Bible Verse About God Never Flooding the Earth Again
The alluvion narrative in Genesis 6-8 is difficult to sympathize in light of the self-sacrificing nature of God revealed in Jesus Christ on the cantankerous. How can the God who drowns everybody on earth because of their sin, exist the same God who dies for everybody on world because of their sin? Though there are numerous issues surrounding these chapters, Genesis 8:21 helps us understand what God was doing in the alluvion. When we understand Genesis 8:21, it shows us that God was acting much more like Jesus than many presume.
Genesis 8:21
After the flood, Noah and his family set out to reestablish themselves on the globe, and when Noah offers a sacrifice to God, God promises to never once again destroy every living thing in the same way (Genesis 8:21). God says that fifty-fifty though man's heart is constantly evil, the alluvion waters will never again come up upon the world to destroy everything that breathes.
Three things nigh Genesis 8:21 reveal to united states of america what God was doing in the flood.
ane. God Restricts His Ain Freedom
First, in previous posts, I have argued that God did not actively "send" the flood, just that it came upon the earth as a natural result to mankind's rebellion. The overflowing is an instance of nature out of control, of sin cannibalizing itself, and of the destroyer seeking to destroy.
One of the main reasons I accept been arguing this is because I believe that God, in the act of creating beings with dignity, value, and complimentary will, God limited Himself from acting in whatever way that would violate or negate mankind's nobility, value, and free will.
Though it is pop to say that God can do whatsoever He wants, God cannot do what is logically incommunicable (such equally brand a circular square), practise anything that violates His ain nature (such a sin), or exercise annihilation that goes against something He has already decided and determined (such as give humans free will). "God lets the creatures have the freedom to be what God created them to be" (Fretheim,Creation Untamed, 53).
Lots of people have bug with the idea of God limiting Himself for the sake of humanity. They feel that since we are God'southward creatures, He can exercise with u.s. whatever He wants, even if information technology means squashing us all similar bugs under His divine thumb. They often signal to the overflowing as an example of Him doing this very affair.
Note carefully, nonetheless, what God says in Genesis eight:21. He says that even though all humanity is completely evil from their youth, He volition never again destroy every living thing as He has done in the alluvion. However a person understands the flood business relationship, Genesis 8:21 clearly reveals God placing a limitation upon Himself.
Genesis viii:21 shows that God places boundaries upon His future choices and so that a worldwide flood is never again a possibility. Whatever y'all think well-nigh the alluvion account, 1 thing it shows is that our God is a self-limiting God. He restricts His ain freedom for the sake of His creation.
This is the first affair to note nearly Genesis 8:21.
ii. Could God Finish a Second Flood?
The second thing to note is that the verse seems to raise an objection to the theory that has been advanced in previous posts.
This basic argument of some of my previous posts is that God couldn't have stopped the inundation in the commencement place. It came as a natural result of homo rebellion, sin cannibalizing itself, nature spiraling out of control, and the destroyer seeking to destroy.
But if that is truthful, if the flood was a natural consequence of human being rebellion and sinfulness so that humanity separated themselves from God'southward protective hand thus inviting devastation upon their own heads, then how is it that in Genesis 8:21, God can now hope to cease the aforementioned sort of destruction in the future?
In other words, if all that God could practice in the flood event was rescue as many people equally possible from the waters when they threatened to have the life of everything that breathes, how tin God guarantee that humanity will never be then sinful as to invite the same destruction upon their heads again? If God couldn't stop such destruction the beginning time, how can He promise to stop it a second time?
Initially, this seems to refute the argument that has been advanced in previous posts. But in actuality, the fact that God promises not to send another flood really supports the argument. The reason God makes the promise that He does in Genesis eight:21 is because God knows something about the world He created which makes it incommunicable that a worldwide overflowing would e'er occur again. Though man sinfulness and rebellion were the spiritual reasons for the inundation, God too knew the meteorological reasons for how the flood occurred, and knew that in one case they happened, a second worldwide flood was not possible.
What reasons might these be? While Genesis is non a scientific treatise, the early chapters of Genesis give hints that the earth may have been surrounded past a thick awning of vapor. This canopy provided a greenhouse effect over the unabridged earth, protecting plants, animals, and people from the UV rays of the sun, and allowing people and animals to stay alive much longer than what is typical today. When the rains came for 40 days and 40 nights, some scholars believe it was a upshot of the vapor canopy falling to the earth (eastward.g., Dillow, The Waters Above).
Though nosotros cannot say what caused the awning to rain down upon the globe, some speculate that it might have been a meteorite. Such a cataclysmic issue might likewise explain why fountains broke along from the deep (Gen seven:11). In the end, we do non really know how the inundation occurred, simply it seems from God'south promise in Genesis eight:21 that whatever the causes of the flood, that particular series of events is no longer possible.
Then when God says in Genesis 8:21 that a second flood will not come up upon the earth, nosotros tin read this to say that a 2d alluvion cannot come upon the earth. The specific meteorological conditions for a worldwide flood are no longer possible. If they were possible, God could not accept made the promise that He does. The truth is that God could not cease a worldwide overflowing a 2d time—if ane came. The limitations that God has placed upon Himself when He created beings with free will is just equally true earlier the flood as it is after.
Genesis eight:21 and ii Peter two
If y'all are skeptical of this manner of reading Genesis 8:21, notation that according to ii Peter 2, a second worldwide devastation is coming. This second "inundation" will not exist with water, merely with fire, and this it volition be so destructive, it will not just eat everything that breathes, but all the elements likewise. If God promises that He will never again destroy everything that breathes, simply so in the future He does so with fire, information technology seems that either He is playing word games (He only meant that He wouldn't destroy with water, but burn is still an available pick), or, just every bit with the flood, He cannot stop the devastation with fire when it comes. Nosotros will look at two Peter 2 later in this chapter, but for at present, information technology seems that given what God says in Genesis 8:21, that He resolves to stick with mankind no thing how wicked or evil they go, only the second option is open to us.
Remember of it some other style. Imagine a father with his child. The kid is ill-behaved and rebellious, and i day, the father got frustrated that in a moment of anger he hit the kid over the caput with a baseball bat. The child sustained a severe concussion and went to the infirmary. When the child comes out, the father apologizes profusely, and promises the courts and Kid Protective Services that no matter what happens, he volition never once more hitting his child with a baseball bat. The next week, the begetter again loses his temper and hits the kid over the head with a shovel, and the child goes dorsum to the infirmary with astringent encephalon impairment. When the law arrest the man and ask him why he hit his kid a second fourth dimension, the father objects, saying, "I never promised to non hit him with a shovel; I promised to not hit him with a baseball bat." Do you call back the male parent'due south statement would stand in court?
Of course non. All the same that is how many people view God's beliefs in the Bible. He hits His disobedient children over the head with a alluvion. Then in a moment of sorrow, promises He will never do that again. But afterwards, He lashes out with a burn down that incinerates them all. Given such behavior, tin can God'south promises be trusted? No, they cannot. Information technology seems that the only culling solution is to say what I have been proposing here, that when the overflowing came the first time, God couldn't stop it. Why non? Not considering He was powerless, but because in His great power and wisdom, He gave genuine freedom to His creatures. Considering of this limitation He placed on Himself, He cannot always stop the negative consequences of our sinful actions.
Yet when the flood occurred, God could confidently promise that such an issue would never happen once again. Why? Because the natural and meteorological conditions for such an event are incommunicable to duplicate. But this does not hateful that a different form of destruction could not come, such every bit destruction with fire. Here again, just equally with the inundation, before the destruction with fire comes, God volition work to rescue, redeem, and deliver as many people equally possible.
3. God Loves Sinful People
This leads us to the 3rd and terminal bespeak about Genesis 8:21. This tertiary bespeak makes Genesis 8:21 a cute and touching verse. Equally indicated previously, Genesis 8:21 proves that the flood was not nigh ridding earth of sinful humanity. If that was what the flood was nearly, God failed miserably, and seems to be fairly foolish for trying such a tactic. Why tin nosotros say this? Because in Genesis viii:21, the condition of humanity is pretty much just as it was earlier the flood. Before the flood, flesh is described as beingness "merely evil continually" (Genesis half-dozen:five). After the flood, mankind is described in similar way: "the imagination of man's centre is evil from his youth" (Genesis 8:21).
God didn't send the flood to destroy an evil and rebellious humanity. No, flesh is evil before the flood, and he is evil after the flood. Nothing inverse. Only what God says in Genesis eight:21 is that the evil of mankind doesn't thing. Oh certain, sin and rebellion are bad, and they have terrible, life-destroying consequences. The flood proved that. Only what God is saying in Genesis viii:21 is that despite our sin and rebellion, sin is not an event for Him. He forgives us considering He loves the states. He wants to dwell with u.s.a. and make His home amongst usa. He wants to protect us and provide for us. He is not against the states, simply is for us in every possible way. Though sin and evil are allowed to have their day, "God will work from inside such a world to redeem it, not overpower the earth from without" (Fretheim,God and World in the Old Testament, 83).
Genesis viii:21 and Romans 8:31
Genesis 8:21 is echoed in Romans 8:31, where Paul writes, "What then shall we say to these things? If God is for u.s.a., who tin can be against united states of america?"
Yes, this is what God is saying in Genesis 8:21. He looks at sinful humanity and says, "Though you are against Me, though you are evil from your youth, though you have rebelled against Me and will proceed to rebel against Me, I am on your side. Zip can separate you from My love, non even your own sin. If I am on your side, what is there to fearfulness? If I for yous, who can be against you? I volition always dearest you. I will stay with you, live with you, and exist with you. Considering I honey you. You lot are mine."
The divine decision to go with a wicked world, come what may, means for God a continuing grieving of the center. Indeed, the everlasting, unconditional hope to Noah and all flesh necessitates divine suffering; a pain-free future is non possible for God. In other terms, the futurity of the creation that now becomes possible is rooted in the willingness to bear ongoing pain and sorrow. God determines to take suffering of creatures into God'southward own self and acquit it there for the sake of the future of the world (Fretheim, Cosmos Untamed, 61).
In the end, as indicated in an before postal service, the flood account truly does plough out to be "a beautiful story nearly rainbows."
We still need to explicate the four difficult verses of Genesis six:vii, 13, 17, and 7:23, simply we at present accept a basic historical, cultural, and contextual background to the flood account of Genesis half-dozen-eight which will provide the exegetical framework for these tough texts, which we volition wait at in future posts.
How tin 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 nosotros hash out and (try to) answer in my online discipleship group. Members of the group tin can also take ALL of my online courses (Valued at over $1000) at no accuse. Learn more here: Join the RedeemingGod.com Discipleship Group I can't wait to hear what you have to say, and how nosotros can help you better sympathise God and learn to live like Him in this world!
Source: https://redeeminggod.com/genesis-8-21-reveals-gods-purpose-in-the-flood/
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