Eyes

The Flood According to 2 Peter 2:5-7

Translating 2 Peter 2:5-7

The Context of 2 Peter 2:5

2 Peter 2 and the Flood

The Consequences of Sin in 2 Peter 3

The Flood According to Jesus (Matthew 24)

Matthew 24:36-44 is not about the Rapture

Matthew 24:36-44 and Revelation 19–20.

The Attitude of People at the time of the Flood

The Flood of Fire

Jesus Brings Redemption and Renewal

The Flood According to Isaiah 54:7-9

Isaiah 54 and the Flood

Why the Flood Came Upon the Earth (Isaiah 54:16)

How the Destroyer Came to Be

God Does Not Forsake His People

God Rescues, Redeems, and Delivers

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