Scary Stories and God's Faithfulness
A reading for Wednesday, September 14, 2016: Genesis 7:17-24; 8:6-12.
The flood story is not simply a children's nursery rhyme, the stuff of story books and stuffed animals. It's a scary story of death and destruction. If we read it carefully, there are even hints that this is the reversal of the creation story. "Everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died... Human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth." God was acting with judgment to fix the corruption and sin of the earth. In the ancient world the day of judgment was the most feared of days. The day when exactly what the story describes would happen. God would act and many would be destroyed.
Yet even in the midst of such a tragic story, God is faithful still to Noah and his family as well as the animals that are in the ark. It's hard not to feel pity for those that are destroyed, but God does preserve a remnant upon which to build. When we watch the later story of the cross of Christ, it's hard not to feel pity and even anger at the events that took the life of Jesus Christ. Yet, God was acting with faithfulness in a very scary story.
In our lives, sometimes there is tragedy too. We see death and destruction all around us sometimes. It's hard to believe that God is faithful when we see things that seem to be opposite and scary. However, in all we know remember that God is faithful still.
The whole story of scripture known as our Bible reminds us that even when things are at their worst, God still acts to keep grace and faith on track. From the first moment right up until today...
The flood story is not simply a children's nursery rhyme, the stuff of story books and stuffed animals. It's a scary story of death and destruction. If we read it carefully, there are even hints that this is the reversal of the creation story. "Everything on dry land in whose nostrils was the breath of life died... Human beings and animals and creeping things and birds of the air; they were blotted out from the earth." God was acting with judgment to fix the corruption and sin of the earth. In the ancient world the day of judgment was the most feared of days. The day when exactly what the story describes would happen. God would act and many would be destroyed.
Yet even in the midst of such a tragic story, God is faithful still to Noah and his family as well as the animals that are in the ark. It's hard not to feel pity for those that are destroyed, but God does preserve a remnant upon which to build. When we watch the later story of the cross of Christ, it's hard not to feel pity and even anger at the events that took the life of Jesus Christ. Yet, God was acting with faithfulness in a very scary story.
In our lives, sometimes there is tragedy too. We see death and destruction all around us sometimes. It's hard to believe that God is faithful when we see things that seem to be opposite and scary. However, in all we know remember that God is faithful still.
The whole story of scripture known as our Bible reminds us that even when things are at their worst, God still acts to keep grace and faith on track. From the first moment right up until today...
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